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'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media

bbc.com

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Re: 'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media

#91

Post by afandian »

DrBazza wrote: post #41
sn41 wrote: post #12

I 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.

> 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. The article is on the BBC news site. As someone that's a bit older than the average on here, I can remember when the BBC news site was just that - news. Now, it's changed subtly. Some articles now have 'by John Smith', the author, un…

I've not paid attention to that detail of the news website. We but we've always had named correspondents on BBC Radio news. And newsreaders for that matter.

Re: 'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media

#92

Post by rodolphoarruda »

blodkorv wrote: post #56

I have quitted social media many many times. But i always end back up, even tho i get that liberating feeling. There is alway this boring evening that makes you want to just check in and se what is going on and then it grabs hold of you. I wish there was a way i could ban my IP or something else more permanent to really remove me from most social media platforms. As it is now, its too easy to create a new account or…

> I wish there was a way i could ban my IP

I thought of something like a reverse robots.txt, a file residing in your device(s) that could tell servers you don't want to see news nor social features. Something like no-news.txt or even no-social.txt.

Re: 'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media

#93

Post by thelittleone »

DrBazza wrote: post #41
sn41 wrote: post #12

I 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.

> 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. The article is on the BBC news site. As someone that's a bit older than the average on here, I can remember when the BBC news site was just that - news. Now, it's changed subtly. Some articles now have 'by John Smith', the author, un…

My folks are around 70 now. I just flew back home to visit them. Every day in the evening the news goes on, and they sit together and watch (muting only the advertisements). Years ago I would watch to, but this time I was observing my folks and wondering about the origins of this pattern / habit.

During WW2, the AM radio informed the population, no doubt saving lives. Families would gather around the radio for BBC news, compelled by uncertainty and fear. The war finished, the years went by, radio became a TV. When I suggest maybe skipping the news, it's met with shock and something along the lines of "not watch the news? we need to be informed".

Re: 'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media

#94

Post by gwd »

bambax wrote: post #36
ThePhysicist wrote: post #21

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 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 abo…

> I never follow any political poster but liking is enough.

I suspect that clicking, or perhaps even pausing is enough. The only time I look at Twitter is when running my organization's Twitter account. I try to follow technical people and organizations, and am mostly looking for something of a pulse on what's going on in the Linux / FLOSS crowd on Twitter. Since I'm representing my project, not myself, I never click 'like' on anything political; and I'm pretty sure my predecessor in the role never did either.

And yet, here I am every day, wading through loads of political posts which mysteriously mostly align with my preferences.

Edited for clarity.

Re: 'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media

#95

Post by Semaphor »

Considering how many people on HN (Almost every FB related thread has at least one upvoted "I deleted facebook, it’s been so much better since" comment.) and apparently in some other places seem to have a social media addiction, that becomes liberating once they quit, I wonder if it’s a widespread problem, or if it’s a loud minority?

I quit most social media, not because it’s liberating, but because either a) the website became unusable (Facebook, I still use it for groups which are closer to how the timeline used to be) or b) It became boring (Twitter many years ago after I had been there since the start). Neither of those felt liberating, and especially in the Facebook case, I missed the interactions I had.

Re: 'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media

#96

Post by yotamoron »

Lapsa wrote: post #75
yotamoron wrote: post #65

7 years ago I deleted my FB account. The mental relief was immediate. Since then, I deleted all my social media accounts - LinkedIn (in some insanely magical way I'm still employed!) and twitter. Being the old fart I am, I had no other social media accounts. Not taking any needless selfies, not posting crap, not waiting anxiously for likes or comments, not reading BS from people I don't know just because some algorit…

I kept LinkedIn account alive. enjoying those spam letters telling me how much xx new contacts I got. might even log in and take a look who's that if/when I'll look for a new job

For me LinkedIn just became another kind of FB, with people writing stupid posts, trying to present themselves as smart and successful and beautiful and PC and blah blah blah.

Not for me, thank you very much.

Re: 'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media

#97

Post by kdhfkhhhhh »

qikInNdOutReply wrote: post #24
raydiatian wrote: post #2

Social 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.

Yes, and after societies grew larger than villages, many of them started coming up with things like "courts" and "due process".

Thankfully we're moving back to a more openly reputation-based system. I'm currently looking for a group of seven respected men that will swear oaths to my innocence if I'm accused of anything.

Re: 'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media

#98

Post by werber »

In the past 6 months I accidentally transitioned to only using BeReal, the finiteness of the app is really comfortable, in its current state you get a quick little update, send yours and the whole thing is over in 2 minutes. I hope it doesn't get ruined, but I also have no idea how they are keeping the lights on.

Re: 'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media

#99

Post by instagraham »

sn41 wrote: post #12

I 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.

It is very likely that there is a lot more cause to make one's blood boil today, especially with the growing radicalisation of those who enjoy being contrarian for the sake of it.

One can't blame the news for being a mirror. Especially where I live (India), it is almost a joke to suggest (as so many here do) that the media should focus on "positive" stories - when doing so would be Goebbelsian.

Re: 'It's so liberating': The people quitting social media

#100

Post by recuter »

te_chris wrote: post #45
ThePhysicist wrote: post #21

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 peopl…

It’s the “x who you followed liked this” that did me in. Turns out a lot of the smart people I followed followed complete tools. Twitter gave me no options to ignore, so I just deleted instead.

Never e-meet your heroes I suppose. But you know, your mind is your own, you can just literally ignore or make peace with parts of reality you find unpleasant.

It seems quite strange to me how people clamor for push button blinders on what is actual life. You are not a horse to be led around by an app.

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