I effectively shut down my Twitter account a while ago, best thing I did for my mental health in the past year. There are interesting people on Twitter but the algorithm just works like a slot machine that tries to keep you on the site no matter the cost, it's not optimized to serve you but to make you view more ads. In addition it's almost impossible to have a civilized discussion, it often feels more like two people standing in different corners of a public space screaming insults at each other, and various crowds cheering them on.
'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media
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Re: 'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media
#22I disagree with this general sentiment. I don't think absolutely 0 social media is feasible or even wise this day in age. How are you going to keep up with family, friends, and so on? (In my case, family and friends span multiple states, countries, and continents!) You would at the very least need a phone - ok, that's maybe not "social media" in the sense this article talks about, but it's still tech at the end of the day. You'd anyway likely need an app like WhatsApp or Telegram to keep track of everybody and everything - and those technically ARE considered social media right?
Like all things, "social media" is good only with strict moderation and balance. The real problem is that people let their usage get out of hand.
Re: 'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media
#23Amazing how as soon as Elon buys Twitter and bluechecks loose their privilege, there is one Mastodon endorsement [0] and one "quit social media" article on BCC in short succession trending on HN. Probably nothing.
Re: 'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media
#24Social media is one great big psy-op. Best to not be a part of it at all.
Uncomfortable take, maybe its a necessary PsyOp. In ancient times, when you screwed up the village would shun you and that status as a shunned, would act as a reminder for others to not engage in unacceptable behaviour.
This is what social media is now. If you engage in warcrimes, your face and name will be known to the world for all times.
Re: 'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media
#25Social media is one great big psy-op. Best to not be a part of it at all.
It is not a psy-op aside from people trying to get people addicted and exposed to advertising. Zuckerberg once said that people are stupid to share so much voluntarily. Everyone underestimated stupidity vastly. And for public personas there certainly are some advantages and some just use it to contact others. But the normal user perhaps doesn't reflect the costs.
If it isn't, it had certainly worked out like one.
Mounds upon mounds of personal data, recent photographs of the population, countless "private" conversations are all available easily and instantly if you just ask your mate up in SIGINT.
Re: 'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media
#26But didn't quit LinkedIn.
Re: 'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media
#27Social media is one great big psy-op. Best to not be a part of it at all.
No post body was provided.
Re: 'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
It would make a nice Onion article : "I freed myself from social networks" says man on Twitter.
College Humor beat them to it https://youtu.be/md4kM9AKjHs
And Ali G beat College Humour by a decade: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xx5t5ps-bwc
"There is a mate of mine who rejects all technology... You can read about it on his website"
Re: 'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media
#29I stopped using facebook and Twitter about 10 years ago. I can't say I noticed any difference back then.
The thing I am noticing now is that a larger part of civil society has moved to Facebook. I can't even find the opening hours or phone numbers of many restaurants, which means I just have to guess or not go at all. One company I quickly left had support through Facebook.
I hate it. And I think people are crazy to hand such a large chunk of society over to social media companies.
Re: 'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media
#30But didn't quit LinkedIn.
I have a LinkedIn profile up as a form of a business card of sorts, but only ever go there if someone contacts me personally.