Reasons to Quit Social Media • Hacker News Board

Re: Reasons to Quit Social Media

#31

Post by reb » Wed, Sep 22, 2021, 4:00 PM UTC

SonicScrub wrote: post #26

iammisc wrote: post #6

Once the current regime let us go back to church, I deleted my Facebook. It's much better at church. Firstly, they feed me. Secondly, I can say what I think without being censored. It's not even that people all agree with me at church. It's that they treat you like a human being. Those who are unvaxxed are just some guy down the street, not someone who we are supposed to target in our hour of hate and wish death upon…

As the western world secularizes, we need a replacement for the community fulfillment role that organized religion used to take. As someone who was raised religious, but no longer identifies as such, I find my self missing the wonderful sense of community that my church facilitated by bringing broad spectrums of different people together to achieve a higher purpose. I know people's mileage will vary depending on thei…

I think the "cosmic purpose and stakes" component of religion is really tough to beat, hence the enduring power of churches. Transposing that element into other spaces creates a lot of the same issues. Subtracting it eliminates the secret sauce that makes a church sticky.

I've considered this question at length (for similar reasons as you), experimented once or twice, and haven't cracked it yet.

Re: Reasons to Quit Social Media

#32

Post by betenoire » Wed, Sep 22, 2021, 4:01 PM UTC

scarecrowbob wrote: post #15

betenoire wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it a forum? It doesn't have friends, following, asking for your contacts, etc. I guess the line is subjective, this is just a plain old forum, managed very well, imo.

For what little it's worth, I've been online since Compuserve and personal local BBSs... I absolutely consider HN to be social media.

Mind sharing why? Is it the features or something else?

When I think back 20 years to forums, HN feels most like those to me. It feels nothing like what most people call "social media"

Re: Reasons to Quit Social Media

#33

Post by clircle » Wed, Sep 22, 2021, 4:03 PM UTC

In reality, when people quit social media, they don't start using their time better, they mostly shift their time into different time waster websites. For example, people quit using facebook for 2 hours a day just start skimming reddit for 2 hours a day. They aren't going to start writing a book or bettering themselves in some way.

Re: Reasons to Quit Social Media

#34

Post by shuntress » Wed, Sep 22, 2021, 4:05 PM UTC

trutannus wrote: post #3

shuntress wrote: post #2

I don't want to quit social media What I want is for interactions with other people in online social spaces to be less destructive.

"I don't want to stop using drugs, I just want drugs that are not going to harm me while I use them" Unfortunately, social media by its nature is going to be harmful. It was never designed to consider the world we live in now.

Do you drink coffee?

Re: Reasons to Quit Social Media

#35

Post by slantyyz » Wed, Sep 22, 2021, 4:05 PM UTC

scarecrowbob wrote: post #15

betenoire wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it a forum? It doesn't have friends, following, asking for your contacts, etc. I guess the line is subjective, this is just a plain old forum, managed very well, imo.

For what little it's worth, I've been online since Compuserve and personal local BBSs... I absolutely consider HN to be social media.

> For what little it's worth, I've been online since Compuserve and personal local BBSs...

> I absolutely consider HN to be social media.

I've been online for the same period of time, and I absolutely do not consider HN to be social media.

Sure, there are some commonalities like upvotes, but I consider (my opinion only) these to be important criteria of something "being" social media:

a) Most importantly, a friends/connections list, or "followers"

b) Being able to see who liked/disliked posts

c) The "feed" being personalized/targeted

Re: Reasons to Quit Social Media

#36

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Sep 22, 2021, 4:07 PM UTC

clipradiowallet wrote: post #10

I don't have(and never have had) any social media accounts...ie facebook, twitter, instagram, tiktok, etc. The closest would be an HN account. That said, could someone tell me what I might be missing? Ignorance is bliss, but it's also ignorance - is there any critical information or happiness that everyone else [who uses social media] enjoys that I do not?

