"Social" media for me in 2024 (and beyond)

After many years of using social media websites and apps, I find myself dissociating (pardon the pun) from the "social" part of social media. For me, this means that the world's largest popularity contest has happily turned into a boring filing cabinet.

Social media for information gathering

I use these apps now to gather and organize information, rather than making new friends. I still "talk" to the best "online friends" whom I have "met" over the years. However, I try to keep the tally of such friends to a small number.

These apps have not changed much in terms of their inner workings: we still have "upvotes" (likes, plus-ones, reactions ... what have you) and "subscribers" (followers, friends ... you get the picture). However, I have found myself finding value in features such as "bookmarks" (or playlists, galleries, etc.).

I don't know the final destination for all this "information gathering". Perhaps my mind has become over-cluttered with life as I live through it. So, I feel the need to gather sets of knowledge or even "bits of stimuli". I've even decided to make a return to blogging with this website! All this has become more important to me than making more friends. This could be the case with everyone. This could be just me. Anyway, this article is about how I use social media (and the internet) in 2024 and beyond.

Social media app roll call

I have spent a couple of decades wrestling with social media websites and apps. I remark that each app can do one thing very well, while trying to do all sorts of things. I also noticed how each app tends to become like another. Then, I decided to use each app with a more specified direction:

• Gmail and Reddit ("mailbox" and mostly read-only "magazine")
• Tumblr (uploading graphics and curating encyclopedic information)
• YouTube (uploading videos and curating video playlists)
• 500px (uploading my "best" photos)
• Instagram (uploading photos of various quality levels)
• Twitter/X (a little bit of all of the above, with the occasional meme and "throwaway content" sharing)

From the above, the "social" aspect on X (formerly known as Twitter) is highest because it involves the lowest effort. A piece of content can consist of as little as a single word or even emoji. Replying and private messaging also happen quickly and fluidly. Instagram comes at a close second. All other apps have non-existent "social lives" for me, either due to Metcalfe's Law or by its own software design. (I'm not even sure if 500px has private messaging!)

Following topics over following people

In the 2010's, I used to follow people (or more accurately, accounts by people). Nowadays, I tend towards following topics. For me, the internet has now become a banal tool for information gathering. I simply try to make it help my "irl", so it is now a filing cabinet of data, that pertains to what I want to do "irl".

Discarding some apps

Other apps exist but I have discarded them, not because they "suck". I just no longer have the mental bandwidth to scroll through more than six or seven apps every day. Also, to name-drop Metcalfe again, not much activity (that interests me) happens on many other apps with which I still have an account (is anyone still on Facebook?).

We all have to pick our battles (or more accurately, battlefields).