Disabled Social Media. Free at last! But now what?

Off Topic
#1

Just deactivated my Twitter account. No reason.
It’s the last of my Social Media accounts to go.
So long Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter…

  • I don’t miss Facebook whicih I left it over 8 years ago.
  • I definitely didn’t miss Instagram which I used to post personal training photos (I was not a successful influencer)
  • Ditched LinkedIn - because I was being stalked and they got to my LinkedIn from there - and then found where I worked and then my stalker was following me around, which was scary.
  • Ditched Twitter today last to go - won’t miss it.

Feels free!

The only problem now is where will I get all my news from?

1 Like
#2

FB – Left years ago and never looked back. Happier without it.
IG – I’ll admit that I had an IG problem and spent way too much time on there. I still have an account, but I no longer post or check. I should go ahead and delete the account.
Twitter – Never had an account.
LinkedIn – Have an account and find it a useful business tool. It will be deleted when I retire, unless I find myself in some sort of teaching / training / mentorship role or if my retirement isn’t really a full retirement.

#3

How do you go about getting your daily gossip/news/interests?

#4

Never partook in any of them. I am such a dinosaur. Sigh.

1 Like
#5

Reddit

1 Like
#6

Can you just lurk and not signup? Interesting idea

#7

Looking through apps on the app store I got the Google news app. Plenty of categories etc.

#8

Coincidentally, I deactivated my Twitter account about three days ago. I sporadically used it for about two years but found the shallow 280-character conversations useless and frustrating.

I have an Instagram account but haven’t logged in for a couple of years. It’s made for mobile phones, and I’m just not much of a phone person.

For some reason, my LinkedIn account takes over two minutes to load, so I rarely log into it. Besides, unlike others who seem to find LinkedIn useful, I’ve found the opposite to be true for me — weird.

I belong to several Facebook groups, which I like. Facebook also helps me keep up with what my extended family and old friends are doing.

TikTok, WhatsApp, etc., nope.

1 Like
#9

For gossip…not interested.

For news…there are plenty of news sites out there. Unfortunately, they are all biased one way or the other, so the trick is filtering out the bias to get to the bottom line.

For interests…there are a number of YouTube channels I subscribe to. You can learn an awful lot on YT these days.

2 Likes
#10

Ironically, I get most of my US news from the BBC. They seem to do a more objective job of covering US news that the US news media does. And this comes from someone (me) who worked for 15 yers in the US news media.

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#11

That’s what I’m after too, objective unbiased news.

#12

You might be able to, I’m not sure but you won’t be able to pick & choose which subreddits show up on your front page. But if you can lurk without signing up you could bookmark the subreddits you see that interest you.

#13

Still shocked that anyone gets their news from social media :flushed: :roll_eyes:

Unbiased News sites;
ProPublica
TheGuardian
AlJazeera
parts of the BBC

Interests;
Quora
Reddit
both rely on you selecting the subjects you want to read about, so you can filter out the garbage

3 Likes
#14

Good for you Smurf! It’s a habit I never took up but it’s easy to see how many problems it causes.

On the subject of trying to find accurate news reporting I’m shocked that anyone would use the guardian as a news source with how low they rate for facts based reporting and bias. I also closed my Reddit account as soon as the Aimee Challenor controversy was exposed ( I won’t go into details as there are sickening facts involving children but anyone can look it up). Different strokes for different folks is a nice way of putting it I guess :smiley:

1 Like
#15

Let’s not get into squabbles about different news sources

One of the key reasons for dumping social media is the ‘social’ side of it and hate filled comments from any person who signs up and feels a need to drag others down.

Twitter was very good for following Sky, BBC, Sports etc often breaking news before full story in the website. I wouldn’t say I relied on it, but I did follow NASA and other science channels that were fascinating.

It would get to the point where you drop a simple nice comment and then get barraged by someone

Anyway I tried Quora before, didn’t really like it. Still on the fence about Reddit .

2 Likes
#16

I use Twitter and Instagram but only for following very specific, niche, type-based stuff. I rarely comment or engage in any way. I never post. Facebook, I still have and used to use more when I lived away, for keeping in touch with friends (actual friends, not Facebook friends). I have a rule; If I wouldn’t let them in my house to share a meal and a bottle of wine, then they are not coming onto my Facebook. I find I am using it less and less now. Not really bothered about seeing my niece’s meals – or her child’s latest ‘cute’ mishap. With all social media, I can take it or leave it. I don’t even have a smart phone. I don’t need one. Besides, it is worth not having one to see the look in people’s faces when you tell them you don’t have one. There is usually a genuine lack of understanding. ‘How can you function without a smartphone?’

