I never understood the charm of social media… why should I care about what people I couldn’t care less think about my life (hence share what I do) and conversely why should I follow people I couldn’t care less. With the people I care I usually have real conversations… no need for social media.
'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media
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Re: 'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media
#32I 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 th…
Yeah the only reasons I can think of to cut it out entirely is because you want people to see how brave and pious you are, or because you're addicted and need to cut out the temptation to waste your life on Twitter entirely.
I can understand the latter, but there's nothing noble about refusing to use social media at all.
Re: 'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media
#33Social media is one great big psy-op. Best to not be a part of it at all.
I wonder what a significant change in attitudes toward social-tech
will mean for those of us, still in a minority, who have never been on
it?
No doubt the irony will be I'll have to listen to endless "news" from friends who haven't spoken to me in real-life for 15 years, about how "Liberating it is". :)
Re: 'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media
#34I felt even better when I quit news media as well. Now I read the print newspapers, just to see whether there is any change in legislation that I need to know about. My blood does boil even there, with the subtle editorializing tell us what to feel about what is essentially a neutral news item, but it's much easier to control than the online media.
I used to listen to NPR news now EVERY morning, mulled over nearly every post on /r/worldnews and then I slowly realized it's mostly fluff and media outlets trying to squeeze discussion out of things that a really just a one and done event. Nowadays, there is just so much drama and noise surrounding every single thing that happens in the world. It's of no value actually. So I've quit news consumption altogether as well, it's super liberating.
This is like the Tim Ferriss approach: if some news is really that huge, you'll hear about it from a friend or coworker eventually. And if it's news like globalthermonuclear war, you won't benefit from hearing about it 5 minutes earlier anyway ;)
Re: 'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media
#35I 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 th…
> 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?
If you consider them social media, that would imply telephone itself is a social media, which makes a definition of the word "social media" somewhat useless for distinguishing services such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and similar.
Re: 'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media
#36I 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 peopl…
> 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.
Yes. I don't know if it wants us to see more ads or be more "engaged". I'm currently fascinated by generative art and find a lot of interesting posts about this on Twitter.
Yet Twitter keeps showing me posts about politics that upset me; I can't help but "liking" some of those, which feeds the feedback machine.
I never follow any political poster but liking is enough. I could certainly block or mute all of them but that feels wrong, esp. people I fundamentally agree with.
I'm not sure what to do. Not use Twitter seems the best solution.
Re: 'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media
#37I 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 th…
Deleting social media apps from your phone is a good start. I removed Facebook earlier this year after getting into one too many arguments with my conspiracy prone father.
I still login from time to time. I just do it via the website. It has become less of a compulsion, to the point that my partner sometimes has to prompt me to look at some photos or like some important life event from a friend. I'm ok with that.
Re: 'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media
#38Social media is one great big psy-op. Best to not be a part of it at all.
A tech platform, or a social mechanism, can be multiple things at once. And doubly so when you're talking about multiple platforms. Social networks are...
* A commercial advertising delivery mechanism
* A US government mass-surveillance honeypot
* A way for Jane Smith to follow what her acquaintances or family members are doing elsewhere in the world
* An outlet for venting frustrations about politics
etc. etc. And all that dopes not really contradict "big psy-op".
Re: 'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media
#39I 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 th…
That is like solving the opioid crisis by saying "you should use painkillers in moderation" or the obesity epidemic by saying "we all just need to be disciplined with what you eat."
The issue is systemic. Most people's idea of "social Media" today is the algorithm-fueled, privacy-invading, advertising funded model which divorces the users from the curation of good content.
We need social media platforms that are not owned by Big Tech, and we need to reject the notion that it is okay to data tracking and ads one exchange of a "free" service.
Re: 'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media
#40I 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…
Just as an experiment I tried to access the facebook pages for the local restaurants. I could easily see the opening hours and phone number even though I wasn't logged in.
I'm in the UK. Is it a different experience where you are?
Or are you refusing to access the facebook website at all?