blockosphere

I was recently, for reasons that are not entirely clear to me, blocked from facebook. After pleading my case via a form that took me about two hours to find within the facebook labyrinth, my account was reinstated for several hours, after which it was, without explanation, blocked again. Eventually, I will put up a link where you can see what happened to me

 Most of us have heard stories like this before. As is often the case, your perspective changes when it happens to you. Especially if you are interested in using the site for more than letting everyone know what you ate for lunch, or reposting someone's 10 year old video of their cat playing the tuba.

 Social media, still in it's infancy, has paradoxical and troubling side effects: Warm, fuzzy terms like 'connect' and 'share' encourage us to open up, express ourselves, make the world a smaller place. At the same time, we can be arbitrarily shut out, shut down - our posts, pictures, comments, our entire presence literally erased from a site, because we, often unwittingly, may have violated one of a long list of 'policies'. Sometimes we can make a guess as to the nature of our infraction, other times we have not a clue. In either case, we are never specifically told, and as for trying to actually communicate with a digitally walled fortress like facebook, well, good luck with that.

 So, while I'm in the virtual slammer, I thought it might be interesting to see what other problems people have had, or may still be having, around being suspended, blocked or booted from social media sites. Clearly, I'm not talking about hardcore porn, hate speech or anything that is truly unjustifiable. Mainly, I'm curious about artists whose work has been censored, social activists whose posts have been blocked, people who want to decide for themselves, rather than have facebook decide, what appears on their newsfeed. As an experiment, I've put up blockosphere, a blog specifically for art-centered and/or intelligent culturally and politically directed images, videos, text and commentary that has been deemed by the web gods unfit for social media.

 As I mentioned above, this is an experiment. Who knows, we may all be to busy, or perhaps we really don't care. Whatever the result, I figure it's worth a shot. If you'd like to help make this happen, please post the attached image to your wall, share it with friends, and encourage your friends to share it. All media, text, documentation and tales of woe and intrigue can be sent to me at: 

badenk@gmail.com. 

Every submission within reason will be posted, available to view and comment on.