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Ask HN: What are some promising “healthy social media” projects?

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Ask HN: What are some promising “healthy social media” projects?

#1

Post by hntcz »

I recently quit Instagram and Facebook but I do feel that I'm missing out on what's happening with my friends. I'd like to follow and potentially use some new (maybe dweb) alternatives.

I know Mastodon, Diaspora...

In my view a healthy social media alternative doesn't need to be distributed but it need to:

- limit the reach of posts, keeping the communication in your social circles and not trying to be a media company at the same time with millions of followers on some accounts

- have to algorithmic feed - chronological is just fine, thank you

- no ads if possible, or no micro-targeted ads.

Do you know any project like that?

Re: Ask HN: What are some promising “healthy social media” projects?

#4

Post by jjice »

claudiulodro wrote: post #3

Have you tried calling, texting, or e-mailing them? That's been working great as a "social media replacement" for many people I know after they ditched the online social media companies.

To add to the parent comment, make a list of people you'd like to stay connected with and add an event to your calendar a few times a week (I do two). Those events are to reach out to one of those people on the list and catch up with them. You can't follow a thousand people like you can one Facebook, but the conversations will be richer and 1000 close connections with distant people probably doesn't provide deep connections anyway. This has been good for me.

Another one I heard in Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport is to hold "office hours" in which you're available for conversation with anyone. What's nice about these is that you can schedule them during downtime like a commute or a regular walk, so you're not losing any extra time.

Might come off as robotic, but scheduling regular conversations with those who are closest to you is really nice and makes sure you're always in communication.

Re: Ask HN: What are some promising “healthy social media” projects?

#5

Post by JCharante »

Unironically WeChat's moments are probably what you're looking for.

- They don't embed ads in moments.

- It's a chronological feed. And you only see posts from your friends (who you allow to view moments).

- You can set the expiration time of your moments (so no one can see anything older than 1 month, 2 weeks, 1 day (I think?), And keep them visible forever if you want.

- You can only view comments from your friends. Your friends will not see your comment if they aren't friends with the poster whose moment you replied to. And your friend's friends won't see the comment unless they're friends with you. This keeps things personal and avoids flamewars between randoms.

Anyways, I personally like to use Strava to keep up with my active friends. You get to see them as they go on vacations and when they've gotten vaccinated based off an easy ride (and in the title). I use it to just peer into the lives of friends as they've moved to different countries and continents.

Re: Ask HN: What are some promising “healthy social media” projects?

#7

Post by efferifick »

Not sure how much this fits:

* fraidycat: RSS reader where the user can choose refresh rate for different type of feeds. Also different categories (i.e., friends vs brands).

* futureland.tv: a social media website focused on journals to document progress on users' projects. (no-ads)

Re: Ask HN: What are some promising “healthy social media” projects?

#8

Post by softwaredoug »

I would love something that optimizes for curiosity, instead of engagement. I wonder sometimes what signals we could take from a social network to promote things that spark curiosity and don't play on anxiety, create flame wars, etc... And if such a thing is even monetizable or worth building.

Hacker news is the closest thing, but even here clickbait sometimes happens :)

Re: Ask HN: What are some promising “healthy social media” projects?

#9

Post by nonameiguess »

I've just started calling my family on a regular basis. I never used to like phone calls, but I've gotten over it. For other people, if we haven't lived in the same city or seen each other for 25 years and we drift apart, oh well, we'll survive in the same way people have for ages as friends they used to know and love dropped out of their lives.

There are other ways. My wife's siblings have all kept a more or less permanent group text going for over a decade. One of my cousins sends out a paper newsletter to everyone once a year.

The small number of old-time friends in other parts of the country that I was ever truly close to I trust will still contact me if they're ever in the area, and I will contact them if I'm ever in their area, and there's always the 30 year reunion. I don't really need to know what they're up to on a daily basis. I just need to know if one of us ever really truly needs the other, we'll be there, and I do trust that even if I'm not given a live feed of their daily activities and opinions.

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