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Media
There are so many social media apps. Here’s how to pick the best one.
What I want is for someone to tell me what to do. Maybe you want this, too.
With so many new, or newly sad, social media apps, how do you know if Threads, Bluesky or Mastodon are for you?
What if you like TikTok but fear that your vibe (or age) is more Facebook?
With advice from three expert posters, I assembled a highly subjective but absolutely correct guide to which social media app fits your tastes and needs.
Is this dumb? Absolutely.
But there’s wisdom here, too, for normies and lurkers, for people who want to build a social media following and for everyone in between.
(And if you just want good accounts to follow, scroll to the end.)
For those of you shouting WHO CARES, all social media is trash… I hear you.
But hey, we’re all hungry to find and nurture communities that we care about, or to stay informed about what matters to us. We can be open to social media as another way to find our people.
The best app if you loved Twitter* but hate it now
Threads, according to Adam Rose, a.k.a. @realadamrose, a writer, actor and prolific social media poster with 4.5 million followers on TikTok and more than 100,000 on Threads.
“If you’re like me and loved Twitter because it felt irreverent and the most current place to find the conversation around zeitgeist-y things happening right now,” Rose said, “Threads has a very good shot at being the place for that.”
He said when there was both a tropical storm and an earthquake in Southern California last weekend, Threads was the closest replacement he has found for the habit of swarming Twitter to ask, “Did you feel that earthquake, too?”
*The Washington Post requires me to say that the app is now called X.
The best app for oddballs (in a good way)
Bluesky, said Alex Falcone, a comedian who is active on TikTok, Threads, Instagram, Bluesky and more.
“It’s a lot of funny and insightful people mixed in with sexual drawings of wolves,” he said.
Falcone said that on Bluesky, he sees many queer and transgender people who left Twitter under Elon Musk’s ownership plus refugees from the Weird Twitter subculture.
Falcone cautioned that not many people are on Bluesky. Don’t go there if you need validation.
“My most successful post on Bluesky was about how if I get four likes on Bluesky, I feel like a god,” Falcone said. (That post has six likes.)
The best app if you want people to be nice
LinkedIn, according to Selena Rezvani, who posts on LinkedIn, TikTok and Instagram about navigating the workplace with confidence.
Rezvani, a speaker and consultant on leadership, said people are on LinkedIn for feel-good stories of career revivals, unlikely successes and advice for self-improvement.
And the consequences of being a jerk are high. “There is more consciousness and civility, generally speaking. Because potentially your employer is watching,” she said.
Rose and Falcone said they find TikTok comments to be kind and playful, with people eager to riff on what you posted. TikTok is the only app where you should read the comments, they said.
Rezvani said Instagram has the most kind comments.
Your mileage may vary. Like any place populated by humans, LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok can also be horrible.
The best app if you’re worried about being bad at posting
TikTok.
Falcone said the stakes are low.
Because what you see on TikTok is tailored by computers and not whom you follow, it’s possible to go from a nobody to briefly famous and back to a nobody again.
“If you had a Twitter thread go viral, weeks later you would still be getting hate mail,” Falcone said. “On TikTok they’ll love your cat video and never think about you again.”
What if you like TikTok but feel awkward and old there?
(I am asking this question for myself.)
Rezvani, who is 45 years old, said anyone can find their place on TikTok.
She said people on TikTok are eager for advice to better themselves. Rezvani has made TikToks about fawning less at work and encouraging people not to put off vacation days.
The best way to make an app work for you
Falcone said each of us has the power to “coax the algorithm” to make our preferred version of an app.
If you don’t love seeing dance videos on TikTok or thirsty brand posts on Threads, don’t engage. If you dig that CEO’s LinkedIn post, reply to it or follow a few Threads accounts you like.
The apps will take the hint and show you more of what you want.
My colleague Heather Kelly also wrote a guide to retraining your TikTok.
The best way not to get stuck with an app
The advice from the pros is don’t be monogamous with any social media app.
If you have a favorite, try at least one more in case your first love fades into obscurity or turns toxic.
“Just incorporate one other platform and see what consistency brings you there,” Rezvani advised.
She said she almost talked herself out of writing a LinkedIn newsletter, but she took a chance. The newsletter led to a great digital community and a book deal.
Rose said he invested a lot of time in the social audio app Clubhouse, which has lost popularity and buzz. He doesn’t regret it.
“I made sure during my time there to be pushing people to all my other socials,” Rose said. (He’s big on Instagram and YouTube, too.)
The best way to deal with your failures
Falcone said he has spent six months making TikTok videos that bombed.
