>I mean sure I use this website, so I suppose that counts to some degree

This is a comparison I see a lot, but I really disagree with it. The structure of this kind of website is very very different from modern social media. I will say, though, that I don't have it anymore so I'm going off of how it was in 2018. I'd imagine that the constant feedback mechanisms have gotten worse, and continue to play off of people's anxiety and sense of self in the worst possible ways.

Social media is appealing because it provides a means of networking, communication and entertainment that allows people to share and consume media in multiple forms. For instance my mother uses Facebook to keep up with her COPD support group and chat with relatives. Twitter used to be a useful place to follow people in specific fields, I still follow artists and game developers there who haven't moved to Mastodon.

Asking what's appealing about social media is like asking what's appealing about telephones. Social media has taken the place of a primary communication appliance for many people. It's useful, despite its many downsides. I suspect most people don't have a deeply pathological relationship with it, either.

> Twitter used to be a useful place to follow people in specific fields, I still follow artists and game developers there who haven't moved to Mastodon.

I managed to stay on Mastodon by using bird.makeup to follow people who aren't in the Fediverse. Hopefully when BlueSky opens up someone will build a bridge between it and AP so we can follow them as well!

I mean telephones appeal to me but social networking sites like Facebook, instagram, Twitter or any of that stuff doesn’t.

Telephone is a communication device, these other services have communication options, but it doesn’t seem to be the main feature.

I don’t have any interest in subscribing to someone’s status updates. And I also have no interest in sending status updates out into the internet.

I only have an interest in direct messaging which is how I view a telephone.