Social media are a hell of a poison

• Engagement metrics are the worst, so many people swear by it. I don’t blame anyone falling for those, the system is just really well engineered to trap as much people as possible. They’re made to trick us. Please don’t feel bad for falling for that.
• Commenting/Tweeting with meaningful intent is now underrated. Posting something below someone else’s post (or reaching out to them through another place if not applicable) is the best way to build relationships, have significant discussions, and learn new things along the way. If you want to make a difference in someone’s day, go reach out to them.
• Cohost is a great example of that. While some people still have some kind of popularity mindset, most of its users interact with each other and are having fun together. Its lack of metrics such as follows and likes is great, and the only visible metrics are comments.
  However, I still think discoverability is a big issue since new users have much less chance of actually getting interactions out of their thoughts. Using tags is the intended way to target specific people (à la Tumblr) but I’ve found that many people don’t even check those.
• Struggling to avoid social media is okay! Don’t feel bad for it. It’s often that people are exploring alternative (and healthier) ways to spend their time, but can’t help themselves and stop checking whatever is going on in the previous places. Again, those platforms are carefully engineered to maximize user retention, notably via famous dark patterns like “Infinite scrolling”.

Add to all of this the rest of the chaos like user privacy and other world news, and you get this big shitshow. It’s almost as if their actual social aspect of social media faded away. 🤷🏻‍♀️

There is an interesting take about artists I’ve read a while ago, and I think it expresses well why people should care about themselves, and about meaningful interactions:

Instead of making what they want, artists are encouraged to make what’s popular. What gets shares, what gets likes, what gets followers. That’s not a bad thing per se, but I don’t know if it’s always a healthy thing either. I think those numbers tend to drive creators a little crazy. When you post something that doesn’t get attention, it feels like you got a bad grade. When you post something that does get attention, it feels like you did something right for once. That shouldn’t be what art is about; art shouldn’t be something you can win or lose at. Art should encourage expression. — Chirasul Inky-Cap (18+ account)

Sometimes, you need to step away from social media. Please don’t hesitate to do so, and value your own health.
And even if you don’t succeed, attempting is already great. 🧡