And then there was a video Falcone made in a couple of minutes, about how he lines up his bed pillows so his arm doesn’t fall asleep when he spoons with his wife.
That video has 3 million views.
“I still have no idea what’s going to work before I post it,” he said. “The healthiest thing is to tell yourself that it’s baseball and you’re supposed to strike out most of the time.”
One tiny win
If you’re new to a social media app, or are bored with people you follow, these are some suggestions for accounts to follow for fun or inspiration.
The sillier suggestions are from Falcone. The more practical ones are from Rezvani.
TikTok:
For tips on making crow friends and other avian science: Kaeli Swift (@corvidresearch)
The Spooky Lakes lady (@geodesaurus): Every October, the artist and teacher creates videos about, yes, spooky bodies of water.
For internet-savvy, relatable nerdery: Hank Green (@hankgreen1), who Falcone said is “so smart and you’ll learn science things, but you’ll also just get a feel for the platform.” Also follow his brother, John Green.
For challenging social norms about what’s considered professional: Pabel Martinez (@plurawl); also on LinkedIn and Instagram.
For “super delightful” magic: Siegfried and Joy (@siegfriedandjoy)
For New Zealand “girl math” (@fvhzm): This radio show has been posting clips about the (insulting) internet trend of justifying spending habits with twisted logic. (Wait, would Kiwis call it girl “maths?”)
For poking fun at old-timey videos: Dinosaur Dinner Theatre (@dinosaurdinnertheatre) offers Mystery Science Theater-esque commentary dubbed into strange educational films, like this one promoting a 1960s “kitchen of tomorrow.”
For how to make everyone belong in workplaces: Ruchika Tulshyan (@rtulshyan; also on Instagram)
For no-holds-barred work advice: Chris Williams (@theCLWill; also on TikTok)
Threads:
The Onion (@theonion): “Obviously,” Falcone said.
Best of Dying Twitter (@bestofdyingtwitter and @jenntakahashi): Often the most vibrant conversations on newer text-based social apps like Threads are people dunking on Twitter, Falcone said.
Bluesky:
The writer and actor Mara Wilson “follows the best people and reposts the best things from them and it’s just a delight,” Falcone said. “Follow her and your timeline is instantly good.
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Sometimes, you just have to return to the classics.
That’s especially true as Halloween approaches. While you queue up your spooky movie marathon, here are 10 iconic horror movies from the past 70 years for inspiration, and what AP writers had to say about them when they were first released.
We resurrected excerpts from these reviews, edited for clarity, from the dead — did they stand the test of time?
“Rear Window” (1954)
“Rear Window” is a wonderful trick pulled off by Alfred Hitchcock. He breaks his hero’s leg, sets him up at an apartment window where he can observe, among other things, a murder across the court. The panorama of other people’s lives is laid out before you, as seen through the eyes of a Peeping Tom.
James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Thelma Ritter and others make it good fun.
— Bob Thomas
“Halloween” (1978)
At 19, Jamie Lee Curtis is starring in a creepy little thriller film called “Halloween.”
Until now, Jamie’s main achievement has been as a regular on the “Operation Petticoat” TV series. Jamie is much prouder of “Halloween,” though it is obviously an exploitation picture aimed at the thrill market.
The idea for “Halloween” sprang from independent producer-distributor Irwin Yablans, who wanted a terror-tale involving a babysitter. John Carpenter and Debra Hill fashioned a script about a madman who kills his sister, escapes from an asylum and returns to his hometown intending to murder his sister’s friends.
— Bob Thomas
“The Silence of the Lambs” (1991)
“The Silence of the Lambs” moves from one nail-biting sequence to another. Jonathan Demme spares the audience nothing, including closeups of skinned corpses. The squeamish had best stay home and watch “The Cosby Show.”
Ted Tally adapted the Thomas Harris novel with great skill, and Demme twists the suspense almost to the breaking point. The climactic confrontation between Clarice Starling and Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine) is carried a tad too far, though it is undeniably exciting with well-edited sequences.
Such a tale as “The Silence of the Lambs” requires accomplished actors to pull it off. Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins are highly qualified. She provides steely intelligence, with enough vulnerability to sustain the suspense. He delivers a classic portrayal of pure, brilliant evil.
— Bob Thomas
“Scream” (1996)
In this smart, witty homage to the genre, students at a suburban California high school are being killed in the same gruesome fashion as the victims in the slasher films they know by heart.
If it sounds like the script of every other horror movie to come and go at the local movie theater, it’s not.
