Ever since my layoff, I have been spending a lot of time on LinkedIn. In the past, I had really ignored this social media outlet, instead spending my time doomscrolling on Twitter or swiping through photos of family and friends on Facebook. I joined TikTok because my daughter is there, and I thought, well, I should join it to keep an eye on her (which quickly became harder to do as TikTok began pushing TikTok Now, where you can only see those posts if you post yourself, forcing you to create content for the platform). A huge bummer for me since I’m more of a lurker than a creator on TikTok. Here are a few of my thoughts on the different social media outlets.
LinkedIn (Merlina McGovern): I had avoided this site for a long time. It reminded me too much of work, and I really hated the UI -- it was ugly and cluttered. After my layoff though, it was hugely comforting and helpful. I hadn’t realized how many amazing professional connections I had made through the years, and it was such a wonderful thing to get so many notes of encouragement and kindness. I’ll definitely be using it a lot more in the future.
Facebook (Merlina McGovern): I’m old, so I use it. I don’t follow a ton of news pages or celebrities. I keep my follows to friends and family. I love seeing photos from family and friends in far-flung places like the Philippines, and I feel like these are folks it would have been hard to stay connected with without Facebook. I also love posting my art and thoughts there, and I get a ton of engagement -- both likes and helpful thoughts and comments. I tend to mute posts and folks that post disinformation, so my feed isn’t too crazy.
Twitter (@merlinanatalia): I’ve got a bit more than a hundred followers, and I follow about 600 people. I follow news reporters, authors, video game developers, copy editors, and artists. It was the place that I turned to to get news on a variety of topics. I don’t get a ton of engagement on my posts, but I do get to interact with people that I would never normally interact with (like game developers and artists). Lately, though my feed has been so full of outrage and folks upset about Twitter. It’s buggy, and I just don’t get much out of scrolling through it. My time there has really gone down.
Mastadon (@merlinanatalia@mastodon.art): Yup, I joined the influx of folks leaving Twitter. I joined the .art server and so far I really enjoy it. I wish more news organizations would join it, but maybe I shouldn’t wish for more anxiety/anger-inducing content to follow. For now, I’m following some news junkies but I’m mostly following art accounts. It’s lovely to have a feed that is full of amazing works of art.
TikTok (Private): I tried posting a few art TikToks, but it sure is a ton of work to video my painting process and then edit the video. I would spend a few hours doing this for a short 1 minute TikTok. Creating these was just too much work. On the other hand, consuming TikToks is insanely addicting. My algorithm is all art and food and movies and books.
Wow. I realized that I’m on so many social media sites. I tried Instagram, but it’s really not for me. And that’s probably a good thing. I should probably go on a social media diet, but I think at this point I’m too far sucked in to step away.
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