As for news, I still read the BBC, but it is not what it used to be – actually trustworthy and genuinely impartial. It tries, but more and more is becoming a mouthpiece for a less-than-scrupulous, increasingly, right-wing, unaccountable government. (Its TV programming is still very, very good, especially in the Natural History Department.) However, I do double check most everything across a few sources (The Independent, The Guardian, and Al Jazeera are the main three). Also, the BBC World Service is often more impartial and less focussed on domestic mitigating the government’s latest Pinocchio episode.

#17

Yes, you mentioned before you don’t have a smartphone. I just spent 1.5k on a new one, but it has an option to use Samsun DEX (which is it turns the smartphone into a Desktop computer with any Smart TV (I have Samsung TVs anyway) - and this means I can use the phone as a desktop for Word, Excel, etc. on the go too. It’s a nice feature, but was the smartphone really worth it, well the camera is quite good and has pro features - so this stopped me buying a camera too - which is a small saving. Apart from that, WhatsApp is a must for me as all my friends use it and it’s been a great tool for staying in touch with them during the Pandemic.

I like the phone but I won’t be upgrading for at least 7-10 years (like the last time). Maybe next time I won’t get a smartphone.

As with Facebook - there was a member on this forum before, and we made good chatting friends and ended up being Facebook friends. I decided I would do a cull of the friends on Facebook as there was too many. I hadn’t see or heard from this person the forum or on Facebook for about a year, so I decided to unfriend them. About 1 hour later I got an email saying that he was really hurt and disappointed that I had unfriended him on Facebook… I was like … I don’t really know you and we haven’t spoke in over a year…

But that was enough for me. I realised if people were not friends with you on Facebook you can’t be friends in real life - which was very strange.
I also went out for a night out with my then girlfriend (now wife) to one of my wife’s colleagues was having a night out. I thought it would be great as her work friend always posted pictures of being out on nights out, meeting loads of people, lots of fun.
The night was nothing like that - instead she and her friends spent the whole night on their phones, taking picutres and posting updates to the Facebook page. I looked at my then girlfriend and was like, do you want to go somewhere else. When we said we were leaving we were met with “Aw why? We’re having so much fun!”

How social media has consumed people for likes and shares it’s insane.
Hence, removing myself from all the social media sites (even Twitter you can be waiting to get that ‘heart’ for a like. Or waiting for someone to comment.

It is fracturing social society, not bringing it together.

=====
Yes, I do like the BBC but find some of their coverage, especially home based coverage, to be quite biased.

I’ve found the Google News app to be quite good, it has lots of categories to choose from, so I just have 1 app on my phone now for the news that I want to read - and I can pick and choose other categories and time goes by.

I really miss just buying a newspaper everyday. In fact I still buy a newspaper and a magazine on a Saturday and sit in the garden reading and drinking coffee.

But I often find you are reading news that you already read the day before, or the day before that. It’s not really as up to date as the Apps are - how could they.

#18

Absolutely. I was in an Indian Restaurant the other day and watched a couple walk in, speak to each other for two seconds (‘This table OK?’), then on their individual phones for the entire meal. Not a word between them. What was the point?

There was another couple, who did actually talk to each other, but when his partner went to the bathroom, he had an immediate Pavlovian reflex and just picked up his phone until she returned. Best thing is, it is a restaurant with the most amazing views and huge windows the length of an entire wall. Uninterrupted views across miles of countryside and hills. Absolutely beautiful and this particular evening there was the most amazing red and purple sunset. I’d say about 60% of the people in there didn’t even see it.

Going anywhere public is like observing some sort of dystopian nightmare where most of the participants have no idea what is going on. Orwell incarnate.

My indulgence is the Observer on Sunday morning, a short coffee and a long bath.

It used to be the Sunday Times, until succumbed to being solely Murdoch’s personal agenda. I am talking a long while ago now. When the magazine would have apposite, well-crafted articles, illustrated by photographers like Don McCullen. It used to be a bastion of journalistic integrity (much like the BBC used to be). Now … well, you just have to read it!

1 Like
#19

Instinctively I gave you a like.

#20

Thanks. I feel validated!!

I am such a cynical old grouch, I never ‘like’ anything, even if I do, as I know they are used track you.