Social media is growing every day. The competition between platforms gets hotter by the day, with many of them making improvements compelling enough to pull you in and keep you active on them. Everyone will always have their favourites, and here are mine, based on usage, relevance, and features.
Discord
For a long time, I couldn't get the hang of Discord when I first signed up. It was unlike other social media platforms that I was used to. It just seemed overly complex and a place for weird activities. I just didn't see it as a place that I would go on to love, be fascinated by, and spend a lot of my time in.
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Unlike others where you have group chats, you have servers that are dedicated to specific communities or topics. What's interesting about them is that you can have customisable channels on one server, where each of them can be for specific purposes or types of discussions, allowing one to create organised environments.
Roles, permissions, and profiles are another thing to love about Discord. You can build a server with absolute control and flexibility. That helps to keep things streamlined and allows for efficient moderation and personalisation.
Bots and integrations are probably the most fascinating things about Discord. You can have or find bots built for specific functions and set them up on a server to do many things. There are bots for moderation, entertainment, tools and utilities for specific functions, or even social media monitoring.
Accessibility is something to like about it, too. I can log in to as many devices as I want at a time on Discord and find everything synchronised in real time. And, also, you even get to explore themes much more with Nitro.
I have been using WhatsApp for almost as long as it has been around. It has drastically evolved over the years, and the difference between the latest and earliest versions is massive.
It is very convenient and intuitive. Unlike Discord, you can get the hang of it quickly enough and learn how to interact easily. Before Discord, I used to have most of my social interactions on WhatsApp. And because it is the most popularly used platform, I can easily reach people on it.
Thankfully, Meta owns it now, and we see a lot of improvements and interconnections between it and other Meta-owned apps for connected experiences.
However, I think that WhatsApp is a little primitive in its functions. There is so much that's possible, but for whatever reason, there is limited control with moderation, very few integrations, and not-so-fantastic personalisation capabilities. You either get light or dark themes.
X
I joined Twitter in 2012. I was just a kid exploring the internet and joining interesting platforms, and then I found myself on Twitter. I don't remember what my interactions were like back then, but it wasn't like what we have now. At some point, I stopped using it and didn't bother about it, as it became a big deal over the years and turned to X. Since I rejoined seven months ago, I have actually been spending a lot of time on it.
The most useful thing for me about X is how much information you can get just by being on it. People share a lot of things there now, and you can learn so much about almost anything if you know your way around. Although you can also find a lot of false information there, it still remains a powerful tool.
https://twitter.com/_olujay/status/1780694010757349822?t=p-Ul9gyuZBbWx0-qtzz3Mw&s=19
- _olujay
For most of the seven months I was fairly active on X, I was a premium user. My experience was way better than you'd get on a free account, especially with gaining views and impressions, as well as being able to use the new Grok AI.
YouTube
I have been using YouTube for a long time as well, and it started with learning how to play the guitar by watching videos. I then found entertainment channels that drew me in with their content. Learning channels came along because of the university. And then I found my absolute favourite content, tech.
You can find just about anything on YouTube these days, and most of the content there is free. With ambitions to become a YouTube creator someday, I am keen on learning from the people whose works and content I admire.
Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat
I mostly use Instagram these days for photography and videography. On the days I am interested in learning new camera tricks or admiring good photos and videography, I just go there to consume content from my favourite people.
TikTok is mostly for leisure. I reckon that there is also content to actually learn from, but I only go there to laugh and loosen up a bit. I try not to get sucked in, as it can be addicting sometimes.
Snapchat is just for friends. I started getting the hang of it after joining recently. The only thing I use it for is to see what my girlfriend and friends are doing. They'd send me random photos and videos, called Snaps, and try to keep streaks. On the other hand, I have been called a streak killer several times. I am not consistent. Anyway, I find the space interesting for its creative features, so I go there every now and then.
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And there we have it: my top picks and personal favourite social media apps. Discord is, of course, the most exciting for me: building servers, exploring bots, and customising things. They all have their individual purposes, though—Discord, WhatsApp, X, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat. What about you, and how would you rank them?
By the way, there's a new community I started called Digital Lifestyle. It's a hub for interesting, insightful, and useful things that could potentially improve how you do things in this digital world. Check it out, will you? Read more here.