I’ve barely posted this year. It wasn’t deliberate. I just often feel like I don’t have a lot to say that people are interested in hearing. I’m sure everyone feels like that at times, or even all of the time. It’s not true. Everyone has something valuable to say.

I’ve been watching the collapse of Twitter, which is to the joy of some people and the sadness of others. I’m a mixed bag. I formed a Twitter account back in 2009, and used it as a fun place to chat and share news until about 2018, when it started turning into a real time suck for me. It gradually got overrun with negativity and anger – you couldn’t escape Donald Trump’s rambling nonsense and the people retweeting it, either to fawn and declare war on the “libs”, or to reply with a smug comment about just how wrong and dumb Trump was. (Important note, people: when you amplify horrible things by retweeting them, you promote those views. I’ve had to learn this lesson a dozen times, and I still don’t always get it. I try to make an effort now to amplify positive things and people I agree with, people who are achieving things. But the temptation to get mad at something shitty for likes is pretty strong. )

I was scrolling too much and I hated it, so I deleted my account completely. Then my username was promptly grabbed by an anti-trans dickhead who tweeted some yuck stuff before they got banned. So now my old username looks like I got booted for being awful. But whatever, I wasn’t exactly a high-interest person so no one really noticed too much when I left. And honestly, it was super freeing.

I came back to Twitter in 2022 and just lurked. I didn’t tweet as much, and just followed people I thought were cool. One of my besties got banned for complaining about men, which sucked because she was one of my main reasons for going on the damn site. It never really felt like a friendly spot anymore though, because my tweets vanished into the ether, with the algorithm deciding that as a new account, my tweets weren’t something my followers wanted to see.

So while I won’t miss Twitter, it will be a loss. It’s been a great site for activists and protesters. I follow people who depend on Twitter to advertise their art, who need their circle of friends on there because they’re isolated in real life, who have years and years of friendships and interesting things they’ve said. I feel for them because losing your community sucks, and there’s no real replacement online.

Mastodon seems okay, but I don’t know many people there. Hopefully it’ll grow. Facebook’s dead, which is annoying because I have events I need to promote (HI, COME TO THE SUMMER SHAKESPEARE 2023 PLEASE!), and because I liked the fun conversations I used to have before the algorithm prioritised memes and angry responses to news articles. Snapchat was great until it sold a few years back and just became hot garbage. Instagram is slowly going the same way, although it’s not too bad yet. I’m way too old for Tiktok.

What’s a mid-thirties girl to do?

I, like most people, want an online spot where you can talk to your friends, see what they’ve been up to, see fun pictures, and share events to the wider public. I want a community. But social networks don’t seem to be about that, which is super ironic. It sucks, because my friends are busy with their families and their jobs and everything else important. I like seeing the little bits of their lives that social media offers. It’s not high school anymore, so I don’t get to see them in person as much as I’d like, especially not with a toddler.

It’ll be interesting to see where it’s all at in 5 years. Maybe we’ll all give up and end up on Zuckerberg’s garbage metaverse. Maybe there’ll be something totally new. Maybe we’ll all be back on blogs like this. Hey, maybe Tom will bring MySpace back.