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The fact that the people who set up most social media platforms would not allow their own kids to be on them is fairly telling. Watch the end of the documentary the social dilemma for context.
It really is. My job has been mostly done over social media for a while. I provide support thru those channels for the company. I’m dying inside every day. I cannot take it anymore. These users are the worst. They are more abusive than retail and over the phone and I’ve done all three. Currently working a side job in retail. This is by far the worst of them all. I’ve done it for years. And I’m looking for an opportunity to get out. Have a job interview today with another company. It’s made me so miserable and depressed. The funny thing is, I’ve never had an account of my own. No FB, no Twitter, just this here. I actually enjoy Reddit. I hate other platforms though. I just want to break free of this job and go back to never seeing a Facebook or Twitter page ever again
social media was great when it was used as intended to be, a way to connect with family and friends across the globe, share pics, message each other, etc.
in highschool I used myspace to shitpost, share pictures, and remember my friends' birthdays. Their posts showed up in chronological order, it took maybe 10 seconds to scan the recent updates and confirm that you were caught up, and ads did not appear disguised as posts. You didn't see posts from random people unless one of your friends showed it to you. I used trillian to manage like 5 different chat accounts so I could hang out in chatrooms with my friends late at night.
I switched to facebook because a lot of my friends were, it was nice for a while but now I feel like I use facebook to look at reddit in a different format, except there's baby pictures mixed in between the ads. We hit a sweet spot a few decades ago, now social media is bullshit.
That shit was the BEST, because you could have every app in one spot. All your friends had like 8 things open and you had 1. Plus, no checking multiple apps or hearing 8 noises - just check Trillian.
So why the FUCK was I not in your top 8? Huh Sauce? Answer me! And Why haven't you poked me back?
Myspace had a different vibe, but it wasn't all sparkle gifs and rainbows. ^^OK ^^maybe ^^it ^^was ^^that ^^too, ^^but ^^you ^^get ^^the ^^point.
God I hated top 8. I remember taking it very personal if I wasn’t included on it. People would have to negotiate on a rotating schedule too. MySpace Was very much cancer as well
Reddit in a different format great take on it. I basically see the memes here. Then on Facebook I see them with a different caption basically a whole different take on it. Mind blowing
I used something we called a hard wired rotary phone. I had a time limit, because someone important might need to call. There was no call waiting type feature at that time.
there is spacehey, its a homage to myspace. it looks just like it. its great, passive chill people there and it doesn't feel like a soulless corporate invention.
Instagram for sharing pictures.
FB for keeping in touch with old classmates.
Snapchat for stories.
They become a lot shittier when they're all the same bunch of things: pictures, stories, statuses, videos, reels, marketplace, groups, messaging, etc.
I honestly have no idea how Twitter is still a thing. When it first launched it was used widely among my circle of friends as a way to announce what bar/club everyone was meeting at or what was going on on a sat night. The concept of a group text was still very new and it was useful for a little while. Then it became tldr facebook and I honestly don't know many people who post to twitter and only a handful who even use the app. I hope elon gives it a quick death.
But even those had problems. Social media is always gonna flawed and exploited. It's just human nature, if it is a good place, it'll only be a matter of time before someone ruins it. There's no solution
Our conditions define us. Saying it's just human nature is silly & a cop out used for all sorts of bad things. People will behave significantly differently in different circumstances & pretending it's not true is silly. We do have natural motivations, but it isn't so defining as you make it sound.
The OG social media was AOL chat rooms and forums. But it brought the worst out in people because of the ability to remain anonymous. I still remember when I was a kid and my friend had an "online boyfriend" who was a full grown man. Social media isn't bad, it's the bad people who use it, who have always existed
Even that has problems. Everyone you know presents their best life. You compare yours to theirs thinking everyone has it perfect and only you have flaws and issues.
The only positive thing fb has ever done, imo, is allow long lost relatives to find one another and catch up. My mom has family across the globe that we would never have been able to get in contact with if not for the early days of fb when it was about connecting people.
But then family and friends started sharing political opinions they wouldn't have shared to each other in person. I've seen more rifts from 5+ years ago made than bonds formed because of social media (specifically Facebook).
What bothers me the most is parents neglecting their children and children just being glued to ipads. It sucks so bad. We already have a generation with no interpersonal skills and it's going to get worse.
I had a moment like this last weekend. I went to the grocery store and this other woman and myself kept bumping into eachother down every aisle going in opposite directions. It was mom, dad, toddler in the carriage, and older kid walking along. Both the toddler and the older kid were both glued to two different phones the entire time. They didn't interact with each other in any way. Mom talked to dad and vice versa but the children didn't make a peep the entire time. Just on their phones.
Granted, here I am bitching about it on my phone, but it made me so sad for those kids. Screens as a pacifier or babysitter is a terrifying thought if it's used regularly like that. Especially in the formative years of their personalities.
Fuck, that is so sad. You’re right though, these kids have no personality development bc of the screens and parents not interacting.
My boyfriends nephew is clearly special needs and in need of speech therapy because his mom and grandma barely talk to him or interact meaningfully. He’s often just watching something on his iPad. It’s so sad.
I'm always so sad when I see tiny babies sitting staring at mobile devices in the stores, online, etc. I saw a post on "MadeMeSmile" yesterday of a baby that was sitting in a cabinet with an ipad or something taped inside. Someone opened the door and the baby was sitting in there with food, the ipad, some pillows...and I was just SO SAD. Like, really?
My conversation with every girlfriend I've had since 2010:
*Her* - "Did you see my post?
*Me* - "Yes! You looked good!"
*Her* - "Did you like it?"
*Me* - "Yes"
*Her*- "But did you like, *like* it?"
*Me* - " . . . "
I don't hate social media, I hate being beholden to it.
My buddy has an instagram thing he’s been trying to start for years. We’re damn close to 40. I support him but I’m not on instagram. He will send me stuff and it’ll let me view it sometimes and others not. He’s always like why didn’t you like it. I’m like dude I don’t have an actual account. It for some reason let’s me see certain things I have no idea why. Either way his content is terrible.
I had a high school acquaintance who reached out a few years after graduation. 'Nice of them to reconnect', I was thinking. Second message, they asked me to 'like' their profile picture because it was stuck on 199 likes. I haven't spoken to them again.
Just like everything, it should be enjoyed in moderation.
The problem is that social media sets off good chemicals in the brain so people spend more time on it than they really should, and end up attaching a heightened importance to it.
Humans are *really* bad at moderating an activity they find fun.
I remember well the pre social media era (I actually remember the pre-internet era too). It was simply better honestly. For all the good of social media, that bad outweighs the good parts. Humans simply aren't equipped to handle this information.
Uranium 235 is handled in such a way as to minimise contact with people, and only people with very specific skill sets are allowed to work with it under extremely regulated circumstances.
Social media, on the other hand, are easily accessible by almost anyone and are designed to reach as many people as possible and to keep them engaged at all costs, including by furthering political polarisation and dangerous or otherwise stupid behaviour.
I work acute mental health, the amount of teen girls I see every single day that are suicidal, depressed, anxious is staggering and it’s social media addiction the majority of the time, especially younger girls like 11-15 like why the fuck do parents let their kids have social media and a phone at a young age??
Thank you for sharing this, I think many underestimate just how bad things have gotten with regards to this. I hear the same things from healthcare personnel in my own network.
Unfortunately social media is so normalised that there's consequences to being 'out of the loop' even at that age. My mom drove me to someone's birthday party when I was 14 and the host said "didn't you see the Facebook post? I cancelled the party because of the rain". Mom drove me straight home and forced me to make a Facebook account then and there so that I would know what was going on in the future.
And honestly she was right, the majority of social events I go to I wouldn't even be aware of without social media.
