It would be really easy to bash on Elon Musk and the atrocious state of Twitter, which I will never refer to as “X.” If I went on such a rant, it would come from a place of deep emotion, because for a really long time, I loved Twitter. It felt like a constant afterparty I could wander through, sharing jokes and getting into light conversations with acquaintances. I met a lot of great writers through that medium, and I mourn its loss.

I’m not interested in hating on Elon, though. That’s not how I want to spend my time. And, to be fair, while I enjoyed the people I interacted with on Twitter, I have always kind of hated Twitter and social media in general. I called it The Great Mistake a couple of years ago, and I stand by that assessment.

And yet, here I am, logging into bunches of social media platforms every day. It’s junk food for the soul. It provides an illusion of connection and socialization. There is no real nutritional benefit to it, though, and in addition to the empty calories which fail to sustain me and keep me from loneliness, it is also bad for my heart as too often, it’s a source of fatty rage and diarrhetic existential dread.

I continue to connect to social media for two reasons. First, there are still people I want to stay connected with through those platforms. Second, I feel like it’s a requirement that I remain active in social media, as it’s one of the few avenues available to me to keep my stories visible to the public.

So, let’s go through the different social media platforms that I’m connected to, talk about the good, bad, and ugly, and maybe mention some of the ones I’m not connected to and why.

Twitter

I didn’t delete my account there, but I did delete all of my posts. I only log on to that platform now to check for direct messages. I will not be posting there again.

Twitter has gone through a lot of changes. The promotion of the subscription program makes people invisible when they eschew the 8 dollar badge. The badge program itself watered down identity, which opened avenues for impersonation. It is not an attractive platform for News Media at this point, and recent changes hide the text for links that go outside the site.

As far as I’m concerned, Twitter is dead. The only reason I haven’t deleted my account is because it’s my name, and if some miracle should occur and my books should take off, I don’t want someone impersonating me there. Impersonation on that platform is easier than its ever been.

It’s not a safe place. It actively allows the worst people to promote hate and bigotry, even in their advertisements. Oh, and the recent change in the terms and services describe how all the Twitter content will go into some new A.I., which is reason enough for me not to give Twitter any more of my words.

If you’re still on Twitter, do yourself a kindness and get off the platform as soon as you can.

Bluesky

The shattering of Twitter created an opportunity for bunches of other platforms to try and fill the gap. Bluesky is one of those younger platforms, and I’ve mostly been enjoying it. It satisfies the itch more than the other Twitter-clones, for some reason.

To get into Bluesky, you need an invite code. If you’re a friend of mine and you want an invite code, let me know. I have a few.

Bluesky is not perfect. It lacks some features Twitter had, and some of the bad habits developed during Twitter are still present on Bluesky. But, the culture there seems to be less about fixing on the hate and fanning the flames, and more about blocking and moving on. I appreciate that. You don’t snuff out a fire by giving it more oxygen. You can’t delegitimize hate speech by giving it more attention.

I’m not sure Bluesky will serve my author needs, but that might change over time.

Mastodon

I created an account on Mastodon many years ago, when it first popped up and Twitter already seemed like a terrible place. Mastodon is geekier and more challenging to engage with, mostly because it kind of looks like Twitter, and it smells like Twitter, but it’s underlying structure is quite a bit different.

Mastodon is not a monolithic service like Twitter or Facebook. It’s instead a whole bunch of little cities that have some interconnectivity. These cities have their own focuses, and their own culture. When you find one that suits you, you can join and you’re more likely to see other people that are within that city. At the same time, you can follow people that are in other cities.

There are fancy words like “federated” thrown around when dealing with Mastodon. It’s not quite as easy to use because of the underlying complexity, but since the different communities vary as much as they do, it’s easier to find one that you’re more likely to engage with than the platform as a whole.

People that love Mastodon really love Mastodon. I appreciate it, but I’m also not completely engaged with it. I have an account on The Wandering Shop, but very few followers.

Spoutible

If you have not heard of Spoutible, I don’t blame you. It’s one of the Twitter clones that popped up last year, I think, and it has the same look and feel as classic Twitter. Spoutible spends a lot of its time focused on what’s going on with Twitter, and how much Spoutible is better than Twitter. It is a jilted lover that is having a really hard time getting over its ex.

