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The benefits of staying off social media

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Re: The benefits of staying off social media

#31

Post by ehnto »

pkdpic wrote: post #12

> A futuristic dystopia. A place where the real world sucks. Where people consider talking to someone a chore. Connection, closeness, ambition are replaced by detachment and dogmatic slumber. Society is satisfied with shallow thoughts and the pursuit of artificially created stimuli in an imaginary world. Beautifully written top-notch orwellian poetry. Seriously inspiring. Also as someone who has only ever used social…

I once asked here about how you would start an online business without interacting with Google, and I think that somewhat echoes the problem you've mentioned. While totally possible to do these things without social media, there is a challenge posed by the fact that the big platforms have captured the audiences you might have engaged with if they weren't already occupied.

If it weren't for those big platforms, many people would be happy to check out videos on your own website. But when YouTube is as easy as it is to consume, they're over there doing that instead. Same with photography, why would anyone go look at a photographers website when they've got endless photography to see on Instagram.

For me, I feel like the answer to running a software company without online advertising is to go local, grass roots, focus on niche problems for a handful of real world in-the-flesh clients, rather than trying to be everything to thousands of people I'll never meet.

For content creators I think the same might be applicable, say for a musician to focus on their local music scene, or an artist to find local projects to contribute to or pieces of work they can do for their community. It has the upside of building your life in the real world as well, which is hopefully more tangible and fulfilling than building up your life in an ephemeral platform that may not be here tomorrow.

Re: The benefits of staying off social media

#32

Post by aluminussoma »

benbenolson wrote: post #18
aluminussoma wrote: post #4

I am now off popular social media (Facebook, Instagram). The void is now replaced with other forms of social media (Reddit, Hacker News). Reddit, arguably, is more toxic than my version of Facebook - but it is strangers being toxic, and zero FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) which is prevalent on Facebook and Instagram.

Why not stay off of social media entirely? If you think that Reddit is even more toxic than Facebook (which I agree with), then why visit the site?

Because it's entertaining. I don't feel the toxicity there is harmful to me, personally. I stopped using Facebook because I did feel that the FOMO-feelings I got were harmful to me.

I do a lot of things that are unhealthy, in moderation. Certain TV shows I watch are toxic to some extent, but I still watch them.

Re: The benefits of staying off social media

#33

Post by nostrebored »

croutonwagon wrote: post #2

This may not be terribly popular, and its admittedly just conjecture, but I'm of the opinion that its less about the quantity of social media, and more how one interacts with it and even more so consumes it. Some platforms are clearly more toxic than others, though I'm increasingly of the opinion that they are all pretty toxic, just different flavors of "world outlooks" to choose from. I feel that those that actively…

I’ve found the exact opposite in the groups I’m a part of. Social media can imbue you with a lot of simple opinions and constant feedback around them. People who are actually arguing are at least actively engaging with an idea (sometimes)

Re: The benefits of staying off social media

#34

Post by shtopointo »

Another day, another person telling you how to live your life...

Sorry, but even though we know social media has its downsides, it also has advantages: keeping in touch with friends, socializing, a way to stay up to date with your community, new recipe ideas, exercise ideas, time management ideas, maybe even the occasional envy that someone's success triggers more ambition in you to succeed etc.

It's a tool, like any other, and if used properly it can enhance your life.

Don't want to dunk too hard on this article, because the points made in it are valid. But they can be achieved while you're still active on social media.

For example, if used properly, you can get exposed to a lot of novel ideas in 2-minute bite sized clips. You can get motivated to hit any of the points mentioned in the blog.

Saying that, of course the article was written to be a very one-sided view on the topic. Given that, it's obviously going to be shared on social media and garner even more attention / clicks / eyeballs. It's not ... irony per-se, but something close to it.

