Flouncing

[Hot Pepsi]

I think I'm going to delete my Instagram account. It's owned by Facebook and Facebooks is immoral. Isn't it? I already ditched facebook. I hate twitter too, but at least they seem to be sort of trying not to be so evil. Really, I just think the whole thing sucks. I wish we could go back to where anyone who wanted to speak out had to make their own blog.
https://screenrant.com/facebook-engi...otest-message/

It's overloaded with ads and I don't think I'm actually doing anything good on it. I try to amplify messages about animals that need help, but most of them are so far from here that I can't help them
and I'm just preaching to the choir anyway. And it's just so overwhelmingly sad that it's bad for my mental health. I need to focus my attentions locally.

I also didn't like how today revealed that it's all a competition in competitive wokeness. Were we supposed to post a black box? Were were we not? Who is in charge of that? Did any of that do one damn bit of good whatsoever? Perhaps its wrong for a white man to say that he's just tired of it. I'm not actually tired of it so much as I'm just confounded. And the only thing I hate more than feeling like I'm not doing what I should be doing is doing something that I know is not helping, but just doing it to go along.

I think I do it just because I'm lonely. I suppose that's why I'm on here all the time. Unfortunately, it's not really helping. I need to reassess.


So if anyone wants me to keep sending them pictures of Tonka. DM me and I can try to remember to send you some.


Is that the right move? I'm afraid it is. Isn't it? I guess we'll find out.

[Nocturnal Submission]

I don't bother with social media. I probably look at my Facebook account once every two or three weeks and that's it. It's not awful - just a bit boring.

OTF feels more like a WhatsApp friendship group, full of likeable individuals, wit, insight and experience. A quite unique community really, and one I feel privileged to be a small part of.

[Hot Pepsi]

Facebook is just a bad platform, I think. This guy has a good explanation of it.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertc.../#2697ac8d305a

All of them are bad, though. Our brains are not designed to take that much input on that many different topics so fast. And now that it's 99% bad news, it's even more damaging, I think.

[Nocturnal Submission]

I suppose everyone's starting point should be does my membership of this platform enrich my life? Am I better informed as to important events in the lives of my genuine friends, does it entertain me, does it inform me and does it point me towards things which will help me enhance my existence?

Alternatively, do the often warped versions of people's lives lower my spirits? Is the humour tired, the memes witless and the opinions expressed simplistic and ill-thought out.

If the latter outweigh the former then bin it off. If it's a tie, dip in occasionally. If the former outweigh the latter, enjoy.

[Sporting]

I only use FB (apart from a few exceptions) for one closed group. If I deleted my account, it would mean losing all those contacts and messages.

[San Bernardhinault]

I've said this before, but for me as an international jetsetter (or rather, someone who lives in a different country), I find FB a great tool for staying vaguely in contact with the kinds of people I'd probably have seen a couple of times a year if I still lived in Britain. You just have a vague background idea about what's going on in peoples' lives. I increasingly wish people would keep the politics off it, though. I like it for the mundane and social stuff - the food and pet pictures, the whines about delivery men showing up late, holiday snaps, comments about where people have exercised. All the social fluff.

Twitter's more a political and news tool for me, and I can take it or leave it. But FB keeps me connected in a way I'd fail to do if I was writing letters or making phone calls.

[ad hoc]

I agree entirely with SB's first two sentences. But then I actually find the politics helpful and I have read a lot of great articles shared on FB that i otherwise would never have seen (and I can't not post political stuff myself, even if I know most people scroll past my posts reminding them of the cruelty and viciousness of the occupation of Palestine, I at least like to imagine that as they scroll past them a small part of their brain notices at least that the occupation is still on). I'm the one who scrolls past dog and food pictures and latest strava stats. Most of my FB connections sort of share my politics, so I am aware of that bubble thing, though I do sometimes see things that make me angry (but I see more of the latter on twitter because it's much less filtered.

[Foot of Astaire's]

I've taken various breaks from Facebook but I always end up going back after a while. It's still a great way to keep in touch with distant friends without, God forbid, having to talk to them on the phone.

That said, i can imagine it being quite damaging to your mental health if you read all the serious political, charity, police posts etc. Only this morning I've seen someone share a post that I'm sure originates from Britain First or some such tossers and I've scrolled straight past. Now I'm annoyed that I'm not calling this person out on it because I don't want to have a row on a public forum and nor do I want to delete or block them without them knowing why. I'll be stewing over this for the next hour or so, and that's when I ask myself whether it's worth persisting with it.

[Sporting]

I prefer boards such as this one and one reason is that I find them easier to navigate. On Twitter I'm always clicking in the wrong place and losing the (literal) thread. Also, how do people keep up with all the feeds? I'm so grateful to posters like nefertiti for keeping me informed.

