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What it’s like to have a social media detox

theguardian.com

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Re: What it’s like to have a social media detox

#81

Post by isk517 »

dijit wrote: post #4

Honestly, it's very difficult to cut social media. We like to tell ourselves that those who managed to quit (and are informing us of how bad it is) are being snobs or acting superior: but the truth is unfortunately that we are just feeling defensive of our inability cut the habit. I managed to get off of facebook and my mental health improved greatly, enough that I actually notice it. However, that was insanely hard…

Curating Twitter is almost impossible. The most interesting accounts are also the ones that will occasionally tweet or retweet something that is likely to leave you angry, and after awhile you end up following enough of them that your feed will always have at least one person tweeting stuff that will just leave you feeling upset. My solution was to just walk away from the entire thing.

Re: What it’s like to have a social media detox

#82

Post by mixmastamyk »

dijit wrote: post #4

Honestly, it's very difficult to cut social media. We like to tell ourselves that those who managed to quit (and are informing us of how bad it is) are being snobs or acting superior: but the truth is unfortunately that we are just feeling defensive of our inability cut the habit. I managed to get off of facebook and my mental health improved greatly, enough that I actually notice it. However, that was insanely hard…

Does it make you (money | happy)?

If not, don’t do it. Learned this from a podcast.

Re: What it’s like to have a social media detox

#84

Post by sys_64738 »

famahar wrote: post #73
sys_64738 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm still on Instagram, I'm on tiktok, I'm on Twitter. Tik Tok is another one that I just didn't see the utility in. Why would I want to watch a video of somebody being stupid? I just need to look around at people doing that in the normal walks of life.

You're really downplaying Tiktok. When it was starting up it was mostly a collection of teens dancing and making memes. Now there's content for everything made by a huge spectrum of people. Every person that relies on social media to maintain a brand needs to be on tiktok now. You scroll long enough and it'll feed you content hyper specific to your personality. I don't want to join Tiktok specifically because I know…

Doesn't Youtube provide the same utility?

Re: What it’s like to have a social media detox

#85

Post by jolancer »

dijit wrote: post #4

Honestly, it's very difficult to cut social media. We like to tell ourselves that those who managed to quit (and are informing us of how bad it is) are being snobs or acting superior: but the truth is unfortunately that we are just feeling defensive of our inability cut the habit. I managed to get off of facebook and my mental health improved greatly, enough that I actually notice it. However, that was insanely hard…

This is basically the social media addiction bargaining version of "I can't quit drinking, I will lose contact with all my friends at the bar!. Just have to accept that alcohol is part of society and social interaction."

Re: What it’s like to have a social media detox

#86

Post by dchuk »

jeffreportmill1 wrote: post #54

I just wish FaceBook was presented to me like HackerNews: - My Favorite Group is meeting next week at a local restaurant - My Neighbor is on yet another amazing trip with his perfect family - My old classmate found a preachy article that he wants to share - etc. I crave the connection, but there is such a thin line between that and bragging. I love it at a party when I ask what someone has been up to and they have an…

This…is a fantastic product idea. Merging the Reddit/hacker news temporal ranked feed concept with personal profiles.

Re: What it’s like to have a social media detox

#87

Post by schipplock »

dijit wrote: post #70
schipplock wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and telling people to quit is unreasonable. well, it's not :/. Just quit.

omg, why didn't I think of that? https://i.redd.it/5tqpouqebvp11.jpg My whole post is about how I've been trying, have tried, and how I've failed. I'm 33 now, I've quit many other addictive things but this one seems to rope me back.

:D

Re: What it’s like to have a social media detox

#88

Post by permo-w »

darthrupert wrote: post #75
JustHiThere wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

can you elaborate ? This has imho nothing to do with social media. I check hackernews daily, I pick articles (or discover new tools ...) that spark my curiosity and I read them, period. Sometimes I engage and exchange with other people, leave my opinion etc ... This is nothing close to what Facebook, Instagram and co are up to ... Please explain.

Social media is media that is augmented with the ability to socialize with other people. That's what we are doing here right now.

just to be pedantic, the singular of “media” is “medium”

Re: What it’s like to have a social media detox

#89

Post by DoItToMe81 »

sys_64738 wrote: post #84
famahar wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're really downplaying Tiktok. When it was starting up it was mostly a collection of teens dancing and making memes. Now there's content for everything made by a huge spectrum of people. Every person that relies on social media to maintain a brand needs to be on tiktok now. You scroll long enough and it'll feed you content hyper specific to your personality. I don't want to join Tiktok specifically because I know…

Doesn't Youtube provide the same utility?

TikTok has more variety (and a lot more garbage) because it's less severely overmoderated than Youtube.

Re: What it’s like to have a social media detox

#90

Post by DoItToMe81 »

darthrupert wrote: post #75
JustHiThere wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

can you elaborate ? This has imho nothing to do with social media. I check hackernews daily, I pick articles (or discover new tools ...) that spark my curiosity and I read them, period. Sometimes I engage and exchange with other people, leave my opinion etc ... This is nothing close to what Facebook, Instagram and co are up to ... Please explain.

Social media is media that is augmented with the ability to socialize with other people. That's what we are doing here right now.

"Social media is when u talk" has to be one of the worst internet revisionisms in recent times. The term describes big, massively centralized (micro)blogging platforms attached to your social circle and real identity. Forums are not social media, chatrooms are not social media, content aggregators are not social media.
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