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

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

#101

Post by Normille »

bheadmaster wrote: post #35
fullstackchris wrote: post #22

I 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.

  >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?...
Are they? I don't consider WhatsApp, Telegram and the like as social media. I don't know if there's a definitive definition for what is or isn't social media. But my own definition is that social media is a medium where you have your discussions in public. So Twitter, Facebook, Discord.. etc. [And, by that definition, I suppose a lot of forums and even HN discussions would be social media].

WhatsApp, Telegram, etc. I'd class more as private communications, alongside email and written letters.

  >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?...
I use Telegram for that. I have managed to persuade everyone in my family to join Telegram and a lot of my friends are on it too. I've set up a Family Channel which includes siblings, in-laws etc. where we can all share the latest goings on within the extended family and swap photos etc. All the social interaction we need, with a geographically scattered family, to all keep in touch. But without the [to me, anyway] incomprehensible need that so many other people seem to feel to broadcast our private family and circle of friends business to the entire world.

On the rare occaasions I've looked at social media content --especially Twitter or Facebook, I'm gobsmacked by the way conversations between people reveal so much personal info about themselves. It's like a huge number of social media users have some kind of mental block whereby they think if they @friend some really personal stuff, only @friend will see it. When the reality is @friend, @enemy, @employer, @parents, @spouse, @anyone-who-happens-to-be-passing-by... etc. are now privvy to that personal info.

I wonder how many of these people are also concerned about buying a Chinese phone, in case it 'spies' on them. When they're broadcasting practically their entire personal life, for all the world to see.

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

#102

Post by braingenious »

fullstackchris wrote: post #22

I 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…

I keep up with my closest friends with a Signal group chat, and the rest of my friends just text/call/email me to get in touch.

I guess your point that “anything can be social media if you call it that” is… technically true linguistically, I have genuinely no idea what that has to do with people that choose not to use Facebook/Instagram/Twitter.

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

#103

Post by flakeoil »

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 mostly agree with you.

> Still, if the BBC are paying big salaries for 'big' name journos they have to promote them.

But maybe they could let the content speak for itself.

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

#104

Post by AdrianB1 »

fullstackchris wrote: post #22

I 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…

If you use a platform just for that, it seems fine. The problem is when you use multiple platforms under the excuse that you need to keep up with family. The problem is the distractions that the platform is pushing to you, making you waste a significant amount of time.

10 years ago, I had a Facebook account and the rule to have up to 50 contacts ("friends") that I was using 10 minutes per day. When that was no longer possible, I closed the account.

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

#105

Post by breput »

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 listened to the BBC World Service (and VOA and Radio Moscow and many others) via shortwave "back in the day" and the reporter was always introduced by name, and even if they hadn't, they were identifiable by the sound of their voice.

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

#106

Post by blitzar »

MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #23

Amazing how as soon as Elon buys Twitter and bluechecks loose their privilege, there is one Mastodon endorsement [0] and one "quit social media" article on BCC in short succession trending on HN. Probably nothing. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33495817

2 Aug 2018 — Why people are choosing to quit social media. Many people make an active choice not to be on social media. What motivates them?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05y8m4l

19 July 2017 - 'I felt relieved' - What happens when you ditch social media

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-40654983

30 August 2016 - Picture perfect: How helpful is social media for our mental health?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37218059

Social media regulation debate - and much much more.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cvw0z7ezezkt

Yeah probably all about Musk right.

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

#108

Post by randomdata »

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.

As a farmer, Twitter has shown to be the best place to keep abreast on what other farmers are trying in their operations. I've never met most of them, but insights into what they are doing is still useful information. It provides much the same charm as HN, where I've also not met most, for keeping abreast in what tech is doing.

Facebook has been useful as a modern day telephone book.

I don't see them as competing against real conversations. They serve a very different function.

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

#109

Post by ehecatl42 »

> Gayle, who is a life coach…

Of course she is.

What did it for me was June 2016 (aah, Brexit), and two blokes from very different parts of my life— whom I both love for very different reasons— went to the most perverse ad hominem attacks on each other (they have never even met) on my profile. Such a weird hatred that I decided I did not want to be a part of that.

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

#110

Post by prawn »

msravi wrote: post #53
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…

> but the algorithm just works like a slot machine I'm always surprised that people, especially on HN, complain so much about twitter's algorithms that are so easy to bypass. I use Twidere as a client, and my feed doesn't have any of twitter's algorithms - it's simply a reverse chronological feed. Even the website and twitter's official app have a button right on the feed page that allows you to switch to a reverse c…

Another option is https://tweetdeck.twitter.com/ with an ad blocker. No ads, feed in order. I mostly follow people I know and my feed is very decent and for the most part positive.

To see the loons, I typically have to find a popular account and read replies, and the Tweetdeck URL even hides most of those (which is fine by me - makes me realising I'm wasting my life reading rubbish).

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