How do you use social media?

[lycoseadae]

most of my social media usage is tumblr. ive been on it pretty consistently(except for a few months here and there) for about 10-11 years now but ive been using it much less in the last couple weeks since i got heavily into making/remaking my site

i have a pretty complicated love/hate relationship with tumblr but im not sure if ill fully quit. i wanna make a portfolio/site for my beadwork, but i might keep my account so i can post when i have new art for sale since my site alone wouldnt really bring in traffic itself, it'd just be a portfolio

i also use instagram a little but mostly to watch a few reels my friends send and maybe send some back once every week or 2

[fatgrrlz]

While I'm not interested in going completely no-social-media mode, I definitely feel like I've pulled back my social media usage as of the past few months - partially from my incredibly stressful job, partially from my identity online at the time heavily intertwining with a particular game I no longer enjoy. Nowadays I mainly use Tumblr on a day-to-day basis (I mainly just post my art there like I do on my thread here on the forum, and follow artists I like. I don't partake in discourse though, and block pretty frequently), and Neocities and Melonland Forums whenever I have time during the weekends or sometimes after work.

My main use of social media is to share things - the art I make, the thoughts I have, et cetera. I like seeing what others think of things, including the things I've made :3 but though I think I've grown, there's definitely a part of me that remains from my teens has this obsession with "hee hoo numbers go up" that many a social media feeds into. Seeing something you've worked hard on get lots of likes/reblogs/comments/et. al. is validating... but also makes you incredibly vulnerable and defensive. It sucks and takes time to unlearn. Still, I've thought about picking up one other social media, but most current social medias being how they are nowadays have me a little hesitant to try. Thought about giving Mastodon a try but I can't get myself to understand and comfortably navigate the concept of federated social medias.

While I think Discord could objectively be considered a social media (especially in the use of HUGE servers), I kind of treat it more like just a souped up messenger app more than anything. I'm in a server with my close friends and that's it.

[Grimlock]

i mainly use tumblr, i've tried mastodon during the nsfw ban and i've tried a lot of  other social media sites but i could never stick to them. they're all homogenized in a way i don't like, because that's probably because i really enjoy having profile customization.

i like reblogging funny posts and art, but i use it to blog as well!

[Nickolox]

Used to have a Twitter exclusively for posting my own works and keeping tabs on artists I liked, my account actually did pretty well, I had about 800 followers I think, not that it means much lol.
I had kind of gone inactive for a year or so, due to not really being able to make much of anything.
Last month though I deleted my Twitter cuz I got kind of sick of how bad the site is getting and all the reasons I stayed no longer applied (since all the artists I liked no longer used twitter)

All I use now is Tumblr, I've had an account since 2017 or so but after everyone left to twitter it stayed kind of dormant and dead.
it is so much better tbh, and I don't know why I didn't go back to it earlier???
the fact the niche fandoms im into are thriving on tumblr is enough for me to be happy 

Having ditched most social medias is kind of a blessing really, doing that and joining this old web stuff has been really good for my mental health I think!
I know I'd often stay awake at night worrying about if something i posted on twitter was going to do well or not, and being upset with myself over the fact I couldn't make anything to post.
It really gets at you big time...

[Corrupted Unicorn]

I might be wildly disinformed, but lately I had to start some social medias because my kind of job requires so, yet I seem to have find a way to stay on those sites in a healthy, collaborative way (no doomscrolling, no unhealthy posting schedules, no intentionally fishing for attention, etc).

First thing I do, basically, I post a minimum of once per week, at the same day and time, because I heard the algorythm likes regularity. If I really want to I can post one, two more pieces during the week, but I don't want to force myself to post every day or every two because that would be unsustainable for me.

Second thing I do is to leave five nice comments every day. I'm flexible with this one as well because sometimes this would mean staying up for longer than I should, but this method prompts me to intentionally seek stuff I like, and engage with other users in a more direct, personal way. Also helps me sharpen those critical skills so I can see the nice things they do with art and the intentions put into their works.

