It's been 3 months since I last used the Hive platform. The lack of platform use is simple... Time.
Here's the problem I had. I got into the unnerving habit of Doom Scrolling. This was thanks to the algorithms set on social media platforms. I'd go to check out my friend's posts then something would come along that would interest me. Then things got out of control.
I needed to take stock of the way I used social media and why I used social media. Here's the criteria I needed to get things back on track:
- Connect to my real life friends
- Low algorithm use
- Be vigilant in what I follow and click on
- Community interactions
- Allow for many blogs
So here's how it went down.
I have no real life friends on Hive. That's not a deal breaker as I can still use Hive for any long form posts that I want to write, then link to them. The problem here though is the need to move between platforms.
Hive also doesn't have any system in place to allow for many blogs. Everything would have to come under different hashtags or different communities. It would be nice to have the ability to have 3 separate blogs for each of the types of posts I make.
So I decided to check out the new Threads platform that Meta released. I used it solid for about a month then it sort of fell out of favour with me. The thing with Threads is that it's more or less 2007 Facebook. It's got 500 characters, no edit button, and no hashtags. Even going back to it 2 months on, nothing's changed.
So I ended up using Facebook more and more. I don't mind Facebook but once again only a handful of my friends are active on it.
Most of my friends are on Instagram. Getting them to change to a different platform is almost impossible.
In the three months I've been off Hive, I've come to one conclusion. There is no way I can replace everything I use with a singular platform. As much as I want a single platform to spend my time on I have to continue to use different platforms. I can stop using two though.
Twitter/X is out. Anyone wanting me to post to that platform is barking up the wrong tree. There has never been a platform that I've used the least than Twitter. Musk is doing the platform no favours at all. In fact, he seems to be hurrying its demise so "Thanks mate".
Threads is also out. Why use Threads when Facebook has far more utility and power? Why use something that I thought we had moved on from around 2010? I guess it's true, there is nothing new under the sun. Companies are rehashing old stuff on us and making it out as it's the latest and greatest thing.
But I will limit myself to the following:
- Ecency
- YouTube
In fact I'm close to leaving Facebook behind. I use it most for Marketplace. But Meta seems to be making some changes. I suspect these changes will make Marketplace less useful here in New Zealand.
I need YouTube though. For one, it has more of the videos I'm interested in. For another I can't get 3Speak to link to my Hive account and D.Tube, well I've had many issues with that. Currently there's nothing on Hive I can use to replace YouTube.
I have to keep Instagram as well because all my real life friends are there. I will unsubscribe to a few accounts I currently follow. Instagram isn't as useful as it once was.
So that's been my last three months. On a whole it did make me realise what platforms I CAN ditch and which ones I can't. For certain, Ecency/Hive is one of those. Who knows, it might be possible to ditch Instagram and YouTube in the future with nothing but Ecency/Hive.