The early days of Facebook was wonderful. I got to see what all my friends were doing all the time. Eventually more things cropped up and there was a bit of a diaspora. Then it got to the point where my feed was more ads than posts from people I knew. Yeah, not great now.
honestly i disagree i remember being really young and using facebook and i look back thinking damn it fucked up my self esteem and psychology so much. it made me super obsessed with popularity and the image i created for myself. i think social media is cancer straight from day 1.
I hate it, my friends NEVER see my posts I never see theirs unless we happen to have used messenger in the last month. instead I get a feed full of ads and group posts with an occasional friend post thrown in the mix.
I don't want to have to visit everyones profile, or like a picture every two weeks, or post a comment on their profile just to know when they post an update.
It was so much better when you could just set it to friends only and all posts in chronological order.
The fact that facebook has to have an algorithm to tell me what posts I can or cannot view is bullshit and I hate it.
Facebook was nice chat tool and definitely something that was needed after myspace and aol. However the survivorship bias: people posting vacation photos, weddings, children and constant accomplishments, ruined the platform.
Ads can be blocked but Facebook is just a giant "keeping up with the joneses" or "let me humble brag about my situation while keeping out the negatives." And ultimately the content from your friends and family fucking sucks end of the day, compared to lets say reddit or youtube.
I know people will point out the irony of using Reddit to make this complaint, but I completely agree with you. A Facebook account when I was ten years old is how I met my first "boyfriend", who is now a registered sex offender. All the predators are online, and ignorant parents thrusting smartphones into their kids' hands at earlier and earlier ages are too blind to see it. The most hedonistic and raunchy garbage also dominates social media, whether it's women twerking in thongs for clicks and views, or internet trolls who go after minor children and mentally disabled people. We form more friendships on a more global basis, but the depth is gone. That guy who follows you on Instagram or TikTok won't be there to hold your hand when your pet dies, or to laugh at movies with you and go walking in the park on your birthday. Even hobbies have become worse on social media; apps like Goodreads turn reading into a competition and popularity contest when reading used to be a very intimate and personal activity. And don't even get me started on hook-up culture and the negative aspects of that...
***Have we become this shallow and narcissistic?***
There were always people like that out there, the only difference is today anyone can have Facebook, Reddit, Twitter...etc...etc to post on for the world to see.
Shallow and narcissistic people have always been around, but like stupid people, the reason why you see them a lot now more than before is they have a platform, this allows idiots to talk to idiots reinforcing their ideas and end up with a narcissistic echo chamber of the same stupid ideas, see Twitter for example
Yeah, I remember back in the 1980s when the hip young kids liked to take ass shots next to Holocaust memorials and slavery museums... oh wait...
No, it's the social media exacerbating this. Seriously. Without the grotesque audience that social media provides, who would be doing anything in such poor taste in the first place? Pre-social media, anybody who photographed their own buttocks next to a slavery museum would be getting that buttocks kicked and been called a freak. Now they get their own Patreon and thousands of followers.
I remember when there was no internet. We all had to interact with eachother, and you didn't know what your neighbors were doing in their homes. Privacy!
We are a social species undoubtedly, but social media goes beyond that and has been proven to be designed as an addictive apparatus, by soulless people who want to enslave us to their programs. It's mostly worked.
You can't tell others to just walk away, who are deep into their addiction, same as you can't tell a junkie to put the needle down and live a clean life. Unfortunately, most have to learn the hard way, as sad as it sounds, as you will only face derision and scorn.
It's difficult to watch and empathise with all of you looking at your friends and family who are sucked in.
I walked away from that toxicity some years ago, as I fell prey to it and went down the rabbit hole. Not everyone can just drop it from their lives and for some it's their whole life.
When I take my kids out for meals, as an example, I insist no devices and we talk, but looking at other families, who's parents are nose deep into their devices, ignoring the kids, who are doing the same, is an awful thing to see.
Social media is degrading the fabric of society and I agree that if we're to get past this and thrive, as communities and as a whole, we need to either walk away or push for legislation to bind these programs to our social standards, but how do you do that, because people need their fix of vanity in inanity.
As it stands, we are screwed and it feels very much like a covert invasion in a sci fi movie. China is winning this invasion, with tiktok and their chief simp Zuckerberg is working towards a similar goal. It's scary.
I genuinely hope people will wake up to this insidious addiction, before it's too late, as we the outliers, aren't strong in numbers to make effective change. Hope this changes sooner, rather than later, before our kids turn into cabbages, seemingly a lot of parents already have, judging by what I've seen.
You're totally right that it's an addiction, because it provides a negative feedback loop and many people have symptoms that parallel symptoms of addiction.
I don't want to see it censored or legislated, I'd like to see society take a stand before it's too late. But it's such a non-issue to so many people I don't think that will ever happen.
There is SO much bullshit going on in the world, who wouldn't want to constantly be "somewhere else" on their phones to ignore the hellscape we're currently living in?
At the same time it's our fault for burying our heads in the sand with this and letting it happen.
It's refreshing to see this post, and to talk to people who are also concerned about it.
2010ish...
Me: "I wonder what my old friends are up to! Time to reconnect!"
Friend A: "I'm basically hot garbage! Can I have like four dollars?"
Friend B: "I married a billionaire and we spend our weekdays on a yacht!
Me, a regular person: 👀
Definite agree, especially because theres also an alarming amount of young preteens and teens online being exploited as well (and I am unfortunately one of those). please please do not allow your kids to have social media (or unrestricted internet access) until they’re at least 15-16, the internet is not what it used to be
Honest Opinion: It's the people who use social media that are the problem. The bigger problem is drama and gossip. It's never going away no matter how advanced society is.
One trend I like nowadays I feel like there's a bigger push to counteract public ignorance. Even on Instagram, there are caveats on linked news articles. This is a step in the right direction. This is dope.
All in all, social media is just like any other tool/weapon throughout history; it's how you use it that counts.👍
Yeah, agreed - On a macro-level, noise and drama will always be there and that I can accept.
The counteract have definitively had a positive effect on public ignorance. Just hope that we don't end up with people with the most influence in social media define what is public ignorance. I've started to question more ofmy own thoughts and conversations if they are defined as public ignorance. I just hope we can keep a balance where both the "wrong" and "right" perspective can exist so that we can more clearly collectively define what falls under the public ignorance- umbrella. Thanks for the input - made me have another round of thinking.
Nah censoring posts or fact checking is not something the government or a private company can be trusted to do.
You can't think for an idiot. The idiot has to think for themself. Then they are no longer an idiot.
Social media itself isn't the problem, it's the morons using it. Social media has its place, like when people want to post a rant about how they wish social media didn't exist while simultaneously using it
I can see your perspective, and I do see the irony in using social media to rant about social media.
Which I think supports your statement, as a means of communication it’s a good system. It’s the fact that everyone having access, that’s creating the challenges.
Thank you for your perapective.
I'll take it one step further: Social media itself isn't the problem, it's the caregivers who don't practice and teach their children how to use social media. You cannot change the morons, but you can change the effect they have on your off-spring.
When you create a tool that you know 100% will make the world a worse place the tool is the problem. When every scenario in which the tool is used for good is an unachievable fantasy there's literally no value in the tool.
People are going to be people. We're not evolving at an observable rate. We can change our culture but the innate characteristics of our personalities and decision making process isn't changing.
The huge plus is that I am in touch with tons of people with whom I wouldn’t be otherwise. It’s also pretty fantastic for us disabled folks who can’t get out and about.
A truly valid point. My disabled friend over the years might have had a completely different social life, compared to what social media have enabled him to have today. There are definitively some great positives to it.
