The shine’s definitely worn off

This year’s #blogjune has been a bit different, in that there hasn’t felt like there’s been one place where I could reach my network. It’s like it’s all imploded. Twitter no longer exists – I don’t post on X, haven’t been there in months. I’ve soft quit Instagram because the ads were making it really tedious to use. I’ve never been a big Facebook user and only maintained my account there for one of my hobbies. I never got into TikTok.

I’ve been so fed up with the algorithms I don’t want to give any energy or attention to new platforms like Threads or Bluesky. Fed up with the enshittification. I never thought I would get to the point where I actually feel like I loathe social media.

The only place where I post at all now is Mastodon. I’m on Hugh’s ausglam.space. It’s refreshing because there’s no ads, no algorithms, and I’ve just rebuilt a small network there so I get a bit of news, tech happenings, social stuff, and I can chat with a few friends who’ve gone there too. I sometimes miss everyone else who hasn’t moved, but I just don’t want to be in those spaces these days.

There’s this blog too. According to WordPress, twenty people subscribe to this blog. So a network here too, even if I don’t know who they all are. (I assume there is some overlap between my friends and fellow #blogjune participants and this small group of subscribers.)

Kathryn posted the other day about building an online community, where people could stay connected: “the idea of the first hour of the next summer school feeling like people who know each other finally catching up in person – rather than a room of strangers.” We used to have that, didn’t we? Back before we had social media and it was social networking? But I should stop the nostalgia. You can’t go home again.