Brian 
Facebook and Instagram are dying.
That’s my perception anyway. I’m no expert or insider, but I am a long time user like everyone else. And as an artist who’s tried for a decade to promote work on these platforms I’ve noticed a huge shift in the last few months.
Scrolling through Instagram, for example, I notice that my feed is now two posts by people I follow, then a “suggested follow” and a “sponsored” post. All the way down. My first impression was they must be in financial trouble. Maybe I’m right.
Facebook even seems to load slower than it used to. Everything has long since been “curated” by AI but now it seems like one big corporate log jam. What this means for you and me is it’s even harder to break through the noise. I personally spend less time looking through my feed on Instagram because most of it isn’t content I requested.
Facebook has long pulled the bait and switch on their “fan” pages by holding your followers hostage until you pay to “boost” your posts.
All of this is one more drop in the bucket as to why I’ve doubled down on posting first here on my own site. I highly recommend it.
9
Uploading to social media now is a scratch off, and you better pray you’re lucky.
Yep. It’s nonsense.
What alternate platforms are you using, if any?
Hey Brian, it’s great to hear other artists (and other Brians for that matter), discussing the slow death of social media. I’ve seen an uptick in many artists I follow doubling down as well on newsletters and their websites. I have done the same, and I find the experience much more enjoyable and rewarding overall. I completely control the messaging and format, and it gives me a lot more flexibility. What’s interesting about those with very large followings is they’re no longer saying “oh, I love what social media does for me…”. What they’re saying now is “I stick around because I have no other options…”. I totally get it, but it’s unfortunate. Love what you’re doing here — keep up the great work!
I’ve had a Facebook account since they first opened it to non-educational accounts. I decided a few years ago to take a break from it, since it was consuming so much time. The plan was to bail on it for a month or so, then go back and see what was what. Time to get some things done, y’know. After the month, I realized I didn’t miss it. So, outside of the occasional link to Facebook to enter a contest or something, I haven’t been back. And I still don’t miss it. Since I left, it has really become kind of insidious. The only social media I do now are YouTube (if you consider that social media) and Twitter, which I have a love/hate relationship with.
I’m checking in less and less. I’ve almost quit responding to comments on my posts there too.
Thanks, Brian! In one sense it’s good that I never got locked in with a huge following only to have the rug pulled out from under me.
Right now only Odysee as a YouTube backup. I’m still on Discord too. I was on Minds but the comments are kind of wacky there so I quit. I still post updates on Twitter but I spend practically no time on threads and replies there anymore.
I abandoned the two last January. I’m not an active video creator like you, but my writing has gone to my website, Substack, and Patreon (the latter two connected to my website). Substack is blog/email newsletter all in one.
Social media is a place you work hard to build a following and then the bait and switch happens. Better to build from your own property and link to other systems where your work is found, I think. Gab is a no (tried it, and left). Gettr is OK, but more political. I go on Rumble a lot. YouTube still, too, but I never really saw that as social media.
I’ve tried a lot of things in the past two decades of being online. It’s amazing how many times you have to reboot as platforms disappear or change. Always glad I had a website as “home base” that has kept the same domain name all those years.
I followed you on Discord but I had to factory reset my phone and no longer can find it.
Not to mention everything seems to be TikTok content copied over.
Yeah, that too.