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How 30 days without social media changed my life
101–110 of 111 posts
Re: How 30 days without social media changed my life
#102I stopped using Facebook last November. It's been a fantastic experience. Whether you realize it or not, FB changes your emotional health. FB used to make me oddly depressed. Its like sitting in front of the TV and feasting on Sour Patch Kids for two hours. I would sit there staring at how awesome people's lives were and wonder why I wasn't doing such awesome things myself. I heard about the passing of family members…
I don't understand this at all. FB (and social media in general) is the only thing I've found that enables me to organize going out for drinks with more than 2 people at once. Also the only thing that lets me post "Hey, anyone wanna go out for ice cream tomorrow evening?" and actually having 5 people come. Three of which are completely new outside twitter/facebook. It's really quite awesome. Hell, I have very scatter…
"Seriously though, how do you usefully and efficiently keep in touch with more than 1 person via telephone? I can't even imagine it working."
In response to that I'd say think about what social life was like before the very recent invention of online social networks. There is no end to the amount of complex tasks that were arranged long before anything like social media existed, and long before anything as enabling as the telephone existed. The fact that someone would find it difficult to imagine a scenario without facebook, twitter etc. shows how disconnected from the abundant alternatives we have become.
Re: How 30 days without social media changed my life
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't understand this at all. FB (and social media in general) is the only thing I've found that enables me to organize going out for drinks with more than 2 people at once. Also the only thing that lets me post "Hey, anyone wanna go out for ice cream tomorrow evening?" and actually having 5 people come. Three of which are completely new outside twitter/facebook. It's really quite awesome. Hell, I have very scatter…
"Seriously though, how do you usefully and efficiently keep in touch with more than 1 person via telephone? I can't even imagine it working." In response to that I'd say think about what social life was like before the very recent invention of online social networks. There is no end to the amount of complex tasks that were arranged long before anything like social media existed, and long before anything as enabling a…
You also have to understand that I am juuuuuust that age where I've used message boards and MSN more than the telephone in that time of being a teenager when you learn how to socialize with people.
Plus I was always a geek so that goes double for me. So, essentially, I never really learned how to use the phone effectively.
Re: How 30 days without social media changed my life
#104I stopped using Facebook last November. It's been a fantastic experience. Whether you realize it or not, FB changes your emotional health. FB used to make me oddly depressed. Its like sitting in front of the TV and feasting on Sour Patch Kids for two hours. I would sit there staring at how awesome people's lives were and wonder why I wasn't doing such awesome things myself. I heard about the passing of family members…
It's funny that people just can't do things in a balanced way, it always has to be all or nothing. In the past 5 years, I've lived in 5 different cities across 3 different countries. My network of friends is very widespread geographically, and I love Facebook for being able to see pictures of my friends or read their random thoughts and what they're up to in life without hassles of long distance calls, scheduling sky…
3 accounts doesn't sound like "balanced" usage.
Re: How 30 days without social media changed my life
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think this whole "social networking" thing will start to fade soon, as people increasingly realize that it's not "cool" anymore, and that they don't really need it, other perhaps than checking their accounts twice a year. So this whole discussion about whether Google+ or other company can beat Facebook or not might be irrelevant, if the whole social networking "industry" collapses in the next 5 years.
Facebook has over 900 million monthly active users (google it and you can easily confirm this from multiple sources). It may not be "cool", but the time when you could proclaim it a fad has long since passed. That's like saying TV's not cool.
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Re: How 30 days without social media changed my life
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
When I signed up for Facebook, that was my dream. That I would post stuff like "who wants to get ice cream tomorrow night?" and, just like that, people would take me up on it. Never happened. On the contrary, people I met would "friend" me, but still keep me out of their real-world cliques. Example: A guy invited everyone to a party at his house. Everyone else who responded knew where he lived. I sent a message askin…
Honest question about the party: Why didn't you directly contact some of the "everyone" people who responded to ask for the address (or carpool)? I find PG's "Relentlessly Resourceful" essay equally-useful in a social context. It took me a long time to realize that (for me) social interactions were an active and often taxing process. (And emails / FB messages are pretty much the most passive form of communication any…
Didn't know those people and wasn't that strongly motivated to go... it was just one of several possible things to do that night. "Relentlessly resourceful" is great, but part of that is to make sure you're solving the right problem. And in social terms, I've found that trying to become friends with flaky/non-responsive people is solving the wrong problem.
Re: How 30 days without social media changed my life
#107I stopped using Facebook last November. It's been a fantastic experience. Whether you realize it or not, FB changes your emotional health. FB used to make me oddly depressed. Its like sitting in front of the TV and feasting on Sour Patch Kids for two hours. I would sit there staring at how awesome people's lives were and wonder why I wasn't doing such awesome things myself. I heard about the passing of family members…
I don't understand this at all. FB (and social media in general) is the only thing I've found that enables me to organize going out for drinks with more than 2 people at once. Also the only thing that lets me post "Hey, anyone wanna go out for ice cream tomorrow evening?" and actually having 5 people come. Three of which are completely new outside twitter/facebook. It's really quite awesome. Hell, I have very scatter…
"Seriously though, how do you usefully and efficiently keep in touch with more than 1 person via telephone? I can't even imagine it working."
Efficiency is the least of my worries when it comes to keeping in touch with friends. Why do we have to be in a rush? Why not slow down and actually take the time to sincerely talk to each one of them? If that means I can't be friends with 100 people, then so be it.
Better to have fewer relationships I take the time to nurture, than 100 shallow ones.
Re: How 30 days without social media changed my life
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's that generalization i take issue with. The communication medium you use to talk with your friends doesn't have all that much correlation between how close of friends you are. Distance, time, and other concerns would rank much more highly than facebook vs something else.
I would say that real friendship requires intimate conversation - discussing things that you wouldn't share with just anyone. This is what separates friends from acquaintances. Intimate conversation, by definition, must be (or at least feel) private. So if you communicate with someone face to face, by phone, or by email, you may maintain the feeling of privacy necessary for real conversation. I'd allow that "private"…
I agree. Email, IM's do not replace face to face contact. We're biologically wired for those type of interactions, not online ones. It's a true generalization, even if there are exceptions.
Re: How 30 days without social media changed my life
#109Giving values and more hobbies? OP sounds like he's doing PUA's inner game stuff. I guess I'm a bit on the high horse since, I can do social media, and still be able to Judo, workout (6 days a week with insanity,gym, and hiking), dance at clubs, hang out with friends, self help stuff, and study for fun. I don't think social media is the problem but his lack of discipline. And everybody is jumping on the bandwagon "Wh…
Of course it's not social media's fault. he's just saying, it brings about certain tendencies in him that he wants to change. Just like being in a casino brings about tendencies to gamble, or being in a McDonalds brings about tendencies to eat unhealthy.
Re: How 30 days without social media changed my life
#110I stopped using Facebook last November. It's been a fantastic experience. Whether you realize it or not, FB changes your emotional health. FB used to make me oddly depressed. Its like sitting in front of the TV and feasting on Sour Patch Kids for two hours. I would sit there staring at how awesome people's lives were and wonder why I wasn't doing such awesome things myself. I heard about the passing of family members…
Not attempting to dissuade anybody from dumping Facebook - but to present another option. I use FB once a day. I treat it like a newspaper. A once-a-day update on friends lives that I poke at over a coffee, then throw away until the next day. I find this a nice balance between having a "real" life, and maintaining some connections with folk that I otherwise wouldn't see socially very often. Works for me. YMMV.
Me too. Same kind of rule for email - once per day. And even for work email during office hours - limited to 3x per day. All a big help.