I’ve never used social media*, so I’ve never been affected in any way by the problems Facebook, Xitter, etc. Am I missing something?
I remember PZ trying to choose between Mastodon and BlueSky, and Mike the Mad Biologist recently mentioned a couple of things that he likes about BlueSky. Should I try out one of those? What will I be able to do that I can’t do now?
*OK, I guess blogs are a kind of social media; but aside from that…
I did create a LinkedIn account near its beginning, but I wound up never using it for anything.
It’s still a tossup for me. Mastodon is nerdier, Blue Sky is easier to use (which may mean it’s going to host more raving asshats eventually), and it does have a specific science domain.
Based on the things I hear from people who used social media such as FB, Instagram, and Twitter/X a lot…you’re not missing anything. A lot of ginned-up drama for the attention, and a lot of people posturing to make themselves look better than they are. Also, people letting their thoughts free that should have stayed inside their own heads. I know of several Mass Unfriending Events on Facebook from acquaintances whose families and friends took offense to whatever stupid thing one family member said.
Hmm, I’ve never had facebook/whatsapp/instagram/tiktok accounts. And I’ve set up my home network so that their domain names don’t even resolve, to curb their boundless tracking.
At $WORK we use teams a lot. Virtual meetings are a blessing because it saves so much travel time. OTOH, the threshold for organizing meetings is also lower. So it’s a mixed bag.
The popups from Teams Chat are bloody annoying but people get cranky when I switch them off.
There is also a whatsapp group. From what I’ve seen of it it seems mostly a waste of time.
Like a lot of things I think it depends on how you use them. I rather like bluesky, I use it to keep track of various authors, and to have science stuff and interesting pictures pop up without me having to so the work. On blueskiy you only get the people you follow in your feed, so what you see very much depends on your choices, and if you aren’t liking someone’s comments you can always unfollow them.