About seven out of 10 Americans use social media to keep up with each other’s lives, for entertainment, and to stay on top of the news, according to the Pew Research Center. But as many people reach a decade or more of perusing mainstream social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, their attitudes toward social media are shifting.

That’s not to say people are living more of their lives offline, but that people are instead shifting their online presence from general social-networking sites to more niche ones that pander to their interests and encourage online social interaction beyond likes and reposts. 

Also: US Surgeon General releases social media health advisory for American teens and tweens

Sites like Twitch, Discord, Reddit, and TikTok encourage people to interact with the content they care about and connect with others, whether they’re talking about food, gaming, movies, or TV shows. 

To support this focus on their interests, people are turning to micro-social networks, which are specific to one topic and include fewer users to interact with. 

LinkedIn is a mainstream micro-social network because its only purpose is to connect with people about professional topics. BeReal is another example of a micro-social network, as it encourages people to only connect with people they know personally and share updates about their lives.

Also: LinkedIn introduces AI tool to make curating your profile easier

Nextdoor, another micro-social media network, is a digital space where people share updates about local events or happenings. 

So, how can you create your own micro-social networking atmosphere online? Group texts that include both iPhone and Android users can be messy and laggy, and private groups on mainstream social media sites exclude those who don’t have an account. Here’s two alternatives.

Create a WhatsApp group

In a WhatsApp group, users can add up to 256 people and control who is in the group. Users can send text messages, GIFs, photos, videos, and documents. And because WhatsApp is available in the Play Store and the App Store, the app is available for iOS and Android.

Also: WhatsApp users can now use Chat Lock to secure private or sensitive chats

WhatsApp is also ideal for any social groups that span borders, as sending messages and making calls internationally on WhatsApp uses your device’s internet connection instead of minutes.

A WhatsApp group is best suited for people who want to mimic a group text without the technical difficulties that can arise for Apple users when texting an Android device.

Create a photo album for sharing

If you’re interested in sharing photos with a group of family or friends, consider creating a shared photo album on Google Photos. 

Third-party apps — rather than Apps connected to the device operating system — are better to use in groups of people that mix iPhones and Android phones. That’s because Apple makes a point that only its products, apps, and services work best within its device ecosystem. So, sharing an Apple Photo album with Android users could prove difficult. 

Also: How to set up a locked folder in Google Photos on Android

Google Photos works well on iOS; users can share one album with multiple people. Each added person can upload photos, look at photos someone else has uploaded, and leave comments on each photo. 

PhotoCircle is another photo-sharing app, but it has an emphasis on sharing shots from an event or occasion. For example, if you’re attending a wedding, you can share photos from the wedding with guests and participants. If you work with people around the country, a shared PhotoCircle album makes it easy to share project-related photos.

Also: 7 ways you didn’t know you can use Bing Chat and other AI chatbots

Users can leave comments on photos shared in a PhotoCircle album, all photos are backed up in PhotoCircle’s cloud, and only people with access to the album can see the shots. Shared photo albums and photo-sharing apps are best for people who prefer sharing photos to sending messages, making calls, or sharing videos.

A Massachusetts man helped fuel one of the biggest digital dust-ups and social-media mysteries of recent years. 

And after he did — Chad Jones then experienced the “terrifying” power of Big Tech titans to silence the voices of ordinary Americans. 

He’s now doubling down on his efforts to speak out against tyranny in the digital town square and beyond. 

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“I went MIA on social media for a while for sharing some pretty innocuous things,” Jones, a venture investor working to bring alternative energy to impoverished nations around the world, told Fox News Digital in an interview. 

“The idea that they’re stifling voices as part of the normal course of business is terrifying.”

The social-media soap opera began in 2022 when Jones, originally from California, posted on his personal Facebook page a cryptic letter allegedly written in December 2021 by an 85-year-old retired California judge, Keith M. Alber. 

The letter claimed that the current endangered state of American democracy was predicted with frightening accuracy in the 1950s. 

The judge’s shocking claim spawned a frenzied reaction on social media. 

“The idea that they’re stifling voices as part of the normal course of business is terrifying.”

“My first year of college was 68 years ago,” Alber wrote in a brief letter to The Epoch Times in December 2021. 

“One class I took was political science. A half-page of my textbook essentially outlined a few steps to overturn democracy.” 

Alber’s letter enumerated those steps: “1) Divide the nation philosophically. 2) Foment racial strife. 3) Cause distrust of police authority. 4) Swarm the nation’s borders indiscriminately and unconstitutionally. 5) Engender the military strength to weaken it. 6) Overburden citizens with more unfair taxation. 7) Encourage civil rioting and discourage accountability for all crime. 8) Control all balloting. 9) Control all media.”