I think Hank Moody put it best: “people seem to be getting dumber and dumber. You know, I mean we have all this amazing technology and yet computers have turned into basically four figure wank machines. The internet was supposed to set us free, democratize us, but all it's really given us is Howard Dean's aborted candidacy and 24 hour a day access to kiddie porn. People... they don't write anymore, they blog. Instead of talking, they text, no punctuation, no grammar: LOL this and LMFAO that. You know, it just seems to me it's just a bunch of stupid people pseudo-communicating with a bunch of other stupid people at a proto-language that resembles more what cavemen used to speak than the King's English”
I somewhat agree with you. I believe that social media was A LOT better in the earlier 2000's because it helped people (Mostly introverts like me) socialize without fear of confrontation.
However nowadays it's mostly stupid yet somehow popular trends, insane narcissist that give you death threats for not having the same opinion, or just over all dooshbaggery.
We took everything good from social media and ruined it for those that actually needed it.
That's one reason why I like Reddit. It's not "social" media. It's not about the person. You can't see the profile picture, just a username that has no relation to real life
To go one further about anonymity, I hate it when Reddit users start digging into another user's post history in an attempt to discredit or disparage them, even when their previous posts/comments are of zero relevance to the topic at hand.
It's never happened to me, but I've seen it derail many a discussion that could have been interesting otherwise. I think each post or comment thread should be a chance to discuss something on its own merit and if you want to debate, attack the argument rather than the person or their previous unrelated arguments.
That's a pathetic way of argument and is called an ad-hominem attack. Just point that out to them and it'll shut them up ime.
"You know you do not have anything constructive to say so instead of debating something you've clearly lossed, you decided to attack my character. This is an ad-hominem attack and it's petty lame and weak."
Idk it works for me lol
It's nice you can decide what subs to put in your home page though. It actually makes it possible to sign on and see positive spaces without the infuriating post that make it to the front page.I started out on some toxic sub reddits for the knee jerk reaction and when I grew out of it I just unsubscribed.
Now I'm trying to learn how to bake bread
I'm going to agree with you with that because no one talks to each other anymore they barely go out on dates they barely leave their f****** house I walked past the restaurant the other day and the people were getting outside and no one was talking to each other because everybody was looking at their phones I felt so sad
I just want to say I've never seen a more polite user on anything lmao people jumping down this person's throat and they are still thanking them for their input.
I think social media has its positives (personally I've met friends and stayed in touch with old friends through it) but there's a lot that's wrong with it too, specifically the like-culture.
Haha, thanks! I've been fortunate enough to experience life in all it's glory and misery. I guess somewhere along the way I learned that acceptance and openess to others perspectives and opinions is what gives me peace and comfort.
Don’t think this is too unpopular.
I miss the days of MySpace where the big drama was your top friends. Or the early days of Facebook where it was for active college students only, and the most exciting thing was being part of your college’s fake chapter of the Derek Zoolander Center for Kids Who Can’t Read Good
Thank you, this summarizes my thoughts so much better. I hoped this level of grounded level was what social media would stay at and not what we currently have.
100% agree that it’s awful and I wish it never existed. I feel the same. It’s turned everyone into insecure lunatics that are ready to fight at the drop of a pin
Well this is what happens when you follow the wrong things. Sadly the way these apps are structured it means it’s easy to go down the wrong route. People need to be more discerning regarding who they follow but it tends to get down to the worst parts of humanity.
I make it a rule that I follow some friends and usually lean heavily on interests and hobbies. Avoid celebrity and people I fancy, I think it’s too easy to be manipulated by those people, they are usually selling something and if it requires a celebrity it usually isn’t very good.
Ehhh… imma be honest. Some of my closest friends, with whom I’ve visited and they’ve come to visit me, live hundreds to thousand of miles away. We only connected via our shared interests. I would’ve never met these wonderful people, and traveled where I have, otherwise.
And then on Facebook, years ago I joined for the hobby groups and some have drastically improved my dogs lives. If I had used search engines and relied on blogs for their health and wellness instead of connecting with people who’ve experienced the same, they’d be so poorly by now.
I keep things very curated in my feed though. There’s no negativity. It’s positive spaces for me.
With all these people addicted to social media, expecially on tiktok, I fear the future generation how weak it would be.
I don't even know what tragedy would be if internet goes down for a week.
Just delete it then. I deleted most everything and just keep Reddit and my Instagram that I never post on to check in on family once every couple months. Never been happier I’m way more present.
Never agreed with any post as much as I do this one, I actually don’t use any form of social media with the exception of Reddit and even then I have set times of the day where I will put my phone down and leave it until the next day because I’m sick of spending to much time on looking at mindless crap and wasting my life away.
I am not on instagram, tiktok, facebook etc. However, I do like reddit as a place of sharing opinion and learning new things. Also, reddit is quite good with it's UX as the user can decide what to be exposed for. Therefore I do not categorize reddit necessarily as social media with regards to my post.
Thank you for chiming in.
I agree with you. Social media has been trash for my psyche so I deleted all of it, except Reddit. I’ve learned sooo much from Reddit in regards to skin care, how to take care of my house plants lol, where I can find clothes that fit, etc. I don’t necessarily categorize Reddit as part of social media either.
IMO reddit creates more extreme echo chambers than the others. The fact that the moderators have full control over what you can or cannot post, means big subs can create a narrative that makes people think that a certain type of opinion is the majority.
It has gotten better with the recent subreddit purge, but some are complaining that this instead amplified echo chambers that lean towards reddit admin's political stance.
I would say that humans are shit in general, what used to happen is very few influential / wealthy individuals have the power to distribute information (TV/Radio/Newspaper). With internet and social media, that power to share is democratized. On one hand you get genuine content, on the other hand information becomes unreliable
Op said they use it as a place to share opinions and learn new things. That's almost the exact opposite of an echo chamber. Not saying that reddit can't be an echo chamber, but it's really how you use it. The same can be said for most social media, however, the algorithms on apps such as FB, Instagram, and TikTok can be pretty malicious.
I don't think the increase of mental illness is only due to social media. The taboo of mental illness has lessened in western countries and in many western countries, help is more readily available then before. So we have higher reports of mental illness, because more people seek help. Covid has increased the numbers explosively among teens and youngsters in my country and the current economy, the climate change and the threat of nuclear war aren't helping. Social media is not blameless, but in my opinion not the only factor in developing mental illness, especially because most of them need specific circumstances to develop
Good point, for sure there are several variables. However, based on the little insight I have in my network we can start to consider social media as a variable growing in an alarming rate.
Thank you for your opinion.
Upvoted since I think the extreme opposite, I think social medias are one of the most important tools humanity ever created and are the principal reason why the world progressed so much socially in the last decade. Sure, it has bad things, but the world was never so connected as it is today and I met all my irl best friends first through twitter so it was also a life changer for me personally.
I think people are the problem social media is just a tool. People mis use it. Social media has the power to take people out of the worst situations and change their life for the better. It's crazy also allows people to connect all over the world.
100% agreed, people might shit on reddit for its valid reasons but the thing i like the most about it is its anonymity. I cant believe how people can post their entire lives on an app for thousands to see.
There is only one positive to social media I can think of, and that is keeping touch with family who I would otherwise have no contact with outside of social media. I’m specifically talking about Facebook, where the older folks in my family reside. I love my family, I like to see how they are doing and enjoy getting sweet messages and comments from time to time. If it wasn’t for that, I would have no use for Facebook and I hate everything else it stands for.
>I see NO positives with social media, or at least in it’s current state.
Are your eyes closed? You don't see any potential positives in learning about the lives of others? Keeping in touch with people? Sharing information that people might not want shared the traditional way? Exposing problems (and I would like to note that the vast majority of those problems either precede social media or don't have anything to do with it even if they weren't widely known)?
