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Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 20, 2023 13:09:05 GMT -5
I mostly use Facebook to keep up with a handful of relatives and old-time CBR folk. I've honestly cut the chaff down on it that it doesn't make my blood pressure rise. I still check in to Twitter now and then, but mostly it's kind of a morbid watching a train-wreck thing. You have to do what's best for you. But I kind of figure if you avoid drama and use it to keep up with the good stuff it's fine.
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Oct 20, 2023 13:37:43 GMT -5
I "use" a lot of social media. Twitter was about the only one I never have and never will use. And that's just my own personal choice, not judging the site before Confessor's story of what's going on there now. Thing is, I don't really use them a lot. Youtube for music at work, and interesting videos to watch at lunch. It has been days and even weeks sometimes before I check on them. I have an Instagram account that I have posted a single thing on and I've had it for 4 years. I follow all of like 4 accounts. Two of them people I play games online with. Goes about the same for Tumblr, though I actually have posted on that account but not in a long time. I have a few other social media accounts too. And then of course there is here on CCF.
I don't know for sure why, maybe that 90% of my day I am alone at the office, but 97% of my social media usage is at work. When I get home my phone, unless for music, is pretty much forgotten. Even on the weekends I rarely check in on any of my accounts. I'll use youtube to have music while I do chores but otherwise I don't care to check in. And that's not even some kind of forced self control. It's just when my mind is occupied I feel no desire to use it.
Good luck with whatever choice you make Confessor. Unless it feels like an addiction I don't why it has to be all or nothing with your neighbor.
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Post by impulse on Oct 20, 2023 15:28:37 GMT -5
The only social media I regularly post on anymore is Reddit and CCF, if we include forums. Reddit is so customizable it's basically just what I want to see.
I use a few others, but not much for interaction. My Facebook is pretty tame these days. I've unfriended and blocked people who used to post the things that made my blood pressure rise, it's mostly a place to keep in touch with friends and family and a few nostalgia nerd groups.
I consume stuff on TikTok, but again I have it tuned pretty much to what I want to see.
Sadly, Musk has utterly ruined Twitter. It was already a cesspool but still useful before. Under his reign, it makes things actively worse. I haven't gone through the steps of actually deleting my account, but I've stopped using it outside of the bare minimum for occasional work thing. We're talking a total of 10 minutes the last several months.
If you need a break, by all means do what is good for you. We could probably all benefit from a detox.
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 20, 2023 20:51:06 GMT -5
You can always set specific boundaries, like limiting your use to certain periods of the day or certain durations, set certain days as absolutely no social media and just let them be a true day of rest (from social media or similar).
Like Tartanphantom, I don't use any of those platforms and only watch certain content on Youtube and constantly tell them not to send specific channels and types of channels. I cut out tv news years ago, because it would just spin me up and just read national news on NPR's website, as it tends to be a calm, reasoned delivery of the facts, though there are some articles on there that go further. I usually skip them. I have yet to see any source of local news that isn't filled with editoralizing, so I just skip it and it doesn't really affect me. Most local news is either veiled advertising, fluff, or political propaganda (especially where I live, which is a decidedly conservative area, apart from the university, and it isn't a hotbed of liberalism).
This is about my only social media interaction. I talk on the phone or e-mail my siblings. Other than that, I talk directly to my cats and they are more interested in treats than tweets, unless they can play with the little birdie until it stops moving.
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Post by Icctrombone on Oct 21, 2023 5:48:28 GMT -5
The only social media I regularly post on anymore is Reddit and CCF, if we include forums. Reddit is so customizable it's basically just what I want to see. I use a few others, but not much for interaction. My Facebook is pretty tame these days. I've unfriended and blocked people who used to post the things that made my blood pressure rise, it's mostly a place to keep in touch with friends and family and a few nostalgia nerd groups.
This. If not for FB, I wouldn't have attended my last few High school reunions. Plus, Fb is pretty tame as far as fighting goes. I have a Twitter account But it's mostly inactive. Too much fighting.
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Post by driver1980 on Oct 21, 2023 6:00:59 GMT -5
The only social media I regularly post on anymore is Reddit and CCF, if we include forums. Reddit is so customizable it's basically just what I want to see. I use a few others, but not much for interaction. My Facebook is pretty tame these days. I've unfriended and blocked people who used to post the things that made my blood pressure rise, it's mostly a place to keep in touch with friends and family and a few nostalgia nerd groups. I consume stuff on TikTok, but again I have it tuned pretty much to what I want to see. Sadly, Musk has utterly ruined Twitter. It was already a cesspool but still useful before. Under his reign, it makes things actively worse. I haven't gone through the steps of actually deleting my account, but I've stopped using it outside of the bare minimum for occasional work thing. We're talking a total of 10 minutes the last several months. If you need a break, by all means do what is good for you. We could probably all benefit from a detox. Another reason for my deletion was Musk’s ego ruining things. Like a bad wrestling booker, who only likes to give you what HE likes, Musk is all about what he wants. Example: he tweeted about getting rid of the block function (stupid idea) until someone pointed out that app stores won’t allow apps unless there’s a block feature. A woman I know was stalked, she was worried about the block feature going. Example 2: he has hidden the function where you can see “quote tweets”. You have to go on to a tweet and click post engagements. Which I didn’t know until someone told me. Example 3: headlines are now hidden on tweets. You see only an image. You have to open the tweet up in another tab. So if the tweet was, say, the NY Times with a headline “Disney Buys WWE”, now you will just see a stock image with no context. I’m not saying it’s hard to click on things. It is *not* laziness. But for a while, I was just seeing images and presumed they were just images, but I was told that they were actually articles. Apparently, Musk tweeted something about it. Like IMDb, the interface is now frustrating and unusable.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 21, 2023 7:01:52 GMT -5
I have a very pessimistic outlook on social media, outside of small forum-type communities like this one that are a meeting place for hobbyists (and even those I've mostly dropped other than here).
