after a year of being relatively offline, i suddenly started spending a ton of time on like ten different social media platforms again. why? i archived my whole tumblr and became nostalgic about social media, basically.
anyway i'm a bit overwhelmed by it all again and decided to do a sort of audit, by listing out all the platforms i've been using and discussing the pros and cons of each.
skip to: instagram | twitter | bluesky | substack | tumblr | reddit | niche stuff | my website | email newsletter??
i've had my personal instagram since i first got a smartphone in 2014. i don't post on it super regularly, but i like using it as an archive of cool things i've seen and done (e.g. i post a lot when i travel), as well as to stay in touch with friends. since i've had it for so long, it's the main platform i see people on from all the different eras of my life, which is interesting, but also, do i need to know what every random person i used to go to school with is doing in their lives?
i'm chronically curious so, yes, kind of.
but also...it's kind of exhausting to see almost everyone i went to high school with get married and building a successful career and buying their first homes...like what am i doing with my life...
i barely follow any celebrities or "influencers", but i do occasionally get stuck scrolling my feed and seeing a lot of that crap anyway. HOWEVER, i also see a lot of french reels which has really helped me with my french (especially informal/slang french). i ALSO use it to follow a lot of local venues, organisations, events etc and find it a really useful platform for staying informed of what's happening in my city and finding cool events to go to (and i really do go to a lot of them i swear).
ok, so i just remembered there's a "favourites" feed on instagram. maybe it would be useful for me to favourite accounts that are more "relevant" to my everyday life (e.g. actual friends and family i care about and local stuff) and start using that as my primary feed. i can still follow other random old acquaintances so i can look them up whenever i feel particularly curious, but they won't be all over my feed with their stupid perfect lives.
i had a pretty long streak of only using instagram to check stories and never scrolling either the "for you" or the reels feed and that also worked pretty well - i got updates from accounts that i actually cared about, without getting stuck in the infinite scroll. maybe i should go back to that habit.
ok, so my personal instagram is currently one of four accounts that i own. i recently started a new account focused on sharing my zines. i've been really into zines this past year or so, and i figured instagram could be a place to share them and potentially find a community and an audience. it's only been 2-3 weeks, but i'd say it's going pretty well - i've found over 100 cool zine/art accounts to follow, and i have almost 70 followers myself with usually about 15-20 likes per post. i've also made an actual friend! who lives in paris so we could realistically meet irl!
so i'll be honest, my main goal with this account is to grow an audience. i'd like to one day earn money with my art. instagram has always kind of intimidated me because it's sooo overcrowded but also zines are such a small niche that i thought maybe it could work. jury's still out but i'm feeling relatively optimistic?
the problem is that maybe i niched down too hard. i made a bunch of zines for a while and was really into it, but these past few days, i haven't really wanted to pick up a pen and paper. instead, i ended up posting a random ukulele cover (which only got 6 likes which i'm not surprised about because duh, nobody here followed me for ukulele covers).
so now i'm like...should i just make it a general creative account? will anybody follow an account that posts zines, random drawings and paintings, essays and short stories, website stuff AND ukulele covers? i haven't even gotten to the fiber arts of it all yet - do i merge my fiber arts account with this one??? what's the point of keeping it separate if i only post on that one a few times a year???
other downsides: reels are the real money-maker and i have a laggy old ass phone with not the best camera quality. editing videos on this thing is a miserable experience. i also will never post the kind of template stuff that is supposed to actually go viral. minus the laggy phone, i do have fun coming up with cool ways to present my art for social media, but i am NOT doing an instagram trend just to gain followers!!!
so. i think i will continue to do my thing on here and see if there's any more growth to be had. and i'll see if i get urges to post non-zine-related stuff often enough to warrant a rebrand.
so this one i've had for a few years now. i think i started it after one of my tiktoks went viral? it has 331 followers (and just 69 following) which is pretty good considering i rarely post these days since i got really bad carpal tunnel shortly after that one viral video and had to basically stop all arts and crafts for a year. i've been posting every few months when i have something new to show, but i really haven't been able to get as consistently into knitting again after that carpal tunnel episode (i mean, my wrists will probably never be the same - i still have to take breaks way more frequently than i used to).
it would be a shame to let go of an account with a relatively decent following, but also, my posts from the last couple of years have only been getting 15-30 likes so... maybe i don't need to hold onto this one?
i know i said i have four instagram accounts but the fourth one is the one i manage for my choir, so that's kind of an obligation (that i volunteered for). let's move on.
my twitter account is my oldest of all of these: i joined on may 2011. following: 258. followers: 541
i've always used twitter as a kind of personal micro-diary, and i've made a LOT of friends through the platform. however, i also found it addictive as shit. i made many attempts throughout my adult years to restrict my twitter use, but the first time i would say i really managed to quit twitter was august 2025, when shit went down in my personal life and i kind of just needed to get away from everything. and then i kind of returned more than a year later, in september 2026.
