Live data from Hacker News

I Quit Social Media for a Year

joshcsimmons.com

11–20 of 380 posts

Re: I Quit Social Media for a Year

#11
Interesting, I have noticed ("excuse based") defensive mechanism when it comes to this topic ...

most people I have witnessed start to use very poor arguments of why they want to stay on social networks ... very similar to people with "un-noticed" alcohol problem.

But yes, nothing magical happend without it. Just maybe realization how stupid it is.

Re: I Quit Social Media for a Year

#12
post #4

The thing I have found to be extremely helpful is to very carefully curate who who I follow - in particular I don't friend/follow anyone I have any sort of regular f2f interactions with - family, coworkers, neighbors. I use it exclusively to keep up with out-of-state friends, others involved with the same sort of niche hobbies, that sort of thing. Avoids sooo much drama.

Interesting approach. I have to wonder though, if such a thoughtful strategy is needed to stay sane what else is unhealthy?

Re: I Quit Social Media for a Year

#13

I quit Facebook for a few years, it didn't do anything to my life one way or another, except maybe put me in a group of people others had to reach out "out of band" to invite to things, which practically meant I had to hear about events second hand or not go to things. The emotional vitriol inspired by social media is completely unfounded. You can make it whatever experience you want; people just like to complain. Th…

Yes! I’ve never used FB, and refuse to, as a result I miss all sorts of notification of things occurring because everyone seems to assume everyone does use it. Drives me nuts!

Re: I Quit Social Media for a Year

#16
post #9

> The only logical reason I could figure for why this is done, is to make you feel bad about having a lower number than other people, otherwise why would they bother broadcasting this number, proudly at the top of your profile page, to other users? The reason probably is so that people connect more and see more stuff from other people, and stay active on the network. partialrecall: Of course it's motivated by profit.

Is that motivated by a desire to help the user, or does the social network have a more selfish motivation for driving user engagement? I think it's more the later than the former, though I expect the social network to pretend it's the former.

Re: I Quit Social Media for a Year

#17
post #11

Interesting, I have noticed ("excuse based") defensive mechanism when it comes to this topic ... most people I have witnessed start to use very poor arguments of why they want to stay on social networks ... very similar to people with "un-noticed" alcohol problem. But yes, nothing magical happend without it. Just maybe realization how stupid it is.

Nothing magical happening is what's supposed to happen. I've seen lower stress levels simply because I'm not as connected to the news and political cycle. But that's also because I only check once a week. It's the new normal, which isn't magical, because it was also the old normal.

Re: I Quit Social Media for a Year

#18
post #12
post #4

The thing I have found to be extremely helpful is to very carefully curate who who I follow - in particular I don't friend/follow anyone I have any sort of regular f2f interactions with - family, coworkers, neighbors. I use it exclusively to keep up with out-of-state friends, others involved with the same sort of niche hobbies, that sort of thing. Avoids sooo much drama.

Interesting approach. I have to wonder though, if such a thoughtful strategy is needed to stay sane what else is unhealthy?

I always thought the way the parent poster uses social media is the way it's supposed to to be used. That's the only way I've ever used it.

Re: I Quit Social Media for a Year

#19
post #7

> the sole reason I have taken photos is to share them via social media That's quite a realization. I think it's true for a lot of people though and it's part of why people experience the best times of their life through a 6" display.

My experience is that rest of the world has moved on to group chats and sharing a lot there

In the US my experience is that tail end millenials and gen Z are gravitating to group chats too. Pretty much just millenials and older and the subset of those with no international friends are the people stuck on the public oversharing train. And some women that could pass in a forever 21 catalogue.

Re: I Quit Social Media for a Year

#20
When I quit I ended up reading books and watching TV for entertainment. I literally read over a million words of fiction (Worm) in one month with the spare time.

It was a lot more fulfilling, and I'll remember that time. While in contrast there are few social media moments I'll miss.

I had to actually force myself to get back into social media. I'm not sure what the author here means by withdrawal; there was maybe a period of 1 week trying to get back in, but it was over quickly.

One big thing that happened was the number of consulting contracts went down significantly and never recovered. I'm quite Facebook active and used to get two interview offers a month. In fact last month I got a huge opportunity that I would have gladly accepted if I wasn't committed to anything else.

I'd be happy if social media was just wiped out and we went back to socializing on forums and IRC.

Post reply on HN