OT-ish: Thoughts on social media use? Good or bad? And how to control it?
All.
Thought I get some feedback from my trusty MgoMembers regarding social media. Personally, I have a strong dislike for social media. I'm not on Twitter, Insta, Snap, etc. And I closed my Facebook account when I couldn't take it anymore. Posts were either:
1. "I'm doing something cooler than you"
2. Political leaning, including any virtual signaling
3. Pictures of babies/kids
4. Pictures of food
Being off social media I think has been good for me, but now my kids school is almost requiring us to have at least Facebook as most events etc are announce and scheduled that way. How are people dealing with social media in a meaningful way? Is there a way for me to continue to avoid it? Thoughts?
You know the former CEO of Twitter, Dick Costello, went to Michigan. Just an FYI.
Yes, a smart guy who realized the fortune to be made by monetizing people's need to articulate their crazy..
Social media straight up sucks. I was an early Facebook adopter back when you had to have a valid college email to be on it. I was an early Twitter adopter, as well. I'm off of all of it. It's just a shit show of bots, illusory lifestyles, angry ill-informed opinions shouting at each other, and people passively engaging with their friends and loved ones instead of cultivating real connections.
While I understand some good can come of them and there are certain areas/use cases in which their upside is useful, the downsides are tremendous and outweigh their benefits .Substituting these things for fact-checked news sources, real public squares, and thoughtful discussion is an absolute cancer.
Are you me?? I'm in exactly the same boat, early adopter of nearly all of them, now I avoid them like the plague. I have a couple pseudonym accounts to follow a couple of my hobbies, but literally no "friends" or "followers" on any of them. It's just so completely toxic and divisive that, like you said, I feel the downsides far, far outweigh any upside. I'm done. It is not conducive to healthy human relationships as the differences become what defines us, allowing everyone to build their own little ivory tower while casting judgement on anyone who disagrees with them on any topic, instead of the (much more numerous for most people) commonalities that if things were discussed in person would build bridges instead, even in the midst of disagreement.
Yeah, I think a lot of people are in this boat that got on board these platforms in the early days. Deactivating my facebook account was the most satisfying things I've experienced on social media in recent memory. Been off them all since my kids were born and couldn't be happier.
People and the world would be better off if we launched social media into the sun
Send smartphones with it and I'm on board.
I dunno about that. Having the entire worlds knowledge in your pocket, combined with the ability to communicate with family on a whim is pretty badass .... you can have a smart phone and totally avoid social media. I do.
I do too. I just miss not being available 24/7. Also I think having that knowledge has made people dumber in some ways. How many 20 year olds can read a map? Or find their way anywhere without GPS?
And I'm also super fucking paranoid, so I won't buy a phone without a removable battery.
Fuck I'm old.
Somewhere, someone (me) is holding onto their Myspace account waiting for all their friends to return.
Facebook is a scourge on this country. No school or civic organization should use that as their exclusive means of communication.
I hate it and don't use any of it. I just wish my wife felt the same.
My wife is OUT OF CONTROL on FaceBook, Pics of the family and talks about how wonderful life is...check. Constant Political Posturing and Virtue Signalling...check. I don't understand it and have asked her to slow down, but right now she's not working and I think needs something to keep her mind occupied, especially as she tends to be anxious and these are anxious times. I get she's processing something, but I wish she'd pick a healthier format.
she tends to be anxious and these are anxious times
That's my wife to a T.
Agree 1000%. I don't use it either because of just about everything that has been communicated on this thread. My my however, scrolls through facebook non stop, then instagram. The feed never ends... you can just scroll and scroll and scroll forever until I call her out on it, then I am the bad guy.
Not to mention, all of our conversations lately have revolved around people posting insane things about racism, destroying monuments, etc. They feel all of this is OK and is how 'affected people' are showing their voice.
I am not even on social media and it is driving me nuts.
Aside from the obvious negative impacts on social psychology (comparison, rumors, bullying), it's politically extremely dangerous. This was evidenced by extensive use of targeted marketing by multiple actors in the 2016 presidential election.
The ability to market directly to people, using the myriad data people mostly just volunteer to them, is where we went off the rails. Companies like Cambridge Analaytica actually compiled social media data with public records and purportedly had extremely specific data on all 200x10^6 voters - up to thousands of data for each! This was then weaponized to manipulate people's voting behavior. If you ever took a Facebook personality test like, "Which X-Men Character are You," you were surreptitiously being surveyed and psychologically profiled for political gain. Crazy IMO.
