Have you ever reached that point? The point where you stop being just a “user” and actually become one in a different sense.

Bit of a weird question, I know. Let me break it down.

We all inherited the belief.

Social was the new path. Get on board. Post consistently, reply quickly. Follow the pattern, things will happen. Find a hack. Post even more. All just to get noticed.

Nobody questioned it because it seemed to be working. At least for some, if you played the game.

I took six months off social last year. Not a protest, just a break. But when I came back, the change was stark.

I expected some decay. Some catch-up needed. Maybe a dip in reach I’d have to claw back bit by bit.

What I actually found was… nothing.

Maybe five friends engaging regularly, that’s it.

I put in some work. Posting constantly, replying all the time. For six months. Even with all that trying, it had evaporated like I’d never been there.

That’s when it hit. The reach was never mine. I was borrowing it (…aren’t we all?). And while I was gone, the loan was quietly called in. The platforms (and the users) keep on moving and I was certainly not missed.

Once I saw that clearly, I could have quit. But I didn’t want to.

Instead, I just stopped expecting.

The platforms are still there. I still use (some of) them. But I use them differently now. Kinda like pipes, not a home. I push content and ideas through. Some of it lands. Some of it finds the right people.

The difference is that I optimise for those people to end up somewhere I own, not just like or reply on the platform.

The algorithm gets what it needs. I (sorta) get what I need.

We were taught to be users of the platforms. Logged in, dependent, performing for an algorithm we’d never fully pin down.

But you know, you can just… use them instead.