Re: The benefits of staying off social media

#35

Post by aluminussoma »

andrew_ wrote: post #27
aluminussoma wrote: post #4

I am now off popular social media (Facebook, Instagram). The void is now replaced with other forms of social media (Reddit, Hacker News). Reddit, arguably, is more toxic than my version of Facebook - but it is strangers being toxic, and zero FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) which is prevalent on Facebook and Instagram.

I don't count HN as modern social media. For me, it's more akin to older phpBB boards and the like. We have no avatars, we come and go on posting, reading. We have only usernames and karma, and no one cares how much karma someone has. There's very little dopamine hit.

If we look at the wikipedia definition of social media, it states: "Social media are interactive technologies that allow the creation or sharing/exchange of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks"

I personally view the old IRC (Efnet!), BBS, chat rooms, ICQ as the earliest form of social media. And just as addictive - I couldn't wait to get home from school and jump into a chat room. I checked it as often as I did Facebook later on.

Re: The benefits of staying off social media

#36

Post by systemvoltage »

ehnto wrote: post #31
pkdpic wrote: post #12

> A futuristic dystopia. A place where the real world sucks. Where people consider talking to someone a chore. Connection, closeness, ambition are replaced by detachment and dogmatic slumber. Society is satisfied with shallow thoughts and the pursuit of artificially created stimuli in an imaginary world. Beautifully written top-notch orwellian poetry. Seriously inspiring. Also as someone who has only ever used social…

I once asked here about how you would start an online business without interacting with Google, and I think that somewhat echoes the problem you've mentioned. While totally possible to do these things without social media, there is a challenge posed by the fact that the big platforms have captured the audiences you might have engaged with if they weren't already occupied. If it weren't for those big platforms, many p…

We desperately need new companies emerging and taking over FAANGs. It’s been too long. I think about big tech same as what we thought of HP, Oracle and IBM 20 years ago. Time to conquer them and make them obsolete. If we don't, we're guaranteeing absolute stagnation of the society in many insiduous ways. Always watching, always controlling Big Tech dystopia.

Re: The benefits of staying off social media

#38

Post by [deleted] »

civilized wrote: post #21
pkdpic wrote: post #12

> A futuristic dystopia. A place where the real world sucks. Where people consider talking to someone a chore. Connection, closeness, ambition are replaced by detachment and dogmatic slumber. Society is satisfied with shallow thoughts and the pursuit of artificially created stimuli in an imaginary world. Beautifully written top-notch orwellian poetry. Seriously inspiring. Also as someone who has only ever used social…

I feel like the challenge for creators is less the "social media Orwellian dystopian hellscape etc" and more that virtually everything you can contribute has been done better by someone else before you.

[deleted]

Re: The benefits of staying off social media

#39

Post by 88913527 »

croutonwagon wrote: post #2

This may not be terribly popular, and its admittedly just conjecture, but I'm of the opinion that its less about the quantity of social media, and more how one interacts with it and even more so consumes it. Some platforms are clearly more toxic than others, though I'm increasingly of the opinion that they are all pretty toxic, just different flavors of "world outlooks" to choose from. I feel that those that actively…

I concur with your view. After taking a long break from social media, it becomes obvious what the issues are. Look at these and suggested posts for people wealthier, fitter, and presumably happier than myself. For some people, incessant exposure to that content is toxic. It makes me feel behind in life, and I feel better without constantly viewing it. When you doomscroll, it absolutely produces a positive feedback cycle and gets worse. And this cycle applies not to just the aforementioned Instafit-type content, it applies to politics, it applies everywhere. I had to stop reading /r/FatFIRE, but /r/financialindependence is fine.

Re: The benefits of staying off social media

#40

Post by paulpauper »

A common media/pundit narrative is that social media is envy or anxiety-inducing because people are only showing their successes or unobtainable lifestyles, but have these people actually ever used social media? It's the opposite: a lot of sad stories (such as gofundme campaigns for illnesses), people living surprisingly mundane lives. It's not at all like how pundits depict it. Yeah, if you social circle is all google employees, then yeah you may feel envy but that does not apply to 99.99% of ppl who use social media.
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