How is your relationship with social media changing as an LGBTQ person?

Charley Marlowe (she/her)
Broadcaster

I start every year with the intention of cutting my social media usage; however, that seldom
happens. I mean, is it a naff answer to say that my relationship with social media probably won’t change? I certainly want to give less time to things that don’t serve me, like the endless pressure to buy this and buy that. I need less shite, not more of it. But social media allows me to learn, to grow, to understand. I don’t know if I’d have been as accepting of my sexuality if it weren’t for social media. I wouldn’t know I have ADHD. I wouldn’t be where I am today without it. Yeah, some days, it does feel like comparison city, and like the joy and pride is sucked out of anything you’ve ever accomplished. But then we all feel like that at some point, don’t we? If I’m honest, my relationship with social media won’t change, but my mindset will. I want to set more boundaries, and recognise that just because someone else is succeeding, it doesn’t mean that I’m failing. 2025 is the year Mummy Marlowe puts down her phone a bit more and picks up the Kindle.

Jamie Tabberer (he/him)
Journalist

Muting almost everybody years ago was the best decision I ever made for my relationship with social media. Another was ceasing to care about my follower number as far back as 2010, before ‘compare and despair’ was even a thing. In 2025, I want to scale back even further, and would delete all my platforms tomorrow, were it not for my job. (Although social media’s positive effect on my career is outbalanced by the monetised retention of readers’ eyeballs. Tried clicking from an Attitude Instagram or TikTok post to the Attitude website lately? Almost impossible.) Not that I think social media is inherently bad. It’s how we (mis)use it, whether by disseminating misinformation, upholding unrealistic social standards, or promoting hate — sometimes to fatal effect. Encouraging us in the worst of our excesses is a handful
of tech bros whose expertly designed algorithms keep us addicted for profit. We must pressurise them to regulate their sites better. The quickest way to do this? By unplugging. This week, I deleted my X account. The sense of relief was extraordinary.

Gary Grimes (he/him)
Journalist

In the 15-plus years I’ve spent on social media, I’ve defied the norms of my social circle by never taking a break from it. Lately, however, particularly on Twitter (never to be called X in my house), my primary place of virtual residence since 2009, it’s starting to feel like I’m the last one at the party. When droves of people announced their departure from the platform in the wake of Elon Musk’s acquisition of it in 2022, I scoffed that they would all be back. And, in truth, many of them did recommence posting, but many of my favourites did not, as evidenced by the depressing viewing figures of an average tweet. In fact, I backspace most tweets I type these days because who wants to scream into the void? Social media has always been a place for political discourse, but Musk and Zuckerberg have made the platforms feel so politicised that it’s becoming harder to derive guilt-free, non-partisan enjoyment from them. If going to see a film at the cinema is like voting for the kind of art you want to see financed, what is a selfie posted on a platform which deems it acceptable for someone like me to be labelled mentally ill by virtue of my sexuality?

Neel Zaver (he/him)
Biologist and climate podcaster, Our Altered World

Having built my business around science communication and consultancy over the past 10 years, social media has always been a cornerstone of my work. It’s been a way to connect not only with a wider audience for whom I hoped to make science more accessible, but also with multiple clients who allowed me to expand the impact of this work. But social media and how we use it has rapidly changed, and I find myself pulling away from it. My initial branch-out into the digital space was always led by passion, but I found myself putting out content as an expectation as it was directly tied to my business. Pressure was mounting, not only because of competition for attention, but competition against algorithms that would determine if your content was “worthwhile” for viewing by people who wanted to engage with your work but were often blocked by these hurdles. After taking a step back in 2024 and using social media only as a means of directly connecting with those in my life, I started to find the sparks of joy and community it once gave me, which I now think may be the only way I continue to use it.