What social media do you use?

[Yaya]

Hi! I'm curious about the social media platforms everyone here uses, especially since many consider this online space a refuge from mainstream social media for mental health and privacy reasons. Please share your experiences with social media: its evolution in your life, your current relationship with it, and your aspirations for its future.

Facebook - I quit Facebook around three years ago. It had become a negative environment, and I was connected with over 2,000 "friends" who didn't really matter to me. The constant comparison was detrimental to my mental health.

Instagram - I'm still on Instagram for a few reasons, despite my desire to leave. Firstly, to stay in touch with close friends (I have a private account with about 250 followers), secondly, to follow events like concerts and parties, and thirdly, to keep up with tattoo artists who predominantly use Instagram. Balancing the desire to promote my creative work without getting absorbed in unhealthy comparison is tough. I'm experimenting with RSS feeds for the accounts I follow and trying to limit phone usage. The data collection and ad-focused nature of the platform are off-putting to me.

TikTok - It's an addictive platform, and I enjoyed posting fun content during early COVID. Initially, it felt like a community of ordinary people sharing their quirks, without worrying about peer judgment. Now, it's more about creators, influencers, and brands, but I still enjoy it. However, I'm conscious of its impact on my attention span and its issues with data privacy and misinformation. I limit my use to 45 minutes a day.

Twitter - I've never been inclined to use Twitter, especially due to its political tone and the inflammatory content.

Reddit - My experience with Reddit is mixed. It's a great place for niche communities and specific inquiries but often presents a one-sided narrative. It's not ideal for advice or discussions, and the presence of bots is noticeable.

Tumblr - I haven't used Tumblr, but several friends do. I might consider it, although it seems a bit complex.

Pinterest - My primary use for Pinterest revolves around fashion, design, and general inspiration. I'm more of a browser than a poster on this platform. While I appreciate the quality of content, I've noticed it's heavily ad-driven and often features attractive people in stylish outfits, which sometimes leads to unwanted comparisons on my part.

Other - I use YouTube, Neocities, and this forum, which I see more as content engagement platforms than social media. They're excellent for learning and entertainment.

In summary, social media is a complex landscape. Ideally, I'd love a shift towards more personal, interconnected web spaces like "Neocities" with real-life friends and online acquaintances. However, I realize the practical necessity of mainstream platforms for work, creative expression, and staying connected. My goal is to gradually reduce my social media usage and continuously reassess its role in my life. Wishing everyone luck in finding a balance that works for them!

[nintendowii99]

I have had a complex relationship with social media. 

Facebook: I've had an account since around 2009 and I still use it occasionally. While I have tried to stop, it is just such a practical way of keeping up with my family and community. My mom posts photos of my family almost daily, and now that I live several thousand miles away it's the only consistent way to see what they're up to. We do chat and call, but both of us are busy and we can easily go several weeks without directly communicating at times. In addition, my job requires daily use of Facebook. I consider it a necessary evil and just try to limit my participation on the site as much as possible, basically doing read-only. I have less than 100 friends and only post about once a year.

Instagram: Probably my most complex relationship. I've had an account since the app began. Nowadays, I mainly use it as a place to share my hobby photography. This is probably my most used social media and also the one I have tried the hardest to stop using. This year, i'm trying something new: instead of posting multiple times a week, I'm going to post once a quarter, almost as a news bulletin of what i've been up to. I was inspired by Slower News, a news site that posts quarterly updates.

TikTok: I use this occasionally. It can definitely be consuming, but I get bored easily of scrolling endlessly so this isn't much of a problem for me. Besides, I hardly ever carry earbuds and find the idea of blaring tiktoks in public to be extremely annoying. I check this a couple times a week, maybe about an hour total. I quite like my feed and often find it relaxing when I do scroll. I have deleted the app multiple times and it's not something I miss that much.

Twitter: never been a big user of this.

Reddit: Such a love-hate relationship here. Sadly reddit and discord has replaced niche forums, so I find it to be a bit necessary to use if I want to participate in communities around my hobbies and interests. I do try to limit my time on it as much as possible. Something I do to help this is routinely clean out the subreddits that i've joined, and only join ones that are directly related to specific hobbies of mine. For instance, instead of joining the massive r/gaming or r/nintendo, joining smaller ones that are more focused, like r/wii or r/marioparty. I'm wary of large subreddits with lots of members and constant posting and tend to leave ones that are too large. I also have a personal rule to not comment.

Tumblr: I used this a lot when I was younger, but not as much anymore. I do like it, but find the mobile app insufferable to use (mine is so full of glitches that I can't scroll for longer than 5 minutes without encountering an app-breaking bug). Besides, i'm trying to move towards neocities blogs instead.

Pinterest: I have an account, but only use this for finding new phone or computer wallpapers.

Other: I love Youtube. I use it daily. It has replaced all streaming for me. I also use this forum and neocities. I occasionally use discord.

[Kolo]

Facebook - I cannot remember the last time I genuinely looked at Facebook. High school?

