Which Social Media to Invest Into

Not a single day goes by that I don’t think that now is the right time to give up on social media networks like Twitter, Threads, Jaiku, Google, BlueSky and Mastodon.

Too Many People

When social networks were small they were on a human scale. You could be on a forum with 20-40 people and with time you developed deep friendships with people. Now we’re speaking to a crowd speaking to a crowd. I see people with a thousand likes and a hundred replies. The chance that I will get seen, in a crowd of a hundred is small. This leads on to the second issue.

Huge Investment of Time

Social media requires a huge investment of time and energy to be worthwhile. I don’t mean for brands but for normal human beings. To be seen you need to be active, but to be active you need to find conversations that are worth having. This means hours and hours of what I would call gloom scrolling. Gloom scrolling is like doom scrolling but it feels like a chore, rather than a pleasure. How far do I need to scroll before I find a post worth interacting with, and when I do interact is that person, kind, mean, indifferent or other. Will I get trolled?

Different Values

The final point is that my social network are values to those of social media. For me Twitter, Facebook, Threads, BlueSky and Mastodon should be chat rooms and forums where discussions take place with like minded people, but more and more it feels like we’re fighting to be heard above the noise of hashtags, attention seekers, and influencers. We are no longer having personal conversations. We’re fighting for attention.

Easy to Waste Time

There is a fine line between social networks being social, and a waste of time. I worry that at the moment I am wasting my time. When there is a tight knit community you feel like you’re being social, you feel like you’re connecting with people. For now it feels like a waste of time. When Threads brings in ads there will be a mass migration from Threads to BlueSky but the question is how long BlueSky will be able to stay free, and live by the current ideals it has. BlueSky is still too quiet to be a thriving social network

And Finally

It’s an important question to ask at the moment. Social networks are currently in a state of flux so knowing whether to devote time to Threads, Bluesky or other is relevant. Creating an account takes seconds, but finding a good community takes weeks, months, or even years, and can vanish within hours or days.

I don’t know where to invest my time.