"I use Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, and I feel fine!"
-- most of the planet, but you'd never know it by reading HN
I deleted my Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram accounts, and felt great since
31–40 of 246 posts
Re: I deleted my Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram accounts, and felt great since
#32Very insightful blogpost and good for the author. It shows its possible to get away from Facebook's social network drug store which they purposefully make it hard for you to quit or delete your profile(s). With Facebook, there's no such thing as 'privacy' and 'account deletion'. I hope that everyone else isn't addicted to another drug that is called 'Twitter' which one of its side-effects is 'getting the worst out of…
This may sound overly-dramatic, but I think Twitter is to blame for many of the problems in the world. The "cancel culture" and lack of real debate that stems from Twitter is all due to a race-to-the-bottom environment with people competing to get the most blunt/sarcastic/outlandish statement distilled into a tiny soundbite to try increase their engagement.
So many important topics are "discussed" on Twitter with the outcomes of these discussions often leading to financial, political or mental ruin. Complex topics such as politics, inequality, racial issues, or gender diversity should never be discussed on Twitter. It's impossible to adequately to condense these complex issues into 240 characters.
Re: I deleted my Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram accounts, and felt great since
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's the distinction? They both have a community and social features. Commenting, upvotes/liking, posting links, user profiles. HN mainly lacks private messaging and groups.
The term "social media" seems to have arrived a good time after forums did on the internet. I remember standing up websites and paying for a vBulletin license in order to add forum functionality a decade before I first heard the term "social media." I could entertain the idea that those old forums were "social media" the whole time, but they sure didn't feel like the cesspool of anger that twitter and facebook seem t…
> but they sure didn't feel like the cesspool of anger that twitter and facebook seem to represent
Not that that's a defining feature of social media (at least it shouldn't be).
But I would say that traditional forums and ones like this and Slashdot fall within this (somewhat arbitrary) definition:
> Websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.
Re: I deleted my Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram accounts, and felt great since
#34I'm in a similar boat to the author and have also recently deleted my Facebook and Instagram account - although I'll note that the sneaky "to be deleted" state is now 30 days instead of just 7. But, similar to the author, I'm having more difficulty getting rid of WhatsApp. This is my primary means of communicating with friends and family all over the world. And for some of them I know it's just not an option to try g…
Durov (Telegram) had a fallout with Russian government elite who raided his business and now lives in exile in UK (last time I checked). He has no direct links to KGB. Indirect - who knows.
Re: I deleted my Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram accounts, and felt great since
#35Scientifically, it's not a robust conclusion. The kind of person who wants to delete FB etc is the kind of person who will feel better after they do it.
Personally, I just use FB in a pretty restricted way. I unfollow most friends unless they post stuff I like engaging with. I give FB the bare minimum of my own personal data, and block all the ads they serve. I mostly post questions for discussion, rather than highlights of my life.
I don't use Insta, although I'm considering it. Lots of friends have described really fun, healthy little communities they're part of. (I still think of Instagram as a photography community, which is how old I am.)
I don't use WhatsApp by choice, but occasionally it's someone else's preferred way to communicate. I don't have a problem with it.
Re: I deleted my Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram accounts, and felt great since
#36Now what if you delete HN next? Will you feel even better?
Re: I deleted my Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram accounts, and felt great since
#37People who get sad looking at other people's lives on Instagram are likely so emotionally fragile that they'd probably get sad reading a book about other people's lives.
Burn all books.
"I burned my books, magazines, and eReaders and I FEEL FUCKING AMAZING OH MY GOD IF YOU COULD EXPERIENCE THIS LEVEL OF PURE UNADULTERATED JOY AND CONTENTMENT YOU WOULD SHIT YOURSELF."
Re: I deleted my Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram accounts, and felt great since
#38"I use Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, and I feel fine!" -- most of the planet, but you'd never know it by reading HN
people said the same thing about smoking 80 years ago and here we are. I'm not sure appealing to the prevailing common sense on long term issues of public health or socio-economics is particularly relevant.
Re: I deleted my Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram accounts, and felt great since
#39People who get sad looking at other people's lives on Instagram are likely so emotionally fragile that they'd probably get sad reading a book about other people's lives. Burn all books. "I burned my books, magazines, and eReaders and I FEEL FUCKING AMAZING OH MY GOD IF YOU COULD EXPERIENCE THIS LEVEL OF PURE UNADULTERATED JOY AND CONTENTMENT YOU WOULD SHIT YOURSELF."
False equivalence. Images and written text have different effects on the brain and emotions. You follow famous people on social media, who have 1,000x your wealth, travel all the time, get adequate sleep, meals, and exercise -- and it can chip away at your self-worth in a way books just can't.
Re: I deleted my Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram accounts, and felt great since
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've always considered it a forum more than social media.
What's the distinction? They both have a community and social features. Commenting, upvotes/liking, posting links, user profiles. HN mainly lacks private messaging and groups.
>What's the distinction?
persistent identity and status, that is to say the 'social' part. A lot of damage of social networks arguably is rooted in the competition for status and attention that you get when you get twitter likes and people complementing you, and the horror when you end up in a shitstorm and your reputation is suddenly ruined. It's also what makes it addictive.
Most people on HN just seem to post more or less anonymously. The upvote or downvote mechanisms aren't even particularly visible.
The worst thing you get here is 4 downvotes and a heated discussion. This is not like twitter where your career and face is on the line.