Instagram - I've never made an account there. Sometimes I glance at someone's account if I like their art from another site, but not beyond that.

TikTok - I've also never made an account here or looked at it more than the occasional video sent to me.

Twitter - I have a locked private Twitter with a few close friend followers, but my use has gone down the last few months to nothing. I log in to glance at the Rain World artists I'm following and leave, most of the time.

Reddit - This is one I read a lot, but I mostly only read (or post in the Neocities subreddit trying to help people lol). Mostly I read while I eat, and browse subreddits like BestofRedditorUpdates that are already aggregated.

Tumblr - I used to have a Tumblr, deleted it, came back a few years ago, and stopped within six months....

Pinterest - Never had an account and never meaningfully used it.

Most of my online activity is Toyhouse (a site for storing characters/art/stories), petsites (Flight Rising, Pixel Cat's End, both have forums), browsing the Activity page on Neocities, and... yeah that's about it haha.

[Grimlock]

Facebook - I have it, but don't use it for its intended purpose at all. just for certain game saves that i used to play. (one of them even removed facebook saves for being unreliable)
Instagram - I made an account when i was 13 but didn't use it all that much, I followed like one group of youtubers and then stopped using it. there was a big instagram hack while I was away and now recovering it requires me to take a picture of myself holding a code along with my full name and username. i thought this was ridiculous and never bothered recovering it, because i didn't use it.
TikTok - I've never used it because I was never interested in it. Plus my phone suffers from issues with its memory and tiktok is video based so it would likely not run well at all.
X (Twitter) - I haven't logged in since musk bought it and put in the rule that they can delete your account if you're inactive. i mainly just used it for switch screenshots
Reddit - I made an account recently but I probably won't use it.
Tumblr - I've been on tumblr since like early 2017 and i don't see myself moving until it implodes, its user profile customization is so good, asks are a great feature, the archive function is a godsend is you're looking for something, a lot of stuff about it sucks though, its probably on its last legs in terms of lifespan
Pinterest - I have an account but don't use all that much anymore, its absurdly clunky and updating your boards is an ordeal if you have more than one imo
Other - i mainly use youtube, purely to watch stuff though, i don't comment on videos anymore, i have spacehey, toyhouse, cohost and dreamwidth accounts but i don't use them as much as i probably should. of course you all can see my neocities so i don't need to mention that too much

[Karin]

I used to be very active on social media, but between Twitter getting destroyed and Instagram getting worse by the minute I've been trying to reassess and become more intentional with how and what I use. A few years ago this list would've been much longer:

Facebook - For keeping up with local pages and groups. I've never been a big Facebook fan and rarely post or comment. One of the main reasons I even have Facebook is to check the group for the village I live in.

Instagram - It used to be my favourite social media but IMO it's been going downhill for years. The feed is so messed up I can barely find the content from the people I follow. Everyone just posts stories and I detest those with a passion. For the past year or so it has been mostly used for my husband and I to send dumb memes and reels to each other.

Reddit - My digital crack lol. I rarely post or comment, I just turn off my brain and consume content. It's actually a problem, I shouldn't waste so much time on there...

Twitter - Used to be my other main social media along with Instagram until the muskrat took over. Can't bring myself to use it at all now and I'm still trying to find something to replace it.

Pinterest - For me, it's not social media at all as I never talk to anyone on there. Pinterest is an online storage shed of pretty pictures and cool ideas and nothing else.

Other - Mastodon might replace Twitter for me. Lots of tech bros but also lots of creatives, I like it there. I'm also on Bluesky which is mostly creatives from what I can tell. A nice enough place so far, but it's clearly not finished yet.

[xero333]

I used to use FB, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit. I now only use Instagram as a lot of my friends use it to share updates and send funny videos, etc. I used Reddit for 10 years, but deleted my account a few months back, and I'm glad I did. Reddit turned me into a more negative, hateful person. And I get angry with myself that I allowed myself to get sucked in to a lot of the drama and hate over there.

[Neonriser]

I use Tumblr a lot these days, but I also use Mastodon and Discord.

Facebook (and even TikTok) feels like a distant memory to me. That's what happens when you get tired of your comfort zone and want to explore the digital world once more, haha.

[starbreaker]

It's a bad habit, and I don't recommend it, but I'm still on the Fediverse (Mastodon, Pixelfed, Peertube, Friendica, etc).

I have no use for corporate-owned social media. Twitter is a Nazi bar. Facebook and friends are little better. And, as I told somebody at work, if I work for you then you don't want to find me on LinkedIn. If I'm there it means I'm actively looking for a bigger paycheck than you've proven willing to give me thus far.

