Quitting social media

See, I don’t get this aspect. I can actively engage on Twitter, raise my child, and read a book, all in a day, week, or month.

If social media consumes you and makes you unhappy, is it about the social media, or is it about you?

(This comment is not directed at you specifically, Fart)

 

I can spend a day in the yard or playing board games and not feel one urge to wade through Twitter's raw sewage.
It's about a wish to manage my environment to whatever extent I may - manage yours as you see fit.
My form of 'resistance' is ignoring this president and his pathologically sick need to be noticed.
Avoiding social media for large stretches at a time fulfills that objective very nicely.

 

I think there are people—@Songbird seems to be one—who can use social media and not have it impact their lives or how they feel about the world. There are other people (I'm one of them) who have addictive personalities and take too much in for their own good. I don't think there's a blanket "social media is bad" or "social media is good" that can be applied to all people. It works for some. It doesn't work for others.

So, you're right, I think.

 

Nobody's personality is more addictive than mine.

And how I feel about the world? The world is stupid regardless of how much Twittering or Facebooking or SJ.com'ing I do in a day. But that's neither here nor there.

 

I gave up social media about five years ago and have not gone back. The reasoning was never because it frustrated or depressed me. It was actually really simple. Social media just wasn't for me, the same way Jane Austen novels, oysters and NASCAR aren't for me. I originally felt obligated to be on Facebook or Twitter because everyone else was, and I wanted to be up on the new trends or whatever.

Then at some point, as I instinctively scrolled through my Facebook feed one evening because I was bored, I realized how little I was getting out of it. I could have picked up one of the many books I was intending to read, and continued to try to learn the guitar, or go for a walk, anything instead of mindlessly scrolling past the thoughts and pictures of people I really had no contact with anymore. So I deactivated my account, deleted the app and moved on.

I'm sure I've missed out on some things since I've been off, like hearing about an old friend or acquaintance having a kid or getting married. But for the people that really matter in my life, I manage to stay up to date because I keep in contact through any of the myriad methods that aren't Facebook.

 

Maybe that's all it is. I think the world is beautiful and people are good, or I like to think so, and social media gives me so much evidence that I'm wrong. Social media confirms your view of the world. Our different take on its value or danger might be explained as simply as that.

 

Social media does not do that for me.

Social media is purely entertainment as a way to watch people be people. (And to get information.)

 

Well then we're just different people who can view the same thing differently.

 

Please, let's not pretend any of this shit is normal.
Adults spending entire workdays on social media, Facebook use being cited in numerous divorce cases.
And let's not pretend it's even vaguely social.

We're already being warned that smart devices could conceivably record any conversation and upload it to a server. YouTube might not even need willing content providers by 2040.
Facebook and hopefully Twitter will be deader than crabmeat by then.

 

Is that gas station crabmeat?

 

LOL:

 

I've decided to swear off Facebook. Can't deactivate the account because it's linked to my Spotify and other apps, but I've logged out for the foreseeable future.