It might not be the most fine-tuned way to rake up those likes and subscribes (!?) but I like giving other artists a piece of my mind (in a positive way) 

[virtue]

So a big part of my personal philosophy is the distinction between "loving the old web" and "hating the new one". I fall in the latter category. I don't specifically want things to "remain how they were", I just want to refuse to follow the path towards what it currently is, because I think its inherently bad for you. That being said, I don't necessarily think old social networks were inherently better. I think all of them suffered from the same fatal flaw of venture capital funding and were consequently doomed to fail from the start. So! What I want most is social networks / platforms that are ACTUALLY user oriented, and not destined for failure and enshittification due to the schrodinger's ponzi scheme funding strategy. Consequently:

I refuse to regularly use most any contemporary social media sites; the only places you can really find me are cohost and... well it was spacehey for a while, but more recently I've been strongly taking a liking to Station on gemini. Something I like to express is that I think we should draw a line between Social Media and Social Networks. Social Media is a replacement for media; its about the content people produce. Social Networks are about the people. When I go on cohost or Station, its usually not because I want to see some drama or memes, its because I want to keep up with the work of artists I follow, or find new friends to keep up with. These spaces with no algorithms and sustainable structures... they're about the people. So That's how I use social media. To find new people to follow the stories of and cheer them on as they succeed and pull them back up as they fail. Its to be social online!

[larvapuppy]

I have to be honest with myself and say that while I'm trying to cut back on social media, I definitely still use Instagram a lot more than I would like to.    It's so bad for me! I use it on my tablet to talk to my friends in the group chats we have there, but when I'm done I find myself sucked into scrolling through Reels... And I always end up on videos with really vile homophobic and misogynistic comments.  I need more self-control!

Otherwise, I reblog cool art/photos on Tumblr and I use Facebook to instant message my family and fiance because I don't own a cell phone.  Might replace Facebook with a flip phone for texting, but I really hate paying for more monthly bills than are absolutely necessary...

[mahoroa]

I used to be on twitter but left like in 2019 or something. It wasn't good for my health and it was just making me more of a bad person.

Most social media I use now is Tumblr, but even then I'm using it less and less. Only reason I still have it is because of my friends on there. I love my friends.

I guess cohost counts?? I really just use it to post art tho.

[yungwake0]

These days I mostly only use Pinterest, where I refrain from interacting with anyone, focusing instead of looking at and saving stuff.

I do have a Tumblr that sits mostly unused, besides the rare occasions where I simply must scratch that itch.

I'm also a seasoned Reddit user (unfortunately). I stuck around for (eta: memes. lots of memes) some of the more chill niche communities on there, until the recent API changes rendered it impossible to use on mobile, and most of what I was interested in on there I can now get easier on Pinterest and web revival projects/groups.

Last year I uninstalled Discord after multiple years of it living up to it's name. There's a few friends that I miss, but I feel the negatives strongly outweigh the positives

Recently I finally privated my Twitter, and honestly I don't even need to explain this one

I have Facebook exclusively for Messenger to contact people I know irl, but does it really count as social media at that point?

[grubbyfox]

i use facebook only to "snoop" (double checking birthdays, names-checks, check company pages etc) and for messenger to keep in touch with some peopple.

i use instagram mostly just to look at videos and pics of stuff i like, and to send to friends. i will on occasion post a pic, but it's like once a year maybe.

i used twitter very actively for years and years, up until august. i used it to shitpost and just have a really fun time. then everyone in my circle left it for bluesky around july-agusut, so i just locked my account. it's still there, but with the lil padlock and i stopped posting in august.

i use tumblr mostly to look at stuff like, art, gifs, clips, memes, tv series/movies i like, sometimes shitposts etc. i dont know if it's really a "social media" tho??

i use snapchat to send pics to like, my dad, lol. i never really enjoyed snapchat that much, and lately its been glitchy and sluggish on my phone, so i dont use it much anymore.

[Sorcer]

I still frequent Twitter and Tumblr, Twitter more to be social and Tumblr more to reblog things I like, in a Pinterest sort of way. I feel a little silly being in spaces like here and Neocities without adhering to the total move away from and disdain for social media I often see, but it's just so convenient and I have made a lot of connections I don't wanna lose.

At the very least, I am considering migrating from Twitter to Whispy, which looks very promising and like it'll have a smooth migration process. I tried cohost and Bluesky, but didn't like them that much.

[alexela64]

I use instagram mainly to monitor local events, although i wish i didn't have to use it at all.
i use discord as a wiki for some things, mostly video games, and as a personal storage unit.
i used to use twitter but dropped it in like july of 2020. Discourse was genuinely affecting my mental health :'(
I don't use anything else as a social media, unless you count pinterest which i just use to organize my own ideas. not really to communicate with anyone.

[Tadpole]

I still use it to keep in contact with a lot of people around me. Some people just don't have the same love for the indie web, or don't want to put the effort into learning or diving into it, but I that doesn't mean I want to limit communication with them. I definitely am more cognizant of the social media I do use now though, and have limited it to what I deem 'necessary for communication with some people' but I think int he end I have found a healthy medium