Today, I'm initiating a self imposed exile to social media. Some of this may be temporary, other portions will not.
I think the meanness of some of the stuff I see (without getting overly PRSI) has just turned me off. I also think most of the stuff I see is useless, like those quizzes to see what type of villian, superhero, cartoon character you are.
I waste enough of my time here at MR
I don't need to have my nose in my phone on facebook.
With that said, have others been tempted to leave social media and/or quit?
I'm sure there can be some good coming out of social media but as it stand I'm not seeing too much
Sorry to hear that.
Given that you have work, family, karate, church, and mod duties, you probably have more than enough already on your plate to occupy your time.
However, the quizzes that you refer to, are more a symptom of your (mine, too) age; I think that this is the sort of thing that might interest a younger demographic; it certainly - for the most part - holds little interest for me, but I don't think it is aimed at this of us who are no longer in the first flush of youth.
Re the meanness, I think that has come about from a number of different sources: First, there is a decline in the old habits of deference, and the manners - enforced and otherwise that went with them.
Secondly, the internet has allowed for a 'flatter' and two-way form of communication, which older forms of media (say, newspapers, and TV) - radio was always a little more connected to its audience, and many programmes would not have survived without ample feedback or phone-ins from audiences - didn't really encourage or allow.
Thirdly, an etiquette - or what is considered courteous - when engaging in the online world has yet to evolve. The form of communication and interaction is simply too new for acceptable - or unacceptable - forms of behaviour to have had time to evolve, become considered accepted, and be embedded in the system.
Fourthly, there is the confusion of the private space and the space public, the erosion of the private space (a great loss to my mind) and the blurring of boundaries. Many youngsters don't see this blurring of the boundaries as something to be deplored, and fail to see that the internet - which because you can access it in your study or your bedroom - is not necessarily a private space where you can behave with the same lack of inhibition as you might display in your personal private space. believing you are in a private space, though, does seem to serve to lower or remove inhibitions, or curbs on behaviour.
Things might change though.
Good luck.
[doublepost=1469635341][/doublepost]Apart from Twitter - which I use to keep abreast of political stuff - and LinkedIn, which I use purely for professional reasons, this is the only online forum I am a member of. For now, I enjoy it, though the dark tone in some places is a cause for concern.
I don't have a FB account and never plan to have one.