[deleted]

Re: Reasons to Quit Social Media

#37

Post by RandallBrown » Wed, Sep 22, 2021, 4:07 PM UTC

clipradiowallet wrote: post #10

I don't have(and never have had) any social media accounts...ie facebook, twitter, instagram, tiktok, etc. The closest would be an HN account. That said, could someone tell me what I might be missing? Ignorance is bliss, but it's also ignorance - is there any critical information or happiness that everyone else [who uses social media] enjoys that I do not?

Do you have any friends that you've lost touch with?

All my best friends from high school live all over the country. Some of us have grown apart and that's okay, but I do enjoy passively keeping up with what they're doing on Facebook.

How about family members who you grew up with but now live on other sides of the country?

I have some older cousins that moved to California as soon as they graduated college. I was probably 8 or 9 at the time so it's not like I had any real way of keeping in touch with them. Now we're friends on Facebook and I can see what they're doing.

Ever wanted to go on a hike in the mountains in the spring and see if there's snow on the trail you're about to do? Someone probably tried already and posted a photo on Instagram.

Ever see some new construction in a building and wonder "What's moving in to this space?" There's probably a hyper local Facebook group where someone has already posted that information.

If you're watching a football game and want to get live commentary by people other than the announcers. Twitter is great for that.

I also use Facebook for organizing events like ski weekends or camping trips. I haven't found anything that even comes close for event planning.

Re: Reasons to Quit Social Media

#38

Post by syshum » Wed, Sep 22, 2021, 4:08 PM UTC

zzzbra wrote: post #25

I think part of the problem today with individuals trying to figure out how to moderate their social media usage is that it's not clear what specifically within social media constitutes harm. Is it the like/upvote mechanism? Hacker News would constitute harmful social media in that case. But what might be lost is a powerful lever for democratic input in terms of content curation and moderation. My vote for what's mor…

>>Is it the like/upvote mechanism?

Yes. This is what created the validation feedback loop, and what generally causes the social harm

The like button, and the variations on it is IMO the biggest problem with social media

Forums and other discussion boards did not have these problems and while you could have "flame war" that involved actual argumentation back and forth not 1000's of passive visitors choosing to upvote, or downvote on a post with no argumentation

Re: Reasons to Quit Social Media

#39

Post by BeFlatXIII » Wed, Sep 22, 2021, 4:09 PM UTC

zzzbra wrote: post #25

I think part of the problem today with individuals trying to figure out how to moderate their social media usage is that it's not clear what specifically within social media constitutes harm. Is it the like/upvote mechanism? Hacker News would constitute harmful social media in that case. But what might be lost is a powerful lever for democratic input in terms of content curation and moderation. My vote for what's mor…

The pagination on HN is one of its better UX decisions. Same with turning off auto-loading when you reach the end of the front page of Reddit (but that's not the default).

Re: Reasons to Quit Social Media

#40

Post by lurker619 » Wed, Sep 22, 2021, 4:09 PM UTC

SonicScrub wrote: post #26

iammisc wrote: post #6

Once the current regime let us go back to church, I deleted my Facebook. It's much better at church. Firstly, they feed me. Secondly, I can say what I think without being censored. It's not even that people all agree with me at church. It's that they treat you like a human being. Those who are unvaxxed are just some guy down the street, not someone who we are supposed to target in our hour of hate and wish death upon…

As the western world secularizes, we need a replacement for the community fulfillment role that organized religion used to take. As someone who was raised religious, but no longer identifies as such, I find my self missing the wonderful sense of community that my church facilitated by bringing broad spectrums of different people together to achieve a higher purpose. I know people's mileage will vary depending on thei…

Agreed, I liked the community and bonding aspects as well. And I'm saying this as a first-generation immigrant who isn't even Christian - even though I know the church's overall mandate is to 'convert' people or whatever, I got a sense that the youth ministers at the church didn't really care - we all just wanted to share some good times.