Bloganuary writing prompt

In what ways do you communicate online?

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The short answer: Instagram, WhatsApp (if that counts?) and various other sites from time to time.

The long(er) answer: Before social media became what it is today, I went through a questionable period on Twitter. I was constantly updating my followers on every mundane thought in my head, and it seems like I got it out of my system back then. Over the past five years or so, I have cut down social media usage drastically. I have an account across most platforms (except for TikTok), but I don’t use Facebook. I am rarely on Twitter. BlueSky is pretty empty so far, and I have set an hour limit for Instagram. Snapchat is one of those apps that I still don’t ‘get’ – a lot going on there!

I’ll be honest – it all makes me very anxious now. If anyone needs an early case study for the impact of social media, I’m your girl! I will take not knowing about memes over spending too much time on social media any day. The obsessive checking of your pages, the constant refreshing, being desperate for likes – it’s a dangerous mix. I like that devices are coming with timers and ways for people to see how much time they’re spending on various apps.

I have found that the best way to communicate online is through old-school methods like blogging and email. It can take longer to compose an email or write a blog post, but the process of reviewing the words is helpful for me. The way I feel after spending an hour on an email beats the brain fog I get after watching Instagram videos for an hour. There is also an app called Slowly that lets you write to penpals across the world which I enjoy using.