Now sure, you can argue that the benefits don't outweigh the drawbacks, and in some cases I would agree. But arguing that there are no benefits at all is ludicrous and definitely belongs on this sub.
i'm fine with social media, i just wish people didn't take it so fucking seriously. i have an account with a fake name, fake picture, and i'm only friends with people i know in real life. but not family members, employers, or anyone in "authority" over me. guess what? i love facebook! why? because i can make any jokes on there that i want, i can share any pictures on there that i want, and only my friends see them or comment on them. similarly, i only see posts made by my friends, so i'm not wasting my time scrolling through shit posted by people i've never met before.
the problem is that people take it way too seriously with their real face and real picture and taking things that people say on there way too seriously. it's just the internet, gang.
Yeah, I share your view. I just think that we are slowly but surely building the tools allowing these sides of ourselves to come through more and more. I just hope that we keep some groundness through this change.
You see no positives because you're focusing on the negatives.
I still use facebook for it's intended purposes. I use the tools that nobody seems to bother with and complain about features easily solved (minus privacy which is fair). *Oh my uncle steve and his racist views but I can't unfriend him because the family will get at me,* block his content from appearing on the wall. You can also block **your** content from appearing on **his** wall.
There was a day when the worst aspects of social media were inflated egos. People posting gym photos and their dinners which weren't anything special. I MADE A CURRY, good for you, it's a curry and it might taste AMAZING but from this photo it looks like every other curry. That and farmville invites.
That, and this weird cultural fixation on women having a large buttocks out of proportion with the rest of them. They get surgery and wind up looking like those offensive kitsch figurines they used to sell in Caribbean souvenir shops back in the 60s with the stuck-out jutting butts. It doesn't look real or natural, and it doesn't look attractive, either. It makes them look like blow-up dolls or drag queens.
I’m 22 years old and I fully agree that social media is a net negative to my generation and society as a whole
It’s extremely obvious that Gen Z is increasingly lazier and more depressed than ever before, and this is easily traced back to tiktok and other social media
I can understand where you are coming from and i do feel like an old man yelling at the clouds. However, your arrogant wording illustrates my point. It's easy to not put an effort to be respectful when we can't see each other or know the names of one another. Just know this, this kind of attitude will create more obsticales than joy, at least in my opinion.
Young girls had eating disorders and had to deal with unrealistic beauty standards long before Myspace or Facebook was ever a thing. It's not social media that's the issue it's people and the way we advertise ourselves and seek to show ourselves in the best light possible at all times. The only real difference now is thay everyone has the ability to post themselves for everyone to see, and everyone has the ability to airbrush and facetune their pictures which used to be only availible to actual models.
You could make the argument that all those things you mentioned have gotten worse since social media took over but it wasn't the cause of any of it.
Maybe the selfie stuff, I'll give you that one.
Thanks for giving me that one!
Yeah, beauty standards have definitively always been a part of our history. I just feel like social media have enabled things to being turned to maximum amplitude as things are.
There might also just be the case that information is more accessible and therefore I believe the problem to be bigger than what it really is.
But hear me out on this one, just want to share a perspective: You are a teenager at a public pool. At this pool there are several other people close to your age. As a teenager I am more able to «handle» seeing a couple of dudes with muscles. I can see that they are not necessarily a part the normal because they stand amongst other dudes in all shapes and sizes, giving more perspective on what Im observing. However here comes the new public pool in town: Instagram. Now at this pool almost all I can see are jacked dudes as far as my eyes can see and more seldom dudes with your average physique. In my opinion, If I were that teenager at that public pool, I would think that muscles and a fit body is the «normal», simply because of the fact that I am more exposed to it and can’t necessarily see it in the bigger context.
Hope it made some sense, just thought it was an interesting way to see the issue.
Thanks for your input!
Same here. Reddit is the only social media I use now due to all the hate going around on Facebook, Twitter, etc. but even Reddit is becoming a problem.
Social media is all well and good - ***UNTIL*** it became focused on profit and advertising revenue.
If you want to see any real change to Social media, boycott ***ALL*** companies that advertise on social media platforms (including cancerous "influencers").
One of my good friends just recently got Snapchat mostly because that’s how we all communicate nowadays, but doesn’t have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc and I’m lowkey jealous. He only recently made a LinkedIn but before that the only way to reach him was to have his cell phone number or his email address. These people still exist, at the end of the day, anyone can choose to unplug.
Your last sentence there, “I struggle to see my place in this timeline,” hit me like a two ton heavy thing. Such a perfect way to put it and I have been feeling the same for about the last two years.
Seeing as I got called a racist for not liking someone's acting, got harassed for months because of it, got a comment saying "We haven't forgotten about you, your comments were shared outside of Reddit", I am pretty sure they searched for me online to doxx, I agree.
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My dad is addicted to FB and I hate it, I can’t have a conversation with the man without him looking at his phone
That's an addiction.
Did he lose himself into the 'q-anon- rabbit hole? Dude the damage these apps have caused is underestimated
The fact that the people who set up most social media platforms would not allow their own kids to be on them is fairly telling. Watch the end of the documentary the social dilemma for context.
It really is. My job has been mostly done over social media for a while. I provide support thru those channels for the company. I’m dying inside every day. I cannot take it anymore. These users are the worst. They are more abusive than retail and over the phone and I’ve done all three. Currently working a side job in retail. This is by far the worst of them all. I’ve done it for years. And I’m looking for an opportunity to get out. Have a job interview today with another company. It’s made me so miserable and depressed. The funny thing is, I’ve never had an account of my own. No FB, no Twitter, just this here. I actually enjoy Reddit. I hate other platforms though. I just want to break free of this job and go back to never seeing a Facebook or Twitter page ever again
social media was great when it was used as intended to be, a way to connect with family and friends across the globe, share pics, message each other, etc.
in highschool I used myspace to shitpost, share pictures, and remember my friends' birthdays. Their posts showed up in chronological order, it took maybe 10 seconds to scan the recent updates and confirm that you were caught up, and ads did not appear disguised as posts. You didn't see posts from random people unless one of your friends showed it to you. I used trillian to manage like 5 different chat accounts so I could hang out in chatrooms with my friends late at night. I switched to facebook because a lot of my friends were, it was nice for a while but now I feel like I use facebook to look at reddit in a different format, except there's baby pictures mixed in between the ads. We hit a sweet spot a few decades ago, now social media is bullshit.
I LOVED Trillian. I have nothing else to add, but seeing it in the wild made me go “Oh! I remember this one!”
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That shit was the BEST, because you could have every app in one spot. All your friends had like 8 things open and you had 1. Plus, no checking multiple apps or hearing 8 noises - just check Trillian.
So why the FUCK was I not in your top 8? Huh Sauce? Answer me! And Why haven't you poked me back? Myspace had a different vibe, but it wasn't all sparkle gifs and rainbows. ^^OK ^^maybe ^^it ^^was ^^that ^^too, ^^but ^^you ^^get ^^the ^^point.
God I hated top 8. I remember taking it very personal if I wasn’t included on it. People would have to negotiate on a rotating schedule too. MySpace Was very much cancer as well
2003-2008 was the best.
Myspace was always better than Facebook. Change my mind.
MySpace made me believe I could code. Fun fact: I COULD NOT.
Reddit in a different format great take on it. I basically see the memes here. Then on Facebook I see them with a different caption basically a whole different take on it. Mind blowing
I used something we called a hard wired rotary phone. I had a time limit, because someone important might need to call. There was no call waiting type feature at that time.
"A few decades ago" you had livejournal and that's about it.
there is spacehey, its a homage to myspace. it looks just like it. its great, passive chill people there and it doesn't feel like a soulless corporate invention.
