Continue treating him with respect. I’m kinda assuming you’re in government, but I guess that’s not clear from the post. If you are, maybe let him know that the executive order will not impact how you treat him, and offer him space to ask questions or raise concerns.

This is key. Trump’s executive order can’t override the law. Executive orders can only interpret the law. With the courts saying the law is valid, TikTok and US hosting companies are understandably hesitant to resume operations just on Trump’s word (which is worthless anyway) that the ban won’t be enforced.

Not saying I never made a friend online, but it was generally through more long-form blogging, friendsof friends, or gaming. That is, through more in-depth interaction than a quip-making machine. But I think the Internet was a little more innocent then too. People could be weird or awkward or overshare without getting doxed or harassed, maybe because we had more in our unmediated lives. Very little interaction is unmediated now it seems. I have seen even IRL friends, or people I thought were friends, start acting like online trolls. Online at least. “The medium is the message” seems to hold.

Of course they’re kissing Trump’s ass. How else is anyone gonna get anything done in the next 4 years? American democracy is broken, and under unitary executive theory endorsed by all branches of government the President is basically a king with term limits and no shiny hat. It’s no way to run a country, but it’s where we’re at so why would we expect TikTok to do anything else?

The breaks are subjective, irregular, determined by consensus. Generally they’re determined by significant societal events and their impact on people based on where they are in life.

I see microblogging as a way of following the thoughts of someone you’re already interested in. Maybe a friend, maybe a famous person. But it’s not a way to get deeper understanding. Nothing profound has ever been conveyed in a tweet. So I don’t know why I would look for the tweets of strangers. It’s more of a event tracking or relationship-maintaining kind of communication tool.

I guess I don’t understand. Why would someone want to “find” microblogs of people they don’t already know about from elsewhere? It’s like wanting to find someone’s email to me.