The Verge's favorite social networks

Social media has become more disconnected, to say the least. Two years ago, Elon Musk began transforming twitter into what is now x, and the resulting chaos drove many former users elsewhere; elsewhere, including Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon and even facebook or instagram.

We were curious where our staff members were going for their social media fix these days, or if they'd given up entirely. These are some of their responses.

I mainly use microblogging social networks and jump between many of them because 1) I need it for my work and 2) because none of them have become the central place that twitter used to be.

x is horrible now, but I need to use it to keep up with Elon Musk and the various companies that still publish news on the platform first. (Nintendo, consider moving to another platform!) Threads has a lot of people who migrated from x, but I don't like how much the service pushes the “For You” feed. Bluesky is my favorite microblogging app to use, but there aren't enough people I care about who post there regularly.

If I had to choose just one, it would be Bluesky. But I don't think any platform is going to be the one-stop shop that twitter once was, so for the foreseeable future I'll continue to dabble in all of them.

The best social network, hands down, is the trip reporting section of the Washington Trails Association app. I'm not kidding. He WTA App and Website They are great at helping you find hikes around the state and there is almost always a recent trip report for the hike you are considering. This is how you find out critical information, like whether the bathrooms are disgusting and whether the mosquitoes are really bad on the trail. News I can use! Also, people post pictures with their reports so you can see pictures of beautiful mountains and sometimes dogs. No one is mean to anyone else and you literally have to go out and hit the grass before you post. Is there a better framework for a social network? No.

I'm in shape too many social networks right now because I haven't found a favorite yet. I'm still on facebook. (Sorry, but a lot of my friends and family are there, and that's what I use to stay in touch.) I tend to use Threads more often than Bluesky or Mastodon because I've gotten into that habit, although I have a lot of friends and fellow writers on Bluesky and I should go there more often. And I really need to avoid the black hole that is TikTok: I have too many things on my to-do list to spend that much time watching short videos of cute cats and angry activists.

I really miss what twitter used to be; I was an extremely avid tweeter. But I also really missed what LiveJournal used to be and, before that, what AOL used to be. So here we are.

I've never been on instagram, so Threads was a non-starter, but I landed quite happily on Bluesky, and all the social interaction I'm willing to do in public is there. But honestly, it's still too complicated to have strong opinions (especially about something like a video game, haha) where everyone can read them, so most of my time on social media is dedicated to a small handful of strictly personal Discord spaces. . They are friends and family style servers; none has more than a hundred members and the smallest barely five.

Do I miss the era of open social networks on the Internet? A lot. But I also really like not getting death threats for talking about nerdy media, so Discord is it.

I'm with Barbara. I often use facebook. After a very long period of trying to stay off social media, it has become an invaluable resource for me since moving to a new state. I joined local groups so I could stay up to date on what's going on in the city and even meet new people (which would otherwise be a challenge while working from home). There are also a few facebook pages that have become my go-to sources for local weather updates, helping me navigate this year's tumultuous hurricane season.

Other than that, I still use x to get real-time updates on breaking news, but I'm also trying to incorporate Threads and Bluesky into my routine.

twitter (RIP) was my only professional social network for a long time, and after a stint at Mastodon, I've decided on Bluesky for now. I love the fact that we have multiple microblogging platforms and I'm happy for everyone having a good time on Mastodon, but a lot of my old twitter favorites decided on Bluesky and it feels low risk and low pressure. a way Mastodon didn't do it for me.

I'd also like to put in a good word for Tumblr, which, yes, still exists and has an exceptionally strange, cohesive, and largely indifferent user base to influence and monetization. Its feature set has somehow coalesced into the perfect system for collaborative cultural creation and lightly absurd microfiction. You're not going to get things like Goncharov, Second century warlordor the Destiel News Delivery System anywhere else.

As my colleagues have said more eloquently, I miss twitter. I still use andusable, and I have yet to find a viable alternative. Threads has too little news and is too valuable (those serious “Threads” are unbearable), Mastodon is too boring and I just haven't found my community on Bluesky. I enjoy a good Discord, which is where many of my smart home tribes have migrated to and is where I'll probably spend the most time on work-related social media.

But if I'm honest, I think I'm done with social media from a personal perspective. I've been an avid user for almost two decades, since the early days of facebook, mainly to keep in touch with friends and family after moving to the other side of the world. But as its value in my work decreases and fewer social networks retain that social feel, it's time to move on. My digital social networks are now mainly iMessage and WhatsApp chat groups, and that's fine with me.

I stayed away from social media almost completely after the death of twitter, but I'm back on Threads for one reason and one reason only. I want to share videos of the coolest toys and gadgets with you, and Meta/facebook/instagram's Threads is the only platform that allows me to create an endless stream of those sweets Edge videos by simply embedding them. Plus, they play natively in a browser window with no login required. If Meta ever changes those things (or blows up Threads with ads), I'll probably have to find a new home.

I have also dabbled with Mastodon (both alone and by federating my Threads account), and technically I haven't deleted my x account yet since I saved it for DMs… but it's been a while since I've gotten a message there. Maybe it's time.