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Reasons to Quit Social Media

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Re: Reasons to Quit Social Media

#231

Post by zzzbra »

tait wrote: post #81
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…

Good points. On the other hand, I couldn’t fit your whole comment on one screen. I did scroll down to tap reply. Please stand by while I go recover.

lack of infinite scroll != no scrolling.

Re: Reasons to Quit Social Media

#232

Post by 3grdlurker »

filmgirlcw wrote: post #224

I would take this more seriously if this person wasn’t hocking a $150 a year book summary service and a twice-monthly newsletter. I’m not shading the hustle, you do you, but it just feels weird to advocate cutting out social media in your life, yet actively asking people to pay you with their attention and money to hear your thoughts and feelings. His first theoretical reason for using social media, for validation, s…

Technically what you’re doing is ad hominem—invalidating the arguments of the post by attacking what the author does for a living. It’s not even necessary that someone who makes (possibly extra) money publishing insights is out for validation—there really are just people who are willing to pay for insights and he’s simply fulfilling a demand. Anything else beyond seeing what he does as simply business is pure speculation.

Re: Reasons to Quit Social Media

#234

Post by barbs »

dfmooreqqq wrote: post #59
enos_feedler wrote: post #45

“ We persuade our minds that liking pictures and joining virtual groups gives us a sense of belonging. Connection with others” Except in many cases its not persuasion. Joining groups actually does give us these things. My gf is part of “bay area moms” group and the amount of useful tips she gets out of participating in that is significant. Or “bay area hikers” for me. Also, if i want to sell something, I hire faceboo…

> I think to reduce social media to some of the crappy jobs it does serve artificially diminishes what it can be. I agree completely with this. The article takes two bad parts of social media and assumes that those are the only uses for it. You've mentioned more. There's also keeping connected in a group context with family and friends that are scattered across the globe. I have an active family group in which my fam…

I agree as well. Those two use-cases for using Facebook don't seem to apply to me. Here's what I use it for:

- Local community groups - I have a few groups localised for my suburb and surrounds, specifically "good karma" groups which are for people asking for/offering help. I'm also part of volunteer organisations and specific interest groups that post updates.

- Buying/selling, both on the marketplace and groups specific for certain things.

- Events. Useful for keeping up-to-date with event information, offering lifts to places and buying/selling tickets.

- Chat. Both with my friends and certain chat groups and also being able to contact people within my network quickly and easily.

I rarely if ever post anything on my profile, and I block the News Feed with plugins/extensions to avoid the infinite scroll.

Granted, a lot of these things could be replaced with other services out there. I'm aware of the privacy concerns and the UI/UX is getting worse over time. I hate Facebook, but the community and people I want to access all use it, so I don't really have a choice if I want to keep in touch.

To claim that people only use social media to seek validation or because your life is so mediocre that you need to consume the best moments of other people's lives, strikes me as a bit out-of-touch and arrogant.

Re: Reasons to Quit Social Media

#235

Post by SNosTrAnDbLe »

filmgirlcw wrote: post #224

I would take this more seriously if this person wasn’t hocking a $150 a year book summary service and a twice-monthly newsletter. I’m not shading the hustle, you do you, but it just feels weird to advocate cutting out social media in your life, yet actively asking people to pay you with their attention and money to hear your thoughts and feelings. His first theoretical reason for using social media, for validation, s…

I have had success reaching larger corporations using Facebook. I use it strictly as a directory of contacts both personal and professional. I never look to it for casual content consumption. I have hackernews and sometimes reddit for that.

Re: Reasons to Quit Social Media

#239

Post by eyelidlessness »

eloff wrote: post #203
nonbirithm wrote: post #186

> After the habit of scrolling and liking wears off, you suddenly find yourself in a joyful place. A quieter, calmer, less demanding place where you don’t want to know what others are doing. You focus on what you want to do. But what if you don't know what you want to do? I feel like this post was written from the perspective of someone who already has their own life goals sorted out, and social media was clearly act…

You won't find yourself by seeking distraction. You need to eliminate distractions and feel the pain of boredom, which will motivate you to try things.

I found my self by seeking distraction, but go off.

Re: Reasons to Quit Social Media

#240

Post by PikachuEXE »

eloff wrote: post #203
nonbirithm wrote: post #186

> After the habit of scrolling and liking wears off, you suddenly find yourself in a joyful place. A quieter, calmer, less demanding place where you don’t want to know what others are doing. You focus on what you want to do. But what if you don't know what you want to do? I feel like this post was written from the perspective of someone who already has their own life goals sorted out, and social media was clearly act…

You won't find yourself by seeking distraction. You need to eliminate distractions and feel the pain of boredom, which will motivate you to try things.

People need the empty time/space/gap (whatever you call it) to do more thinking.

Some people intentionally created more time/space/gap to do more thinking.

Distraction like social media filled that gap too easily compared to thinking.

We need more people preferring more thinking or even "overthinking".

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28158435

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