It's technology; and technology doesn't have an innate ethical propensity. It's a tool and can be used for good and evil. I think it was initially presented as a tool for good, i.e. a way to socialize, meet people, etc...Then we got bait and switched when the social media companies realized the money they'd be offered for marketing and data. There are a lot of experts who think it hasn't even reached its purported positive goals and is making us even more divided. I think this a very valid observation, given the patent social outrage over just about everything.
Pretty sure it was originally a tool to get Zuckerberg laid, because he's too fucking weird to do it in real life.
That’s definitely what it was at a college level. Like hotornot.com - there were tons of these types of sites at the time (2000ish). He figured out the marketing and data acquisition part or investors felt he had the best platform to exploit...and...boom 20 years later we’ve burned free press to the ground.
I understand the true core of what social media is supposed to do, and I do think it has plenty of positive attributes. That being said, I hate it. Which also makes me a hypocrite because I go onto FB several times a day, but its more out of a knee-jerk reaction. I'm not looking for anything specific. I just turn it on and then don't realize I'm doing it until 15 seconds later. Then I close it out.
I don't do Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, or any of those "Hey look at me and see how cool my life is" platforms. Its just one more thing to get addicted to, and I don't care to be on them anyway. I'm also usually not out doing anything that I care to brag about to the rest of the world. I don't think I've posted a picture on facebook in years. My wife usually tags me in pictures, and I usually make 2-3 statuses a year. All having to do with Michigan football.
Social media just has the tendency to bring out the absolute worst in people. And especially in the last few years, its become a cesspit / toxic wasteland for political commentary. I hate seeing people getting into pissing contests / bitch fits with each other about their interpretations of how fucked up they think the world is, and that they and their candidate of choice have all the answers and everyone else should just shut the fuck up and fall in line. In the wrong hands, its also dangerous. You can see how some people in charge in this country have weaponized social media and use it to spread bullshit to everyone.
The only reason I still keep my Facebook account is because 15 of my buddies from Michigan and I use it keep in touch with each other in a private group, and its mostly for fantasy football, March Madness, weddings, etc. If we didn't have that group, I'd delete my account today and not give it a second thought.
My wife has a fake account which she uses precisely for things like this. No friends, no usage of the account other than for communicating with people in very specific groups and getting event updates. Has worked well for us.
Say what you want about it contributing to poor mental health, being terrible for children, and potentially ruining democracy, to me it is an effective tool in which to tweet directly at recruits telling them of the benefits of attending my favorite school and playing for their football team!
Twitter is the only one I really use. I love it for news. Everyone trying to break a story so news is literally up to the minute. Of course I would wait for a reliable source before telling everyone. Twitter is also a great big shit show. Lots of politics and very few civil conversations. A lot of post comments just end up as battles.
I work in social media so my usage is a bit different but I stick to Twitter generally for news or people I actually want to hear from/about and Instagram for actual friend stuff.
I can understand using Facebook for organizing and messaging since it does have the largest base, but that platform is garbage and you shouldn't use it
Social media is the real virus. SARS-Cov-2 thinks Facebook should tap the brakes on destroying society.
I literally just deleted my Facebook account less than two weeks ago. It definitely was becoming an addiction and affecting my entire life. There is almost nothing to gain from it other than maybe accidentally seeing photos of your friends kids or finding out your cousin you haven't seen in 10 years just moved to Portland.
I took my kids hiking last weekend and for the first time in what felt like forever I didn't feel obligated to post about it on Facebook. It was liberating. I already feel that I can focus better on other things.
I had a similar experience. I dropped FaceBook and don't miss it at all. The only issue for me is I have a group of people I run Ragnar Relays with and the FaceBook group is how a lot of the organizing around the races is done, so I've got to figure out how to thread that needle. That said, the people I REALLY want to stay in touch with, I have better ways to do it.
I had a similar problem with my running group. Get in touch with the leaders via text and stay on top of it yourself. You’ll miss a few things but never the important things.
The text group comes into play once we have the team set up. The actual team organization is the part I am worried about missing out on. That said something to think about in about a year.
