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With more and more people ditching Twitter since Elon Musk took the reins a few weeks ago, today we thought we'd ask the readers a very timely question: Are you leaving social media this year? If so, which platforms are you saying goodbye to? If not, what's keeping you from leaving?
With Twitter “gutt[ing] teams devoted to combating election misinformation” right before the midterms [Washington Post] (plus, you know, being run by Elon Musk), Facebook insufficiently cracking down on COVID-19 misinformation [Gizmodo], serious privacy and security concerns surrounding TikTok [WIRED], and much more — not to mention posts from your conspiracy-theory-spreading relatives — it's easy to find many reasons to leave.
{related: what is social media inspiring you to buy?}
On the other hand, a lot of us — me included — are hesitating to jump ship. Here are my reasons as a person who's aware of the drawbacks of social media platforms but has stayed on so far:
I joined Facebook in 2008 so that I could manage the page of the nonprofit I worked for, and besides using it to keep up with friends and relatives, I belong to a lot of Facebook groups that I find really valuable. I've joined groups for women freelance writers, for moms/parents, for alumni of my college (multiple groups, in fact!), for my neighborhood, and more. I've gotten rid of tons of unwanted stuff in my local Buy Nothing group and have picked up a few cool things, as well. Most of these groups aren't actively planning to migrate to another platform, but some are leaving Facebook for Discord, for example.
I'm a big fan of Twitter for keeping up with breaking news, following editors who put out calls for freelance pitches, and making sure I expose myself to diverse voices and views (while avoiding the, uh, fascists). (As a great New York Times op-ed (from Twitter's pre-Musk era) points out, “groups including African Americans, survivors of gendered violence, and transgender women have used Twitter to build vibrant communities and to influence news and politics.” While people love to call Twitter a “cesspit,” you can't deny it's been essential to activism and education.
{related: how to take a partial social media break}
Besides watching an excessive number of cat videos, I use TikTok for finding DIY, cooking, and tech tips; health information (from actual professionals, don't worry!); and more. I know I should quit TikTok because of its privacy concerns, but I just … haven't. And because the algorithm quickly and accurately (and very creepily) learns what you like, I rarely see the stuff that people complain about when they criticize TikTok.
I'm a casual Instagram (owned by Meta, of course) user, and I use WhatsApp (also owned by Meta!) to keep in touch with my UK in-laws in between FaceTime calls. (A lot of countries use WhatsApp rather than texting because of SMS costs.)
{related: our recs for the best career & beauty TikTokers to follow}
Now that I've listed some factors that make people to hesitate to leave social media, we'd love to hear from readers who feel the same, and those who absolutely do not. Have you left one or more social media apps, or will you soon? Have you tried Mastodon, Discord (I recommend it!), Signal (end-to-end encrypted messaging), or others? What are your favorite and least favorite aspects of social media?
Stock photo via Stencil.
Anonymous
I left instagram a while ago, I do have FB but it’s only for pictures of my nieces and nephews, I never post or comment/interact. I never joined twitter and given its current state I don’t think I ever will. I’m 29 fwiw.
Anonymous
I’m still on everything but I’m downloading my archive on Twitter. I refuse to use the Facebook app (including Messenger), or to let TikTok or Instagram to connect to my real contacts.
anonZ
I won’t give up social media – I’m really only on FB (for groups / local suburban town stuff only), Instagram and kinda Twitter (content consumer, not producer). I live far from friends and family and it’s a connection point.
That said, I had this moment this weekend while mindlessly scrolling that I’m just DONE with it. I don’t know what changed within me but I had this moment of like “omg i’ve wasted so much time doing this” and it’s just like a drug. Scrolling begets more scrolling begets more scrolling. It’s not even the (horrible) discourse we’re seeing these days – just the theft of time. So I’ve started to unfollow all sorts of people. Some of them are people who evolved in to over-sponsored influencers vs being the more organic type content they once were. Others are celebs that used to fascinate me but I’m just sort of bored with it all. Trying to get in the habit of leaving my phone on a counter and walking away / not automatically stuffing it in my pocket so it’s on me 24/7, and then limiting the content consumption to people I actually know / care about.
anon
Preach. I get sucked in so easily, even though I know better. Going cold turkey for long periods has allowed me to take a breather when social media gets to be too much.