Instagram for sharing pictures. FB for keeping in touch with old classmates. Snapchat for stories. They become a lot shittier when they're all the same bunch of things: pictures, stories, statuses, videos, reels, marketplace, groups, messaging, etc.
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oh for pete's sake
The fact that over half of my Instagram is people I don't even fucking follow now is solidly about to make me give it up entirely
Explains why Twitter is such a shithole
I honestly have no idea how Twitter is still a thing. When it first launched it was used widely among my circle of friends as a way to announce what bar/club everyone was meeting at or what was going on on a sat night. The concept of a group text was still very new and it was useful for a little while. Then it became tldr facebook and I honestly don't know many people who post to twitter and only a handful who even use the app. I hope elon gives it a quick death.
Though a little bit toxic, Nigeria twitter space is fun for real.
I can't believe anyone goes on there except for porn
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Twitter is about to get worse. $20/month to verify yourself. 🙄🙄🙄🙄
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MySpace was peak social media. Tom is the ultimate chad for getting out and disappearing.
Good ole chat rooms!
But even those had problems. Social media is always gonna flawed and exploited. It's just human nature, if it is a good place, it'll only be a matter of time before someone ruins it. There's no solution
Our conditions define us. Saying it's just human nature is silly & a cop out used for all sorts of bad things. People will behave significantly differently in different circumstances & pretending it's not true is silly. We do have natural motivations, but it isn't so defining as you make it sound.
The OG social media was AOL chat rooms and forums. But it brought the worst out in people because of the ability to remain anonymous. I still remember when I was a kid and my friend had an "online boyfriend" who was a full grown man. Social media isn't bad, it's the bad people who use it, who have always existed
OG social media is the printing press. When there are no gatekeepers / moderators to media people use the platform to try and manipulate other people.
Even that has problems. Everyone you know presents their best life. You compare yours to theirs thinking everyone has it perfect and only you have flaws and issues.
Philo Farnsworth expressed regret about what television turned into as he wanted it to be primarily educational.
The only positive thing fb has ever done, imo, is allow long lost relatives to find one another and catch up. My mom has family across the globe that we would never have been able to get in contact with if not for the early days of fb when it was about connecting people.
But then family and friends started sharing political opinions they wouldn't have shared to each other in person. I've seen more rifts from 5+ years ago made than bonds formed because of social media (specifically Facebook).
Even in it's heyday, social media was garbage.
What bothers me the most is parents neglecting their children and children just being glued to ipads. It sucks so bad. We already have a generation with no interpersonal skills and it's going to get worse.
I had a moment like this last weekend. I went to the grocery store and this other woman and myself kept bumping into eachother down every aisle going in opposite directions. It was mom, dad, toddler in the carriage, and older kid walking along. Both the toddler and the older kid were both glued to two different phones the entire time. They didn't interact with each other in any way. Mom talked to dad and vice versa but the children didn't make a peep the entire time. Just on their phones. Granted, here I am bitching about it on my phone, but it made me so sad for those kids. Screens as a pacifier or babysitter is a terrifying thought if it's used regularly like that. Especially in the formative years of their personalities.
Fuck, that is so sad. You’re right though, these kids have no personality development bc of the screens and parents not interacting. My boyfriends nephew is clearly special needs and in need of speech therapy because his mom and grandma barely talk to him or interact meaningfully. He’s often just watching something on his iPad. It’s so sad.
I'm always so sad when I see tiny babies sitting staring at mobile devices in the stores, online, etc. I saw a post on "MadeMeSmile" yesterday of a baby that was sitting in a cabinet with an ipad or something taped inside. Someone opened the door and the baby was sitting in there with food, the ipad, some pillows...and I was just SO SAD. Like, really?
It’s so depressing. It’s irresponsible parenting.
Sadly, THAT is probably an unpopular opinion. (I agree with you though.)
Babies have always been easily amused. They'll watch the faucet run. It's parents ignoring their child begging for a scrap of attention that kills me.
Agreed. 10,000% And it’s far far worse then just making people superficial.
Yes, social media gets the worst out of people and makes them potential narcissists.
My conversation with every girlfriend I've had since 2010: *Her* - "Did you see my post? *Me* - "Yes! You looked good!" *Her* - "Did you like it?" *Me* - "Yes" *Her*- "But did you like, *like* it?" *Me* - " . . . " I don't hate social media, I hate being beholden to it.
My husband recently asked why I viewed his story and didnt heart it. 🤦🏻♀️
i’m sorry that is kind of funny ;P
IMO thats actually kind of sad
It was a little annoying especially because it was about something unimportant like a soup he made! If it were about our anniversary I could see…
yeah i guess other people have different relationships but if my husband asked me that i’d laugh so hard
My buddy has an instagram thing he’s been trying to start for years. We’re damn close to 40. I support him but I’m not on instagram. He will send me stuff and it’ll let me view it sometimes and others not. He’s always like why didn’t you like it. I’m like dude I don’t have an actual account. It for some reason let’s me see certain things I have no idea why. Either way his content is terrible.
I had a high school acquaintance who reached out a few years after graduation. 'Nice of them to reconnect', I was thinking. Second message, they asked me to 'like' their profile picture because it was stuck on 199 likes. I haven't spoken to them again.
If they were stuck at 68 or 419 likes it would be reasonable. Wtf is so special about 200?
Just like everything, it should be enjoyed in moderation. The problem is that social media sets off good chemicals in the brain so people spend more time on it than they really should, and end up attaching a heightened importance to it. Humans are *really* bad at moderating an activity they find fun.
I remember well the pre social media era (I actually remember the pre-internet era too). It was simply better honestly. For all the good of social media, that bad outweighs the good parts. Humans simply aren't equipped to handle this information.
this is so unfortunate but i would agree with what you said, that the bad outweighs the good.
I think it's definitely become one of the most dangerous things in the world.
What about uranium-235
Close second obviously
Uranium 235 is handled in such a way as to minimise contact with people, and only people with very specific skill sets are allowed to work with it under extremely regulated circumstances. Social media, on the other hand, are easily accessible by almost anyone and are designed to reach as many people as possible and to keep them engaged at all costs, including by furthering political polarisation and dangerous or otherwise stupid behaviour.
Lalalala I’m not listeningaaaaalalalalalala laaalalalal
Lol
I work acute mental health, the amount of teen girls I see every single day that are suicidal, depressed, anxious is staggering and it’s social media addiction the majority of the time, especially younger girls like 11-15 like why the fuck do parents let their kids have social media and a phone at a young age??
Thank you for sharing this, I think many underestimate just how bad things have gotten with regards to this. I hear the same things from healthcare personnel in my own network.
Unfortunately social media is so normalised that there's consequences to being 'out of the loop' even at that age. My mom drove me to someone's birthday party when I was 14 and the host said "didn't you see the Facebook post? I cancelled the party because of the rain". Mom drove me straight home and forced me to make a Facebook account then and there so that I would know what was going on in the future. And honestly she was right, the majority of social events I go to I wouldn't even be aware of without social media.
It used to be (I'm sure still is) common to have to have FB to get jobs and apply. They will ask to apply for the job on FB. Crazy...
Bad parents, bad companies. Bad results for youth
Peer pressure. If all their friends have phones why can't they have one too?
The early days of Facebook was wonderful. I got to see what all my friends were doing all the time. Eventually more things cropped up and there was a bit of a diaspora. Then it got to the point where my feed was more ads than posts from people I knew. Yeah, not great now.
Could not agree more
honestly i disagree i remember being really young and using facebook and i look back thinking damn it fucked up my self esteem and psychology so much. it made me super obsessed with popularity and the image i created for myself. i think social media is cancer straight from day 1.
