What it is for, honestly
Decide for yourself whether you want an account, and read what is public without one.
People talk about social media as though it were one thing. It is three, and they are worth telling apart before you decide whether any of them is for you.
The second of those is the one people over sixty tend to get most from, and it is the one nobody mentions when they say “are you on it?”. The first is often done better by a group chat. The third is the rent.
Key points
- Tell apart the three different things social media is doing at once
- Read public groups and pages without an account at all
- Say what the service is actually selling, and to whom
What to remember
- Many people, loosely known, in public: social media. Few people, well known, in private: almost anything else.
- Public pages are public. You can decide whether it is worth joining after you have seen what is on it.
- You are not the customer, you are the audience. Knowing that explains almost everything the service does.
Try this
Search the web for the name of your town followed by local history or noticeboard. See how much you can read without signing into anything. For most towns the answer is: nearly all of it.
Practice: What it is for, honestly. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.