Social Media
 

Over the last year or so I have disengaged from most social media platforms. The last to possibly go is FB. The problem is I have friends in a variety of communities. I am weighing the cost/benefit ratio for staying with the platform. I am leaning towards departure, I feel it is becoming a theft of time. What are your thoughts about social media engagement?

me too, i refuse to do the socail media thing, i told my friends i wont use facebook, and told them i still have a phone number and email address so you know how to contact me if you need me

I'm leaning towards deleting my FB account tomorrow, but, it's weird in that I feel hesitant. I think I'm going to do it. I agree with some people that say social media is very addictive.

It's not weird at all that you're hesitant, social media is designed to be addictive. They even have 'addiction engineers' to keep you there so you give them more data.

FB coax you into giving them more personal information so you feel, if you left, that you would be committing virtual suicide and have few friends left. This is not that strange as a concept because when you leave FB you will find that you do lose contact with a lot of people because they don't care about you as a friend as much as they care about the platform. This is what they have been conditioned to do. All you are to many of them is a photo and a way to receive likes. Facebook removes the humanity from personal relationships and replaces it with self-servient narcissism.

So that's a good reason to leave. Those people you really care about [and vice versa], you won't lose contact with.

That's what I needed to hear. Thank you. I'm going to do it tomorrow. :)

FB account deleted. :)

I have a Facebook account. I go to it once a month to publicize an event that I host, as many of the persons who attend are members of its Facebook group (if you are going to do outreach, you have to reach out where the people are).

Other than that, it's been years since I've done anything else with said account at the Zuckerborg.

I answered the survey, using a private browser window to be cautious. I am confident that my loathing of "social" media will be apparent to whoever analyzes my answers and you should too.

If Facebook serves a purpose, it is this: it makes Google look almost virtuous.

I checked out of all that 3+ years ago, it was one of the best things I've ever done. I prefer forums like LQ over "social media" platforms. I'm not really keen on the whole "harvest-your-personal-data-in-order-to-advertise-to-you" thing.

Same here, agree totally. :thumbsup:

At least here at LQ you can help out, and/or learn something useful too. Honestly hitest, be glad you did delete your Facebook profile - it's just a waste of time anyway. I'm also glad I deleted mine.

I completely support anyone who identifies time wasting or negative habits and wants to better themselves. Life's too short to blow on situations you don't feel like are a net positive, especially when there's so many other possibilities. If you feel like $social_media_platform is a drain, then run, don't walk, to the exit.

Thanks! I'm glad I did too. It felt weird to click on the delete button. Social media is a subtle addiction, it draws you in.

I remember when I deleted my Facebook profile, they kept sending me emails to try and entice me to stay. So be aware of that hitest, they'll try to suck you back in. Just ignore every one of them.

I know in China, they actually have "treatment" for "Internet addiction", true story. So if that's considered an "addiction", it stands to reason that there would be such a thing as "social media addiction". I've been walking along the street and had people nearly walk into me, because they were too busy staring at their phone, no doubt checking their Facebook, Twitter, etc. I've seen people on the train, bus, etc sitting there with their eyes glued to their phone on Facebook, Twitter, etc. And it's like, their life is run by what's on social media, and they can't live without it - this generation is totally screwed.

Agreed. It's a powerful draw. I'm glad I'm out.

I only joined Facebook in the first place because I was stupid enough to listen to a friend of mine at the time. I wish I didn't, as it was like "this is as boring as hell". I was totally bored by the whole thing. I don't miss it one little bit, even had a guy I used to know start trolling me on it. Never again.

PS: sorry about my typo in my last post, I fixed it. But I must have edited it before the minute changed, given that there's no "Edited by.." line at the bottom of it.

I never had an account on any of those "platforms" in the first place.

In my opinion, it affects human interaction, it damages society as a whole. The bad far outweighs the good.

For many adults, it's a lesser thing, not taken seriously, a way to keep in touch with relatives, etc, for a lot of younger people growing up exposed to it from such an early age, it becomes their whole world.

Well done on getting out - the hard part for you will be in staying out.

It's certainly an addiction. It needs to be recognised as such, rather than played down. It's akin to alcoholism and gambling. Humans are naturally social animals and "social media" plays on that. Essentially the brain can be "rewired" and the user becomes a dependent.

The social media companies are making billions out of this, so as with the tobacco industry during most of the 20th century, they will continue to reap huge profits, with little to no regulation, until society as a whole wakes up to the scale of the problem.