Congratulations and hope for a continuance cleanup of all things social media. I say it from someone that can’t let go, of MR at least.
Unsolicited advice, the one thing I have read is that sharing the likes of “victory! I cleaned up” to the world is that the brain treats it as success, gets the reward, even when it’s not fully done. Like going to the gym a couple of weeks, still having months ahead to lose all the fat accumulated over years, but sharing current progress as victory will taint and make the further gym days harder and harder to commit sooner.
Myself I haven’t opened most social media in months: the likes of Instagram, blue sky, threads, etc get auto uninstalled on the device even.
However many acquaintances do send links on X or interesting educational YouTube videos, and that entry point is when it starts.
Podcasts is where it’s at for me, hit play on the topic at hand, when it ends it ends, it’s not constantly refreshing/restarting (YouTube does this every time out of two you want to continue watching something) or random things we don’t ask for
Oh i deleted ALL my social media, Instagram, Snapchat, Tik Tok (Cringe), My Youtube channel which i did for 13 years, i put my heart and soul into that channel, i did tech reviews, Ghostbusters news (im a big fan) Movie news, i shared my love of history with ships and oceanliners on there, Apple Products, and movie reviews and news, even my personal struggles with mental health, I gave it my all, and i just got so tired of all the negative reactions and critism and feeling i needed to defend everything i thought and felt and did with everything i did. If i disliked a movie, people would want to crucify me. If i liked a game or a product, people hated me for it, it was so toxic and after someone i thought was a online friend publicly humiliated me because he diden't like how i reviewed a movie, i said enough of this. I dont need to seek validation from anyone, let alone strangers online, and i deleted the channel after 13 years. I only kept my personal facebook (which i only added people i knew personally) and this dude stalked me on there, and i said, forget this, i deleted that too. I even forgot i had twitter in the first place, cause i never used it, and then recently i got caught up using it just to view what was going on, and i was like why am i burning this much of my time and emotional energy in this endless nonsense from strangers i dont know, half of them aren't that intellegent or just out to cause misery, why do i even care what other people have to say or think, and i got rid of that too...
Its a two fold problem. 1: People. Not everyone is a jerk, but the internet allows jerks to be major jerks and sadly their are just people out there who love to sow chaos, lies and misery and online allows them to do that unchecked. Sad thing is, this is nothing new, people like this have been around since the dawn of history, they just now are embolden by technology and its exhausting to deal with. Not everyone is like that, obviously, but when its all text or AI images on a screen, its so easy to lose your faith in humanity as a whole, its not worth the effort sorting it out.
Problem 2 is these Social Media Companies know this, use their platforms to enrich themselves. It used to be companies would sell a product to you, now with alot of these social media companies, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT ITSELF TO ENRICH THEMSELVES. Your time, your clicks, your view, your data, its all profit for them! You dont get paid for how much time you spend on facebook, twitter, or instagram unless your part of a very one sided Content creator program. I was part of the Youtube partners program. You know how much i made a year? 100-200 DOLLARS ON A GOOD YEAR and id upload videos nearly daily. But between nonsense copy right strikes, youtube changing the rules every 5 minuets so what was ok to do yesterday wasnt ok to do today, id be lucky if i pulled in a few dollars a year on add revenue while others would game the system, steal content, skirt the rules, and make a fortune being dishonest. Again the way of the world, nothing new, but its like why bother.
I never felt so liberated leaving social media in general. I dont got to defend any of my views, i dont have to waste my time arguing with people i dont know and never will meet, over nothing. The problem is, they design it to be like a drug, and its psychologically addicting and they know this.
You watch, in the years to come you will read up on how social media is more addicting and toxic then ciggerets.
Its really sad too. Life is more then clicks likes and views. But our society has devolved into a bunch of grown children just trying to be the center of attention 24/7.
