Staring Social Media in the Face
I grew up on the Internet. After my mom installed AOL and signed me up for my first AIM account, I rushed home every day after school to talk to my friends online while I did homework or played games. I remade my account every time I wanted a new username and loaded each one with lyrical away messages and cryptic statuses. Meanwhile, on Neopets, I taught myself to code basic HTML and practiced math through their massive games library. These were my first steps into early social media, and since then I’ve embraced being Chronically Online.
As a pre-teen, online fandom became a safe haven, and I developed real, lasting friendships with many of the people I met through forums and fandom spaces. From MySpace to Xanga to WordPress to Livejournal to Facebook to Tumblr to Twitter to Instagram, I’ve moved from platform to platform with the intent to keep up with longtime friends, make new connections, and promote my work. There was a period in high school when my online friends and I all ran individual message boards for our favorite TV couples and bounced back and forth between these and the much larger, much more intense Fandom message boards for hours on end. I wrote so much fanfiction. I made so many 100x100px Livejournal icons that I would make “multi-fandom dumps” for other users to peruse and download. I applied to “elite” icon-making communities where mine could get more exposure, and I maintained a consistent microblogging habit that I haven’t managed to pick up again.
TL;DR: Social media has been a core component of how I interact with the world, especially my friends and peers. Although these sites are arguably terrible and getting worse all the time, it’s a little strange (and a lot scary) to see Twitter falling apart at the seams because of its hateful owner. Twitter is such an important tool for so many people, whether it’s folks needing to quickly spread a GFM link for emergency funds, creators trying to get eyes on their work, or individuals who simply need someone to acknowledge their thoughts. These are only three examples of how people use Twitter, but in my mind, they’re illustrative of the platform’s broad use.
However, Twitter is quickly becoming unusable. Soon, it might be impossible to access without a paid subscription, which feels absurd after 17 years of it being completely free. And why would anyone pay to subscribe to a website that DDOS-es itself after the owner refuses to pay the bills?
Where to go once Twitter dies
Enter Mastodon, Hive, Bluesky, and Threads. Mastodon has been around much longer, and more Twitter users are flocking to it than ever before as we all desperately search for a replacement for the bird site. I’ve snagged my username on every platform I can, not just to feel out how people are using each one, but to prevent myself from a headache later on if I decide to join a site and someone has already taken it.
Twitter has always had its problems, especially when it comes to safety and anti-harassment policies. There’s no denying that. There’s also no denying that it made things much easier for people who would otherwise be limited to their individual, in-person communities for support and encouragement. Speaking from experience, sometimes that simply isn’t enough. Sometimes you need bigger numbers. Sometimes you need deeper pockets. Whatever you need, Twitter has long been the go-to site for a quick spread of information. And yes, I know the site has also allowed for quickly-spread misinformation, which is incredibly dangerous and needs focused moderation to prevent. I’m not going to excuse anything Twitter’s executives have done across nearly two decades of running the site.
For me, Twitter became my primary social media platform because of how easy it was to scroll and engage/communicate with my mutuals and friends. Even when the company introduced a new “home” feed that not only relied on an algorithm but forced its users to read tweets from people they didn’t follow, there was a fix: the “following” tab. You can easily switch between accounts on Twitter in the event that you manage social media for a business, project, etc, and it’s overall just a very friendly user interface (UI).
These “replacements,” namely Hive, Bluesky, and Threads, use several of the same mechanics as Twitter, with pros and cons to each. It’s worth looking at their functionality and asking friends who use these services how they feel about them before taking the plunge, and it’s even more vital to examine how these apps will use your data and content. I currently have accounts on Hive, Bluesky, Threads, and Mastodon, and have thus far gotten the most use out of the first two. These apps feel less stressful because their user base is currently so small. Threads launched last night and already has users rioting en masse because it’s apparently impossible to only read posts by people you follow—much like the main Instagram feed (note: Threads is owned by Meta, which also owns Instagram and Facebook. All three apps are connected). Mastodon doesn’t allow users to close or limit direct messages, which for many of us is unsafe—but I just received an invitation to a very well-moderated server in which this shouldn’t be a problem, and I’m excited to explore the platform more than I did when I first signed up and then panic-deleted due to overwhelm and immediate harassment.
Why rely on social media at all?
I’ve considered leaving social media several times, especially when I received my first flood of hateful and harassing messages. Instead, I installed and started using stricter safety tools, began blocking freely, and shifted my relationship with social media so I wasn’t so dependent on the dopamine of post engagement. I turned off notifications for everything on my phone except for text messages and emails. I stopped scrolling mindlessly for more than 10 minutes at a time. In the last few years, I’ve pivoted toward using social media almost solely to promote my work and talk about Big Things. I still like, comment on, and share other people’s posts, and I have in-app notifications turned on for posts from my friends. But overall, social media takes up a much smaller space in my life than it used to, and I prefer it that way.
So, if/when Twitter dies, I could probably leave it behind and survive. A lot of evidence suggests that article traffic rarely comes from Twitter, and the majority of my work (right now) appears in online publications. But. Despite this evidence, the fact is that I generally get a fair amount of engagement on the bird app, and I’ve found a ton of opportunities through it. Not moving onto another, similar platform where I can continue to promote my work and maintain my livelihood feels risky in a way that makes my skin prick. I know I’m not alone in that feeling, as it’s been an ongoing conversation amongst creators for months (basically, ever since Elon bought Twitter).
Unfortunately, until one platform or another begins to truly lead the pack as a real, sustainable Twitter alternative, it’s hard for creators who depend on it as a business and networking tool to know where to go next. Bouncing back and forth between four or five apps a day is exhausting and likely unhealthy (at least for your mental health). My 10-minute scrolling is getting broken up into tiny, 2-minute chunks and I’m copying and pasting the exact same updates into multiple apps. It feels weird and I don’t really like it, but for the time being, it also feels like the best option until I figure out what will work best for me.
People who rely on social media as a tool are often criticized for being Too Chronically Online or too attached to their phones/screens. Not only does this dismiss people whose social media usage allows them to reach out to others and show off their work, ask for help, or make connections, but it suggests that using social media this way and being concerned about next steps makes you unreasonable or absurd. I don’t think it’s unreasonable or absurd to want continuation and safety in your online spaces. And if you’re currently struggling to figure out what’s next for you, know that you’re not alone. It’s a weird, nebulous time for all of us, and anyone who’s rude about that deserves a swift block and no further consideration.
✦ Like what you read? Leave a tip!