Online, but not like that.
Jun. 3rd, 2022 07:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rogueslayer452I sometimes wonder if I'm strange for not really getting into social media.
Aside from DW (and formerly LJ) and Tumblr, I don't use anything else. Sure, I'll browse other places for content and whatnot, but I don't have accounts anywhere else. Mostly because it's easier to maintain without having to constantly keep track of a dozen other places, but also I just never had any desire to sign up for anywhere else unless it appeals to me, which the majority of social media doesn't. I always felt like this was kind of the norm, that while people can be online not everyone uses social media, but it seems like people are expecting you to have a Twitter account or an Instagram or something along those lines, and when you say you don't they'll be confused. I'm online but for fun, not for networking, and I prefer the anonymity of that and no, I'm not comfortable sharing with some random strangers in real life what I use because it's none of their business and yet somehow they seem to think is.
Similarly, I prefer to have control of the things I consume in regards to media. I don't use Goodreads. I don't use Letterboxd. I still use an MP3 player instead of Spotify. I prefer buying physical copies of books/CDs/DVDs. I am not a Luddite, obviously, I just don't want to be beholden to an unreliable algorithm or things that will inevitably be taken away at any given moment.
This is kind of all over the place, but yeah.
Aside from DW (and formerly LJ) and Tumblr, I don't use anything else. Sure, I'll browse other places for content and whatnot, but I don't have accounts anywhere else. Mostly because it's easier to maintain without having to constantly keep track of a dozen other places, but also I just never had any desire to sign up for anywhere else unless it appeals to me, which the majority of social media doesn't. I always felt like this was kind of the norm, that while people can be online not everyone uses social media, but it seems like people are expecting you to have a Twitter account or an Instagram or something along those lines, and when you say you don't they'll be confused. I'm online but for fun, not for networking, and I prefer the anonymity of that and no, I'm not comfortable sharing with some random strangers in real life what I use because it's none of their business and yet somehow they seem to think is.
Similarly, I prefer to have control of the things I consume in regards to media. I don't use Goodreads. I don't use Letterboxd. I still use an MP3 player instead of Spotify. I prefer buying physical copies of books/CDs/DVDs. I am not a Luddite, obviously, I just don't want to be beholden to an unreliable algorithm or things that will inevitably be taken away at any given moment.
This is kind of all over the place, but yeah.
no subject
Date: 2022-06-04 06:31 pm (UTC)I do have a Facebook (it was under another name for years, a name from a book), and that is where I connect with my family and real-life friends. Just last year, found some cousins in Portugal! So we get to talk and I get to see pictures of Lisbon and Madeira and all, which is awesome, and which I'd never get to see otherwise.
And I do have a Twitter, 'cause I need to get news somewhere. So i follow NPR and Reuters and AP News and things like that, plus a bunch of space sites (NASA but also Hubble Space Telescope and such), and a bunch of 'pretty pictures from nature' accounts, because we all need gorgeous beach sunsets and amazing, snowy sunrise pictures from time to time. :D
I *do* comment on stuff on Twitter - it's where I'm uber-political - but I also highly curate my feed and block anybody that gets stupid or abusive or whatever.
But I can totally see why a lot of people would just...rather not. I limit myself to short (15 min) sessions on both platforms, because holy fuck.