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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

#141

Post by MattPalmer1086 »

dzhiurgis wrote: post #120
birracerveza wrote: post #69

I don't have Facebook. I don't have Twitter. I don't even have Instagram, or TikTok. I stay away from all kinds of social media, aside from Telegram to chat with my friends, and it's been this way for the last 10 or so years... and boy do I get confirmation that I made a very good choice very, very often.

How is hacker news and likes of reddit or even slashdot not a social media. In some ways reddit is much worse (echo chamber) than twitter.

I don't see sites that just have user discussions as social media. To me they're essentially usenet but on a web site.

I'd say to qualify as social media you need to make the experience about connecting people with each other or with groups, and finding people to connect with. Things like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and Twitter are all definitely social media.

A site that just posts news headlines that people comment on is not really social media IMHO.

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

#142

Post by stillbourne »

I quit facebook in 2015. I felt like it had stopped being about sharing what I'm doing with my audience of close friends and started to become an infinite outrage machine. Posting things to facebook became akin to slapping the feeder bar. I realized that is was not sustainable, mentally, to indulge in a constantly escalating verbal war with people I only knew by 2 to 3 degrees of separation. I made a full backup of my facebook account to save my pictures I had posted and deleted me account. I feel that was similar in some aspects from unplugging from the matrix.

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

#143

Post by Sakos »

yellow_lead wrote: post #122
Sakos wrote: post #15

I used TikTok for about a month earlier this year out of curiosity. I feel like it still has significant effects on my emotional and psychological state months later. I can't imagine what it does to a person to use anything like it daily for years.

Good effects?

Sorry, I was a bit too vague. Negative effects. For example, my depression got worse and my ability to cope with social contacts elsewhere in my life got worse (such as becoming more sensitive to perceived rejection, and consequently turning more to TikTok to counteract the negative feelings, leading to my reducing maintenance of real relationships).

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

#144

Post by disqard »

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…

Good analogies!

It also kinda follows from your "public space" analogy, that the loudest people screaming the most obnoxious and entertaining insults, will dominate this space.

Extending your analogy a bit further, this "public space" is really more of a "public bathroom" wall, where people scribble hot takes, and others react to those with more hot takes of their own.

I'm happy for you that you shut down your account a while ago -- I haven't used mine in months, and should probably do the same right now.

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

#145

Post by raxxorraxor »

probably_wrong wrote: post #70
freedom2099 wrote: post #31

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.

But... you are here in HN with the rest of us. Why are you reading the comments of people you couldn't care less about? Of course, as someone who never uses Twitter and yet has been here since 2013 I have a good feeling of what your answer is likely to be. But my deeper point is: people get out of Twitter the same that I (and maybe you) get out of HN. Different strokes for different folks.

I think we shouldn't call HN social media, I wouldn't even call reddit social media. Yes, there are discussions. But the topic is the focus, while many other platforms, including Twitter, are people oriented. People curate your content, on the other platforms said content is decided by topic.

Maybe use social media if you want to, but there is an inherit difference between these platforms. I had good discussions on HN but I couldn't name you any user, not even their handle. It isn't of particular interest most of the time. There are a few exceptions of course but those are far and few between.

A bus ride just isn't the same as a party, even if many people come together.

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

#146

Post by mmargerum »

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…

Twitter is the least taxing of the social media sites to use and I actually get useful info from it. Just curate who you follow to keep the SNR up. I don't have any other social media accounts. The rest is just trash
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