The only social media that has ever really stuck for me is cf.net. But I have accounts for facebook/insta, twitter, linkedin, maybe a couple others. But honestly never understood the appeal. I started with facebook and found the only use was to post pictures of my kids for the grandparents -- well at least until I started worrying for the kids' privacy and stopped doing that. But hearing other people talk about themselves or their dumb opinions has always struck me as very tiresome. I keep those accounts open so I can look something up if necessary. But I don't use any of them like people use social media. I use linkedin to host my resume and field the occasional recruiter, but posts from 'thought leaders' are just spam in my way. My boss is pretty effective being a thought leader in our industry on twitter, and I'll use my account to give him a like or whatever, but I can't even tolerate reading the twitter conversations he has with the other muckity mucks even if it'd be good for my career. I might find a how-to on youtube when I need to or watch a 10-minute stand-up set, but hate listening to people explain things or have opinions in real time -- if you have an opinion, write it down and I might skim it. Sometimes family will ask me to watch something, and I'll complain, 'but it's 8 minutes long!' My kids will share something with me on Insta and then have to guilt-trip me to make me watch it, and those are less than a minute and usually funny. So, the only thing I actually engage with is this bbs. I think it is because we have a finite population of regulars, so I know the people I'm talking to as much as you can know someone digitally. But they aren't IRL friends or family, so I don't have to worry about interpersonal politics. And, the community is organized around a particular interest (for me, basketball originally but now politics). There is no algorithm that drives the content (once the spammers are ignored) aside from how people might have internalized and imported what they've learned. Somehow, I've been a regular for a quarter-century on that formula when I otherwise hate engaging with people online.
I use it in the sense of looking at memes for a few mins a day but I don't use it to blast my personal life to people I barely know. (0 posts, 0 followers). It's inevitable not to open one because someone sends me a tiktok/insta reel daily. I have an anonymous facebook so I can look at Porsche groups.
I have a couple but I don't use them much. Modern social media is a cesspool so I actively avoid news type stuff. Just here for the memes. I have a Nextdoor account to sell stuff and I gotta say, people who lie for clicks on Nextdoor are sad folks.
All social media platforms start wide open but then deviate into a specific purpose: Facebook is where people brag and project faux lives that are far from reality. X is a venomous political forum but I try to navigate through it to get to the sports content I like, it gets harder and harder to do so most times I give up. IG is good to find humor in good memes, anything else you look at the algo will somehow steer you towards thirst traps. View one health or fitness related post and you will be swarmed with 12 suggested posts of fitness model women filming barbell thrusts at the most provocative angle possible. TikTok I completely avoid.
As the state of social media dialogue has degenerated to unforseen levels of ugly we here are not immune from the contagion. The number of posters on clutchfans having mental breakdowns is at an all-time high.
It was weird back in Spring… moved up to Greenville, small town in NE Texas and it’s downright bizarre. Honestly I think Facebook is the devil but this **** is so looney I might make a faux account to garage sell stuff.
The Youtube and instagram algorithms, you have to micromanage. God forbid you looked at one fitness post or model, PREPARE TO BE BOMBARDED WITH IG WHORES. youtube, i have to constantly delete my viewing history so i don't get served that entire category all week long. I look up one video on how to clean my AC condenser and I am now somehow a home repair guru/ac mechanic. it's kind of pathetic how much they feed you the same sh** all day long, no wonder these trumpers get brain washed.
the randomness of the internet is how I come across stuff...now I am exhausted just watching the same stuff. I click on random stuff just to keep the algos guessing, and hoping for new content.
I would add this to the thread: very happy this morning that I've had an Insta account, b/c it has a great catalogue of a now-dearly-departed canine family member. Just a kind of treasure trove of warm goofiness, easily accessed and reviewed by me and the Mrs.
