Facebook, for me, became this staid place where people complained or posted mundane stuff.
I open Instagram and I see:
- one of my favorite music artists posted a pic from the highest railway in Japan
- a gaggle of models I follow are looking fine
- some street art from Berlin
- motivational story from Gary Vaynerchuck
- the hashtag of my favorite city surfaces snaps that give me wunderlist to return
There's nothing there to make me rage - no politics, no lame memes, no arguments. Just a steady stream of aesthetically-pleasing photos to make my mind wander for 30 seconds or so.
A flock of models, some are into fitness, some are perhaps best described as documentarians of their derriere, are also looking fine in my feed.
Escapism. People used to read pulpy books, now they are just looking at happy (rich) people and juicy booty.
I find it valuable to connect with friends, especially those I don't see often. If I know you've been traveling or got a new job, I can ask you about it. Instead of a generic "Hey, how are you doing?", I can go "How's the new job?". That makes it easier for me to have a small talk, so I connect more with friends, which is a good thing.
The problem is overdoing it. And everything is set for us to overdo it. It then stops being "cool, Jane seems to be having a great time, I'm happy for her!" to "everybody is having a blast while I'm stuck in 9-5, my life sucks".
So they don't need to get a "real" job, they can just post a few pictures and get paid.
What are you on? Tumblr isn't great, but it doesn't force you into its hard to use, storage space gobbling, facebook influenced app. They add insult to insult to insult by having a website that allows uploading, but only presenting it when you pretend to be using a smartphone.
You can't download photos. No collections. No public liking / reblogging. Tumblr has that and allows you to use it on your computer.
Ads on Tumblr are less cancerous. You can ZOOM IN ON PICTURES.