Thread by @jonathanvoelkle

thinking about my personal "social media evolution" lately.

about 8ys ago I signed up for Facebook - would I do it again? Probably not.

At the time I was thirteen, I didn't asked my parents for permission, they only found out about a year later.

After I signed up, I talked about it with some friends. Turns out only one in my class was also there. In total about 10 from my school.

We mainly used it as a public message board. Most things either were memes (nobody back then knew that these were memes) or no so nice things about each other (the tone was something like a light version of 4chan)

I was the only one not on SchülerVZ (a popular social network for students in germany)
Facebook was much more cool, hip - the platform a young man from the new world started out of his dorm room.

other services came around, ask.fm, everyone was asking anonymous question; those with the most questions were the most popular in our class - it perfectly reflected the social status. the good looking got compliments, the others mean comments on their look.

Later the conversation moved into groups. which made everything worse. everyone thought they were private - but were they really?

games came along, the kids with the least friends spend more time in front of a computer -- but managed to ally in a common interest.

the smartphone era started - I was late to the party. sigh.

Not nice at all. Without a phone you lose touch with your classmates outside of school - no whatsapp. but facebook. which everyone left behind.

(after the whatsapp came along, nobody new signed up for facebook)

I spend more time on my computer. scrolling throught the internet. reading stuff. learning stuff.

most relevant "soft skills" I learned during this time. powerpoint was my shtick.

so back to whatsapp:
one chat for all. no threads. messages out of context. mostly noise. at max 1% relevant stuff. 0 emotions.

I'm (even today) not using a lot of emojis. others interpret this as rude. but for me it's just the message.

fights about messages started that way. misinterpretation. "subtweeting" - but in a chat.
ignoring.
blocking.

Your not writing any "small talk"? thats offensive!

I mostly left whatsapp for a while. which - in hindsight - saved me.

so - yes, group chats are back. but on telegram. and around a common interest and not around a cause.

different chapter: instagram.

there you have it - your social status in one single number - the people who follow you.
everyone can see it. peer pressure.

at first I did not sign up for snapchat. when i did, I left after a month.

I'm not a person for photos. My gallery today is mostly screenshots.

(Instagram might have started with the best intensions - but now is the worst thing that might have append to this entire generation)

those tweets before were going easy. But I need to find an end. A happy one? I don't think so. delete facebook? probably not.

Last time I opened Facebook, I had 59 new notifications. I glanced shortly a them, clicked "mark all as read" and closed the tab.

the network that had opened my view to a whole new world. I wasn't missing anything.