Unsocial Media

[michaelboy]

Rapid-fire social media, unlike a slower-paced journalling style, seems often now to consist more of shared/reposted/regurgitated memes than very much in the way of substantial and thoughtful writing. Even whether or not I agree with a point being proffered, it is almost always less impactful and believable to me when an idea isn’t carefully considered, sorted and then written in the poster's own words. Moreover, and beyond even advertising space, we are presented way too many unsolicited feeds of unwanted or irrelevant information with an equal measure of blatant misinformation. It's all beginning to feel very dirty. I get that ads are what gives a "free" service it's wings, but what happened to the days, when you would predominantly see what your friends might have actually posted? This evolution makes it way too easy for cherry-picked or inaccurate information to slip onto user's feeds which can be both anger-inducing and frustrating. While I'll still keep at least one of those forms of social media, I resolve to participate much less and only minimally observe, while companies like Meta create even newer ways of sowing the seeds of unwarranted discord. It just is starting to feel unproductive, ugly and like an enslavement to a social cesspool. Why do I feel this way? I am not really certain but there you have it.

Comments

[tactilemuse]

I could not agree more. I love not having social media. My life has improved considerably for cutting the cord with it.

[michaelboy]

Sometimes, the bickering and the posting of gotcha's/take-downs -- especially from the people I know and love just makes me feel so helpless and sad.

[tactilemuse]

I couldn't agree more. I am sad at the direction it took, but very happy to not be sold to constantly in addition to having to parse through the same cycle of cynical memes and one upmanship posting every day. I'll take slow intentional blog/journaling life over that mess any day.

[keplers_angels]

It's different. The means of communications are simpler -- which is convenient and accessible in a way journalling isn't-- but also allows for less thought and more speed. And the algorithm choosing and curating --- that's its own animal too and it's also got positive elements as well as negative.

I would feel very unmoored if my journalling sites stopped doing chronological friends pages -- I need someplace where things are not determined by "popularity" but by my own decisions about who I want to read.

[vaa]

well, i guess youll stop updating and will never reply to me with this reply.

anyway, i go against the grain. i go to about 10 sites per day, including slashdot. i love that place. its just addicting. geeky news and geeks saying insightful things about em.

facebook and the similar ones. i just write long replies to what people post. even if its just a stupid meme they spent 5 secs effort on reposting.

lately ive got some friends on messenger too. well, its the same website as facebook. today i looked on my blogs and ive got 15 replies, 10 from tracey. 20 on minds, 50 (!) on facebook. and its more sites.

people actually care about me now. i remember like 30 years ago? i was so lonely. really no one talking to me in the whole world. id stopped gaming but was still online 12 hours a day. all i did was check sCarys shuga shack. and... about it. i also found this site called bmezine. not something for a teen. neither was stileproject. rotten library was insightful though.

yeah, like they say. if the product is free you are the product. but it doesnt matter what you do when we all got 100KBPS output from the nanochip to the closest bluetooth device. they know everything about you. anyway, goodmorning from a really beautiful summer in sweden. everythings blossoming. it looks wonderful.