I used to fear being a nobody, then I left social media

Re:I used to fear being a nobody, then I left social media by naravara on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @03:20PM (#21129463)

Most of my relationships that were worth anything have largely moved to platforms that involve actual conversation rather than the posting format of Facebook. This is stuff like WhatsApp and Discord and Slack mostly. Most of the life update stuff that doesn't merit conversation is on Instagram at this point.

I think the key is really just using the services in ways where they can't dark pattern you into engaging with them. So notifications get shut off and anything you can do to turn off "endless scroll" mode is worth doing.

Facebook was originally designed as a sort of directory or phone book type page for people and that's still what it's best at. Instead of using the regular page, which just tries to dark pattern you into engaging with it, I've bookmarked mbasic.facebook.com which lets you see only the top 5 to 10 posts on your feed at a time and then I shut off all notifications that weren't sent to me directly.

Once I got rid of the "one more post" effect of wanting to keep reading, I found myself spending a lot more time going through my RSS feed, which is nice as that's content I find much more edifying.

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Re:I used to fear being a nobody, then I left social media by Rerarom on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @05:36PM (#21130966)

I used mbasic at some point (and had the normal one blocked), and then I just unfollowed everyone. I now just check someone's profile when I remember that they exist - once a month or even less often.

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