I long ago stopped trying to keep abreast of things in the social media realm. Facebook has its popularity among the generations that now in their working years, are separated by distance from friends and family, and want to stay connected in some degree. In other words it tends to serve those of us older than teens and 20s. The stock price of Meta (formerly known as Facebook) has plummeted more than 60 percent. The stock price of Meta (formerly known as Facebook) has plummeted more than 60 percent.  I wonder if these are signs that Facebook is skewing even older.Meta’s cash-cow social media apps — Facebook and Instagram — are in decline, with younger users abandoning them for apps like TikTok. Meta has also lost billions of dollars in advertising revenue because of changes Apple made in 2021 to its mobile operating system, which made it harder for apps to track users across the internet. Yet they have a huge war chest of funds, so, who knows?

Twitter has its own problems: it has never been terribly profitable and slow growth. Not attractive for a market place and then there is Elon Musk. A great opportunity for stock holders to cash out at a premium. Not so great for the company as the change in ownership will likely initiate a staff revolt, mass firings of executives and changes to Twitter’s content moderation rules that could be unpopular. But then again, if moderation rules change again that might might apps like Parler, Rumble and Social Truth, move towards the dust bin of history. Rumble, an alt-YouTube is the most successful of the alt-platforms. Yet it’s stock price has falleb more than 35 percent this year.

TikTok has what every social media company wants — a big, engaged user base, a format that keeps people scrolling for hours and an iron grip on youth culture and the entertainment industry.   I suspect not many of the readership of this blog are not TikTok creators or viewers. Or maybe I am wrong.

So how do we keep up? May that ‘s the wrong question. How do we get ahead,…. even if only for a moment? Be the first among your friends (and maybe even before your kids or grandkids) to sign up for

• BeReal: Once per day, BeReal simultaneously notifies all users that a two-minute window to post is open. It asks users to create a post (known eponymously as a “BeReal”) which, using simultaneous photos from both the front and back cameras, provides a visual depiction of what they are doing in that moment. Interesting and worth a look.
• Gas: Just released in August and according to the Wall Street Journal, Gas was the top downloaded social media app in the Apple App Store in the last 30 days. Gas is an app for teenagers that focuses on cultivating positivity in a smaller social network.  Definitely geared towards high schoolers. Download? Probably not, but at least you’ll see “in the know.” I hope it fulfills its mission of inculcating positivity.

That is the state of things today. Tomorrow this post will be outdated and on its way to the dust bin of history.