[Sam]

I also agreed with SB's first two sentences, but after getting back from our August–September 2018 trip to the UK, during which I'd not logged into it, I found myself feeling both more relaxed and with more time in my day as I stayed away, so I decided to give it a week or two before going back on there. That's now stretched to nearly two years, and I've no desire to log back on. I do actually use the website a couple of times a week during non-lockdown life, because I'm an admin for the page of my local bar, where I post promotional posters advertising what football they'll be showing in the next few days (they pay me in pints), and also on the Buenos Aires Pub Quiz page what with the quiz being a one-man operation and me being the man in question. But I have those pages bookmarked so I always avoid the home page and ignore any notifications; it's just in–make the post I need to make–out, and I've felt much happier about life as a result. It does mean I miss people's birthdays now, but I know the really important ones – family and close friends – anyway.

Since lockdown started – or more accurately, since Argentine football shut down – I've switched the default Twitter account in my mobile browser to my proofreading one, too, and that's also been a really positive change.

[Patrick Thistle]

.

That said, i can imagine it being quite damaging to your mental health if you read all the serious political, charity, police posts etc. Only this morning I've seen someone share a post that I'm sure originates from Britain First or some such tossers and I've scrolled straight past. Now I'm annoyed that I'm not calling this person out on it because I don't want to have a row on a public forum and nor do I want to delete or block them without them knowing why. I'll be stewing over this for the next hour or so, and that's when I ask myself whether it's worth persisting with it.

I've sent a short personal message to people asking if they meant to share a message from e.g.Britain First "because I've heard they're a far right group". In both cases the person didn't realise they were sharing memes from that group and deleted them. One was very embarrassed but I told them that BF are sneaky and post stuff that a lot of people would agree with to get people to share so that their name gets noticed. That made her feel better.

[Snake Plissken]

I certainly wouldn't consider it flouncing to leave a massive platform such as FB. (After all, the point out of flouncing out is to make sure everyone knows you have left, even if you do come back three weeks later which must be the online equivalent of tiptoeing back in the room because you left your handbag.)

Anyway, to pick up on the competition point, I left FB because I also found that it was becoming a competitive and performative environment. Who was posting the most impressive selfies? Why didn't my post get likes? If I don't like X's vague post, does that make me a bad friend? The pressure to be visible (?) at good and bad times was overwhelming. It is ironic that around a group of my friends, I felt that I couldn't be me.

The performative point is a good one - when you feel you should be changing your avatar to n when the only people who will see it know me well enough to know that I implicitly support that particular cause. That's pretty much the essence of performative.

Twitter is, for me at least, much more anonymous and basically just a write-only medium. Following someone/being followed isn't a two way transaction, so there is no obligation of interaction.

Social media (as opposed to forums such as OTF) feels like standing in front of a constantly on hose blasting out a mixture of water, wine and shit.

[DCI Harry Batt]

What ad hoc said. Apart from the jetsetter thing, obvs.

[slackster]

I only bother with a 3 old school forums, with a rare scroll through twitter. I just prefer the format (and company) on bulletin boards - provided it’s not the awful tapatalk. I’d just find myself getting sucked in spending all my time online otherwise.

Mrs Slacks does Facebook to keep us in touch with family & friends, and the daughter does the others and highlights anything particularly interesting or amusing, so I don’t feel I’m missing out swerving them.

[via vicaria]

Like others with international contacts (in my case most of my family), I keep FB just for that. Haven't actively posted anything really since I was in my twenties, as I have the NS feeling about social media (if its not entertaining me or adding anything to my life, then I won't bother). Other platforms just get a bit wearing due to the performative aspect - for every one account that posts genuinely good and informative political posts, there's about fifty posting accusatory things like 'why aren't you posting about [subject X]? Don't you care?' when subject X is either relatively obscure, or only came to popular light about an hour prior. The world's also full of good causes and injustices that deserve to be highlighted, but there isn't a twitter account with the time or awareness to capture them all; so the accusatory vibe just seems even more trying. Ultimately it all just feeds into that feeling of the platforms not adding anything worthwhile for me.

Quarantine's pushed me back at least toward OTF. I think I've posted more here in the last 3 months than I did in the last 5 years.

[lambers]

I don't bother with social media. I probably look at my Facebook account once every two or three weeks and that's it. It's not awful - just a bit boring.

This. When I look at Facebook I feel vaguely bad that I'm essentially taking a peek at what other people are doing whilst not interacting with them or providing an insight into my life, but then I'll read a post or two that reminds me why I don't particularly want to do any of this interacting lark.

