Why Bluesky's rise could be bad for democracy

When I moved from deep-blue Lansing to deep-red Alpena, some of my liberal friends in the Capital City scoffed. "Why would you want live up there with all those Trumpers?" they asked. They couldn't see the beautiful shores of Thunder Bay on a summer day or the serene palette of fall colors stretching out for acres upon forested acres or the soft blanket of a white Christmas in a small town. They could only see the political map, and it didn't look like them, so they wanted no part of it and didn't think I should, either. And that's as good an anecdote as any to illustrate the ways we have self-segregated, politically, with more liberals in urban areas and more conservatives in rural areas, and neither side wanting much to do with the other. But now, the same thing's beginning to happen online. When Donald Trump in 2022 launched his Truth Social platform to counter what he and many others see as censorship of conservatives on legacy social media sites, many of my conservative friends quickly and publicly ditched Facebook and pre-Elon Musk Twitter to log on to the former president's site. "How can you stay on there?" they asked when I told them I wouldn't give up my Facebook or Twitter accounts. Now, with Trump's resounding victory on Nov. 5 sending him back to the White House, many of my liberal friends have jumped ship from Twitter (now owned by Musk, a Trump ally, and now called X) and Facebook and moved instead to Bluesky, a social media platform launched by former Twitter executive Jack Dorsey and opened to the public earlier this year. Like the conservatives before them flocking to Truth Social, liberals in my Facebook feed have publicly bid farewell to the legacy social media sites where they say they saw too much hate and vitriol during the election and too much baleful gloating among conservatives after Trump's win. CBS News said in a recent story that Bluesky is booming, with one executive claiming the site's picking up 10,000 new users every 10 to 15 minutes. "Come with me to Bluesky," some of my liberal friends say. "The Trumpers and the MAGA crowd have taken over Facebook and X." I have no plans to do so. And I wish they wouldn't, either. That's not to advocate for one platform or another. Rather, it's to advocate for some kind of town square where people of differing political viewpoints can see each other, hear each other, learn from each other, try to understand one another better. That's how a good democracy works. When we instead tribalize and self-segregate, we deepen divisions. When we communicate only with people with whom we know we agree, we never challenge our beliefs and could end up backing an idea without knowing whether it's really the best one or what some of the side effects of that idea might be. When we only commune with like-minded souls, we fail to understand -- even a little bit -- different people, and it's human nature to fear and even hate what we don't understand. Fear and hate can breed violence, which breeds more fear and hate, perpetuating a rotten cycle until something bad happens. I'm not saying Facebook, X, Truth Social, or Bluesky will solve anything. Even on a platform where we could interact with anyone from nearly any background, we tend to circle up with people who look, act, think, and believe like we do. But at least if we're all on the same platform we have the opportunity to read a post by someone different, watch a video that challenges our beliefs, or make friends with someone who voted for the other candidate. If we all stay in our big cities or small or towns, if we all stay on our own safe social media platforms, we'll never have any of that opportunity, and we and our nation will be worse for it. So, to anyone ditching legacy social media sites for a "friendlier" platform, I'd urge you to reconsider. Keep your Facebook or X accounts and check in on them from time to time, seeking out people who operate from a different viewpoint. Or log on to Bluesky or Truth Social not to peruse for targets but to see what the other side is talking about. Or, best yet, find someone different in real life and extend a handshake, talk about what you have in common. I'll bet it's more than you think. Justin Hinkley is publisher/editor of The Alpena (Michigan) News.