I've been wanting to write about this for a bit, and I finally found a bit of time to do it. 2023 was finally the year I left Twitter. I had started planning my exit the previous year back at the start of 2022 when Elon Musk announced his intention to buy Twitter. So finally in 2023, I locked down the account to private status, downloaded the data file, and that was that. Right away, I can say that the worst that happened for me was a loss of reach, especially for my blogs. I have not done any deep analysis, but I can tell I have lost some visibility. Still, keeping that outreach was not worth staying on Twitter.
When I started planning my Twitter exit, I signed on to Mastodon. I briefly tried T2, which later became Pebble, which then went bust. More recently, I got an invite to Bluesky, so I am there tentatively.
In addition, I also pretty much had left Facebook. I left the account locked as much as possible. I still have to log in for work as my library insists on using it, and a lot of the college's students dwell on Facebook. We do get some return on that outreach, but not great. Aside from that, I have family there that won't move elsewhere, so if I want to stay in touch, see photos of the nieces and nephews, I reluctantly check in once in a while. I keep the exposure as low as possible.
So what is left?
Mastodon is now my primary social media presence. It has a bit of a learning curve, but it is not the complicated mess that certain detractors and journalists claim it to be. If you were able to use Twitter, you can use Mastodon. A big challenge can be choosing your initial instance (server), but you can always move to a different server. So far, I am happy with my current instance, and I foresee staying there long term for now. Keep in mind there is no algorithm, so you do have to put some work choosing who to follow and curating your feed. It is worth the effort. Additionally, Mastodon has better feature than Twitter and Bluesky including longer text limits, ability to edit posts any time, and robust filtering options.
Bluesky I got in when a friend sent me an invite code. By the way, I have some invite codes as of this post, so if interested you can drop me a line or comment. As my friend described it at the time, it is a nice neighborhood that will soon get gentrified. So far it has worked OK for me. I stay skeptical given its association to Jack Dorsey, the previous Twitter guy. Do note Bluesky is still closed and invite-only to get in, so I am also leery of what will happen when they do open it fully. In the meantime, it is OK for me. It lacks a lot of basic feature such as DM's (direct messaging), filters, and the ability to edit posts. Also text limits are short when compared to Mastodon. One good thing is it has attracted some famous writers like Neil Gaiman, John Scalzi, and Brian Keene. It also lacks functional hashtags, which is a big failure on their part. I am staying for now, but I could easily leave it if need be.
I recently implemented a YouTube channel where I do a bit on books and reading and a bit on cartomancy. It is not a major endeavor, but I still am learning how to use it.
I do have one or two other accounts, but I do not use them such as Instagram, which is owned by Meta, which also owns Facebook. I may open a new account here or there to park the username, but I am no rush to do that.
As you can see, I am still blogging, so folks can always find me through my blogs. If anything, leaving Twitter and reducing my social media overall has made me a bit more mindful of what I use and consume. By the way, you can find my personal links on the right side column of this blog.
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