The State of My Social Media

[dotinthesky]

It's been 8 months since I left Twitter, 1 month since I started posting on Substack, and I was about to add "1 month since I've been unemployed" but I just got an email from my recruitment agency with a temp job for April. *Relief*

I can’t shake off the feeling that social media is now pointless, a vast void where you throw your thoughts and images inside, where you are “competing” against professional click baiters. It’s like an endless stream of egos and “notice me”, and you are there too, with your own “notice me” tactics.

And yet, I know it's not pointless. It has helped me immensely, during periods when I was isolated (when I first moved to London in 2001 and now, living a solitary life in a remote village in Brazil.)

I'm trying to find a balance with it, which is why I went through a major culling of all my channels. I thought back to the start of LJ (2001) and what I wanted from an online space, and what I got. What I enjoyed the most back then were the friends I made, the exchanges, and the community. I’ve begun to question why I follow so many accounts just for the sake of a follow? Is there a connection? Is there a conversation taking place? Do I really need to look at this influencer’s content? (by influencer I mean writers like Margaret Atwood, the only type of famous people I now follow.) Where can I find a new community?

Threads
Followers: 181
Following: 16

Here’s where I did most of the culling. I went from following 500+ people, journals, newspapers to following just 16. The good thing about Threads’ algo-rhythm is that it doesn’t matter how many accounts you follow, but how you interact with content (same with Instagram). It will just show you more of what you engage with. In a way, it’s become the new Pinterest, with tons of nice photography, quotes, etc, and zero advertising (for now.) The downside is that it’s gaining, through waves, more and more people from Twitter. It’s noticeable the rise of grifters, attention seeking clickbait posts and degenerate memes. But you mustn’t interact with them otherwise the algo-rhythm just shows you more of it, so it’s block block block.

One thing I like about Threads is that it shows me content in Brazilian Portuguese, English and French, indiscriminately. Whenever I post anything here, though, I’m mostly ignored or get one or two “likes”. Users talk a lot about wanting to create a community, but I haven't really seen anything in place. It feels like "community" here means "follow me". I am inching closer to just leaving this space.

Twitter
(deleted)

I haven't been completely away from Twitter. I decided to follow Big Brother Brasil 24, which started in January, so I created an account to look at what was discussed over there. I haven’t seen anything to entice me back; it’s a firepit of fake news, aggression and hysteria. People went as far as create fake videos about BBB24 participants, trying to smear their reputations and families. It’s awful. It’s also full of advertising and tweets popping up that you don’t want to see (a lot of fanboys fawning over Elon Musk’s latest utterance or business idea). The user experience is very unattractive. I deleted my latest account and won't be going back.

Mastodon
Followers: 48
Following: 8

Trust that my instance, Bookstodon, was safe turned out to be short-lived. We were notified recently that in June it would cease to exist, so I moved onto the main Mastodon instance, Mastodon.Social. I used the opportunity to apply the above decision and unfollowed anyone that I didn’t have a more meaningful connection with. I now follow friends who I also know in real life. Whenever I post a photo of a cat, it gets favoured and boosted by dozens of random people. Content from other users seems to be massively geared towards U.S. politics and tech news. If it's related to the world, it's through the eyes of an American. Maybe there's a lot more to explore on Mastodon but for now I'm happy with just hearing from my friends and checking out whatever they share.

Bluesky
Followers: 70
Following: 57

I was very close to deleting Bluesky; I didn’t see what the point was when I already had Mastodon and Threads. Lightbulb moment: I decided I’d use it as my Brazilian Portuguese account and, specifically, comment on BBB24. Well... it turned out there were quite a few gay Brazilians doing the same and very quickly we found each other.

I’m getting a lot of fun chaotic gay energy from these Millennials and Gen Zs (I feel like their Gandalf), with their funny Brazilian memes and the occasional skin hints. Reminds me a lot of when we were all young and silly on LJ, back in the early 2000s. Or even at the start of Twitter. No advertising, no horrible trends, no horrible accounts recommended. Bluesky may turn out to be the place where I’ll make new, long-term queer friends.