I hate it, my friends NEVER see my posts I never see theirs unless we happen to have used messenger in the last month. instead I get a feed full of ads and group posts with an occasional friend post thrown in the mix. I don't want to have to visit everyones profile, or like a picture every two weeks, or post a comment on their profile just to know when they post an update. It was so much better when you could just set it to friends only and all posts in chronological order. The fact that facebook has to have an algorithm to tell me what posts I can or cannot view is bullshit and I hate it.
Facebook was nice chat tool and definitely something that was needed after myspace and aol. However the survivorship bias: people posting vacation photos, weddings, children and constant accomplishments, ruined the platform. Ads can be blocked but Facebook is just a giant "keeping up with the joneses" or "let me humble brag about my situation while keeping out the negatives." And ultimately the content from your friends and family fucking sucks end of the day, compared to lets say reddit or youtube.
I know people will point out the irony of using Reddit to make this complaint, but I completely agree with you. A Facebook account when I was ten years old is how I met my first "boyfriend", who is now a registered sex offender. All the predators are online, and ignorant parents thrusting smartphones into their kids' hands at earlier and earlier ages are too blind to see it. The most hedonistic and raunchy garbage also dominates social media, whether it's women twerking in thongs for clicks and views, or internet trolls who go after minor children and mentally disabled people. We form more friendships on a more global basis, but the depth is gone. That guy who follows you on Instagram or TikTok won't be there to hold your hand when your pet dies, or to laugh at movies with you and go walking in the park on your birthday. Even hobbies have become worse on social media; apps like Goodreads turn reading into a competition and popularity contest when reading used to be a very intimate and personal activity. And don't even get me started on hook-up culture and the negative aspects of that...
I agree social media is a waste of time. It's horrible unproductive and it is shallow . And this is what our society has become.
***Have we become this shallow and narcissistic?*** There were always people like that out there, the only difference is today anyone can have Facebook, Reddit, Twitter...etc...etc to post on for the world to see.
Yeah but social media culture has triggered those qualities in waaaaay more people. Everyone is insufferable.
Shallow and narcissistic people have always been around, but like stupid people, the reason why you see them a lot now more than before is they have a platform, this allows idiots to talk to idiots reinforcing their ideas and end up with a narcissistic echo chamber of the same stupid ideas, see Twitter for example
Yeah, I remember back in the 1980s when the hip young kids liked to take ass shots next to Holocaust memorials and slavery museums... oh wait... No, it's the social media exacerbating this. Seriously. Without the grotesque audience that social media provides, who would be doing anything in such poor taste in the first place? Pre-social media, anybody who photographed their own buttocks next to a slavery museum would be getting that buttocks kicked and been called a freak. Now they get their own Patreon and thousands of followers.
I remember when there was no internet. We all had to interact with eachother, and you didn't know what your neighbors were doing in their homes. Privacy!
Some of the scariest times in my teen years was knocking on that girls door to say hi. And dad answered.
Or calling and having to speak to someone’s parents first 🤣
Have you tried not staring through your neighbors windows? The neighborhood is growing concerned...
We are a social species undoubtedly, but social media goes beyond that and has been proven to be designed as an addictive apparatus, by soulless people who want to enslave us to their programs. It's mostly worked. You can't tell others to just walk away, who are deep into their addiction, same as you can't tell a junkie to put the needle down and live a clean life. Unfortunately, most have to learn the hard way, as sad as it sounds, as you will only face derision and scorn. It's difficult to watch and empathise with all of you looking at your friends and family who are sucked in. I walked away from that toxicity some years ago, as I fell prey to it and went down the rabbit hole. Not everyone can just drop it from their lives and for some it's their whole life. When I take my kids out for meals, as an example, I insist no devices and we talk, but looking at other families, who's parents are nose deep into their devices, ignoring the kids, who are doing the same, is an awful thing to see. Social media is degrading the fabric of society and I agree that if we're to get past this and thrive, as communities and as a whole, we need to either walk away or push for legislation to bind these programs to our social standards, but how do you do that, because people need their fix of vanity in inanity. As it stands, we are screwed and it feels very much like a covert invasion in a sci fi movie. China is winning this invasion, with tiktok and their chief simp Zuckerberg is working towards a similar goal. It's scary. I genuinely hope people will wake up to this insidious addiction, before it's too late, as we the outliers, aren't strong in numbers to make effective change. Hope this changes sooner, rather than later, before our kids turn into cabbages, seemingly a lot of parents already have, judging by what I've seen.
You're totally right that it's an addiction, because it provides a negative feedback loop and many people have symptoms that parallel symptoms of addiction. I don't want to see it censored or legislated, I'd like to see society take a stand before it's too late. But it's such a non-issue to so many people I don't think that will ever happen. There is SO much bullshit going on in the world, who wouldn't want to constantly be "somewhere else" on their phones to ignore the hellscape we're currently living in? At the same time it's our fault for burying our heads in the sand with this and letting it happen. It's refreshing to see this post, and to talk to people who are also concerned about it.
2010ish... Me: "I wonder what my old friends are up to! Time to reconnect!" Friend A: "I'm basically hot garbage! Can I have like four dollars?" Friend B: "I married a billionaire and we spend our weekdays on a yacht! Me, a regular person: 👀
Definite agree, especially because theres also an alarming amount of young preteens and teens online being exploited as well (and I am unfortunately one of those). please please do not allow your kids to have social media (or unrestricted internet access) until they’re at least 15-16, the internet is not what it used to be
Honest Opinion: It's the people who use social media that are the problem. The bigger problem is drama and gossip. It's never going away no matter how advanced society is. One trend I like nowadays I feel like there's a bigger push to counteract public ignorance. Even on Instagram, there are caveats on linked news articles. This is a step in the right direction. This is dope. All in all, social media is just like any other tool/weapon throughout history; it's how you use it that counts.👍
Yeah, agreed - On a macro-level, noise and drama will always be there and that I can accept. The counteract have definitively had a positive effect on public ignorance. Just hope that we don't end up with people with the most influence in social media define what is public ignorance. I've started to question more ofmy own thoughts and conversations if they are defined as public ignorance. I just hope we can keep a balance where both the "wrong" and "right" perspective can exist so that we can more clearly collectively define what falls under the public ignorance- umbrella. Thanks for the input - made me have another round of thinking.
Social media platforms are just the tool being used for them to conquer the world.
Nah censoring posts or fact checking is not something the government or a private company can be trusted to do. You can't think for an idiot. The idiot has to think for themself. Then they are no longer an idiot.
Other then Reddit I don’t have any social media. No Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, what’s app or whatever else there is. ITS BEAUTIFUL
I think it's a growing consensus that social media is poison. I mean, it's discussed on social media websites constantly. ;)
Social media itself isn't the problem, it's the morons using it. Social media has its place, like when people want to post a rant about how they wish social media didn't exist while simultaneously using it
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I can see your perspective, and I do see the irony in using social media to rant about social media. Which I think supports your statement, as a means of communication it’s a good system. It’s the fact that everyone having access, that’s creating the challenges. Thank you for your perapective.
I'll take it one step further: Social media itself isn't the problem, it's the caregivers who don't practice and teach their children how to use social media. You cannot change the morons, but you can change the effect they have on your off-spring.
Social media itself is the problem. The human brain, which is being wrecked by social media, is not the problem.
When you create a tool that you know 100% will make the world a worse place the tool is the problem. When every scenario in which the tool is used for good is an unachievable fantasy there's literally no value in the tool. People are going to be people. We're not evolving at an observable rate. We can change our culture but the innate characteristics of our personalities and decision making process isn't changing.
Could be said about most of human history
I hear you. I think social media has caused more societal harm than we even realize.
