This time last year I was in a very different place with regard to social media. Things with Twitter had reached breaking point and called for drastic action. I nuked my account and started again from scratch.
And it proved to be such a great decision. In the space of a year I have rebuilt my account to roughly the same number of followers as I had with my 9 year old account.
The difference being that I ruthlessly curated the content I saw there, and crucially the content that I interacted with. Mindful of the fact that Twitter will share my likes/retweets with others I was careful not to interact with content that others might find triggering - Brexit, Covid and other hot button issues in the UK.
Not that they aren't important, but I knew how fragile my own mental health was feeling coming out of the pandemic and that the only way I could stay on Twitter, and enjoy being there was by being strict about what I allowed into my bubble. Knitting, otters and funny cat memes are the order of the day now, and my day is far better for it.
Please note this is different to putting my head in the sand. I stay informed by reading and from trusted news sources. What I don’t need is to be sand blasted by the hose of other people's opinions and hot takes.
This time last year, my Instagram by contrast felt completely dead in the water. I felt similarly stifled but couldn't bring myself to delete my account, as anyone who has painstakingly inched over the 10k followers threshold will understand.
Instead I cut back the number of accounts I followed to almost zero - and started again. Just following those whose content either uplifted, inspired or entertained me. Drastic yes, but my goodness it was like a breath of fresh air.
Side note though - it did earn me a shadow ban for a few weeks as I deleted more follows per day than the algorithm was happy with, so I’m not sure I can entirely recommend it as a course of action.
As we moved into 2023 though, things started to feel different yet again. The whole twitter atmosphere has undoubtedly changed as a result of the site’s new owner and a lot of people have either left or are interacting far less on their accounts.
Instagram by contrast feels a lot more vibrant - the Reels are obviously here to stay and maybe, who knows I’m actually starting to like them a little bit. It feels as though people are allowing themselves to relax and let go of the quest for Instagram flatlay perfection a little bit, and embrace the fun and more spontaneous side of the platform again. Instagram have also responded (finally) to concerns about account security and have introduced a new system for helping people to recover hacked/locked accounts.
What will this year bring? Who knows quite frankly but change is inevitable, it always is.
Now more than ever it’s important to connect with people on more than one platform, or via email/DMs. Rumours of Twitters imminent collapse are almost certainly exaggerated but it does no harm to make sure that you are subscribed to your favourite folks’ newsletters, just in case something drastic were to happen.
I know there are a few alternatives to Twitter popping up - Mastodon and Hive being the two that I have come across - and created accounts there. But honestly, the thought of starting again from scratch on another social media platform is more than I can bear right now. I want to spend less time on social media in 2023, not more.
How about you? Have you used one of the Twitter alts, and if so what do you think of it? Do drop me a comment and let me know.
And if you’d like to make sure you stay abreast of what I’m up to please do subscribe to my weekly email. I try to share snippets from the online world that have caught my eye, what’s on my needles and general random thoughts that I might not get around to sharing anywhere else.
