Community: Social Media. What’s Next?

~ Laura

Yesterday, we talked about Twitter. Many people said they no longer used it. Others said that they were spending less time online.

Beyond this wonderful blog, what social media platforms do you use regularly? Do you think that you’re spending less time online in the past year? Are you less likely to click on links that you did in the past?

Published by Laura

8 thoughts on “Community: Social Media. What’s Next?”

  2. FB & Instagram, which are heavily flowers and art (and some friends on FB). I am using them less, but it is easy to just scroll (though my content is not doom scrolling on those media).

    I hate how we can’t have nice things because I really do like the online communities I participate in (though I do wonder sometimes whether online interactions– and I’ve been online since the days of usenet groups– provide a support of my extreme introvert tendencies that have more general effects that might be negative).

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  3. Never been a twitter user. The short format doesn’t appeal – and the echo-chamber effect, and pile-ons where someone dares to voice a different opinion – are deeply unattractive.

    I use a feed-reader to harvest newspaper and ‘print’ media content – which I skim through, and read approx 1/10 of the articles.

    I use Facebook for family/friends content – but not interested in following down their ‘news’ rabbit holes. Also, really weirdly, there’s a very active FB group with lots of professional discussions in the field I work in. God alone knows why FB is the chosen venue (15 years ago it would be an e-list), but it works surprisingly well for nesting comments, and sharing knowledge.

    I read intensively, and participate (occasionally) on 2 very active political blogs here in NZ – one left, one right (I’m a moderate, so both radical wings hate me). Some of the comments are insanely biased (on both sites) – but relatively strong rules for comments ensure that the discussion remains fairly civilized (I particularly like the one which enforces links to data – so you can’t get away with just making stuff up)

    I have Instragram – but mostly for following artist friends – I don’t participate myself – though Mr 15 has this as his prime form of social media. He also has Facebook – mostly for keeping up with show and theatre rehearsal announcements and information. He’s also YouTube obsessed – and goes down some incredible information wormholes, until I make him fact-check the story he’s swallowed whole.

    Thoroughly uninterested in TV media – either live or recorded. Watch a few costuming channels (people making historical costome) on YouTube – but don’t follow any news or political content there. TikTok….. just …. no.

    Guess I’m really old-fashioned. My prime news intake is heavily print based – and my means of contribution is the equivalent to the 20th century ‘letters to the editor’. 🙂

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  4. FB for friends, colleagues, local news and events, and a couple of professional groups; also for our department’s FB page (which I need to link to Instagram so students will actually look at it). Instagram to check in on younger relatives, a zoo, a botanical garden, and a couple of shops. No twitter account, which keeps me from staying on endlessly, something I only regret when I am tracking something political (I use one of the Slate aggregatators, but otherwise get cut off after reading a few tweets). If twitter conks out I will probably follow some substacks or podcasts or something.

    I would be reading less but the little “Reels” features do an excellent job of sucking me in, rewatching bits of movies and tv shows, or getting bits of information about various things.

    A few blogs, with this one being by far my most regular stop; I wish there were more. I pay for Slate+ and WP and my local newspaper, which is mostly terrible USA today stuff but still runs at least one or two actual local stories.

    I used to love print media – at various points in my life the Boston Globe, Washington Post, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, or Chicago Tribune were daily reads – but out here in the rural wilderness I can’t get anything delivered except the local paper, and I’m not even sure they do that anymore. About 15 years ago you could get the NYT delivered to your department office at school M-F, but they stopped that.

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  5. –You just can’t physically click on all the links that come your way. One of my big pet peeves is blind links. I’m sorry, folks, I’m not going down an internet rabbit hole without having some idea where I’m going.
    –I read a lot of twitter, but I’m selective. I don’t read everything, and I try not to read twitter threads unless they are funny.
    –Since the war in Ukraine started, I’m on youtube a lot. I typically watch/listen to several hours of Russian-language youtube a day (with occasional forays into trying to understand Ukrainian-language interviews).
    –I have been spending less time posting here and elsewhere.
    –I’m doing more “real world adjacent” stuff, but not necessarily out and about. I have been corresponding with three female Russian political prisoners, and I just sent out two introductory letters to two more. (The pace of the electronic mail service has slowed down, so I have more time.) Depending on how that goes, I may send out more. I am also writing more letters to political figures on policy questions, primarily foreign policy related.
    –I was about to get into a fight online recently (US Ukraine military assistance is supposedly all going into crypto and then getting donated to Democratic politicians!!!), but then I wound up spending that morning sending out the letters to the two women. I am very happy with my life choices. (I did get into it later, but I didn’t use prime time for it. Short version: US military aid is not in fact handed out in the form of bags of cash.)
    –While writing my letters to political prisoners (which I do in Russian), I’ve realized that it wouldn’t be bad to see a Russian tutor. So I hunted down a local tutor and I’m going to be working with her. My Russian phonetics are kinda bad right now, so I’ve signed up for a class at Hometown U (faculty spouse privileges) for the spring.
    –I have some vague ideas about some real world activities, but I’m also keeping an eye on some school stuff, and I don’t want to get tied down prematurely. (I have a high school senior.)

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  6. I love Twitter and will miss it. I don’t get caught up in drama because I basically just ignore whatever doesn’t interest me. I follow a lot of romance writers and tv critics on Twitter and I will miss them so much. Twitter just allowed me to be in the room while they are talking, and I love that.

    It’s crazy to me that I am teaching a course on New Media right now and I walk into class every day absolutely amazed that we are living through the death of a major social media platform and wanting to talk about it, and my students are all “meh.”

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  7. Thanks, all, for the feedback. I turned my response into a newsletter, which I posted above.

    I’m done for the weekend. Have a good one, y’all!

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