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Quitting social media

C DM said:
Same things have been said about calling someone compared to putting in the time and effort into actually writing a letter or visiting.
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Doesn't matter because it's still incorrect. A telephone call, like a letter, requires specific, intentional communication. Social media does not.

C DM said:
In any case, as I mentioned, everyone has a different experience and does things differently. There is no right or wrong there or good or bad, just what works or doesn't work for you. One's interaction with the world somehow doesn't invalidate someone else's. That's really the simple reality.
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No no you're mistaken here. There's an illusion perhaps of what works or doesn't work. The experience does vary, but the platform itself remains the same, and takes communication away from in-person or attentive interaction.

There is nothing "right or wrong" or "good or bad" about it if you abstract it away, but if you say something like that you value human communication and social activity (and this is just a general statement) then you can carefully analyze what improves or degrades that value and then classify activities as being right or wrong, good or bad.
 
smallcoffee said:
Doesn't matter because it's still incorrect. A telephone call, like a letter, requires specific, intentional communication. Social media does not.



No no you're mistaken here. There's an illusion perhaps of what works or doesn't work. The experience does vary, but the platform itself remains the same, and takes communication away from in-person or attentive interaction.

There is nothing "right or wrong" or "good or bad" about it if you abstract it away, but if you say something like that you value human communication and social activity (and this is just a general statement) then you can carefully analyze what improves or degrades that value and then classify activities as being right or wrong, good or bad.
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And there are people who would disagree with you when it comes to phone calls vs. a letter or an actual visit. I guess their disagreement makes what you say incorrect by that similar logic then, right?

In any case, it's all "incorrect" or an "illusion" or what have you because you feel that way about it. Yeah, I guess it's all that to you. Certainly doesn't make it that way for many others.
 
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C DM said:
Right, right, it's all "incorrect" or an "illusion" or what have you because you feel that way about it. Yeah, I guess it's all that to you. Certainly doesn't make it that way for many others.
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No it's that way for others too.

Let's start like this: do you value human communication and social activity?
 
I personally love Twitter, but I have been thinking about removing it as well due to the fact that I mainly follow politics, and I know my boss is on Twitter.
 
I quit Facebook within 2 weeks of joining and never looked back. I recently joined Twitter, and am having fun being Lady Death Metal Dork: joking and having a laugh with some old band friends I haven't spoken to in YEARS. I was using it for publicity for writing which became an epic fail (the people I was writing for.) So I'll just create a new account and continue to be Lady Death Metal Dork.

When it's for fun, great but I found certain parts of it not good for me. I was fine without it, and I'll be fine limiting it too.
 
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ncbetz said:
I know my boss is on Twitter.
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I purposely don't friend any work folks, while I enjoy working when them and we on occasion go out after work, I prefer keeping my work life separate from my home life. On twitter that doesn't seem to be a problem because no one on my team uses twitter (but they all use FB).
 
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maflynn said:
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
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I only have Macrumors and Twitter but I get closer and close to putting Twitter on the chopping blocks, to be honest a lack of social media has never been a problem only social media obsessed people keep trying to tell you 'how important it is' blah, blah, blah.

You'll be fine.
 
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maflynn said:
I purposely don't friend any work folks, while I enjoy working when them and we on occasion go out after work, I prefer keeping my work life separate from my home life. On twitter that doesn't seem to be a problem because no one on my team uses twitter (but they all use FB).
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Another option for something like that is to use categories and set up privacy using those categories so that people in those categories basically don't see anything or only see a few more public things you might share (if there any). Of course simply not adding is the overall simpler way of going about it (I guess as long as there are no weird questions or looks about people requesting to be added and being ignored or something like that).
 
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Reading this is making my eyes roll. Categorizing people according to privacy settings? You could just like, not do any of this and just get off social media.
 
smallcoffee said:
Reading this is making my eyes roll. Categorizing people according to privacy settings? You could just like, not do any of this and just get off social media.
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I believe it's safe to say that we've all picked up that social media isn't something you like and that it isn't for you.
 
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Never really used it. I don't truly care enough to know what's going on with people's lives to bother with the damn thing.
 
Yeah, I'm realizing 100% don't give a fig newton about what anyone who follows me does in their private time. Talk about movies and folks who make, act and fight in them? Sure. Anything. Nope. Officially slowing down on Twitter. It went from being fun to being an utter yawn pretty quick.
 
maflynn said:
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
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I can't quit something I never started 🙂

I reckon its probably pretty difficult...... not that your friends, etc are on they're being one, and second, is also the duration... How long do u use it and have been in your "comfort zone"..

The longer u been on social media, the harder it will be to leave. On the other hand, there would be some like me that could just flick a switch and light off.. in seconds.. (shrugs)
 
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about a third of my facebook friends are ignored/unfollowed.
i also click on "hide post" or "see fewer posts like this" on the posts facebook put in that i don`t like.
there are ways to filter. and my wallet is happy coz im on the least expensive data plan.
 
Like many others on here I have no FB or Twitter account. I am on three forums all Technical. Apart from this one AVFORUMS and ROKU. The only Political discourse I participate in on the NET is this one. The other are all purely Technical and Product updates.
 
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The only social media I use is Instagram- and that only because there's a level of creativity that can't be avoided. (At basic level) One HAS to at least think a little bit and photograph something in a way others will find interesting.

I like forums think this of course, cause there's a focus and usually a common interest.

