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

bbc.com

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

#41

Post by DrBazza »

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, underneath it, whereas some do not. Way back in the mists of time, almost all articles seemed to be anonymous.

The other change, and your point, is that select articles now have commentary or opinion by one of the BBC journalists, which it never previously had.

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

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

#43

Post by misto »

andirk wrote: post #8

Why not just use the various social media outlets less? Is this an addiction? Because people talk about it like it is.

I hate to say it but at least for me, yes. On many occasions I catch myself on a mindless infinite scroll, or youtube binge while filling a seemingly small gap of idleness. So even though I'm completely aware of this being possible, while also being in some sort of moral opposition against such behavior, I still fall for it rather easily. Addiction to some is a strong word I guess, but once I started associating it with my own behavior, it was easier to make some more drastic changes to get away from it.

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

#44

Post by cunidev »

In my experience, I feel like Mastodon is a way healthier social media platform than most. No (intrusive) trends, no "likes of friends", no randomized timeline, but just other people posting pictures of their oscilloscopes, cats, plants and hobbies, or starting healthy discussions about things.

It's not a panacea by any means, but makes an almost mind-blowing difference from the "usual" addictive social platforms (FB, Twitter, YouTube, etc.).

It feels a bit like joining a café where everyone is human, and imperfect, rather than a shiny videolottery casino where the higher liked profiles keep winning.

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

#45

Post by te_chris »

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…

It’s the “x who you followed liked this” that did me in. Turns out a lot of the smart people I followed followed complete tools. Twitter gave me no options to ignore, so I just deleted instead.

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

#46

Post by just_for_you »

Sakos wrote: post #15

I used TikTok for about a month earlier this year out of curiosity. I feel like it still has significant effects on my emotional and psychological state months later. I can't imagine what it does to a person to use anything like it daily for years.

I could only imagine what kind of imprinting something like TikTok can do to a developing mind, especially if that person lacks any kind of healthy role models in their real lives.

Personally I'm glad that that the hyper-availability of information was something I experienced only after I became an adult, so I'm able to be more aware of how influential the firehouse of information and manipulation by algorithms can be.

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

#47

Post by thrown_22 »

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.

Dear god yes. Give me the facts without trying to insert your politics there. Even the AP does this constantly. I'd pay gold for a news organization which prints something to the effect of:

>The current situation in XYZ in unknown. We have heard from partisan sources that A happened, we have heard from other partisan sources that B happened and the state department has told us C would happen. Please check back in three weeks for an update.

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

#48

Post by bobiny »

bambax wrote: post #36
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…

> 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. Yes. I don't know if it wants us to see more ads or be more "engaged". I'm currently fascinated by generative art and find a lot of interesting posts about this on Twitter. Yet Twitter keeps showing me posts abo…

I tried Twitter many times but always stopped using it after reading a lot of upsetting materials. Like you follow favorite musician and beside music announcements, there are political rants. I returned to Twitter when I learned to use Mute function liberally. Maybe in your case, you'd feel better on more art related sites like Tumblr or DeviantArt?

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

#49

Post by viraptor »

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.

For me that's half social banter, half discovering things I did not know about, but someone discovered and found fascinating enough to share. Pretty close to HN. I completely don't care what other people think about me on the internet, but I care about the things they do or appreciate.

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

#50

Post by scioto »

I use a third-party Twitter client TweetBot on both iOS and MacOS, and all I see are the folks I follow and any retweets they do. And that's it. No suggested tweets to rile and inflame and engage me. I only see what I want to see.

And if one particular person I follow gets too verbose, I mute them for 6 hours, a day, a week, or forever, until they calm down. I've even permanently muted acquaintances who it makes them happy to think I follow them as they go off the deep end.

If Twitter takes away the API that TweetBot uses, well, I think that'll be my exit, since I can't imagine having to put up with what I perceive everyone else is experiencing on Twitter.

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