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I’m chuffin’ sick of (anti)social media’s effect on society, how it’s making everyone hate each other, making people stupider and stupider by the day, egging on genocides around the world etc etc. I can really feel it’s evil effect on me and Zucc’s haunted talons digging into my very soul. And yet I cannot quit it. I’ve tried many a time and just never can seem to make it stick. I start feeling hella lonely and isolated and then inevitably I crack and come back, even though I feel the pervasive loneliness and isolation currently endemic in our society is being artificially pumped in via our social media holes. What I want to know is has anyone succeeded in getting off this bullshit and have they any tips/tricks to share? Or if they’ve found ways to limit its harms any tips and techniques for that. Drugs, booze and smoking are all easy peezy to quit compared to this trash! Thanks in advance ye goons!
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Jul 23, 2023 18:26
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The only thing that works for me is waiting until the platform gets terrible enough that I stop using it. This is how I stopped using Facebook, Reddit and Twitter.
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Jul 27, 2023 11:24
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Sounds like you need to replace your parasocial internet relationships with actual human relationships, IMO.
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Jul 27, 2023 19:50
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Modal Auxiliary posted:Sounds like you need to replace your parasocial internet relationships with actual human relationships, IMO. For real. That never used to be difficult for me til last year, I used to have a bunch of friends but something changed recently. Think it was a combo of COVID burnout and widespread social media brainworms. They all vanished. Either way I’m now in my 30s and really struggling to make new real life friends despite trying. I’ve never been in this situation before and it’s hosed up. Everyone is deeply suspicious of people/borderline insane now it seems. Minotaurus Rex fucked around with this message at 01:02 on Jul 28, 2023 |
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Jul 28, 2023 00:59
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Just walk away from the screen, like close your eyes. Seriously, get an outdoor hobby and find locals who enjoy that same hobby. Or just take up Warhammer 40k or AD&D and join a local group to play. e: it has to be a non-computer hobby. Playing video games doesn't count, even if you somehow make it social.
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Jul 31, 2023 04:03
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Minotaurus Rex posted:I used to have a bunch of friends but something changed recently. Think it was a combo of COVID burnout and widespread social media brainworms. They all vanished. Either way I’m now in my 30s and really struggling to make new real life friends despite trying. It sounds like this is the real problem you are having, friend. I think there are some ways to make sense of this. 1. Do you have friends in the area that you've lost contact with? Do you like those people, even though it's been a while? You could try reaching out to them. They might be in the same boat as you, just waiting for something to take off. 2. Do you have interests that motivate you? Does the place you live have get-togethers for that interest? Like for art, maybe weekly life drawing sessions. For running, a running club. D&D or chess or yoga or whatever. 3. Are there volunteer opportunities around? There might even be groups that cater to a specific demographic you fit into. For example, where I live, there are like, adult queer volunteer groups to help clean parks.
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Jul 31, 2023 04:19
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Definitely agree that finding an in person activity to attend on a weekly basis is a good way to make friends. Even just getting out of the house and establishing yourself as a regular somewhere, a library or coffee shop or brewery or whatever you're into and works for your budget. If you're polite and pleasant and around the same people enough, friendships can organically develop and it's nice not having the pressure to make plans if you'll always meet up on X day for X activity. I have been off social media for a while now and I had to find something else to look at my phone for lol. I look at SA, I'm on a few discord servers dedicated to my weirdo interests, and I've got an app from my local library so I can always pull up a book while I'm waiting in line or whatever. I have a few close friends and relatives I like to keep in touch with so I'll also text or email them, or sometimes call on my drive home from work to catch up. My world feels a lot smaller now and my existential despair is a lot better off for it!
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Aug 1, 2023 19:22
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Hey OP, I felt the same for a long time and I've looked for tricks, I've found easy tricks that really help. Here's what I did: Getting online is too easy, you probably go anytime you're on the toilet or when you have downtime, the first trick is to limit yourself by setting app timers so you only spend MAX 15 minutes on an app daily. Yes, this does include SA. The next trick is to write down somewhere in your house the following sentence "Am I wasting my time?" And ask yourself that question whenever you see the phrase written or when you're mindlessly doing a task. It will help you recognize when you're just endlessly doom scrolling and it will come more naturally after a while. The last thing is to recognize that apps are made to outrage you because outrage, out of all other common feelings, drives engagement on social media platforms the most. So work very hard over the next few months on asking yourself often "what do I feel right now?". After a while you will become very good at recognizing that bad "outrage" feeling and you'll probably want to cut yourself off without the need of outside help. Because you'll know you feel better without the apps. Good luck and let me know if you feel better in two weeks.
