Yikes.
Crazy thought, but people don’t need Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, any Twitter replacement, etc. I.e. ya’ll don’t need ‘social media’.
Yes, and I’d also argue that we don’t “need” it. It’s certainly a good tool you can build to suit your needs/wants like news, funny stuff, etc, but we can also go without. The big difference between social media really is whether you are the product or not.
I get what you’re saying but it’s not really an impactful argument. We don’t really “need” most things (except food and water, etc.) but that doesn’t mean they have no value or don’t bring us enjoyment. Sure, we don’t “need” social media, and you could probably make a case that the good outweighs the bad, but that doesn’t mean that it has no value or shouldn’t exist. I have a lot of concerns about privacy and there’s a lot about social media in general that I think is problematic, but I also get a lot of use out of it and there are definitely benefits to using it.
Meh, not really tho, it’s more like forums, instances/forums will never be as big as centralized websites for social media.
Cake is bread but no one is making a ham and cheese with it.
Lemmy and Reddit the individual user is just that, an individual. But on these other ones, you are encouraged to be a brand. Hell, it’s almost expected. And they are just platforms of false affirmation because it’s only positive reactions.
So whole yes, this does fall under social media in a broad sense, I would argue it’s in a very different category.
People really don’t. I deleted my FB for years and quit using it. Whole time I’ve been telling people that it’s poison for your mind.
After a few years of not using it I’d forgotten that and began to wonder if it was true or if maybe it was just my mental state at the time.
Solved that question easily. Reinstated my account a few days ago to get in touch with someone and found myself creeping like I used to.
What did I learn immediately from that? It REALLY IS POISON!! It’s horrible for your head!
After going without it for a while I effectively had my “blinders” on and was only focused with my daily life. I’ve been the happiest I’ve ever been this year.
Within a half hour of browsing Facebook that peace of mind had vanished! I was once again focusing on the lives of others more than myself. I was thinking of things I could post to show that I have a “life” just like them. I checked on people who didn’t like me in the past and found myself perceiving their comments or memes they’ve posted to be about me. I thought to myself “I’ll show them, I’ll do this and this, wait until they see it!”
I also found myself feeling lessed blessed than I am. Suddenly my recent accomplishments didn’t seem so grand in comparison to all the happy pictures I was seeing. My simple life and simple job seemed like it wasn’t enough anymore. I didn’t feel enough.
I checked up on my exes, women I’ve been GLADLY apart from for years and got jealous of how well they seemed to be doing in comparison to what I had going on in life. Little things like them having a partner. This was major irony because I’ve had the chance to have these partners back and it was a hell no.
So quick. Didn’t even browse a full hour and it almost killed the peace of mind I’ve been working all of these years to obtain. I quit browsing, thankfully.
That night when I laid down, I didn’t sleep restfully. Instead of my usual happy thoughts routine while drifting out I had all kinds of negative emotions pop up.
It took me a day or two to snap out of it and focus on what I’M doing in life without the worry of others.
Being connected to others is great. Constantly comparing ourselves to others and thinking about them instead of channeling 100% of our energy into OUR lives is not good for anyone.
I feel like we just haven’t evolved to handle that properly. In a small village it’s important to keep an eye on each other and care about each other.
Caring about, comparing and keeping an eye on everyone in the entire world? No. We’re not meant for that.
What strangers are doing is knowledge I just don’t need, unless they’re posting self help videos or… anything beneficial really.
99% of the posts I saw were just “Look what I bought! Look how awesome my life is! Vacation!!!”
And people being super fake.
Fb was cool when we just posted text of how we were actually doing. I cared about that sometimes. That wasn’t detrimental to my mental health. Everyone acting like their life is perfect isn’t good for anyone bc it makes you wonder why your life isn’t that “good” not realizing you’re just not being informed of all the struggle, or luck that pays for lives that lavish.
Idk much, but I know that shit is poison And could rant about it more but… Lemmy don’t need my pants. Typo, Lemmy don’t need my pants, okay I mean rants there but pants is valid too.
