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It’s the time of year where I’m reflecting on the state of social media
and my use of it. Two years ago, The Muskover occurred , and since then activity that used to be concentrated there
has is now scattered across several social media networks. My reading and
posting to social media has reflected that change.
How I use Social Media
Different people use social media in different ways, and my thoughts
are governed by how I use them. If you have different interactions with
social media, you won’t find my analysis lines up with what you
experience, although I hope you’ll still find my perspective interesting.
I’m not really a social user of social media. I first started using
social media (in some form) in the late 1980’s with Usenet. I learned
quickly that I disliked the often-heated arguments that blew up there, and
so I avoided reading them and, above all, avoided getting into them.
When it comes to reading, I prefer to follow a fixed feed of accounts
that I explicitly follow, trying hard to avoid any kind of system
suggested feed. I curate my feeds to read people who say interesting
things, and don’t post so much that I can’t keep up. The most valuable
things they post are links to articles (or occasionally videos) that have
some thoughtful depth. Following a fixed list does mean I miss a lot of
promising stuff, but I only have so many hours, and anything really good
usually gets picked up by the people I do follow.
When it comes to posting, my main use to is announce new articles that
I post, and other interesting stuff that I think my readers may be
interested in. I try not to post too often, as I presumptuously assume
that my readers share my dislike of over-active posters. I consider any
post I make on social media to be ephemeral – anything I write that’s
meant to be long-lasting I keep on this site.
Bluesky
Bluesky has seen a steady rise over the last couple of years. I created
an account on there a while ago, but haven’t posted much so far. I used it
mainly to read a few folks that migrated there from Twitter. Mostly these
people were in the current affairs or boardgaming world, but recently
there’s been a significant uptick in tech people posting there.
Consequently I’m inclined to post there more as well, and have added it
to the growing list of social networks
that I’ll be posting site updates to.
One of the things I like about Bluesky is its use of an open protocol,
which reduces the chances that it will follow the fate that befell
Twitter. I’ve set my domain for Bluesky, so hopefully even if bad things
happen to Bluesky itself, the AT protocol will live on.
X (Twitter)
Predictions of its demise, either technologically or financially, have
not come to pass – but that hasn’t stopped its decline in importance. Any
social media network depends on who is posting there, and many people have
moved away from Twitter, either not posting there at all, or posting on
other sites in addition. I’m in that second camp, if you’re interested in
my posts, you can find essentially the same posts on many places, so only need to follow me on one
of them (or deal with duplicates).
If I find someone doing what I’m doing – posting on Twitter and on
other sites – I prefer to follow them on a different site. As far as
I’m concerned, Twitter is in decline, and although I’m not leaving it for
the moment, I prefer to follow activity in other places.
Twitter isn’t dead, but declines as people leave
I will continue to post updates there, at least for a while. I have
many followers there, and I believe that my readers should have the choice
of where to follow me, constrained by my enthusiasm in posting to so many
social networks. But if you do follow me there, and also use one of the
other sites I post to, I do encourage you to change to follow me on
another network.
I long avoided LinkedIn, as its whole ethos of avid connection-making was
thoroughly unappealing. But it’s also grown in importance for social media
posting, and many of my colleagues remarked that it had replaced Twitter
for them. I thus joined LinkedIn in March this year. As I write this I’m
up to just under 100,000 followers, less than the 350,000 I have on
Twitter, but still a significant reach for my publication announcements.
LinkedIn is annoyingly corporate, but I see the most tech
activity there
It’s not a place I enjoy, however. I have little control over my feed,
and my notifications are full of “someone liked your post” events. I don’t
pay any attention to those, but do want to see notifications when folks mention my work or
comment on my posts. This problem exists on other sites too, but the
user experience is worse on LinkedIn. The feed also has lots of professional
puffery, which lowers the signal-to-noise ratio, and a distinctly
corporate personality.
Despite all that, I’ve noticed that I’m getting more reactions to my
article announcements on LinkedIn that anywhere else, which is an
indication that more readers are finding out about articles there than on
the other sites. So for letting people know about new material, LinkedIn is
currently the best place for me.
If you do want to follow my posts on LinkedIn, use the “follow”
feature. I’m still as averse to “connections” as ever, and only use it
with a few people that I’ve worked with a lot, and those that have written
articles for the site.
Fediverse (Mastodon)
When The Muskover happened, many people saw the Fediverse as the
natural successor to Twitter. It’s federated nature meant that there
wouldn’t be a single owner that would take over the network, giving it a
greater resiliency to the future. I felt there was a good chance that we’d
see organizations hosting Fediverse nodes, allowing an organization to
control its own social presence. My colleagues at Thoughtworks had set up
such an example.
But it seems that much of that promise hasn’t come to pass, probably
because too many people found that choosing a server was too awkward, and
that the advantages of federation were outweighed by the complexities of
its usage. Bluesky is more approachable, and although it’s a
commercial organization, it is building on an open protocol that has a
similar prospect of resilience.
The Fediverse hasn’t gained much traction
A few tech people moved to Fediverse, and I’m happy to post and follow
there at the moment. I don’t have follower statistics for it, but I get
much less response to announcements than I do on Twitter or LinkedIn. If
it wasn’t for its open nature, I’d probably wind down posting there, as
it’s not worth the trouble, but because it’s open I’ll continue posting
for the foreseeable future.
Threads
Threads got a lot of attention due to its rapid take-up, but I haven’t
been involved. I don’t really want to put time into another big-tech
social network unless it demonstrates its importance in the way that
LinkedIn has.
I stopped posting there many years ago. I still have an account, and
pop in occasionally, but I see a feed that seems almost entirely adverts,
and the people I do follow have their posts mixed up by an algorithm that
is determined to think it knows better than I do what I want to read. A
decade ago, I enjoyed it for personal contact, but now I only pop in every
few months and am never encouraged to return.
Board Game Geek
This is a niche network, for those like me who are over-enthused by the
world of hobby board games. I’ve been posting more there in the last year,
sharing my opinions on the many board games I get to try out. It’s a great
resource for such enthusiasts, but not something of any interest to most
people. It is, however, an interesting example of a social network
designed for a particular activity, one
that continues to prosper, doing a great job of serving its users.
Discord and Slack
I’m lurking in a number of groups using Discord or Slack to host
conversations, and these are smaller groups where I’m more inclined to
chat. Most of these are about board gaming, as I find them a good way to
unwind in the evening nattering about something that is fun, while I don’t
want the distraction of such chatter in my work context.
Final Thoughts
All in all, social media is a very dispersed medium, which means there
are annoyingly many places to monitor. Looking forward, I’m hoping that
open protocols will gain more traction, so I’ve not given up on the
Fediverse and am encouraged by the progress of Bluesky.