[gloomystudent]

I never had an instagram or Pinterest account and I've deleted my Facebook, Twitter, and Tiktok. Not that I used those site very much anyway. My main social media site that I used was reddit but I've found myself using it less and less over the years. I still read individual posts sometimes if I'm looking for something in particular (like tech advice) but I don't browse it like a social media website anymore. I do still browse on Tumblr though, its the last social media website I still cling onto. I'll probably leave the site eventually, but I'm not forcing myself. I also have a LinkedIn profile, even though I would much prefer not to. It's been recommended to me to use to find jobs so I've bit the bullet and made one.

[varve]

Heh I don't use anything on your list. Facebook and Instagram I used to use, but I've either abandoned or deleted the accounts a while ago. I have a Pinterest account but I only used it because I needed to collect a bunch of pictures to show someone and that was easiest for them. I never used the social aspects of it - I don't even know what they are. The rest I never had any interest in.

I have a fedi account on an instance with a really good blocklist, so I very rarely see the nastiest sides of Mastodon, and I have a Discord account to keep up with some friends and a few groups. I haven't yet figured out how to use (not technically, but how it fits in my life) the Neocities social stuff.

[tarraxahum]

I use tumblr since 2013 (maybe 2012?) and I'm unlikely to leave before it finally sinks (although the CEO's recent behaviors are very BLEH), so I guess that's my main social media.

And I do have a TikTok, but I mostly look up funny cat videos to show my mom. Sometimes some fandom stuff. Editing and posting videos there is... too much work, too little reward. Eh.

I used to have Twitter and Instagram, deleted them both, then remade hoping to promote my art annnnd left again 'cause oof they are soul-sucking.

Have a Reddit account, used to spend much time on there but miraculously stopped after deleting the mobile app. Now that account comes in handy if I need to dig up some niche information from one sub or another. Tried to make another one with the new name, but yeesh, re-earning karma without constant activity is. Nope.

On Pinterest I just save up pics for drawing references, I'm not using the 'social' part of it at all lol

And Facebook... tried to make accounts way back in the day. Never used it. Hated the UI and proceeded to hate it even more when they changed it. And a separate messenger thingy? Kill it with fire. Especially when for some reason it came pre-installed on one of my phones.

[PurpleHello98]

I technically have accounts on Tik Tok, Twitter and Instagram, but I never use them and should probably delete the Twitter and Tik Tok (the latter account I've never even posted on) for digital footprint-cleaning purposes. I really need to take a day soon and clean out all sorts of old accounts.

I have Tumblr and Pinterest, which seem like the least toxic platforms to me, but I only use them very sparingly.

Reddit is probably my most frequently used site of these, but I consider it forum-like enough that I don't have a huge problem with it (although I wish people would move to forums!). I have tended to shy away from it recently, and I might delete my account recently for the aforementioned footprint-shrinking.

The only one I use pretty actively is YouTube, but even then I use a third-party client and for Lent I'm limiting myself to only use YouTube either on Saturdays or Sundays, I forget. And I plan to carry on only using YouTube (recreationally) every once in a while, since I don't feel like spending longer amounts of time on it gives me anything valuable, you know? I do have Spacehey and use it occasionally, but that's pretty much it.

[almostcorporeal]

i dont use social media very much anymore, not that i consciously limited myself from it but more of i never used it actively in the first place so i'd just fall off the earth on accounts...

facebook - i still have a facebook because for some bizarre reason it's the only way my grandmother will contact me, i don't use the app itself and i only use messenger to talk to her lol

instagram - i have one but i stopped using it forever ago and haven't deleted it because my best friend often sends me insta reel links, i hated using it when i did use it though as it felt centered on physical appearance/items/talents that you have which was in general a turn off for me since i dont do anything i do to try and get eyes on it, i just create for myself

reddit - i basically only use this when i need to find something and can't find it through a quick search like a tech solution or something of that sort (although it's super hit or miss on that one)

twitter - i used to use this one a lot but when musk took over i moved away from it back to tumblr which ive had since its launch

pinterest - i literally only use this for outfit references for my art, i've never understood it as a "social" media

other - i dont really use youtube and when i do i watch through freetube rather than the website and i use the app to stream to my tv but i mostly use cohost, honestly. im trying to get back into being a bit more social online instead of relegating myself to my group of friends i talk to daily and cohost feels like a nice mix of early tumblr and twitter to me. i like the vibes. as i mentioned i do still use tumblr although i really would like to move off of it completely too. i spend most of my time online on neocities, grundos/flight rising, and interacting with my hobbies like gaming or drawing while talking to friends (:

[debleb]

just reddit and tumblr personally. i’ve tried others but really they never stick and don’t give me anything that either reddit or tumblr don’t so i don’t bother.

reddit is probably my preference though. i like that it’s more forum-like and better suited to actual discussions than pretty much every other social media out there now.

[Paprika]

I stopped Twitter and Facebook a loooong time ago. I went on Tumblr a bit but wasn't satisfied now I have a Mastodon Account whic is the only social media account I'm using. A friend told that I wasn't easy to find but I like the idea of being something you find after exploring a bit, like some kind of reward. MelonLand could count as a bit since there's definitely social aspect. So that makes two haha