On social media fatigue

After many years of using various forms of social media (and never once achieving "viral" status on any content), the "dissociation" (pardon the pun) from the "social" part of social media has gained momentum. The need to make sense of all the chaos has led to a need to focus on issues rather than interacting with people online. This means that the world's largest popularity contest will become a mere filing cabinet:

Social media for information gathering

Social "networking" apps will now function to gather and organize information, rather than for the distraction of making new "friends". The drive, or pull, to "talk" to certain "online friends" still exists but the tally of such friends should remain a small (enough) number.

The management of bookmarks

These apps have not changed much in terms of their inner workings: tallies of "upvotes" (likes, plus-ones, reactions, "updoots" ... what have you) and "subscribers" (followers, friends ... you get the picture) still prevail. However, I one should find more value in features such as "bookmarks" (or playlists, galleries, etc.)

The comeback of blogging

The final destination for all this "information gathering" remains unclear. Perhaps it stems from the need to organize sets of knowledge or even "bits of stimuli" into some sort of coherent, holistic system. The old personal blog might also come back into fashion. Especially with a well-designed or custom-made platform, one can build without even the sky as the limit.

Bookmark management and blogging have become more important than making more friends. In fact, it might just help with the quality of existing friends.

Following topics over following people

In the 2010's, we probably all used to follow people (or more accurately, accounts by people). Nowadays, the tendency has shifted towards following topics. The internet has now become a banal tool for information gathering. It simply serves the purpose of helping the "irl" (in real life, to use an old acronym).

No more following of "celebrities" or "big accounts" but simply following ideas! Insights over influencers!

Discarding some apps

Deleting apps don't necessarily mean they "suck". One just no longer has the mental bandwidth to scroll through more than six or seven apps every day. Also, to name-drop Metcalfe's Law (the idea that an app is more useful if more people use it), not much activity (that interests me) happens on many other apps with which we still have accounts: does anyone still use Facebook?

We all have to pick our battles (or more accurately, battlefields)!