Substack
Followers/Subscribers: 72
Following/Subscribed: 47

So far, I’m really enjoying my time on Substack! I may need to write a separate post and go a little more in-depth on what I’ve noticed about the platform. It’s so interesting how particular ecosystems develop in each social network, with their own flavours, but also some behaviour replication from other sites.

Most of my subscribers are friends collected via posts on Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp groups. There are also some random people who’ve found me via the site, a few spam accounts, but also two intriguing subscriptions: one of them is from a very well-known thriller writer, and another is from a musician who is followed and admired by Patti Smith (these two even went as far as to add my Substack to their pages as a recommendation!) My inner fanboy is thrilled at the prospect of Patti Smith one day noticing this and coming over to read me.

A few other things I’ve noticed: the vast majority of Substack writers are Boomers or Gen X. A few Millennials (mostly Influencers), zero Gen Z. Boomers are VERY active, very encouraging of each other. They all have loads of free time and can afford to write tons, read tons and comment tons.

Substack has some big names (George Saunders, Atwood, Chuck Palahniuk etc) but to me it’s been fun finding the quirkier, out of the ordinary newsletters. A retired woman who decided to write after her husband died of lung cancer; a man who only posts photos of his writing typed up on pieces of paper; an Australian documenting his collection of comics and superhero toys. I like the newsletters that are less self-aware; I wish to achieve the same with mine.

Other social media: Facebook/Instagram, Pinterest, Dreamwidth

Pinterest is now impossible to use (at least the app.) Every second image is an ad. I maintain an account there with some distant hope of one day using it for the guesthouse’s marketing, but it seems now less and less likely. I should just delete it.

Facebook/Instagram is where I do the majority of my guesthouse's marketing and also check on friends I made on LJ years and years ago. How their cats are doing; photos of their margaritas from some holiday; videos of them dancing to Siouxsie and the Banshees in a northern pub; their latest running stats. That sort of stuff. I’ve decided to watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe from the start with my mom, in chronological order, including the TV shows. I post my thoughts on Facebook on this content, they comment, we keep going.

Dreamwidth, I’m afraid, has gone back to being a backup place for my LJ. I don’t check it anyone. Ben, who used to be on LJ, posts only there but I also have him on Instagram and Bluesky, so that's how I stay in touch with him.

Comments

[olamina.livejournal.com]

Wow, you have a lot of coverage across the web!

Once I moved off Mastodon.social my feed got much more interesting and less American.

I use Pinterest mostly to organize pictures of clothes I have and also outfit and hairstyle inspiration. I don't think people build community there, do they?

I only really use IG to follow my rave friends, see when people are DJing. The ads are annoying but every once in a while something comes there and I am convinced to buy. I ended up with a new lip balm, new deodorant, and a lovely pair of wool pants. Fortunately these were all things I was in the market for.

[picosgemeos.livejournal.com]

I have my fingers in every pie! :-P

It's maybe a little bit of FOMO but also curiosity - and the ever present hope that I'll find some new online community. I'm also on Istagram, but for similar reasons as Facebook (stay in touch with people, and also guesthouse marketing.)

I probably just need to accept that we are all scattered now and need to make daily decisions of how much time we wish to invest in each corner of the web.

I am enjoying Mastodon a lot, especially as it's so fast for me to get updated on you lot. I feel like I have time to properly check boosts.

I used to enjoy Pinterest a lot, their algo-rhythm seemed quite good - but now there are so many ads in between the pins, it's dispiriting.

[stainsteelrat.livejournal.com]

Great to hear about the job, and interesting to hear about your social media experiences.

