Social media in 2025

Time for another blog post, but instead of focusing on what I've been learning, I'm writing a bit about the state of social media as I see it here in the beginning of 2025. It's topical, and probably in the future if you're reading this, things may look very different.

The state of social media in general is still very strong. Apparently around 3 billion people use Meta's services, 300 million use Twitter/X (claimed), and Bluesky is going strong at around 29 million active users. That's a lot of activity! But social media through the years has morphed into something much different than what it originally was.

I used Myspace back in 2006, I started using Facebook once it opened to non-college students (around 2007?), and I made my first Twitter account in 2009 - my first Tweet was to Freddy Adu, naively thinking he would respond. It was all pretty fun - I saw most of the activity from my friends. Pictures, status updates, trips - it all (especially Facebook) felt like one giant club we were at 24/7, commenting and "liking" and poking (remember the poke feature?) each other. I actually did feel connected, and I was on Facebook for a few hours a day IMing friends and seeing updates from them.

Then came the algorithm. I can't remember when I started noticing, but I started receiving less and less from my friends. First, I noticed that I was seeing posts out of order of time - a post from a few days ago would appear above a post from 10 minutes ago - why? That was weird. I'd log out for class and log back in later only to see that same post from a few days ago near the top of my page along with some new posts. I noticed that I started seeing content mainly from about 10-15 people, even though my friends list was over 500.

I'd click into the profile of some of my closest friends who I hadn't seen updates from in awhile, only to find a slew of updates on their profile that I wasn't seeing. I found a feature to label them "close friends" or something of the sort to see if that would help - it did a little. But now I was realizing that Facebook was no longer connecting me to all my friends. In late 2024 before I deactivated Facebook, my timeline had become almost nothing except content from groups I was not a part of, advertisements, people's Instagram reels, and more advertisements and content from random groups I was not a part of (Historical Pictures of Downtown Annapolis...what???).

Twitter was still awesome though - it became my favorite social media site. I am a big sports fan, and live tweeting sports and network shows when they aired (The Office finale, #AnniesMove from Community) became a cultural phenomenon. And I followed whoever I wanted and saw their content in a nice timeline of curated profiles solely determined by me.

Then came the algorithm. I started seeing advertisements in the content section of posts. I started seeing posts from people I didn't follow and didn't care to follow. Soon, about 50-60% of my timeline was full of people I didn't follow. Gone were the follow-Fridays, #FF, and I also found less and less people interacting with my posts. My timeline was less interesting to me, and I started spending less time scrolling on the content. Then in 2022, Elon Musk bought Twitter and that was the last straw for me.

It's funny - corporate social media (Meta and Twitter) connect and expose us to more content than ever. But I feel less connected at the same time. Mark Zuckerberg always claimed he wanted Facebook to connect the world, but at the same time Facebook became a lonely place surrounded by all of this "connection."

So I've left Facebook. It's something that I didn't think I'd ever do, but seeing them pull back on fact checking in the name of some weird (also inaccurate) definition of "free speech" has been a big part in my decision. The thought of leaving had been rattling around though for over a year, because it just wasn't fun anymore. The same for Twitter - Elon buying it and remaking it into Parler Part II wasn't the sole reason I left Twitter, but it did help in making my decision certain.

A few takeways from the past seven to eight years of corporate social media is this:

• The algorithm sort of ruined my experience with traditional social media by showing me less of my friends and more of random stuff I had no interest in
• Advertisements became so numerous they were annoying
• Corporate social media can be completely changed almost overnight on the whims of the CEO (hello Reddit and their API changes)
• All of this degrades the once-great experience I had

This isn't to say an algorithm has no place in social media. Tiktok got very popular in 2020 because of their algorithm, and Instagram's algorithm is decent and fun. I found a few Twitch streamers from Instagram's algorithm and have learned to cook a few new foods for dinner from watching short-form videos in a random algorithmic feed. I think video-form social media can benefit from a good algorithm in an Explore section, although I'm still turned off to it on my main feed.

As of the start of 2025, I'm on Instagram (but the thought of leaving is there) and that's it when it comes to corporate social media. I'm on Bluesky the most and really enjoy it (so far), and I'm on Mastodon as well. I've become a big fan of the Fediverse and the interconnectedness between apps it offers. The ability to have a Mastodon account and see pictures from Pixelfed, videos from Peertube, and soon will see long-form posts from Ghost is a very cool experience, something corporate social media never offered.

I'm very optimistic about the Fediverse. It may never reach the numbers that corporate social media has, but I don't care. It's free, it's open, and there are no advertisements and very few algorithms unless you are on Threads. Threads by the way is the one fediverse social media site I am no longer on - mainly because it's Meta and I frankly don't want to use their services much any longer.

If you've made it this far, I appreciate your interest in my ramblings. I'll write soon about the Fediverse and how I explain it to people - I have found a lot of people in my IT department at work don't even know what it is, so it's time they learned! But here we are, the state of 2025 social media. It's still dominated by corporations and shareholders, blows to and fro at the whims of their CEOs and their politics, and that's not likely to change. But the smaller yet better connected Fediverse has offered a nice alternative which I hope sticks around.

