371–380 of 593 posts
So now younger people mainly use Instagram? Or what?
2. Who needs the app anyway? Facebook apps had always been ridiculous - outrageously heavyweight, coming with extra surveillance built-in and hardly doing anything the website can't.
Note I wrote my father in law when he had gone too far down the rabbit hole and legitimately worried about the poison it spreads around his demographic: I left Facebook when I read some press release about it being designed from the outset to make you feel bad because it keeps you engaged; hoping someone agrees with something you liked or shared and the dopamine hit it releases. I don’t like feeling manipulated and m…
It's an uncomfortable topic to broach, but you can't blame everyone else but your father for the opinions he holds.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't even know what Twitter is for except mutual high fives over the most superficial "look at me" memeish stuff. It's worse than facebook as far as the "get attention" vibe. Granted all social media is about getting attention, and I don't think there is anything wrong with it necessarily. Attention is nice, there is good reason for it, but when the message is so tailored to just that and there isn't anything else…
Medical twitter is fairly positive and a great way to learn about new papers and interact with educators and researchers. Check out the #foamed (Free Open Access Medicine) hashtag. I usually try to avoid following political people and keep my feed science-focused.
Note I wrote my father in law when he had gone too far down the rabbit hole and legitimately worried about the poison it spreads around his demographic: I left Facebook when I read some press release about it being designed from the outset to make you feel bad because it keeps you engaged; hoping someone agrees with something you liked or shared and the dopamine hit it releases. I don’t like feeling manipulated and m…
I don't even know what Twitter is for except mutual high fives over the most superficial "look at me" memeish stuff. It's worse than facebook as far as the "get attention" vibe. Granted all social media is about getting attention, and I don't think there is anything wrong with it necessarily. Attention is nice, there is good reason for it, but when the message is so tailored to just that and there isn't anything else…
Then, 2 years ago I created a new account that ONLY focused on a personal hobby of mine: retro-computing. I posted photos, links to cool articles, experiences from my workbench, etc. To my surprise, I began to get a lot of engagement. Like, 25-50X more than what I used to ever get on my professional persona's account.
I made a point to only follow back people who posted similarly to my own laser-beam focus. This takes a lot of time, but I have cultivated a stream of content I very much enjoy reading and scanning in my off-hours or lunch breaks. If you post about politics, or food, or cats, or simply whine or are acidic by nature, I don't follow those accounts back. I'm looking for good vibrations for a pastime hobby - that's it. And to my surprise (and those that know me personally and professionally that I've explained this to) it has worked beautifully for that. No one is a jerk and no one is trolling, none of that.
I've actually made several online friends around the country and the world as a result of the past 2+ years on Twitter.
Now, is my experience normal? No. If I were to guess it's probably in the top 2% in terms of the joy it brings me (vs. the rest of the user population who just hates to even look at Twitter anymore). And I totally get that.
I hope the service keeps going for my own greedy self-interests. But I also recognize that Mastadon may be the future, too. Or something else.
It's sort of how I changed my usage with Facebook. I deleted my personal account and created an anonymous account on FB that only is used for FB Groups (in, yes, the same hobby). These are closed groups that are moderated.
And holy smokes. It works.
Go figure.
Remove the YOU from social media, and use it to have fun about whatever it is you do to have fun, and it can actually be ... fun.