Spend a little bit of time writing out pros and cons when this happens. The important thing is to actually write it down; don’t just leave it in your head. If this is a regular conversation you have, keep that list handy and keep it updated. Make sure you’re taking into account time and resource considerations (eg running your own Mastodon instance requires money or time and effort) as well as soft considerations like social impact (eg you gotta convince all your friends to join Signal). Make sure to keep moving things around.

For me, the time and effort involving in running certain things just isn’t worth it to me. I have limited time available and I don’t often want to spend it fucking with servers. Convenience also plays into some of my comms choice because it’s just easier to use certain things to do the kinds of things I need to do.

I cannot stress enough that you should write this down. Getting stuff like this out of your head and onto paper has a lot of helpful benefits. You move the problem from your working memory and onto paper which helps reduce cognitive load (see Programmer’s Brain and sources). You have a discrete problem you can update without having to constantly rebuild the whole thing in your head (see How to Take Smart Notes and sources for the idea of the zettelkasten). And eventually you’ll be able to tell yourself why you do one or the other.