Time to start screaming myself.
-Tuxman
I was never interested in social media, but I had a Twitter account for a short while. I just didn't 'get' it, and only wanted to follow three things, two of which I lost interest in. Then Twitter pestered me to follow more people, so I closed it.
I'm very wary of what now calls itself 'Meta' for its creepy surveillance practices and the way it awards itself free usage of anything you post. I did, however, want to follow some local artists, and they were all on Instagram. Hence I inched closer to getting an Instagram presence, only to find several articles raging about Instagram's sudden aping of TikTok, spamming you with auto-playing videos instead of things you actually want to follow. Exit Instagram.
In another part of the wood, I really liked using Simplenote to transfer text items between Android devices and the PC. I used Glance Note on Android (at one point, recommended by wraith808) and CintaNotes on the PC, both of which keep data in local databases. But now Simplenote have gone like Twitter in dropping the API and banning third-party applications, which would mean sticking to their own apps - apparently their PC app is a huge Electron thing - and worse, keeping my data solely in their cloud. Well, I want access to it even if I don't have an Internet connection. The latest iteration of their Android app includes "Simplenote Sustainer. Help support the ongoing development of Simplenote with an annual subscription." We know that keeping things forever free is a hard ask, but I'd have preferred them to make it payware or even donationware from the beginning, and retain third-party API access.
The moral seems to be beware big tech companies offering "free" goodies. As for Twitter, Mastodon looks set to gain.