Anonymous
I don’t always use social media. But when I do, I prefer to do it in German.
anon
I deleted Facebook 4 years ago and my personal Instagram about 2 years ago (I manage one for a small family business). I have Twitter but stopped using it about a year ago and will probably delete it soon. To be honest, I do worry sometimes that this will make it harder for me to (for example) make friends with other moms at my son’s preschool, but ultimately it’s worth it to me to shift my focus from the virtual world to the real one. I was a serious power user of Twitter in particular for a long time and now when I poke back in there, I realize how distorted my view of the world had become from spending so much time in those spaces.
Anon
I haven’t gotten rid of anything (I’m on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) and don’t plan to.
I don’t ever post on Facebook (mostly use for a few groups I’m in) or Twitter (I have it to monitor my industry after my boss recommended that I get an account but also follow accounts for fun).
I post to Instagram on occasion and this is the main social media I also interact with friends on. And I love reels.
I’m not on TikTok and am vehemently against it for security reasons.
I lurk on Reddit quite a bit but don’t have an account, use Snapchat with a group of college friends and am on BeReal and Pinterest too.
I do try to limit my info that’s out there so I’m more cautious about joining new platforms. I care less about the platforms that I’m already on since they already have a lot of info on me.
I would like to spend less time on my phone but I feel that at least most of the apps and social media are somewhat educational (I follow disinformation specialists on Twitter as it’s work adjacent, I use Pinterest for recipes, I am on Reddit personal finance and hobby related subreddits).
LA Law
I have FB to see photographs of people’s kids and because it is the way my neighborhood communicates about community events. I myself post about twice a year to update my extended family (I have a really big family with lots of cousins). I generally check it once a week or so (I do not have the app on my phone). I do have Instagram on my phone because I have several accounts I monitor for work. I have never posted on it but I do follow some dog accounts in addition to the ones I follow for work because looking at photos of dogs makes me happy.
I used to spend quite a bit of time on Twitter. I followed the courts I appear in most often, along with a bunch of journalists (and more dogs). I live in California and it tends to be a great source of information about fires and earthquakes as long as you stick to official accounts. I use it to aggregate a bunch of different sources and I found it helpful as long as I stuck to the accounts I follow and did not go down the rabbit hole of “trending” and avoided following accounts of people who were just going to bolster my world view. However, in light of recent events I am working on either following the same people on Instagram or finding other ways to follow them because at the rate it is going I am not sure it will be alive and/or usable by Christmas.
LA Law
Oh and no Tik Tok. Our IT department was adamant that nothing work related live on the same device as their app.
anon
I’m happy to say I’m 5 years social media free and never going back. In the beginning, it was hard. I never realized how much I used it to pass the time. I also never realized how my Instagram algorithm really affected my self esteem. I got used to not hearing about deaths, births and other milestones but I realized the people I’m closest will text or call.
Anonymous
Same here, went off social media in 2017 and I am so much happier and have more time. Twitter was my one exception but I deleted it last week.
s in chicago
I’m on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. I post something every year or two on my regular FB feed, but I’m in a private group around my dog’s breed and am quite active there (posting or commenting weekly). I have made a number of IRL friends from it. And I absolutely love our once a year in-person gatherings a few states away from me. I’m not very active on Instagram. I have a former colleague who is an influencer and it’s sort of fun to see what she’s up to and I follow a few celebrities but that’s about it. With Twitter, I only really connect with those I share professional interests with. I also block or mute a ton. I sometimes enjoy lurking at comments with hashtags around TV programs I like. I’ll never do Tik Tok. Too many security issues associated and I’m frankly shocked it hasn’t been regulated better by now.
Wheels
I have Facebook and Twitter accounts but haven’t used Facebook in years or Twitter for about a year. I was a big user of Twitter and made great friends I keep in touch with, but I have their details to connect with them directly. No going back.
I deleted the Instagram app a few months ago because I was spending too much time on it and it was just for one of my art hobbies.
I do use Reddit as a source of local news and some entertainment.
Anon
I’m 37.
I joined Facebook in February 2004 pretty much the day it spread to a handful of schools beyond Harvard (I still remember getting an AIM message about how I should join “this new website a friend of a friend made”…the friend of the friend was Mark Z). I still have it but rarely post updates beyond an annual photo of my family. Won’t deactivate because almost all my friends are still on it and I enjoy seeing their updates.
I don’t have Instagram.
I had Twitter for professional visibility, but deactivated it when Elon bought Twitter. I never connected with non-work friends there.
I feel way too old for Snap, TikTok etc.