This post by Manton Reece makes me want to focus my online activity on my blog at mitchwagner.com and the associated daily newsletter. “Blogging is the backbone of the open web,” Manton says. This post by Cory Doctorow reenforces the point, though it’s only peripherally about social media. Cory is mainly talking about opportunity costs. If you’re doing one thing, you’re not doing something else.
Nonetheless, I’m active on a variety of other social platforms, because that’s where people are.
I struggle with Facebook. On the one hand, it’s where most of my friends and family are. On the other hand, Meta is toxic and the software is unpleasant to use. I know from experience that if you ask people to follow you on another platform, mostly they don’t. So I’m not leaving Facebook anytime soon, though I want to. Here’s my Facebook page
I like Mastodon. I see a variety of topics and my account is on an instance that supports up to 2,000+ characters, which is a limit I can live with. Here I am on Mastodon.
I’m losing interest in Bluesky. My feed seems to be all politics, all the time. Also, chopping posts into 300-character chunks seems like useless busywork. Here I am on Bluesky
I like Tumblr, but it seems to be in decline. I don’t think Automattic, the current owners, will shut it down soon; I think the CEO has a personal interest. But they’re not investing in it anymore and it shows. Here I am on Tumblr
Threads is surprisingly enjoyable. I read, but don’t post there. I want to reduce the number of social media platforms I’m active on. If I start posting to Threads and get likes and responses, I’d be more likely to feel hooked.
I was losing interest in Twitter even before Elon bought it. I canceled my account a few months later, as a political gesture. I reactivated later because I occasionally want to check posts that require a login. During the interim, I lost all my followers. That’s fine – I have no interest in becoming active on Twitter again. I’d like to reduce the number of social platforms I’m active on, and Twitter seems like an easy one to stay away from.
I like Reddit but posting there is a pain. A large percentage of my posts get deleted by moderators for reasons that seem silly to me. So I don’t bother posting much. Reddit seems like a platform I could cut from my daily use.
I’m also on LinkedIn, professionally. Here I am on LinkedIn