The judge’s letter struck home with many readers, including Jones — who felt the textbook from decades ago predicted the crisis of democracy that the nation faces today.

It also spawned heated debate online — with members of each end of the American political spectrum claiming the other side was responsible for the fascist dystopia outlined by the judge.

Many people, however, doubted the authenticity of the letter, especially with the judge’s failure to cite the name of the textbook. 

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Snopes.com weighed in, claiming last May that it talked to Alber and that the letter was authentic. Alber died later last year. 

But, the outlet wrote, “One of the more popular postings of the article came from a Facebook account named Chad Jones. As of mid-May 2022, that post had been shared more than 11,000 times.”

Jones was unaware that his post had gone viral until Fox News Digital contacted him last week. 

“The silent majority is no longer silent like they used to be.”

Meta blocked him from his Facebook account soon after he posted the letter. He couldn’t get access to the post, even as it continued to ignite thousands of responses. 

“When I looked at the letter, it really struck me as a variation of Saul Alinsky’s ‘Rules for Radicals,’” said Jones when asked what prompted him to share the letter. 

Immigrants from Venezuela cover up during a dust storm at a makeshift immigrant camp located between the Rio Grande and the U.S.-Mexico border fence on May 10, 2023, in El Paso, Texas. A mysterious letter written by a retired California judge in 2021 claims that the country’s open border is part of an effort to end American democracy and was predicted in a 1950s political science textbook.  (John Moore/Getty Images)

“The whole basis is to tear down our system and build something new and different, something not aligned with our traditional American concepts of individual freedom and personal liberty.”

Thousands of people agreed with Jones; thousands more did not. 

It appeared to be a vigorous public debate. 

Yet Jones was silenced for sharing the letter that spawned the discourse and the entire post itself has disappeared since.

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Jones reemerged on Facebook months later with an alternate account.

“It seems that silencing voices in the electronic town square falls right in line with what Alber wrote about,” said Jones. 

Meta blocked Jones from his Facebook account … He couldn’t access the post – even as it continued to ignite thousands of responses.

He said the experience has only stiffened his resolve to speak out on social media and other platforms. 

He feels that “millions of Americans” learned the same lesson when they were silenced for daring to challenge Anthony Fauci, the federal government and media during the COVID-19 panic.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), helped lead the country’s COVID-19 response in the Trump and Biden administrations. He stepped down in December 2022.  (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“The silent majority is no longer silent like they used to be,” said Jones.

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“They’re no longer willing just to take their opinions silently to the voting booth. There are millions of us out there now fighting the effort to silence debate.”

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Jones uses Facebook only socially, he said. So he didn’t suffer any financial or business distress. But he lost plenty personally. 

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“The one thing I do miss are the pictures, the memories, the reunion photos. I can’t get back any of it. That kind of sucks,” he said.

“It’s all a little scary because I have kids. What kind of world will they be inheriting if we don’t fight back?” 

Threshing shows and old machinery are featured at Heritage Hill, Hanley Falls, Atwater and Forest City, with a Summer Rendezvous also taking place at the Forest City Stockade during the Forest City Threshers show. Be sure and check websites or Facebook pages for current information closer to the events.

The Minnesota Valley Antique Farm Power and Machinery Association will have its annual show June 16-17. The tractor feature is “military-related machinery and equipment.” The Fairbanks-Morse engine line will also be featured. The Heritage Hill show site is four miles east of Montevideo on the corner of Minnesota Highway 7 and Chippewa County Road 7. More information can be found online at

www.heritagehill.us

and on Facebook at

www.facebook.com/heritagehillshow

The Good Old Days & Pioneer Threshing Show will be Aug. 5-6 on the grounds of the Minnesota Machinery Museum in Hanley Falls. This year’s feature can be found on its

Facebook

page or its website at

www.mnmachinerymuseum.com

The Forest City Threshers show and Summer Rendezvous will be Aug. 19-20 at the Forest City Threshing grounds and the Forest City Stockade. The Summer Rendezvous is a reminder of how life was like back in 1862. You can tour historic buildings and enjoy different period-specific activities and food while checking out the goods offered by those participating in the rendezvous. The Forest City Threshers features old machinery as well as different historical buildings featuring the history of the community.

Admission to each of the events is $5 ages 12 and older. For more information, visit

www.forestcitystockade.org

and

www.forestcitythresher.com,

or on Facebook at

www.facebook.com/Forest-City-Stockade

and

www.facebook.com/forestcitythreshers

.

Macy Moore / West Central Tribune

Threshing Days will be Sept. 9-10 at the site on the east side of Atwater. Admission charged. Check the website at

www.atwaterthreshingdays.com

or its Facebook page at

www.facebook.com/Atwater-Threshing-Days

for this year’s features.