Social Media will be the collapse of our society
I have a complete love/hate relationship with Facebook. I use it to stay in touch with friends, but I can't help but push back against the bullshit coming at me. It's just so easy to tell someone "FU" over the Internet. If people could treat it as though we were sitting face to face and I might just slap you up side the head, it might be more civil. It has certainly given a voice to some people that don't add anything positive to life.
I only follow a few people on Twitter and all of them relate to Michigan football/sports. I get enough crazy from Facebook.
I haven't heard much love for social media on this thread, but the only way this will change is if we all drop it. All walk away. Everybody ready for a little revolution?
MGoBlog is my social media. I have never been on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.. I am on LinkedIn for work.
I'm glad it wasn’t around when I was a growing up. Cell phones on the other hand...it would have been nice to call a girl and not have her Dad answer.
That's why I put great effort into being the kind of guy a Dad wanted to have call his daughter. The issue was it made it harder to get the dates with the daughters.
I did an OP on this about a month ago. Mgoblog is as much social media as I do.
Bad.
Resist.
Facebook is brutal. Everyone throwing their opinions around willy nilly. I find people are equally annoying whether I agree or disagree with them.
I could not agree with your last sentence more.
Social media sucks. It gives people an inflated sense of self-importance / ego and makes bullying way easier and more vicious. It makes people believe their ignorant opinions are vastly more important than, or superior to, others because of followers or likes. It gives the most ignorant, useless, asinine people a platform to attract like minded-idiots, where they can all drag knuckles and breathe with mouths agape, convincing each other they know the “real” truth.
I firmly believe it is the single most dangerous thing in the dumbing of our species. What’s more important isn’t “is this correct” or even “is this a real thing that is possible in the realm of science/physics/reality” but “how many fellow morons You can get to believe it.”
My School district and PTA use E-mails and phone lists. Just because Facebook is easy doesn't mean it should be the only way to communicate. There are too many parents who don't have it and they shouldn't rely on it.
I personally enjoy the virtual signally aspect of it, greatly.
Mortimer Duke says, "its virtue signally, dumbass"
My cousin made the big, “I’m deleting my Facebook account,” announcement this week. My brother did that years ago, but rejoined with a smaller group of friends/family. It’s almost a necessary evil at this point with so many organizations using it to broadcast information.
I mainly use it for days like today so people can wish me a happy birthday. Borrowing from Mike Grundy, I’m a man! I’m FIFTY!
OMG, my life is over. Fifty-fucking-years old.
Put those birthdays in your phone calendar and delete it already.
Social media sucks. The only people still using it do it either to brag about how great their life or yell about politics.
As I wrote on the other social media thread, I find twitter very useful b/c I only follow other physicians, scientists, Ice-T and Dan Rather. Heads up on interesting medical/sci publications and little "tweet-orials" (like the origin of the antibiotic flagyl or pathology anecdote).
Have to say, Ice-T doesn't seem to be reading the scientific literature regularly.
Never been on any social media, just have a flip phone, can't even text, life is good.
I still view Social Media as a positive in my life. Though I have rules for each platform:
(1) Twitter - Only follow people. Never read comments, never post comments. Just use this as an information source.
(2) Facebook - Any post that I make, think "is this likely to make someone who sees it smile?" If the answer is yes, post, if not, no.
Generally stay away from all the serious topics - although an exception can be made for quick dissemination of sad news. When my Dad died in 2015 Facebook was a very good way to get the news out in mass, and several people came to the showing and/or supported the family because they saw my post. That post had a "good ROI" (as it is).
Don't humblebrag.
Use the 30-day snooze button liberally, but never unfriend unless someone does something seriously stupid.
(3) Instagram - I am not a 10-to-40 year old female (shoot, I'm not a 10-to-40 year old male anymore either). Thus I do not use this.
Its Non factual. So ... Tie a social security # to every post. Retinal scan. Bar code tracing.
China has the solution. Round them up. Jail them. Kill them. Call anyone with a different opinion non Chinese. In America ... its XXXXXT. Thanks.
And we have "leaders" and robot followers that obviously are ok with China owning us.
I stay off social media. These companies today censor, execute Algos to deliver the content ‘they’ want you to see, and push their political agendas.
I don’t need Facebook, Twitter, etc. playing moral traffic cop.
So nobody here considers the public board of a internet blog to be social media? Ok.