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Aug 8, 2023 22:48
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Cephas posted:It sounds like this is the real problem you are having, friend. I think there are some ways to make sense of this. I moved to this pretty rural town not knowing anyone just before covid so that’s sort of part of the problem. All my old friends are a long way away and there’s not much going on here, like seriously gently caress all, except loads of bars and pubs - which I tried hanging out in and it made things worse so I don’t do that now. This town has a major alcohol and crack/heroin problem so it’s just depressing as gently caress. It also rains literally 6 days out of 7, even now in summer lol The thing with social media brainworms is that even if you’re not on these sites other people are and they’re being driven mad by the experience so you still have to deal with it.. I’d move somewhere more appropriate but technology seems to me to be tearing society apart everywhere so not sure how much difference it’d make. Either way I’ve tried moving but we have a ‘housing crisis’ in the UK and it’s nearly impossible to move even into a lovely lovely rental property without competing with like 40 people so I’m effectively stuck here for the foreseeable. There are a few volunteering opportunities but not very much that I’m interested in tbh and I’ve done years of volunteering and a bit burnt out on it. But yeah I guess just a poo poo situation I gotta wait out/do the little things I can do to improve stuff and I reckon steering as clear of negative internet bullshit as I can is one of those things. Just harder when there’s not much in the way of alternatives. Apologies if it got a bit E/N up in this biznitch but yea that’s my sitch!
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Aug 9, 2023 18:13
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And thanks Odddzy, good tips!
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Aug 9, 2023 18:16
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No problem, I WILL come back in this thread and make fun of you if you didn't follow my advice.
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Aug 9, 2023 18:50
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i am very careful about how i curate my poo poo, what i follow, etc. in particular i try to follow a larger amount of positive and/or mindless content - i.e. people who post cooking videos, animals doing silly poo poo, music tutorials, live performances - than i do negative, newsworthy, or complicated content about all the hosed up things going on in the world. i do follow some of the latter to keep myself informed, but it helps that it's a minority of the content i see. i also have a personal rule that i do not get into prolonged back and forth arguments about anything, with anyone. which is something i used to do all the time on these forums. but in the age of toxic social media i have been a lot better about just saying whatever one thing i want to say about the topic, and then moving on
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Aug 9, 2023 20:48
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Earwicker posted:i also have a personal rule that i do not get into prolonged back and forth arguments about anything, with anyone. which is something i used to do all the time on these forums. but in the age of toxic social media i have been a lot better about just saying whatever one thing i want to say about the topic, and then moving on Wisdom
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Aug 9, 2023 21:06
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Bit the bullet and hit delete on my Facebook a couple days back & feel way better already for it.. Man gently caress all that noise
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Aug 22, 2023 04:27
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So OP, what did you end up doing? Is it working?
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Aug 28, 2023 22:41
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All I did was hit delete and haven’t logged in. Was hardest to click that button for whatever reason. Read some good books like Jaron Lanier’s one about deleting your social media accounts and am listening to the Age of Surveillance Capitalism. I think just learning a bit more about the subject in this way will be enough to keep me plenty grossed out by the whole thing so that I don’t rejoin.
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Aug 29, 2023 13:46
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Actions speak louder than words
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Aug 29, 2023 18:30
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I don’t quite follow ya
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Aug 30, 2023 06:56
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1. Life is too short for bullshit relationships. If there's no mutual joy, warmth and respect then that person doesn't need to be on your social media. Unfriend, unfollow, move on. 2. If it bleeds, it leads. Stay away from major news outlets and set up filters to catch whatever tragedy du jour is doing the rounds. FB Purity doesn't work on the app, but it's helpful on desktop. 3. Find new ways of connecting with the world at large. I shill constantly for Future Crunch, a good news outlet that focuses on the good to be found in humanity, scientific progress, and stuff being just dead cool. I try to follow pages for things that I find interesting, like nature spotting or cats, and promptly leave spaces that make me bristle because that bristle isn't going to be worth the occasional interesting/useful content. I feel ya on the detrimental effect of social media, but it's the only way I have to properly stay in touch with quite a few people outside my immediate or geographic circle. Making the above tweaks has helped a lot. I also completely agree with the poster who says they've stopped arguing on the internet. I know it used to be our bread and butter, but people are prone to be really aggressive and it's just not worth it any more. It is hard in the always-on age to draw boundaries! But of absolute import.
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Aug 30, 2023 08:34
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