By turns terrifying and funny, “Scream” — written by newcomer David Williamson — is as taut as a thriller, intelligent without being self-congratulatory, and generous in its references to Wes Craven’s competitors in gore.
— Ned Kilkelly
“The Blair Witch Project” (1999)
Imaginative, intense and stunning are a few words that come to mind with “The Blair Witch Project.”
“Blair Witch” is the supposed footage found after three student filmmakers disappear in the woods of western Maryland while shooting a documentary about a legendary witch.
The filmmakers want us to believe the footage is real, the story is real, that three young people died and we are witnessing the final days of their lives. It isn’t. It’s all fiction.
But Eduardo Sanchez and Dan Myrick, who co-wrote and co-directed the film, take us to the edge of belief, squirming in our seats the whole way. It’s an ambitious and well-executed concept.
— Christy Lemire
“Saw” (2004)
The fright flick “Saw” is consistent, if nothing else.
This serial-killer tale is inanely plotted, badly written, poorly acted, coarsely directed, hideously photographed and clumsily edited, all these ingredients leading to a yawner of a surprise ending. To top it off, the music’s bad, too.
You could forgive all (well, not all, or even, fractionally, much) of the movie’s flaws if there were any chills or scares to this sordid little horror affair.
But “Saw” director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell, who developed the story together, have come up with nothing more than an exercise in unpleasantry and ugliness.
— David Germain
Germain gave “Saw” one star out of four.
“Paranormal Activity” (2009)
The no-budget ghost story “Paranormal Activity” arrives 10 years after “The Blair Witch Project,” and the two horror movies share more than a clever construct and shaky, handheld camerawork.
The entire film takes place at the couple’s cookie-cutter dwelling, its layout and furnishings indistinguishable from just about any other readymade home constructed in the past 20 years. Its ordinariness makes the eerie, nocturnal activities all the more terrifying, as does the anonymity of the actors adequately playing the leads.
The thinness of the premise is laid bare toward the end, but not enough to erase the horror of those silent, nighttime images seen through Micah’s bedroom camera. “Paranormal Activity” owns a raw, primal potency, proving again that, to the mind, suggestion has as much power as a sledgehammer to the skull.
— Glenn Whipp
Whipp gave “Paranormal Activity” three stars out of four.
“The Conjuring” (2013)
As sympathetic, methodical ghostbusters Lorraine and Ed Warren, Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson make the old-fashioned haunted-house horror film “The Conjuring” something more than your average fright fest.
“The Conjuring,” which boasts incredulously of being their most fearsome, previously unknown case, is built very in the ’70s-style mold of “Amityville” and, if one is kind, “The Exorcist.” The film opens with a majestic, foreboding title card that announces its aspirations to such a lineage.
But as effectively crafted as “The Conjuring” is, it’s lacking the raw, haunting power of the models it falls shy of. “The Exorcist” is a high standard, though; “The Conjuring” is an unusually sturdy piece of haunted-house genre filmmaking.
— Jake Coyle
Coyle gave “The Conjuring” two and half stars out of four.
“Get Out” (2017)
Fifty years after Sidney Poitier upended the latent racial prejudices of his white date’s liberal family in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” writer-director Jordan Peele has crafted a similar confrontation with altogether more combustible results in “Get Out.”
In Peele’s directorial debut, the former “Key and Peele” star has — as he often did on that satirical sketch series — turned inside out even supposedly progressive assumptions about race. But Peele has largely left comedy behind in a more chilling portrait of the racism that lurks beneath smiling white faces and defensive, paper-thin protestations like, “But I voted for Obama!” and “Isn’t Tiger Woods amazing?”
It’s long been a lamentable joke that in horror films — never the most inclusive of genres — the Black dude is always the first to go. In this way, “Get Out” is radical and refreshing in its perspective.
— Jake Coyle
Coyle gave “Get Out” three stars out of four.
“Hereditary” (2018)
In Ari Aster’s intensely nightmarish feature-film debut “Hereditary,” when Annie (Toni Collette), an artist and mother of two teenagers, sneaks out to a grief-support group following the death of her mother, she lies to her husband Steve (Gabriel Byrne) that she’s “going to the movies.”
A night out with “Hereditary” is many things, but you won’t confuse it for an evening of healing and therapy. It’s more like the opposite.
Aster’s film, relentlessly unsettling and pitilessly gripping, has carried with it an ominous air of danger and dread: a movie so horrifying and good that you have to see it, even if you shouldn’t want to, even if you might never sleep peacefully again.
The hype is mostly justified.
— Jake Coyle
Coyle gave “Hereditary” three stars out of four.
Read the full review here. ___
Researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed from New York.
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