The changing uses of social

I miss what Twitter originally was, I don’t miss it in it’s current state.

I barely used Twitter since Elon took it over. I felt challenged every time I posted. And then one by one, I was seeing people leaving, but at the same time not really knowing who was still around.

People, myself included, would continue posting in the hope of reach and connection. But it was clear that it’s a shell of it former self.

My time to officially leave Twitter was when the UK riots happened a few weeks back when Elon made comments encouraging civil war. I unfollowed everyone and made my account private. The only reason I haven’t deleted it is because I worry someone unethical may squat it.

Social is different now. I’m not sure anything is going to change that. The tide is changing. I can’t see it going back.

I’ve been a bit active on Threads. It feels nice there, though weird at times. It’s fun to have threads go viral, it can then also be depressing not to get any attention. And it’s still Meta owned, so trust is still an issue for me.

I also finally signed up for Mastodon. I even created a server via Ministry of Testing as an extra way to explore the Fediverse. I’m also on LinkedIn. And Bluesky…and then there’s Substack Notes which I should probably give a look at, but I don’t think there are tools that integrate with it? (I haven’t really looked into it and it’s one of the many things that disappoint me about Substack). So I probably won’t.

It’s pretty much impossible to keep up with it all. So, I’m not going to try. I don’t have a strategy apart from not letting it consume my life. I’ll follow people as I find them, or as they follow me.

(Please do say hello!)

What I will do for now is cross-post with a social app and I’ll treat it as a way of sharing what I’m reading and learning. Sometimes I’ll post it quickly, other times I will schedule them ahead of time, this way it also becomes a way to remind myself what I was learning and processing at the time. This is a social media style spaced repetition trick I’ve adopted from time to time.

The reality is that social media has always been a learning tool for me. I share. I connect. I discover new people and ideas. I get feedback. It helps me feel like less of a weirdo, I suppose!

Every week I set aside some time to learn and process content. I’ve fallen out of the habit of sharing. (It’s been a stressful year), but picking it up again really does lift my spirit.

Sharing is something that helps my well-being, not because of “social status”, but more because it helps me process what I’m learning. At the heart of this change, is also rediscovering fun on the web again. I’m sensing and seeing people being quirky again.

And that’s something I am here for.