I’ve tried like hell to follow sports via social media with an open mind. Two months into 2025 I’ve made some observations, and behavior changes. What follows is a narrow slice of an assessment I made on my other pages. This is focused on sports media.

CONTENT WARNING - This hot take will embrace my inner @RegularCars Reviews

This Sucks#

Microblogging sucks, there I said it. I stopped using Twitter on a regular basis long before Elon bought it. It’s trendy to be anti-Musk and to embrace alternative platforms but they suck just as much as pre-Elon Twitter. Most individuals are insufferable, posturing assholes that live to stir the pot and have no intention to participate in a civil discussion.

I hate scrolling X, Bluesky and Threads. The latter in fact loves to default to showing me “For You” which, regardless of the accounts I follow, is NOT for me. It is always unhinged political hot takes. No thank you. I tried to build lists of trusted sources but at this point fatigue has set in and there is little content to enjoy.

Hating on Mark Zuckerberg is also trendy, but somehow everyone has a Meta account. TikTok users blew a gasket after the temporary outage and everyone accused Zuckerberg of taking over the platform. No kids, TikTok is still solidly a Chinese surveillance apparatus but at least the US government will have hooks into it like every other social media platform.

I really want to like Threads, but it replicates the worst of X with none of the benefit. Instagram, on the other hand, nearly replicates EVERY social media feature of every competitor. To the point where scrolling reels is nearly as enjoyable as TikTok and a lot more predictable. Don’t get me wrong, I still love a quick scroll through “the clock app” as the kids call it so I can watch unsubstantiated government conspiracy theories or Gen Z claiming they canceled the thumbs up emoji.

What is Decent#

There is some redeeming, if fleeting, qualities to some forms of social media. I don’t give a shit about influencers in racecars, but the content seems to resonate with a younger fan base. At this point racing, if all forms of sports, desperately needs to attract younger fans. It’s not only the Toni Breidingers, everywhere sports marketing is turning to content creators with a following to help drum up interest. A shocking amount of F1 content honestly.

Which is not to say that more established, polished creation isn’t popular. My local “Locked On” NFL podcast is a favorite along with BrakeHard’s coverage of NASCAR and RACER’s coverage of IndyCar and IMSA. There are also plenty of official and insider channels, everything from IMSA, WEC to Dale Jr.’s DirtyMoMedia.

Another happy place are the drivers, team members and media accounts I follow in Instagram. Yes, I built a stand-alone account brick by brick and it’s glorious. I can see all of the official media as it happens and ignore all the comment bullshit. There is also a fun feature called channels that jameypricephoto introduced me to and I love it. Creators can post short messages and directly notify followers. Did I mention comments are disabled by default?

Other Stuff#

I still hit up the Reddit threads a few times a week and I’m on a few series focused Discord servers. Truthfully it is too much to keep up with for the casual fan and I’ve got better things to do. Likewise, I still have an RSS reader, yes in 2025, and occasionally skim articles from Ars Technica, DailySportsCar and Racer. Most of it is media release style content and not that in depth or hard hitting.

There are also a few Facebook groups I still check but they are mostly Boomer and Gen X nostalgia posts at this point. Sorry Kenneth, I don’t need to hear how Can-Am was the greatest sports car racing era for the fourth time. And no Brian, I do not want to see your Terry Labonte NASCAR diecast set yet again.

In Other Words#

So that’s it. I still use social media for sports, but a lot less. I also don’t engage much because the Internet is full of assholes (and I’m probably one). When I say “stick to sports” I really mean it and also get off my lawn!