[WOM]

I have to be honest; I have no idea why people analyze and agonize so much over social media. It's a medium, just like your TV and your phone - there when you want it or need it, and left alone when you don't.

[pebblethefish]

I use Facebook as "pretty email" - if I need to contact someone, I can send them a message, and don't have to remember their email address. It's been slightly more useful than usual during lockdown, as most of my "friends" are people I know from various pubs, who obviously I haven't seen for three months. For example, I know that Annie is now pregnant, and so when I see her in a few months I congratulate her, rather than thinking that she looked fatter, but being too embarrassed to comment.

I briefly had Twitter, but even following just three accounts (two cricket teams and a football team) it seemed far too strenuous, and I kept pressing the wrong button.

I feel that I am too old for Instagram and Whatsapp, and I probably AM officially too old for Tiktok.

I like OTF. I can cope with you lot.

[Various Artist]

I have to be honest; I have no idea why people analyze and agonize so much over social media. It's a medium, just like your TV and your phone - there when you want it or need it, and left alone when you don't.

I agree, on a personal level, and I stepped away from Facebook several years ago as I found it all too tedious and hated what one might call the competitive sharing of constant updates and info. But I see why other people would "analyze and agonize so much" in that way WOM – after all, the point about social media is that they're interactive. Your TV isn't expecting you to tell it how much you like its broadcasts. If your phone doesn't go, no amount of looking at it will allow you to divine what the people figuratively on the other end are up to. The thing with social media though is that if your friends, family and acquaintances are putting this stuff out there, on some troubling level it's possible to feel you're expected to partake.

[Glass Half Empty]

I have to be honest; I have no idea why people analyze and agonize so much over social media. It's a medium, just like your TV and your phone - there when you want it or need it, and left alone when you don't.

I think an aspect of it is that, like video games, there is a deliberately addictive element to the way that it presents to people.

[Nocturnal Submission]

I use Facebook as "pretty email" - if I need to contact someone, I can send them a message, and don't have to remember their email address. It's been slightly more useful than usual during lockdown, as most of my "friends" are people I know from various pubs, who obviously I haven't seen for three months. For example, I know that Annie is now pregnant, and so when I see her in a few months I congratulate her, rather than thinking that she looked fatter, but being too embarrassed to comment.

I briefly had Twitter, but even following just three accounts (two cricket teams and a football team) it seemed far too strenuous, and I kept pressing the wrong button.

I feel that I am too old for Instagram and Whatsapp, and I probably AM officially too old for Tiktok.

I like OTF. I can cope with you lot.

WhatsApp is just "pretty texting" with secure encryption and a useful video function. Get on it. Agree on the rest though.

[Various Artist]

Yes, WhatsApp has been hugely useful. It's texting but using wifi instead of SMS, with the added option of being able to drop photos (or indeed even video) in for free instead of having to pay a premium like I would if I attached a picture to a regular text message.

Transmitting over the internet instead of the phone network, it's also particularly useful for keeping in touch with – for instance – a friend who lives in a old farmhouse with thick walls inside which there's virtually no mobile signal.

The ability to set up an extended family group on there has also been great recently, as we can all drop our thoughts, jokes, pictures etc. into one ongoing conversation as if it were a private thread on these boards.

[Wouter D]

Social media can be of benefit to you, and they can also be actively harmful to your mental health. The key is to make it work for you in the most beneficial way, and not being afraid to cull the harmful bits.

Facebook is for keeping in touch with family, friends, and people I met on my foreign travels. Those who post too much political stuff with which I disagree, go on mute for 30 days. If it happens too often, unfollow.

Twitter used to really depress me. Then I unfollowed all accounts posting anything political, and now my timeline is full of goats and dogs being rated. Works for me.

Instagram is for travel pictures of faraway destinations, both visited and to-be-visited. Pure escapism. The ad overload is indeed annoying.

I also was on Nextdoor for a while, to see what goes on in the heads of my neighbors. But I quickly got bored with Janny from two blocks over complaining about someone dumping trash and Gijs from wherever trying to rope everyone into his prayer circles (the most outr? of which managed to somehow combine Covid-19 and the Holocaust; at least the weirdness factor was interesting), so Nextdoor was ditched.

[Capybara]

I've never been on Facebook or Twitter and don't know what Instagram or the others are. Some friends (or, rather, one of a group of friends) persuaded me to go on WhatsApp so I eventually did. I have a smartphone but don't use it, other than to check once a day if anything has been said in the WhatsApp group. There usually hasn't been. It seems to me that email would work just as well.

[Snake Plissken]

If you install Adblockers and use the Brave browser (https://www.brave.com - it's basically Chrome with all the monitoring cut out), then I find that trackers and ads are effectively gone from all these sites.