Re:Living Like It's 99, No Social Media, No Smartphone
by nineplay on Tuesday March 23, 2021 @02:39PM
(#26558571)
The cheerful "your real friends will.." meme ignores the possibility that you'll find you have no "real" friends. Turns out even casual friends are better than none, and you aren't likely to find any real friends if you are hiding offline, waiting for everyone to come to you.
Re:Living Like It's 99, No Social Media, No Smartphone
by astura on Tuesday March 23, 2021 @04:20PM
(#26559915)
Agreed, all close friends I've made recently I wouldn't have made the transition from casual acquaintance to close friend without social media. Social media provides zero friction interaction and the sum of interactions can grow a friendship.
Plus I don't find social media AT ALL toxic and I only spend maybe a half hour a week total on it. OTOH I find people complaining about social media being toxic is becoming extremely toxic.
This is an issue for me too. I know the meme is "your real friends will still make the effort and call you / hang out with you / whatever", but I don't think it's that simple— we (especially in the pandemic, but really always) rely on social gatherings/media as a proving ground for acquaintanceships, a place to banter back and forth and onramp a relationship to the point where it would be not-weird to actually arrange an intentional activity or get-together.
And the reality is, when I've had acquaintances fall off my social media radar or be otherwise difficult to get ahold of, I just can't be bothered. When every person but one is in a FB Messenger group chat, and one person wants to be texted-with about what the plans are, that person inevitably gets left behind.
So maybe there's some FOMO going on here, but I don't think I'm at a place in my mid-thirties where I'm ready to effectively shut the door on those opportunities.