Quitting social media

I've been thinking lately about how I would reset technology if I had the chance. I'd wipe out all social media (and as part of this fantasy, no one could reimagine it, so it wouldn't come back). That said, I have Twitter and Facebook accounts. I like Twitter chiefly for links to stories, particularly when I'm on the bike at the gym and want something to read. Facebook is good for keeping up with friends and family, but it seems like it's only a small percentage posting on a regular basis anymore.

Do forums such as this one count as social media?

 

Love Facebook since I live across the country from my family and it lets me keep up with them. I had s Twitter account but it did nothing for me. Finally deleted my account. No other social media appeals to me.

 

I always thought some of you were so much more emotionally stronger. I don't get your need to quit whatever social media platform that you feel is becoming the death of you.

 

I was wondering that, too.

 

It did in 1999 or whenever it was we first stumbled into this gin joint.

 

I don't think it has to do with strength or weakness. If you're doing something for free—as in you're not being paid—and it's not fun, then you kind of have to ask why you're doing it.

 

This is exactly it for me. I really like Twitter. I don't follow accounts that piss me off, and I don't look at the responses to news stories. It's a great platform if you narrow it down to what you want.

(I will never forget the look on my 12 year old's face when he somehow discovered that I'm "verified" on Twitter. He saw the blue check and it was like he was living with a celebrity. My high-water mark as a parent.)

I used to spend way too much time on Facebook. Now it's maybe 5 minutes a day, and I unfollowed a ton of friends that commented too often on political posts.

I like Instagram a lot. Mostly I post photos from concerts, vacations and my dogs. All of those photos used to go on Facebook.

 

One of my mistakes on Twitter is that I stray from my feed—I'll click on a trending topic or a "moments" thread or whatever you call it, or I'll click on a Trump tweet and look at the replies. And then I'll want to drink bleach. I don't think I trust myself to be on there and not do that, though.

Being on social media is a little like playing golf in that way: It strips you of any illusions that you're not weak minded.

 

Yesterday, with half a dozen presses on, I watched that 6-iron veer ever so leftward and asked myself exactly that question.

 

It has everything to do with manufacturing some kind of pseudo emotion for the sake of feeling awful. Twitter is no different than SJ. You're a writer of the highest order who chronicles the human condition yet you can't deal with the human condition? It makes no sense to me.

 

I enjoy Facebook immensely, and it's allowed me to rekindle friendships with a lot of the friends of my youth. And if I find an old friend continuously posts things that bother me, I don't even unfriend them; I just adjust the feed so I don't see their posts. Easy-peasy.

Twitter, I have next to no use for. It could go away tomorrow and I wouldn't blink an eye.

 

I think you have this a little backward. I can chronicle the human condition however well I can because I feel things, including the feelings of others, pretty deeply. It's not a switch I can turn on and off. I mean, in a way I don't like that things don't bother me as much anymore. It's better for my sanity, but I don't want to be dulled or numbed. I don't want to hear about a mass shooting, say, and not be sad about it. The flip side is, if you take everything in, or to heart, social media can be overwhelming. It can have a real effect on how you feel about yourself and, more important, the world. I'm not sure we're built—or at least I don't think I'm built—to take in that much bad feeling every day.