When I have to describe social media… I do as follows.
There are 3 types of social media users.
1: Those with wealth who have no worries and can portray the image of living the simple life full of hobbies and joy… which is easy to do when you don’t have to work 2 or 3 jobs just to pay the bills. they hoard wealth instead of giving.
2: Those that have no wealth and are desperately trying to convince others that they do, and that their life is so much better than yours.
3: The sheep that believe both of the above and would like to fit into one of those groups.
Meanwhile… the ones actually living the simple life, their best life, the relaxing life… aren’t on corporate owner social media willing giving up their privacy and freedoms so a billionaire can get richer.
Back in the day, we called this having an actual personality, as opposed to having one assigned to you by an insidiously exploitative and immensely destructive algorithm.
That’s the option I take… deleted FB in 2012, Twitter in 2018 (not that I actually used it, posted maybe 20 things in 7yrs) and have never used any of the others. I’m on mastodon and lemmy, I use signal & telegram and have to suffer whatsapp for immediate family.
I told everyone else that I was only going to make an effort with people who made an effort with me… and that solved the fake friends side of the problem… Because all I got for years was ‘but you’re not a facebook’ as a reason for their laziness and entitlement that I must bow to their convenience as it’s far more important that protecting my mental health.
Yep I am pretty much exactly the same, nuked my facebook profile after Cambridge Analytica…
…literally only ever used Twitter to scream at Elon Musk during the buyout untill… fairly possibly he personally banned me, as there basically weren’t any actual Twitter moderation staff at that exact moment in time, because they had all either quit or been fired or been locked out of their accounts.
Yeah the uh, ‘will you install signal to talk to me’ test is also one I use.
If thats too much to ask, then thats how little you give a shit about me, and uh, I’m basically fine on my own, most people in my life have been faaar more trouble than their worth, so, idgaf.
If this is too demanding of ask from me, then never ask me for anything again, i really don’t care.
And then wow blamo, quality of life, mental health goes up rapidly when not dealing with incessant bullshit from lazy selfish morons all the time, its wild looking back in hindsight how obvious that should have been, lol.
When I have to describe social media… I do as follows.
There are 3 types of social media users.
1: Those with wealth who have no worries and can portray the image of living the simple life full of hobbies and joy… which is easy to do when you don’t have to work 2 or 3 jobs just to pay the bills. they hoard wealth instead of giving. 2: Those that have no wealth and are desperately trying to convince others that they do, and that their life is so much better than yours. 3: The sheep that believe both of the above and would like to fit into one of those groups.
Meanwhile… the ones actually living the simple life, their best life, the relaxing life… aren’t on corporate owner social media willing giving up their privacy and freedoms so a billionaire can get richer.
Exactly.
People seem to forget that the 4th option exists…
… the only winning move is not to play.
Back in the day, we called this having an actual personality, as opposed to having one assigned to you by an insidiously exploitative and immensely destructive algorithm.
People need to go rewatch The Social Network.
That’s the option I take… deleted FB in 2012, Twitter in 2018 (not that I actually used it, posted maybe 20 things in 7yrs) and have never used any of the others. I’m on mastodon and lemmy, I use signal & telegram and have to suffer whatsapp for immediate family.
I told everyone else that I was only going to make an effort with people who made an effort with me… and that solved the fake friends side of the problem… Because all I got for years was ‘but you’re not a facebook’ as a reason for their laziness and entitlement that I must bow to their convenience as it’s far more important that protecting my mental health.
Yep I am pretty much exactly the same, nuked my facebook profile after Cambridge Analytica…
…literally only ever used Twitter to scream at Elon Musk during the buyout untill… fairly possibly he personally banned me, as there basically weren’t any actual Twitter moderation staff at that exact moment in time, because they had all either quit or been fired or been locked out of their accounts.
Yeah the uh, ‘will you install signal to talk to me’ test is also one I use.
If thats too much to ask, then thats how little you give a shit about me, and uh, I’m basically fine on my own, most people in my life have been faaar more trouble than their worth, so, idgaf.
If this is too demanding of ask from me, then never ask me for anything again, i really don’t care.
And then wow blamo, quality of life, mental health goes up rapidly when not dealing with incessant bullshit from lazy selfish morons all the time, its wild looking back in hindsight how obvious that should have been, lol.