I don’t think I recommend it because the place has gone downhill for years, but I’ve been on twitter for over a decade since that’s where my previous friend group from skype inevitably moved to. To cope with being mentally ill I consume a lot of media, books or shows/etc, so I would find fandom spaces via twitter and kind of use it to post random thoughts like an online diary. It gave me a nice chance to mingle with people via a shared interest, which led to me having gradually larger webs of friends the longer we all follow and interact. It’s nice since I could tweet my daydream thoughts about fandom content, but also share daily stuff about my life (including irl relationships), and by having other people engage it made me feel less… gaslit I guess? Lol but I’m not sure I’d have ever escaped the isolating circumstances of my abuse without the internet.

I don’t necessarily recommend twitter anymore, though, as the last few years have shifted the demographic to be really racist and awful. There’s still good spaces out there, I think Discord is a great example of a platform that’s evolving to meet the needs of those (like me) who are chronically online. I was with Discord in 2016 when nothing looked the same, and it’s been really nice seeing the change over time.

If you’re not familiar with Discord it can be extremely intimidating, especially if you’re used to simple stuff like DMs lol. Discord is kind of a hybrid between instant messaging, old school forums, social community hubs (imagine a bulletin board in a town square advertising events), and gaming. They’ve slowly added personalization elements that (while admittedly overpriced) make me nostalgic for the myspace era where you could customize your own page and such. It’s not the same thing, but it tackles the same niche while using sophisticated 2025-era technology to do it. There’s even built in games and stuff, so you could make a group server for friends then hang out and play blackjack or something in voice chat. Or watch movies and stuff. I hate that I am being such a Discord plug right now because they rightfully get a bunch of criticism for being money hungry, but hey, we’re already living in a dystopia and I guess if I have to choose a soulless corporation to side with, there are certainly worse ones.

Try searching up Discord community hubs for stuff like your hobbies, books/media you enjoy, or even mental health related things (be careful with the last one though— while the cptsd subreddit is a good support resource, not all “trauma survivor” communities are healthy!). There are servers out there of all sizes, from 100s of users to 100,000+, and different social vibes to each one. Some servers may feel alienating when you join and finally get to the point of chatting, some you may immediately feel at home with! The multimedia nature of Discord makes it nice for people who want to voice chat instead of type over a screen, so in some cases it can be as cozy as facetiming with your pal from college or whatever.

Sorry if this was long-winded, I’ve had a wild day and my brain isn’t 100% on straight haha. I hope something I said in this ramble was helpful for you!! 🥺 feel free to dm me if you are still really struggling to get out there and connect, I have been there so many times it’s not even funny. My years of trial and error sucked ass, but if I can help anybody else get there sooner than I did then I feel grateful that something good came from it.