Hi all, so I have never been on any social media because of extreme social anxiety issues and introversion. Last year I joined reddit which was my first social media and so far it's been the only one I have been comfortable with because of this anonymity. I recently joined LinkedIn as well, but it's obviously for professional life and not the best for 'social' purposes. But that's all. I was completely off the grid before that.

But I feel I missed out on a lot of old school friends and connections because of this. When i knew them, we were too young to have individual phone numbers so we never kept in touch. I look at people's profiles through my mom's Facebook and I see that the people I used to know are atleast 'friends' on Facebook amongst themselves. I don't know if that means they are actually in touch or not. I see everyone from my old school are mutually connected on facebook as well, where as I completely fell out of touch as soon as I left.

So I guess my questions are:

Is Facebook still relevant or is it too late for me to join? ( I am 21) I don't wanna appear weird sending friend requests and stuff on a dead platform out of nowhere to people I haven't spoken to in over 6 years.

Is it safe to join Facebook? After all the recent news that's coming out about it, would it be stupid to join it at a time when people are deleting it or regret joining it? Should I count my blessings for having stayed away from it and continue to do so?

What's the current trendy social media platform where I am likely to find most of my peers? I am guessing Instagram, but I feel that would be too much for me. It's photo based, and I just don't have any confidence to post pictures on social media.

This post became a bit long so I am very sorry about that but I would really appreciate it if you could take the time to read since I wanted to highlight my exact issues.

TLDR: 21 year old having never been on any social media looking for advice about which platform to start out with. Thinking about Facebook but feel like it's too irrelevant/unsafe now.