This post reminded me I haven't looked at Facebook for a month or so (the frequency dropped hard after I stopped doing it every day). I saw about 5 ads in 3 min, reported 2 of them for misleading content. Nice. See you in a month or so (for some updates from my brother mostly).
What it’s like to have a social media detox
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Re: What it’s like to have a social media detox
#12This is why I hope Elon does burn Twitter to the ground, whether or not he means to.
On net, I believe it makes the world worse. Even if there are some who benefit from it, I think it's at the expense of far too many other people to be worth the cost.
Re: What it’s like to have a social media detox
#13Honestly, 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…
Have you tried quitting cold turkey? Like going to delete your Twitter account right now?
Or a cold restart. You could delete your current accounts and start a new one. I’ve recently decided to try having an expiration on online identities like email addresses. I mean this account is nearing 15 years old. I’m thinking this is too long for most social networks.
Re: What it’s like to have a social media detox
#14Honestly, 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…
Everything you mention here is well understood psychology of
addiction, attachment, social conditioning and intake management.
I always feel cheap to "plug" what I write (not great at marketing) but please, if you've time, read some of Digital Vegan which re-frames many of these digital harms through a metaphor of diet (here's a review [1]).
I am myself quite surprised at what a useful and powerful metaphor this has been, and the reported success rate amongst readers who message me to say they successfully beat their dependency and sense of subjugation to tech after reading. Hope you find a way out.
[1] https://techrights.org/2022/12/26/oliva-on-farnell-and-moody...
Re: What it’s like to have a social media detox
#15Honestly, 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…
As a sibling said, I'm not sure WhatsApp is "social media". To me (a very occasional user), it's just a messenger (which may come with strings attached since it belongs to facebook, but still). Am I missing something?
Other than that, on what do you think you'll miss out, especially since whatever you're looking at leaves you angry? As someone who never really got hooked into facebook nor twitter [0], I don't get the impression I have a harder time reaching people than before these were a thing. Yet, most of my peers seem to always need to check something on the phone, scroll whenever they get a second, etc.
The only "social media" I've used is Instagram, by "following" some photographers whose art I enjoyed. Maybe a month or so ago, it started showing me random new crap once I "caught up" with the people I follow. Short videos, tik-tok style, not related in any way to the content I follow. This really pissed me off, since it seemed so... useless. I get trying to get me "engaged", but maybe show me some content which you've already seen my browse for? If I wanted to see practically naked girls jumping up and down, I'd just go to some porn site. Needless to say, my time spent browsing Instagram practically vanished.
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[0] I've never "quit": I never got hooked in the first place, since they never managed not to bore me to tears in more than 2 minutes flat.
Re: What it’s like to have a social media detox
#16I got off Instagram and Facebook about 2 years ago and never got on Tik-Tok and I can safely say it was one of the best choices I ever made. I am still on Twitter which I check about once every few days for about 10 minutes. I realized how my peers (umivesity students) are affected by social media, most of them are endlessly circling instagram and tik-tok every time there is a spare second. Once I got off I discovere…
don’t forget that you typed this message on social media
Re: What it’s like to have a social media detox
#17It's a good idea to give up the Grauniad too for better health https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/apr/12/news-is-bad-ro...
I agree, but I'm impressed they published that to be honest.
Re: What it’s like to have a social media detox
#18Honestly, 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…
As a sibling said, I'm not sure WhatsApp is "social media". To me (a very occasional user), it's just a messenger (which may come with strings attached since it belongs to facebook, but still). Am I missing something? Other than that, on what do you think you'll miss out, especially since whatever you're looking at leaves you angry? As someone who never really got hooked into facebook nor twitter [0], I don't get the…
> I'm not sure WhatsApp is "social media"
Until Zuckerberg starts pushing "recommended oneway groupchats" or whatever I would not see WhatsApp as social media any-more than ICQ.
Re: What it’s like to have a social media detox
#19Honestly, 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…
Yep. “You’re not curating your feed” is nonsense in 2022, and it has been for years. The only platform I’ve gotten close to this on is Instagram. Facebook and Twitter both exhibit the literally cancerous property of showing you what your contacts are engaging with. Once a social network does that, it’s basically game over unless you only connect with people who are similarly disciplined, which is just…untenable.
Re: What it’s like to have a social media detox
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you tried quitting cold turkey? Like going to delete your Twitter account right now?
Or a cold restart. You could delete your current accounts and start a new one. I’ve recently decided to try having an expiration on online identities like email addresses. I mean this account is nearing 15 years old. I’m thinking this is too long for most social networks.
I've been doing this with my Reddit account. After 12-15 months, I delete all content and the account and then start from zero.