Review 2023 – social networks

One part of my year in review is how the SmartPhone appears, and how I use the main Apps I have installed on my iPhone:

Main Screen, pg1

Seems redundant, but the two “Google Search” widgets have different sets of options to invoke directly (they scroll thru ~6 each). This saves scrolling to the right thru many dozens of Apps. But, admittedly, still means scrolling down thru a half dozen of my most used Apps).

As example… the two widgets can both be rolled up, to show a search of Gmail, or GoogleMaps (maybe a future option would replace that with Bing).

Pg1, Scrolled Stacked Widgets

One “widget” I started to use a bunch in 2023 was the Ancestry one… it highlights a person in our family tree (as entered by Robin Marie) to show their life-event…. marriage anniversary, birthday, or death.

My “next screen” shows a 2023 trend, toward

A few AI tools appeared in 2023; Chat-On, Bing, are both based on ChatGPT, and the Google versions need to be investigated — they all provide new capabilities that can’t be ignored.

Main Screen of Apps (camera, photos, Car, Hiking, Health, office, e-payments, Uber/Lyft, Tile)

More details later, for GROUPS of Icons, and individual Icons — seems indicative of the Apps I use the most (this used to be “Pg1 on my iPhone”).

Now, media streaming and common on-line meetings or audio listening Apps; and, of course the Social Media apps (FB, IG and X).

The social media changes this year were dramatic. Twitter was purchased by Elon Musk last year, but 2023 was the year he fully destroyed it — and, renamed it “X”.

My “social networking” group of Applications does include X (formerly Twitter) as well as the Facebook and Instagram — now, includes Threads. And, should, include…

Instagram, X (and Threads), plus Substack

Also includes Facebook, X, and even Linked-in, Goodreads, Pinterest, and Patreon

My personal preferences, no longer include Facebook except for periodic Birthday greetings and just as often will browse thru Linked-in for my connections from work. I don’t use Pinterest much anymore and hadn’t used Patreon for a while now.

And, here is my biggest surprise in how I use my smartphone, it is called the New York Times. The obvious change by having an on-line subscription ($50 for their introductory rate) and then also a podcast called, “The Daily”, and other podcasts as well, like HardFork or the “Ezra Klein” or opinions columnists among other daily, or bi-weekly and weekly features. It’s