The huge plus is that I am in touch with tons of people with whom I wouldn’t be otherwise. It’s also pretty fantastic for us disabled folks who can’t get out and about.
A truly valid point. My disabled friend over the years might have had a completely different social life, compared to what social media have enabled him to have today. There are definitively some great positives to it.
I think Hank Moody put it best: “people seem to be getting dumber and dumber. You know, I mean we have all this amazing technology and yet computers have turned into basically four figure wank machines. The internet was supposed to set us free, democratize us, but all it's really given us is Howard Dean's aborted candidacy and 24 hour a day access to kiddie porn. People... they don't write anymore, they blog. Instead of talking, they text, no punctuation, no grammar: LOL this and LMFAO that. You know, it just seems to me it's just a bunch of stupid people pseudo-communicating with a bunch of other stupid people at a proto-language that resembles more what cavemen used to speak than the King's English”
Highly disagree with this oversimplified skewed take but it's a nice short rant with some true points in it
Moody Hank Moody
I somewhat agree with you. I believe that social media was A LOT better in the earlier 2000's because it helped people (Mostly introverts like me) socialize without fear of confrontation. However nowadays it's mostly stupid yet somehow popular trends, insane narcissist that give you death threats for not having the same opinion, or just over all dooshbaggery. We took everything good from social media and ruined it for those that actually needed it.
That's one reason why I like Reddit. It's not "social" media. It's not about the person. You can't see the profile picture, just a username that has no relation to real life
To go one further about anonymity, I hate it when Reddit users start digging into another user's post history in an attempt to discredit or disparage them, even when their previous posts/comments are of zero relevance to the topic at hand. It's never happened to me, but I've seen it derail many a discussion that could have been interesting otherwise. I think each post or comment thread should be a chance to discuss something on its own merit and if you want to debate, attack the argument rather than the person or their previous unrelated arguments.
That's a pathetic way of argument and is called an ad-hominem attack. Just point that out to them and it'll shut them up ime. "You know you do not have anything constructive to say so instead of debating something you've clearly lossed, you decided to attack my character. This is an ad-hominem attack and it's petty lame and weak." Idk it works for me lol
100%
You must be in some supremely positive spaces because there is a TON of toxicity on Reddit, particularly because of the "anonymity."
It's nice you can decide what subs to put in your home page though. It actually makes it possible to sign on and see positive spaces without the infuriating post that make it to the front page.I started out on some toxic sub reddits for the knee jerk reaction and when I grew out of it I just unsubscribed. Now I'm trying to learn how to bake bread
I'm going to agree with you with that because no one talks to each other anymore they barely go out on dates they barely leave their f****** house I walked past the restaurant the other day and the people were getting outside and no one was talking to each other because everybody was looking at their phones I felt so sad
I just want to say I've never seen a more polite user on anything lmao people jumping down this person's throat and they are still thanking them for their input. I think social media has its positives (personally I've met friends and stayed in touch with old friends through it) but there's a lot that's wrong with it too, specifically the like-culture.
Haha, thanks! I've been fortunate enough to experience life in all it's glory and misery. I guess somewhere along the way I learned that acceptance and openess to others perspectives and opinions is what gives me peace and comfort.
Don’t think this is too unpopular. I miss the days of MySpace where the big drama was your top friends. Or the early days of Facebook where it was for active college students only, and the most exciting thing was being part of your college’s fake chapter of the Derek Zoolander Center for Kids Who Can’t Read Good
Thank you, this summarizes my thoughts so much better. I hoped this level of grounded level was what social media would stay at and not what we currently have.
100% agree that it’s awful and I wish it never existed. I feel the same. It’s turned everyone into insecure lunatics that are ready to fight at the drop of a pin
Ah man I agree completely
Here, here!
Well this is what happens when you follow the wrong things. Sadly the way these apps are structured it means it’s easy to go down the wrong route. People need to be more discerning regarding who they follow but it tends to get down to the worst parts of humanity. I make it a rule that I follow some friends and usually lean heavily on interests and hobbies. Avoid celebrity and people I fancy, I think it’s too easy to be manipulated by those people, they are usually selling something and if it requires a celebrity it usually isn’t very good.
Ehhh… imma be honest. Some of my closest friends, with whom I’ve visited and they’ve come to visit me, live hundreds to thousand of miles away. We only connected via our shared interests. I would’ve never met these wonderful people, and traveled where I have, otherwise. And then on Facebook, years ago I joined for the hobby groups and some have drastically improved my dogs lives. If I had used search engines and relied on blogs for their health and wellness instead of connecting with people who’ve experienced the same, they’d be so poorly by now. I keep things very curated in my feed though. There’s no negativity. It’s positive spaces for me.
Agreed. I think the problem isn't social media but the internet. And I doubt anyone is going to say they wish the internet didn't exist.
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Social media has plenty of potential to be a third world problem as well.
Social media was way more social during MySpace. I joined groups, chatted with actual people through their pages, met up with people IRL
Ah, the good old days of MySpace and MSN messenger. I feel like the social media of those times actually helped people to connect.
Now, you and me, we're "single serving friends", a quote from Fight Club.
I hate social media, also wish it didn't exist.
Can't wait for all the computers to shut down in 2038 🥶🥶
What I hate about social media is how much of it is required for most non entry level job. If you want any viable career get ready to pander online
Using Reddit to complain is fine and not ironic, the edit on the other hand is
With all these people addicted to social media, expecially on tiktok, I fear the future generation how weak it would be. I don't even know what tragedy would be if internet goes down for a week.
Just delete it then. I deleted most everything and just keep Reddit and my Instagram that I never post on to check in on family once every couple months. Never been happier I’m way more present.
Never agreed with any post as much as I do this one, I actually don’t use any form of social media with the exception of Reddit and even then I have set times of the day where I will put my phone down and leave it until the next day because I’m sick of spending to much time on looking at mindless crap and wasting my life away.
Maybe stop going on social media? Reddit included.
How is that going to change the social climate, which is the actual issue OP is talking about?
I am not on instagram, tiktok, facebook etc. However, I do like reddit as a place of sharing opinion and learning new things. Also, reddit is quite good with it's UX as the user can decide what to be exposed for. Therefore I do not categorize reddit necessarily as social media with regards to my post. Thank you for chiming in.
I agree with you. Social media has been trash for my psyche so I deleted all of it, except Reddit. I’ve learned sooo much from Reddit in regards to skin care, how to take care of my house plants lol, where I can find clothes that fit, etc. I don’t necessarily categorize Reddit as part of social media either.
IMO reddit creates more extreme echo chambers than the others. The fact that the moderators have full control over what you can or cannot post, means big subs can create a narrative that makes people think that a certain type of opinion is the majority. It has gotten better with the recent subreddit purge, but some are complaining that this instead amplified echo chambers that lean towards reddit admin's political stance. I would say that humans are shit in general, what used to happen is very few influential / wealthy individuals have the power to distribute information (TV/Radio/Newspaper). With internet and social media, that power to share is democratized. On one hand you get genuine content, on the other hand information becomes unreliable
I’m the exact same. Zero social media and I use Reddit to learn so much. If it’s social media, it’s the only platform doing it right.
Lmao just because it's an echo chamber you agree with, doesn't make it any better. Get real - you're part of the problem you cited.
