In the early days of social media I used the holy hell out of it. Yahoo 360 was first for me. It had a blog space. I started writing whatever crap popped into my head. Not long after I moved over to Myspace and planted my social media flag there. Again, I used the bejeezus out of the blog there. Everything I posted there has been ported over here. Back in 2006 I connected with a woman through Myspace. She was nice and charming and funny and wonderful and today she is my wife. How is that for a social media success story?
By 2008 Myspace was history and Jen and I both started Twitter and Facebook (Bookfayce) accounts. I used them a lot. I mean, a lot. In November of 2008 I also started a stand alone blog on Blogger. Two of them, actually. One was public and the other was private. I kept anything related to my kids on the private account. Everything from both blogs now lives on this blog, just like the Myspace stuff. In 2009 I started an account on what might be one of the original social media platforms. Flickr. No one uses it socially anymore, mostly, but it is still the best site for hosting photos. I have a few there. By “a few” I mean over 55,000… so yeah, I use the hell out it.
When Instagram came along I sort of saw it as a companion to Flickr. I opened an account right away but closed it after a while. Then after some time passed I opened another one and then closed it. I can’t remember how many times I did that. I just didn’t like the interface. Scrolling kept “accidentally” marking things as favorites and it drove me friggin’ nuts. Eventually I just gave in and kept an account live. I still pop in once or twice a day, mostly to look at Les Pauls. I post there now and then but I don’t really interact with anyone. It’s like Flickr. It is a social media platform, but I am not terribly social on it.
A few years ago I got fed up with all of it. Facebook was turning into a cesspool as the fascist maga cult was pulling in people I knew and they were getting louder and louder and the idiotic algorithm was showing me more and more of that garbage and I just decided I didn’t want to go there anymore. I’ve missed out on a lot of family and friends stuff, but from a mental health standpoint I feel better about the world. When I started the weight loss surgery process it was suggested that I join some support groups on Facebook, so that pulled me back in for a while, but eventually I had a good enough grip on the situation that I wasn’t learning anything new anymore so I backed off again. I still pop in now and then to see what people are going through with their recoveries, but I don’t do it often. Twitter went from a similar sort of cesspool vibe to an absolutely ridiculous den of scummy bullshit when that musk putz bought them out. I don’t use that at all anymore.
I’m trying to keep my toes dipped in the social media world via a few Twitter alternatives. I want to pick one and just use that when I need a social fix, or when I am bored and want to kill a few minutes. Threads has a good music community but given that it’s a bookfayce product it makes me want to vomit when I use it. Bluesky and Mastodon are okay but I don’t really have a community to connect with on either platform so I don’t use them often. This blog cross posts to Mastodon so there’s that at least.
So the answer to the actual question, How do you use social media is that I try not to. Not really, at least. I was 100% invested in it back in the oughts and early teens, but now I just feel like it’s mostly outlived its usefulness. Instagram, Youtube, Flickr… yeah, I still use those regularly but I don’t really use them as social media outlets. I get all of my public bitching and moaning ya ya’s out on this page. I still use this thing a lot. I mean, a lot. Way too much. I mean, way too much. Part of me wants to stop entirely but I doubt I have the will power for that. Although… I thought the same thing about Bookfayce once too. Maybe… Maybe it’s time to just quit cold turkey. Probably not today though. Yeah, I am sure I can quit any time I want. You know that song, right?
Inside the Red Head's Head 
Nodding along with so much that you wrote here. I feel like I’m making proactive choices, but as I wrote this morning and as I read others’ posts I realize what sinking sand social media can be and how hard we all work not to be overtaken by it.
I’m over here scratching my head, trying to decode the mysteries of women! 😂
I didn’t even know yahoo had a blog site thats crazy, I almost feel like I’ve been living under a rock 😅