I think they are intentionally made to be habit forming, because it's all about the traffic. They are businesses with a "real-time" capability to push information to people (unlike say old school print and broadcast journalism that could only be "sensational" in limited periodic bursts). There's a reason I believe people are positively crazed with stuff like political division today, all these people have been given outlets to take what should be serious topics and they treat it like rage rooting for their favorite sports teams. It's all this virtual la-la land and feeds people's worst impulses and behaviors. There's nothing "social" about it. Even stuff that's supposed to "keep us connected" like Facebook, I don't really need in my life. I have real people in my life right here and now, and if someone remote really wants to connect with me, they have my phone number and vice versa for me connecting with them.
Unless it's comic books or music or something fun of that nature, I don't really care much anymore. I'm old enough now to see the endless cycles of silliness that people get worked up over, and all the underlying manipulation that goes on. Life's short, I'd rather spend time with my kids and wife, play music, read comics, hunt for old toys, take pictures of the changing leaves, eat tasty food...earthy pleasures that are good for the soul and make the most of my time with loved ones.
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Post by The Captain on Oct 21, 2023 8:45:43 GMT -5
Never had a Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter account either, and I’ve missed nothing. My wife had a FB account but deleted it, and she has an Instagram account currently mostly to keep an eye on what our daughters are doing.
My only social media account is LinkedIn, which has been instrumental in landing me a number of jobs, but I rarely read any posts, articles or comments. Having worked in the natural gas industry previously, many of my old contacts from that world skew toward the conservative side and I have no interest in their views, thoughts, or bashing of liberals. That is why I refuse to connect with anyone at my current company, because I really don’t want to learn anything about them via that medium that would potentially make me think less of them as a person or colleague.
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Post by Rob Allen on Oct 21, 2023 16:39:21 GMT -5
I have Facebook, LinkedIn and Fetlife accounts. I've avoided Instagram because they don't even let me look at anything on Instagram unless I sign up. I've avoided Reddit because it looks like it could be a huge time sink. If I had that kind of time I'd go back to Metafilter; I did enjoy that site. I'm still on a few Google Groups and email lists. I check in on the current CBR forum occasionally, and I participate in a few areas of the city-data.com forum.
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Post by impulse on Oct 21, 2023 16:54:03 GMT -5
Never had a Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter account either, and I’ve missed nothing. My wife had a FB account but deleted it, and she has an Instagram account currently mostly to keep an eye on what our daughters are doing. My only social media account is LinkedIn, which has been instrumental in landing me a number of jobs, but I rarely read any posts, articles or comments. Having worked in the natural gas industry previously, many of my old contacts from that world skew toward the conservative side and I have no interest in their views, thoughts, or bashing of liberals. That is why I refuse to connect with anyone at my current company, because I really don’t want to learn anything about them via that medium that would potentially make me think less of them as a person or colleague. Hey! Good to see you around. I feel like its been a while, but maybe I just don't frequent the topics you do. I hope you're doing well! I've avoided Reddit because it looks like it could be a huge time sink. Man, if you only knew the half of it. It sure is. I saw it summed up perfectly before, which I will badly paraphrase. Someone was asking for a new site to check out because they were bored with their old ones. Someone's response was: "reddit.com. You're welcome and I'm sorry."
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Post by Icctrombone on Oct 22, 2023 9:11:56 GMT -5
I might try Reddit.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 22, 2023 9:35:56 GMT -5
I was on Quora for a while, as answering questions felt like an extension of my day job. But I dropped it when most discussions on biology degenerated into arguments with creationists. Comments on Youtube or on the sites of news media are simply toxic. Brandolini's law has never proven truer than today. Who needs the grief? Facebook is mostly about publicity, apparently. Or recommendations for stuff any good algorithm should know I don't care about. Were it not that my family uses Messenger to stay in touch, I'd cancel my account without an ounce of regret. All I ever got out of LinkedIn were requests from people I didn't know or notifications for things that don't interest me. I can see how a social network for professionals can be useful, but it's something I do not need at this late stage of my career. I deleted my account years ago (I think). I was never on Twitter, Instagram or Tiktok. From what I hear, I'm not missing much. Criminy, apart from the CCF, it looks like there's nothing good out there in terms of social media! Like supercat, I think that smaller communities focusing on specific shared interests are the way to go; they're the only places where the great connection potential of social media isn't marred by unchecked greed, ignorance, hostility or attempts at manipulation.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,065
Member is Online
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Post by Confessor on Oct 22, 2023 10:39:34 GMT -5
I quite like Reddit because it's entirely customisable. I just follow music, history and art sub-reddits mainly, so the content I get to see is great.
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Post by Icctrombone on Oct 22, 2023 10:41:10 GMT -5
I quite like Reddit because it's entirely customisable. I just follow music, history and art sub-reddits mainly, so the content I get to see is great. Turns out I already had an account. Let’s see if it holds my interest.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 22, 2023 10:59:40 GMT -5
I quite like Reddit because it's entirely customisable. I just follow music, history and art sub-reddits mainly, so the content I get to see is great. My middle son was at one point very involved in a few history sub-reddit's, particularly ones dealing with African history. It's an interesting place, but I can see it being too much of a time suck for me.
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