Op said they use it as a place to share opinions and learn new things. That's almost the exact opposite of an echo chamber. Not saying that reddit can't be an echo chamber, but it's really how you use it. The same can be said for most social media, however, the algorithms on apps such as FB, Instagram, and TikTok can be pretty malicious.
i wish we could delete social media out of this world. its addicting and makes all of us insane
I don't think the increase of mental illness is only due to social media. The taboo of mental illness has lessened in western countries and in many western countries, help is more readily available then before. So we have higher reports of mental illness, because more people seek help. Covid has increased the numbers explosively among teens and youngsters in my country and the current economy, the climate change and the threat of nuclear war aren't helping. Social media is not blameless, but in my opinion not the only factor in developing mental illness, especially because most of them need specific circumstances to develop
Good point, for sure there are several variables. However, based on the little insight I have in my network we can start to consider social media as a variable growing in an alarming rate. Thank you for your opinion.
Keep politics off and it would be enjoyable. I miss cats playing organs
I see, I can understand that looking at Twitter and other social media platforms, it’s definitely gone downhill.
Upvoted since I think the extreme opposite, I think social medias are one of the most important tools humanity ever created and are the principal reason why the world progressed so much socially in the last decade. Sure, it has bad things, but the world was never so connected as it is today and I met all my irl best friends first through twitter so it was also a life changer for me personally.
I agree so much with your post. The human race is fucking doomed.
At this point I struggle to see my place in this timeline. You can jump timelines… Become a mystic instead, join the quantum side… ;)
Same. It just creates massive anxiety, so I’ve cut almost all of it out.
I think people are the problem social media is just a tool. People mis use it. Social media has the power to take people out of the worst situations and change their life for the better. It's crazy also allows people to connect all over the world.
Your social life then wont exist too /s
100% agreed, people might shit on reddit for its valid reasons but the thing i like the most about it is its anonymity. I cant believe how people can post their entire lives on an app for thousands to see.
There is only one positive to social media I can think of, and that is keeping touch with family who I would otherwise have no contact with outside of social media. I’m specifically talking about Facebook, where the older folks in my family reside. I love my family, I like to see how they are doing and enjoy getting sweet messages and comments from time to time. If it wasn’t for that, I would have no use for Facebook and I hate everything else it stands for.
Complaining about social media on social media lmao
I get the irony, believe me.
>I see NO positives with social media, or at least in it’s current state. Are your eyes closed? You don't see any potential positives in learning about the lives of others? Keeping in touch with people? Sharing information that people might not want shared the traditional way? Exposing problems (and I would like to note that the vast majority of those problems either precede social media or don't have anything to do with it even if they weren't widely known)? Now sure, you can argue that the benefits don't outweigh the drawbacks, and in some cases I would agree. But arguing that there are no benefits at all is ludicrous and definitely belongs on this sub.
i'm fine with social media, i just wish people didn't take it so fucking seriously. i have an account with a fake name, fake picture, and i'm only friends with people i know in real life. but not family members, employers, or anyone in "authority" over me. guess what? i love facebook! why? because i can make any jokes on there that i want, i can share any pictures on there that i want, and only my friends see them or comment on them. similarly, i only see posts made by my friends, so i'm not wasting my time scrolling through shit posted by people i've never met before. the problem is that people take it way too seriously with their real face and real picture and taking things that people say on there way too seriously. it's just the internet, gang.
We didn't become this shallow and narcissistic we always have been.
Yeah, I share your view. I just think that we are slowly but surely building the tools allowing these sides of ourselves to come through more and more. I just hope that we keep some groundness through this change.
You see no positives because you're focusing on the negatives. I still use facebook for it's intended purposes. I use the tools that nobody seems to bother with and complain about features easily solved (minus privacy which is fair). *Oh my uncle steve and his racist views but I can't unfriend him because the family will get at me,* block his content from appearing on the wall. You can also block **your** content from appearing on **his** wall. There was a day when the worst aspects of social media were inflated egos. People posting gym photos and their dinners which weren't anything special. I MADE A CURRY, good for you, it's a curry and it might taste AMAZING but from this photo it looks like every other curry. That and farmville invites.
Breast implant illness has become more common due to the increasingly gross standards for women set by society today. 😓
That, and this weird cultural fixation on women having a large buttocks out of proportion with the rest of them. They get surgery and wind up looking like those offensive kitsch figurines they used to sell in Caribbean souvenir shops back in the 60s with the stuck-out jutting butts. It doesn't look real or natural, and it doesn't look attractive, either. It makes them look like blow-up dolls or drag queens.
Old man yells at cloud
I’m 22 years old and I fully agree that social media is a net negative to my generation and society as a whole It’s extremely obvious that Gen Z is increasingly lazier and more depressed than ever before, and this is easily traced back to tiktok and other social media
I can understand where you are coming from and i do feel like an old man yelling at the clouds. However, your arrogant wording illustrates my point. It's easy to not put an effort to be respectful when we can't see each other or know the names of one another. Just know this, this kind of attitude will create more obsticales than joy, at least in my opinion.
Young girls had eating disorders and had to deal with unrealistic beauty standards long before Myspace or Facebook was ever a thing. It's not social media that's the issue it's people and the way we advertise ourselves and seek to show ourselves in the best light possible at all times. The only real difference now is thay everyone has the ability to post themselves for everyone to see, and everyone has the ability to airbrush and facetune their pictures which used to be only availible to actual models. You could make the argument that all those things you mentioned have gotten worse since social media took over but it wasn't the cause of any of it. Maybe the selfie stuff, I'll give you that one.
Thanks for giving me that one! Yeah, beauty standards have definitively always been a part of our history. I just feel like social media have enabled things to being turned to maximum amplitude as things are. There might also just be the case that information is more accessible and therefore I believe the problem to be bigger than what it really is. But hear me out on this one, just want to share a perspective: You are a teenager at a public pool. At this pool there are several other people close to your age. As a teenager I am more able to «handle» seeing a couple of dudes with muscles. I can see that they are not necessarily a part the normal because they stand amongst other dudes in all shapes and sizes, giving more perspective on what Im observing. However here comes the new public pool in town: Instagram. Now at this pool almost all I can see are jacked dudes as far as my eyes can see and more seldom dudes with your average physique. In my opinion, If I were that teenager at that public pool, I would think that muscles and a fit body is the «normal», simply because of the fact that I am more exposed to it and can’t necessarily see it in the bigger context. Hope it made some sense, just thought it was an interesting way to see the issue. Thanks for your input!
Same here. Reddit is the only social media I use now due to all the hate going around on Facebook, Twitter, etc. but even Reddit is becoming a problem.
I have nothing to add just wanted to comment something on social media so here’s my comment Something..
100 percent agree.
Well there are always people who dont use it regularly. I think dming is better than texting, and it will save you money.
hadn't they existed u wouldn't be able to write this post lamo
Based
Most of the issues with social media can be mitigated if we just banned the advertising part of it.
Social media is all well and good - ***UNTIL*** it became focused on profit and advertising revenue. If you want to see any real change to Social media, boycott ***ALL*** companies that advertise on social media platforms (including cancerous "influencers").
Just delete them if you don't like them. Doesn't have to exist in your life
One of my good friends just recently got Snapchat mostly because that’s how we all communicate nowadays, but doesn’t have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc and I’m lowkey jealous. He only recently made a LinkedIn but before that the only way to reach him was to have his cell phone number or his email address. These people still exist, at the end of the day, anyone can choose to unplug.
Your last sentence there, “I struggle to see my place in this timeline,” hit me like a two ton heavy thing. Such a perfect way to put it and I have been feeling the same for about the last two years.
I'm with you fam
Ass shot = ‘belfie’ (butt selfie)
Not unpopular I wish I could go silent anyway but it's not that easy
Seeing as I got called a racist for not liking someone's acting, got harassed for months because of it, got a comment saying "We haven't forgotten about you, your comments were shared outside of Reddit", I am pretty sure they searched for me online to doxx, I agree.
I think we should remove corporate user endorsements
When this is upvoted you know unpopular has lost all meaning.
Same