My presence there is even smaller than Mastodon. I’m not sure how much longer I’ll continue to log in. I don’t see it going the distance until it develops a unique voice of its own.

Facebook

I still hate Facebook. I’ve hated it for a long time, but I still go there because it’s the only way I stay in the lives of some family and some people I went to school with a long time ago.

I don’t post many original thoughts there, though I’ve been more engaged on that platform this last year. I don’t trust Zuckerberg and there is a lot about Facebook and Meta that make me upset, but at this point, I’m still logging on there and posting links to my blog.

Facebook Messenger is spyware, and I recommend that you take it off your phone if you have it installed. If you’re able to uninstall it.

We all should know by now that Facebook is generally evil, so I won’t spend any more time talking about that platform.

Reddit

I’m including Reddit here, even though it doesn’t quite fit the same mold as traditional social media. It’s mostly a place to go and follow specific topics of interest, and I enjoy it for what it is. I like the Cyberpunk and Valheim reddits. They’re fun. I should probably engage with more of the fiction reddits, but I don’t usually find that experience to be enjoyable, for some reason.

Not that long ago, Reddit changed some policies with regards to APIs, which impacted moderating, and basically made the place not good. It was a really big deal, and now I don’t see anyone talking about it. I don’t know if the changes were rolled back, or if the platform shrunk, or if people just accepted it.

I don’t spend as much time on Reddit as I used to, and I’ll probably continue to diminish my time spent there.

Instagram

I wound up with an Instagram account by accident many yeas ago, and I did absolutely nothing with it. Then I had a book coming out and it seemed like I should probably post some stuff there.

My distrust for it is the same distrust I have for Facebook. They’re the same company. But, begrudgingly, I have to admit that I’ve been having fun on Instagram lately.

Because I refuse to install any of the social media apps on my phone, I find it harder to use Instagram than most people. I have to move my pictures to my computer, then use the web app to upload my stuff. I will continue to do so, but because of the self-inflicted lack of convenience, I’ll never be super prolific on that platform.

Plus, don’t their terms of service have some draconian language about what they can do with the content posted there?

LinkedIn

This is another oddball, and I think the only reason I remain active on it is because I keep getting scouted on it, and sent emails. Everyday is another LinkedIn email or two, and I click in and check notifications.

I’m told that it’s possible to promote myself as an author there, but I’m not sure there would be much benefit to it. I don’t know.

LinkedIn is generally there to help people network and get a new job, right? I’m hoping to stay with Trimark until I can’t be a programmer anymore, so I’m not sure LinkedIn has much value to me. I haven’t posted any articles there, and I’ve only read a few, ones created and promoted by Trimark.

TikTok

I do not have an account on TikTok and I don’t use it. It’s another one that sort of demands the app on the phone, so it’s unlikely I’ll ever create a TikTok account and engage there. It’s possible that I’m making a mistake, because I hear that “BookTok” is a real thing.

I don’t know. It seems like a platform for a younger audience. I don’t think that the people enjoying TikTok are going to be particularly interested in short videos by an old like me.

Threads

Threads was Facebooks attempt at a Twitter clone, and it is tied heavily to one’s Instagram account. I would have checked it out, except there was no web client. Since I’m never going to install the app on my phone, I will never engage with Threads.

As I understand it, Threads had a tremendous intake of people, then immediately lost the vast majority of them. I don’t know anyone that is currently using Threads.

One of the interesting things about Threads was that they said they were going to be accessible through the Mastodon federation, which means I would eventually be able to follow some Threads users through my Mastodon account. I thought that was pretty cool.

Now, since it doesn’t seem like anyone is using the platform, I’m not sure federation even matters. I’m not sure if they’re still planning on developing that feature. So, Threads is effectively dead to me.

In Conclusion…

There’s not much else for me to say about social media that I haven’t said before. Across the board, it’s not healthy for any of us. It’s still The Great Mistake. I’m still engaged with a lot more of it than I like.

But what else am I going to do? Work on my stories?