Is social media working for you, or are you a slave to the algorithms? Here’s the way to make the most of the time you spend at the world’s great online gathering places.
Two hours a day, give or take a minute or two. That’s how long Kiwis spend on social media on average each day. We continue to be big social media users, with about 80% or 4.2 million of us regularly logging onto social media platforms.
According to consumer research firm GWI, we frequent Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Apple iMessage, and Reddit more than the rest of the world, excluding China. We’ve relatively less time for X (formerly Twitter) and WhatsApp, Meta’s lime-green-themed messaging app.
By now, we are well acquainted with the ills of social media. We know that it is us who are the real product on sale, our data collected and mined for insights to serve targeted adverts at us, and our newsfeed adjusted by algorithms to keep us clicking, liking, and sharing.
The 2020 Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma laid out in stark terms how a group of smart attention hackers in Silicon Valley invented social media as we know it and, in the process, gained control over the way billions of us think, act, and live our lives.
But we reacted with a collective shrug of the shoulders and logged back on for more screen time. The pandemic saw social media platforms weaponised as never before as it became a minefield of misinformation and polarising rants.
But when Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg was urged at a Senate judiciary committee hearing in Washington DC last month to apologise to parents whose children had committed suicide after being harassed and abused on Facebook or Instagram, he rose to his feet knowing exactly how to go through the motions. He’d been there before.
“I’m sorry for everything you’ve all gone through,” he told the parents, in his slightly robotic manner. “It’s terrible. No one should have to go through the things that your families have suffered.”
Job done, another grilling endured, back to the business of keeping three billion users glued to his platforms for as long as possible. A federal lawsuit accuses Meta of creating “psychologically manipulative” features to keep kids addicted. But it could take years to play out. Nothing ever really changes at Meta HQ.
I guess all that data has told Zuckerberg everything he needs to know -- that the utility of his platforms still trumps the toxicity, the erosion of privacy, the “scammy” messages designed to hijack your identity.
Still, many of us are using social media differently these days. We are posting less, lurking more as content consumers rather than producers. My smartphone’s operating system tells me I’m a bigger social media user than the average Kiwi. I spent 56 minutes on the Facebook Messenger app yesterday, chatting to friends, and a further 16 minutes on LinkedIn browsing status updates from contacts in the public sector who have been updating their resumes as they face the bureaucrat apocalypse.
Here are the five social media platforms I use the most these days, and the value they offer when everything is taken into consideration.
YouTube
Is YouTube even a social network? Yes, it is. Millions of people share video content with their “followers” (subscribers) and have built sizable communities in the process. I pay a monthly fee to have the adverts stripped from YouTube, otherwise it would be unbearable to use.
What I get is an incredible education and entertainment platform where I watch video podcasts, documentaries, music clips, cooking videos, and hilarious compilations of “fail” videos. TikTok does short-form videos better than the “Shorts” YouTube offers, but for me, it’s all about longer videos that offer insights, or simple how-to guides. This is where I spend most of my time online, other than on email and general web browsing.
Kiwis are big users of Reddit, which became a listed company last week when it debuted on the New York Stock Exchange. Reddit is the home of threads on just about any issue under the sun. It teeters from slightly inappropriate, free-wheeling discussion to tightly controlled discussion, depending on who are the administrators of the particular thread you are posting and commenting in.
The well-curated threads are a goldmine of information. Reddit will break news before the mainstream media gets out of bed. Yes, it’s rife with mis-and dis-information, and you need to keep your wits about you as conversations can quickly turn nasty. But as a place to go deep on your topics of interest, or just to keep up with what’s going on in your town, it’s hard to beat.
Facebook Messenger
The Facebook user base is ageing, with boomers staying on the platform while millennials and Gen Z have departed for the new wave of social platforms and messaging apps, Snapchat, TikTok, Discord, Twitch, and Telegram among them.
But everyone is still on Facebook, which is why Facebook Messenger comes into its own as the most useful of the free messaging apps. I have a regular collection of friends and family groups set up on Messenger, which allows easy communication with people scattered all over the world.
It’s not the most secure, nor the most feature-rich messaging app. But its wide reach means you are likely to get the greatest critical mass of social media connections here. I’d recommend only using Facebook Messenger on your smartphone, deleting the Facebook app, where most of the data mining happens, and just using it via your web browser once or twice a day.
Yes, it groans under the weight of the self-promoting, virtue-signalling corporate dross posted there every day, but LinkedIn is the only social network I’ve ever made money from. It has led to job offers, new business contacts, invites to conferences, and opportunities to upskill with free webinars and courses. It’s the most aggressive of the social networks at trying to convert you to a paying subscriber and annoyingly spams you with sponsored messages.
But let’s face it, LinkedIn is the default digital resume for hundreds of millions of people. At some point, you’ll need to flesh out a presence there if you want to be taken seriously in the professional world.
Signal
Everyone needs a safe space for more sensitive conversations in the digital world, and Signal is the place for them. It’s used by journalists to make secure contact with sources, and by dissidents trying to avoid the surveillance of hostile governments.
That’s because Signal offers end-to-end encryption, so all of the messages it hosts are scrambled and can only be read by parties to the conversation. Even Signal can’t find out what you are discussing in its app. That’s not particularly unusual anymore, but Signal is an open-source project, offering a level of transparency into its workings that other messaging apps don’t. It’s fairly bare bones but is solidly reliable and easy to use.
Five tips for making your time on social media productive
Curate your feed carefully
Follow accounts that bring you joy and unfollow or mute those that contribute to negativity in your life. This includes not only personal contacts but also public figures, brands, and influencers whose content doesn’t align with your interests or values. Actively seek out content that inspires, educates, or entertains you.
Life is too short to put up with trolls, bullies, and annoying self-promoters. Unfollow, block if necessary. Spend time accumulating the best collection of people and channels to follow and actively adjust it to get the right mix of content for you.
Limit your screen time
Actually take notice of the amount of time you spend on social media. Use built-in tools or third-party apps on your smartphone to set daily limits for your social media use if need be. This can help prevent the negative effects of excessive screen time, such as disrupted sleep or the doom scrolling that will leave you in a pit of social media-fuelled despair.
Turn off notifications
To reduce distractions and the urge to constantly check social media, disable non-essential notifications. This can help you regain control over your time and attention, making your social media use more intentional.
Engage actively and positively
Instead of passively scrolling, make an effort to engage with content in a meaningful way. Leave positive comments, share uplifting stories, and contribute to discussions. This active participation can enhance your sense of community and connection. A positive, supportive Reddit thread or Facebook Group can literally save lives.
Stay safe, limit data disclosure
Be cautious about the personal information you share on social media. Adjust your privacy settings to control who can see your posts and personal details. Be wary of suspicious links or requests for information to protect yourself from scams and cyber threats.