Reviewing HTML concepts and establishing a habit

 In my planner each week I write out three things automatically.

1. Some sort of motivational theme or (soon) a bible verse as my "theme of the week"
2. A task each day to exercise
3. 30 minutes of freeCodeCamp

Exercising is still something that I need to improve on the habit front. Last week was a bit of a downer, and I think partially it's because I didn't drink enough water, exercise, and eat healthy (hello popcorn for lunch twice).

But with freeCodeCamp, I've been able to establish a nice rhythm. Either in the mornings or during my lunch break, I'll set aside 30-45 minutes to work on the new full-stack developer content they recently released (linked in my previous blog post). I decided to just do everything in the cert, even though I've previously finished their HTML/CSS content and most of their vanilla JavaScript content. It's good review, and I'm a completionist I suppose.

And I'm glad I've taken time to review the HTML content. First off, it's been way more in depth than their previous courses. There is a much higher focus on accessibility and semantic HTML. A few things which have stood out:

• Presentational vs Semantic HTML: Presentational is older and includes elements that are no longer supported, and it's main focus is just on the look of the content on the screen. CSS has made most of these elements relatively pointless now. Semantic HTML involves using elements that are more descriptive in their purpose (as opposed to the older <div> element), and they are better for accessibility and website SEO.
  
  
• HTML Forms have four states:
• Default: which is editable
• Focused: when you're in one of the form inputs specifically (i.e. clicking into a text field and the box highlighting a blue border)
• Disabled
• Read-Only
• (The HTML Form states sort of mimic what I'm used to with Harness rules in Pega, so I found it interesting.)
  
  
• HTML Entities: these provide a way to write out certain symbols that are usually code in HTML. For example, if I want to write out <div> in HTML text, without HTML entities I cannot accomplish this because the browser will think I'm trying to start a new <div> container. With HTML Entities, I can use a combination of letters and/or numbers to have the browser render symbols like < and >. These combinations are called references:
• Named character references start with "&" and end with a ";"
• &lt; is the < symbol
• Decimal numeric references are similar but use numbers instead of letters
• Hexadecimal numeric references are similar but use hexadecimal instead

I'm currently going through the lecture video series for accessibility, which is a deeper dive into screen readers and tools that come native with operating systems to help with viewing or listening to content. Additionally freeCodeCamp is reviewing various peripherals like larger-text keyboards and different input devices like trackpads and mouse-balls and joysticks. All must be taken into consideration for modern development.

That's all I have for this week. I'm also glad I could sit down for 20 minutes or so and type this out this week. I want to blog (ideally) every week, so this week was a success!

Setting 2025 developer goals

2024 is behind us and 2025 is here. New year. Clean slate. Last year was my first full year as a developer and it was full of learning, moments of extreme doubt in my abilities, and some fantastic moments as well. To recap, I attempted the Pega SSA exam three times and fell one question short twice. At some point I plan to study and take the exam again, but I'll be taking some time off from that.

My overall personal goal in 2025 is using a planner for the full year and being more organized through consistent planner use. That sets up the foundation for smaller goals that I hope to achieve this year for myself, which are listed below.

So without much else to add, below are the developer goals I hope to achieve in 2025. Unlike last year, I'll try to keep the blog updated with my progress.

1. Blog more. This is sort of a gimme. I blogged just a handful of times in 2024, mostly because I was busy studying or working. Taking a break from studying will hopefully allow for more casual learning and time to write. My goal is one post a week, and I'll review at the end of January to see how that goes. I may adjust it in February if needed.
   
   
2. Work through freeCodeCamp's new curriculum. freeCodeCamp just released new updated content and have started focusing on free developer certifications. The content includes video lectures, workshops, labs, quizzes, reviews, and one large final exam. I'm very excited for this, and will probably write more about it in the future, but I think this is the type of setup I've been waiting for. Currently I'm in the HTML section doing review before moving on to CSS, but once we get to more advanced topics, I think this will be a massive help for my learning. Most blogs will probably be geared around new things I've learned while going through the certification program. While I won't be spending a lot of time each day on it (due to life and such), I'm going to be extending this into 2026 and hope to earn the certification during that year.
   
   
3. Pass the Pega SSA exam. This will be in the later part of 2025, but I want to attempt the SSA exam again and hopefully pass. It's not required for my job, but everyone else on the team has it at this point and I want to be able to say the same. Related, I'll need to renew my Security+ this year as well, as that's an exam I never ever want to take again!
   
   
4. Read more. I'm aiming to complete six books this year - an average of one book every two months. That's a good goal for me, but it's also something I can also surpass pretty easily. I'll be writing on some books I read this year here on the blog, so be on the lookout for some of those. I've started 'Chip Wars' by Chris Miller, which my manager read and said it was very good. President Obama as well mentioned this book as one of his favorites in 2023. But I won't be reading just tech-focused books. I hope to read a fiction book or two, or maybe some random non-fiction historical books. I'm taking it one book at a time.

So there we have it - these are the developer goals I'm shooting for in 2025. These are not resolutions, and they may not all happen. But it's something to work towards and share with others. 

What goals do you have for 2025?