everyone knows twitter went downhill when it stopped being officially named twitter. when i returned, i decided to ban myself from using the "for you" tab and see if that would make the platform feel less toxic. it did, but also my feed is dead. i guess a lot of those 258 people have moved on (good for them). there are a few of my old mutuals who still regularly post and interact with my posts, which is cute, and i've also managed to make a couple of new active mutuals already.
recent post views vary between the 30s and the 300s. i'm not entirely sure what the algorithm picks out as a 300s post (one of them was me talking about a crush, one was a mirror selfie and a video of a collage/origami zine thing i made, one was just me venting about my life).
i am having fun venting and sharing random thoughts on here again. it somehow feels more freeing than a lot of the other platforms i've been using (maybe because it's so dead...). however, i'm not sure if it's an efficient place to share stuff i'm making and trying to share. the algorithm famously doesn't like external links to stuff like substack, and the old mutuals i have on there follow me for random funny updates about my life, not art projects and essays.
so basically i'm undecided but having enough fun for now to continue experimenting.
ok so before i crawled back to twitter i did give bluesky a chance and honestly, it kind of sucks. i'm finding it hard to find cool small accounts that i could actually have mutual interactions with, and the more established accounts seem pretty snobby. there's also a general snobbishness in the air on there - people thinking they're so much better than everyone else because they're on the "ethical" twitter (there is no ethical social media, come on). they have a weird hatred of substack, so i don't think i'll ever have much luck sharing my writing on there.
however, i did end up following a lot of writers and editors and have been kind of using it as a space to journal about my more professional life and writing pursuits. AND surprisingly i have actually gotten more substack clicks from there than on twitter.
followers: 70. following: 124. most of my posts have 0 likes or comments. i feel like most people just follow so many accounts that most of them rarely get interacted with? being a reply guy also did not work (i tried to be charming about it, ok). my feed is way more active than on twitter but as i mentioned, i've struggled to find small accounts to follow so my feed is mostly bigger accounts who i've found it is quite fruitless to try to interact with. i generally do not like filling my feeds with lots of big accounts. i think that just encourages weird unhealthy parasocial relationships and also i'm here to make connections! the account with 50k followers is highly unlikely to notice me enough to want to connect with me!
i don't think i should be putting a lot of time into this platform. i do like that i could connect my website to my account there though.
i started using substack last year to post long form personal essays. i hadn't really written for myself in a long time and was missing it. the "notes" feed was quite new when i joined, and i kind of scorned it for being just another twitter dupe, all social media platforms are becoming the same, etc. but then i started using it more, my algorithm got better and i realised there are a lot of cool and interesting and creative people posting on there, and i started posting notes myself.
i don't want to post notes on here as often as i might post on e.g. twitter, because i feel like then my substack stops being an essay platform and just becomes another microblogging platform with occasional longer stuff. but i do appreciate that their microblogging feed has NO character limit. i don't think there's even a limit to how many pictures you can add to your post (although there's no video option).
also, posting notes is unfortunately the main way to get "discovered" on that app. so i definitely have incentive to post there - i want people to see my notes and become interested in my longer form writing, too.
even though i hate that the email newsletter app has become a social media app (did i mention they do podcasts now too), it is kind of a really effective way to get your more thoughtful creative work out there and connect with other creatives. i've made some cool mutuals there who leave lovely comments on my longer stuff. people also really enjoy art on their notes feed, and one of my zines ended up getting over 300 likes once.
the algorithm is still definitely difficult to beat, though. as with twitter, i've started spending most of my time on the "following" tab rather than the "for you" tab, which has actually been really nice - i feel more connected to the actual people i'm following and am more likely to comment on their posts, too.
i guess substack is the main platform on this list that i wish i was posting on more because i want my actual writing to get out there, but i also feel more pressure to make my notes good (they are kind of the windowfront to my essays!). also i just wish i was posting more long-form stuff there aaghh
ok so obviously my whole social media renaissance began with tumblr, so yes, i did make a few posts on there and checked out my feed ("following", of course - i can't believe even tumblr has a "for you" feed now). it's been about a decade since i was truly active on that website, so most of my mutuals are long gone. i made an "is anybody still here" post and got three likes. i do still see people posting stuff, but it really doesn't seem like there are a lot of people engaging even with accounts i remember being really big once upon a time...
ok i just scrolled my feed and there clearly are still people on there because i see recent posts with 10k+ likes.
tumblr still feels very fandom-oriented and meme-oriented which i'm not that interested in anymore. also very digital art oriented which i don't do. idk what would i even have to contribute on there. i feel like i mostly like it for the format (you have your own customisable blog thing and you get to organise it with TAGS. i wish i could organise my posts like that on every social media site)
reddit is really useful for whenever i have a question or a problem and i want to read other people's advice on it, but it's also pretty cool in the way it's split into communities. i've been active on the subreddit for my city since i moved here, and when i was going through certain relationship crises in recent years i did a lot of lurking (and occasional venting/advice asking/advice giving) in subreddits related to attachment styles and AlAnon.