I found that I hit saturation point pretty quickly with the various sites. Facebook is my go to site because (1) I have a lot (relatively speaking) of real-life friends there and (2) I can use it to keep up with all sorts of bands etc. Twitter was my second, more to keep up with friends that didn't use Facebook, but after Musk nobbled TweetDeck it's pretty much unusable for me. And two is where I hit saturation point, at least in terms of a closer eye. I use And then the general theme is accounts that I use only because I have one or two friends that only post there. Instagram's one of those, but my brain doesn't like the image dominated feed. I tinker with it more than the others because I use it my job. Mastodon because I have a couple of friends who only post there. Threads, and Bluesky fall into the "I think I have an account there but have only used them once or twice" category.

LiveJournal is still fundamental to me (just hit my 22 year anniversary) as a diary. I continue to lament not being able to find more people I can connect with here, a shame the community aspect has died so much. I crosspost to Dreamwidth more as a backup.

[picosgemeos.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing. I think we oldies are all on the same boat in terms of how our social media use has fragmented over the years.

[stainsteelrat.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Although my real life social life has improved a bit in recent months, social media is still largely my social life (WhatsApp also factors into that of late as well). Part of me would rather real life would improve on that score, but it is what it is. I still like to think that *I* use social media, rather than it using me.

[gavinf1980.livejournal.com]

I don't really blame you for leaving Twitter (as I will insist on calling it). Good to know you're still alive though.

[picosgemeos.livejournal.com]

Thanks mate! Good to hear you're also alive. :)

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this social media review round up.

I never got on threads but that makes it sound worth a check out. I think my reason for not getting on it was not wanting to contribute further to Zuckerberg's social media empire.

Twitter I only just got on a few months before Elon took over so I had a glimpse of the good ole days before it became what it is now. I definitely hate Elon's effect on it but I haven't found an alternative that is as active with newsworthy posts.

Bluesky I had made an account when Elon was turning Twitter into a hellscape and we were all talking about leaving. Like probably a lot of people I didn't end up leaving really. I like to think I would have if bluesky had become vibrant enough but I never found a critical mass of interesting accounts to follow there / wasn't served up enough random interesting stuff.

Substack I still don't really understand what it is.

Facebook is funny because they were the preeminint social media site, and Zuck has let that slip but its not dead. The way I and I think many people use facebook is for keeping up with relatives and like former coworkers you don't actively keep in touch with any more and such. It doesn't serve up random posts except as ads and I don't think we'd want it to. I do think if Zuck had really been smart he could have either made facebook the original twitter or the replacement twitter -- he obviously tried that with Threads but I think what he should have done was adapted the existing facebook wall to seamlessly integrate it as a twitter-replacement, giving functionality to make posts go out to all and sundry, and the option to see posts from more than just your friends (also disable-able for those that don't want that).

One other social media for me that I've recently gotten into was Medium -- for me specifically, that writing is my big interest, once I wrapped my brain around how to get people to read my posts there I think it's been a rewarding place to post writing.

[picosgemeos.livejournal.com]

I think you might like Threads! It does show you random posts, based on your likes, and it has really good functionality for banning, blocking content you don't want. You can also add, via Instagram, words you want excluded. I have a feeling it's a bit like TikTok, where it just gets better in its recommendations the more you use it.

Substack is another one I think you might like. Very similar to Medium except it's turning more into a social media site, with loads of chatter and Twitter-like posts ("Notes").

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Thanks I think I'll check them both out!

[pmousgroup.livejournal.com]

I just withdraw my profit of $15,500 from my trading account thanks a lot to pmous group I now have full trust on you now, I started with $650 you can also give a try pmous group is real and legit
Contact her via her details below website https://app.pmous-group.com you can contact the Instagram page too https://www.instagram.com/pmous_group?igsh=MW80aWRnbjlmZHNqdw== thank you everyone

[geosh.livejournal.com]

(when I saw, "I am inching closer to just leaving this space," my first thought was, "oh god, no..." because it took a second to realize you were talking about threads not lj....very glad youre here)

[picosgemeos.livejournal.com]

Good to hear from you!
Yeah, I'm not leaving LJ... Probably will be the one to switch the lights out! 😜