I had some spare time (in front of computer) yesterday so decided to look at my social media usage, or lack of it, and I just wondered how others are doing?
I know that mainly social media is wasted on me but this is where I am.
Twitter: I cleared the accounts I follow down to the tech companies whose apps I use to the small few who write interesting blogs now and then and a handful of coders. I am now down to following about 90, and just made my first pretty banal post there in months.
Facebook, Instagram I do not nor ever have used, Mastodon I jumped on but I find an utter waste of time, most posts are cross posted on Twitter anyway.
Other than dipping into the Noteplan Discord as I wanted to get some advice I hop in and out of the Expressionengine Slack channel and of course read here. That’s it.
World news seems largely irrelevant to me sitting here at my age on a small island, I have had my time to influence the world. Philosophy aside I find social media less and less interesting, people seem to have forgotten if you have nothing to say, just say nothing.
I use Mastodon and Facebook, but keep my use of both low. I cancelled Twitter when Tweetbot died.
Halfway through last year I decided to minimise “random browsing” time on my iPad (I don’t really do it on my phone) and set myself a reading challenge of 24 books by the end of the year, I read 30 in all, with about 24 in the last 6 months after starting.
In previous years I’d only read books in holidays or if there was something I really wanted to read. This year i’ve consistently read books, both physical and kindle.
I don’t miss extended Social Media time, at all.
I have also been evaluating my social media usage recently.
I have virtually stopped using twitter, again after Tweetbot died. I haven’t really jumped onto the Mastodon train. I use Instagram to follow (actual) friends and I follow a bunch of artists which make (made) my timeline look great and uplifting. However the level of ads has seemed to increased recently, every third post is now sponsored, which is ruining the experience. I have a facebook account but rarely look at it.
Do you consider forums like these as social media?
@geoffaire this was meant o be a general reply - not just to you!
The term “social media” has taken a beating lately, and it’s all self-inflicted by the big providers IMO.
I’ve been off Twitter, Facebook and Instagram since November of last year, and I’m not missing it much. I have returned on a few occasions to check if anything has changed for the better, but found it hadn’t in my feeds.
I think there is a significant difference between “social media” and “online community”, even if communities are often based on sub-sets of a social media platform. How I think of it is:
Social Media - connecting with (mostly) family and friends you’ve met physically, posts are mainly life events, memes and small-talk. Online Community - a place where you come to learn and grow, together with others sharing a rather narrow field of interest. A place where you can discuss and get help with topics that most of your social media circle have zero interest or knowledge about.
Community is really the hard bit, and why I am so thankful for this forum right here. I always get good input here, and sometimes I can even contribute with something others find helpful. I love the helpful and respectful tone in most threads and know I can turn to this community with quite a range of tech related concerns.
I’m also spending quite some time on Mastodon these days - it’s becoming a really good Twitter replacement while also covering some community aspects. So many smart people, and zero advertisers - kinda like here
Might not be “actual” advertising but accounts like MacStories do nothing but post links to articles on their site with the sole intent of getting you to sign up. Nothing wrong in that and not picking in MacStories but it’s advertising
Same here. I never used facebook and only used twitter as a news feed. And with the death of Tweetbot I rarely check that. Without any traditional media on Mastodon it has been a disappointment so far.
Due to the recent API changes, I have deleted my Reddit account. I liked it but there was no real benefit for me and the stock app is awful.
I don’t have any Meta accounts (including Whatsapp, Instagram and FB) as I find them the most distracting and detrimental to focus. I deleted them years ago.
I have never had TickTock, Slack or Twitch - I never liked the idea of instant messaging and short video, and much prefer asynchronous communication tools like email.
I use Twitter exclusively for music news. I quit it around three years ago but returned recently as there are no other ways to keep up with my favorite bands and festivals. I do not subscribe to any other type of account and never use it for news as I don’t like reading the same stories repeated over and over!
None of the music-related accounts I use on Twitter exist on Mastodon, and I’ve no intention of adding another social media to my life so I will not be using that service.
I also use LinkedIn as I am a recruiter and need it for work.
I use Facebook primarily for contact with friends who have mistakenly given up on email. Instagram for following professionals who work in a domain I am only an amateur in; use their posts as inspiration or education. Twitter usage is reserved for pointing out to politicians (mostly UK Conservatives) how fallacious their rhetoric is.
Otherwise it is commenting on news items on UK broadsheets’ web sites or responding to comments on Discourse-based discussion forums such as here; currently that is 20 or so.
Never been one for reddit and now with the blackout in protest against preventing thrid-party apps accessing the system without paying exorbitent fees even my occasional (DuckDuckGo search result) visits don’t happen.
As to Mastadon can’t find any groups/servers that would form an adjucnt to my Instagram usage.
I’ve been training my brain to tap on the Apple Books app or the Kindle app instead of hitting the social media feeds. The newsfeeds and quick bites of short videos and news taken out of context felt like junk food. It looked ok, it smelled ok, and tasted ok. But endlessly devouring the endless stream of quick shots became nauseating.
There are better worlds to be found in ebooks for me. In the pre-smartphone days, I remembered bringing a paperback book to read when I was waiting in line at DMV, post office, bank, or whatever frustrating line I was in.
i did remove the social media apps off my Home Screen and would have to swipe down on my iPhone and type the app name if I truly wanted to. But I’m happy to have the Apple Books app or Kindle app more prominently featured on my Home Screen instead of my social media apps.
I abandoned social media years ago. I found the overall experience to be more negative than positive and a poor substitute for other more worthwhile pursuits. I have a FB account for family, but I only check it approx. once every three months, if that. My family tends to use texting to keep up.
I spend too much time in this wonderful forum. I don’t know if this is social media per se (it’s social and it’s media so I suppose it is), but I get great value from this forum.
I dropped out of Facebook and anything like it years ago. Twitter I dropped out of a couple years ago. I looked at Mastadon a few times, but like a lot of others here came to the conclusion that I’m just not that interested in anything over there.
This forum is the closest thing I visit regularly that’s “social media” adjacent. I made the decision a few years back to focus on spending my limited time with real friends and family.
There is still enough value at Twitter for me to keep returning to it. I use lists, rarely read replies from others, and turn off retweets for many whom I follow. As before, I find the experience to be a good one. I do feel abandoned by the people whom I followed who have left Twitter.
Email lists, Discourse, Discord and a few Slack groups for the most part. About half is professional and half is for fun (and many overlap, like this place.)
I like the notification management and keyboard shortcuts for all of them well enough. I couldn’t keep up in a reasonable time frame otherwise.
Left Facebook in 2010 and Twitter and LinkedIn in 2016. Decided I wasn’t interested in making it easy for my personal life to be data mined for corporate profit.
I don’t consider discussion forums to be social media, but that’s probably more because I’ve been involved with various online communities and forums going all the way back to 80’s BBSes / FidoNet and Usenet.
Mostly keep in touch with family and friends via texting & an irc channel we’ve been using for 30+ years.
I’ve always been ambivalent towards social media.
Nowadays, I use Twitter as a news feed - when something big is happening, I head to Twitter to keep up.
But the main social media app on my phone is Instagram. I understand all the critics, but Instagram is the closest I get to have a diary. Algo, it’s the medium through which I let people now when I publish a new essay or when I’m about to start a new course.
But I try to keep my news feed the cleanest I can, just following people I really care about.