they also have communities for arts and crafts and writing and freelancing etc etc so it's a cool place to show off things you've made (i got over 300 likes on a zine i posted on r/zines! while on instagram it got like 20 lol), but most subreddits are pretty against self-promotion. which i get. in a way it's probably one of the last vestiges we have of pre-monetisation and pre-influencer internet and i appreciate it for that.
since becoming involved with the indie web, i've also discovered some indie social networking sites!
inprogress.works is one i've been posting on consistently for months now - the concept is that it's a place to share weekly progress of projects you're working on and like and comment on others'. you can only make one post per week (although you can edit and add onto it later), and it sends an email reminder every monday. you also can't see what other people have posted until you've made your weekly post. i've discovered some really cool projects and people on here!
if you're in any indieweb communities (like r/indieweb), you'll see a lot of "indie social media" platforms floating around which are basically just minimalist microblogging platforms. i happened to see a post promoting sofeed.cc at a point in time where i really needed to vent somewhere a certain person wouldn't see it, so now i'm signed up to it and check it a few times per day. there's like a dozen active members probably.
i really like the idea of these tiny social media platforms because they become a community of their own, even if it's random and there's not really any specific thing bringing us together other than "we happened to find this" (ok, you have to be kind of in the indieweb community to find them so i guess that's something we have in common). there's less people, so there's also less competing for attention - i could be the only one posting microfiction on sofeed.cc and that would make me the community bard, basically. i just think there are fun opportunities with places like this.
so where does my website fit into all of this?
i started my website during a period where i was really off social media - i had quit twitter, i was barely ever on instagram, my phone was perpetually on do not disturb. i wanted to eliminate distractions and focus on myself (i was going through a breakup lol) and my own creative projects and passions, as well as find new ways to actually enjoy using the internet again.
even though i was off social media (except, well, i was on the indieweb and related subreddits and discord channels...) i still wanted a place to share my thoughts and creations and life. i wanted an archive and a portfolio but i also wanted it to be alive. i wanted it to be a fun, personalised place off mainstream platforms and away from all their distractions and toxicity where i could show people whatever i wanted to show them.
although i'm not the most consistent with updating it (you have to admit it's a lot easier to post a tweet than open up VSCode and create a whole new thing from scratch every time you want to share a thought), it is a creation i'm really proud of and have invested a lot of time (and even some money!) into. i really hope to continue updating it, even if sporadically, for a long time. my dream would be to gain enough of an audience that i can just guide them to my website, they'll stay and follow my work (part of this idea is the email newsletter i talk about below), and i'll be able to quit mainstream social media! while still having people to show my stuff to and talk to! yay! i recently printed out some QR codes that i want to use to spread my website IRL too...
this is something i've been thinking about making for a while now. i joined substack with the idea that it would be my email newsletter platform, but obviously substack has kind of become something else. i've done monthly newsletters on there throughout 2026 to document my journey of "intentional celibacy", but i got bored of writing about that and also, because of how substack is now, i would rather use it as an essay platform than a blog/newsletter platform. however, i still really enjoy the format of a regular personal newsletter.
so my idea is to stop doing the monthly blog/newsletter style posts on my substack and reserve it for more thought-out and researched essays, and use a different platform for email newsletters that would basically just be monthly updates of stuff i've been doing. my main inspiration for having an email newsletter like this is actually the indie web - everytime i found a cool personal website and there was no way for me to subscribe to it and receive updates i was like "why aren't people doing email newsletters!!!". if i don't get a regular reminder that you exist on some sort of platform that i will definitely see and receive notifications from, i'm going to forget you exist. and i don't want to forget about all these cool websites!!
shout-out to one cool personal website keningzhu.com which does have an email newsletter, thanks to which i ended up finding out that she was in my city a few weeks ago and we met up and had a great time together!
so i want to start a newsletter, and i think it's gotta be website-based although i need to use a third-party service for the actual emailing part. currently i'm thinking i'll design the newsletters on my website, but then send out a simplified version through a service like buttondown or kit with a link to the website version? (the written content would be the same, the website version would just be more visually fun) the newsletter would include general life updates, website updates, any new essays/stories i've published, and probably some zines and art stuff as well (the highlights of what i'd post on my artsy instagram basically).
considering i'm writing this late on the 28th of september and i haven't even gotten started yet, maybe i'm aiming for an october release. or maybe i'll make a super simple september edition just so i don't skip a month (i did an august newsletter on my substack). we'll see. if anyone has any thoughts let me know.
also a step further i dream of would be to actually mail this to people physically. aaahh. i yearn for a post-screen life
what is the conclusion of all this rambling?
social media projects that i feel passionate about continuing/starting: this website, a newsletter
social media projects that i think are fun: the small niche stuff
social media projects that seem useful and also fun enough to continue: instagram and substack but with more intentionality?
social media projects that are probably wasting my time if i'm completely honest with myself: twitter, bluesky, tumblr
reddit is... something else. anyway i think i will keep playing around with these and thinking about it and do a second audit before the year ends. and hopefully by then i'll have set up a newsletter too!