FaceBook and the like creeped me out from day one. *NEVER* wanted to be on it or anywhere near it. There's something I find kind of horrific about it. First off, I think it KILLED the whole idea of having to actually be unique and creative on the web. Back when people had things like blogs, they had to think and use whatever talent/creativity they had to have anyone pay any attention. Things had to be interesting, or no one paid attention. Truly interesting people shone, those that weren't had to work on it.

Now it's just repost someone ELSE'S image/idea/whatever and get 'likes'. Be creative or interesting? Why bother?

Anecdotal: I noticed when my wife was on it, Facebook could often make her edgy. There was always some measure of actually finding out how petty and shallow a lot of her 'friends' on there actually were.

I see people upset about something at work, and it's almost a safe bet: "Oh what did you see on FaceBook this time..."

People love to either appear the most successful/happy/enriched people on the planet- or LOATHING that someone else appears that way more than them. I'm sure it's unfair to pin this all on FB as it's just human nature, but somehow I find FB embodies it.

The second someone makes national headlines now, I notice they are judged harder by anything found on them via social media, than anything else.

Lastly, there's just that stereotypical image I have that makes me chuckle and shake my head- bars full of people sitting and staring at their phones, checking social media instead of checking out EACH OTHER, live and in person! Having encountered exactly that stereotypical situation many times myself, I guess I get that 'old guy' thank god it wasn't like this back in my day attitude. You met a girl in a bar back in the day and you only had to compete with the other dudes there in reality with you- have a little bit going on and that wasn't a big deal. Now it must be you have only to compete with the other dudes in the bar... AND the whole world of other dudes she has in her pocket screen she can whip out and check instead of face 'stranger' you!

I guess I'm just thankful I had lots of fun before that (what seems to me HORRIFYING!) age, and met my wife back in a time when some of that existed, but not quite like it is now.

Irony to me of 'social media' is I guess my old-school self finds a lot of it to actually be anti-social media in a lot of ways. Happy to live my life without 90% of it.
 
Zaap said:
The only social media I use is Instagram- and that only because there's a level of creativity that can't be avoided. (At basic level) One HAS to at least think a little bit and photograph something in a way others will find interesting.

I like forums think this of course, cause there's a focus and usually a common interest.

FaceBook and the like creeped me out from day one. *NEVER* wanted to be on it or anywhere near it. There's something I find kind of horrific about it. First off, I think it KILLED the whole idea of having to actually be unique and creative on the web. Back when people had things like blogs, they had to think and use whatever talent/creativity they had to have anyone pay any attention. Things had to be interesting, or no one paid attention. Truly interesting people shone, those that weren't had to work on it.

Now it's just repost someone ELSE'S image/idea/whatever and get 'likes'. Be creative or interesting? Why bother?

Anecdotal: I noticed when my wife was on it, Facebook could often make her edgy. There was always some measure of actually finding out how petty and shallow a lot of her 'friends' on there actually were.

I see people upset about something at work, and it's almost a safe bet: "Oh what did you see on FaceBook this time..."

People love to either appear the most successful/happy/enriched people on the planet- or LOATHING that someone else appears that way more than them. I'm sure it's unfair to pin this all on FB as it's just human nature, but somehow I find FB embodies it.

The second someone makes national headlines now, I notice they are judged harder by anything found on them via social media, than anything else.

Lastly, there's just that stereotypical image I have that makes me chuckle and shake my head- bars full of people sitting and staring at their phones, checking social media instead of checking out EACH OTHER, live and in person! Having encountered exactly that stereotypical situation many times myself, I guess I get that 'old guy' thank god it wasn't like this back in my day attitude. You met a girl in a bar back in the day and you only had to compete with the other dudes there in reality with you- have a little bit going on and that wasn't a big deal. Now it must be you have only to compete with the other dudes in the bar... AND the whole world of other dudes she has in her pocket screen she can whip out and check instead of face 'stranger' you!

I guess I'm just thankful I had lots of fun before that (what seems to me HORRIFYING!) age, and met my wife back in a time when some of that existed, but not quite like it is now.

Irony to me of 'social media' is I guess my old-school self finds a lot of it to actually be anti-social media in a lot of ways. Happy to live my life without 90% of it.
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Nice post.

I would have liked it, had it not been for your blasphemy.
 
maflynn said:
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
Click to expand...

I've been there and done that. Then, after a few months, I return. It's almost as if social media is calling me...

However, I mainly use Twitter and Instagram. I refuse to use FaceBook.
Earlier this week after reading the repetitive moaning and groaning of Arsenal supporters on Twitter, I'm close to taking a break again.

Gone are the days of true human interaction on social media, Twitter in particular.
 
Well what a turn around. After reading a few posts on this thread, I just went dark on social media (that doesn't include Forums; I actually like replying to threads and posts)! I may even perform a twiticide...
 
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mobilehaathi said:
Speaking to a woman one isn't married to?
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But how is that blasphemy?

Blasphemy is to mock the gods.

And - from my perspective - I am of the view that gods need to be mocked, teased, laughed at - otherwise, they run the risk of taking themselves terribly seriously. This is because I believe that we make the gods in our image, rather than the other way around.

Besides, few things in this life are more bitterly hilarious than the sight of exceedingly self-righteous human beings believing that they have been infused with the sort of divine fire that allows them to sit in thin-lipped and ungenerous judgment on their fellows citing divine authority to do so.

Blasphemy?

No, this might rank as some mad, insane, self-righteous, judgmental, definition of what some might construe as something that could be defined as 'sin'.
 
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