I'm down to FB, IG and YouTube, all of which I peek at for about 5 minutes a day, and even that is becoming too much. The constant IN YOUR FACE TO BE ANNOYING AS SHIT ALL THE ADS is insane.
Yes! The ads and the bots. I rarely use Facebook anymore and it is a shame in some ways because I used to find a lot of value in certain FB groups, but I just can’t deal with that platform anymore. I’ll turn off all my notifications and somehow they still keep sending BS notifications.
Great overview. I think X is the frontrunner for making TEA a reality, although I do hope they fail. I've read multiple Substackers calling for a digital fast to be put in place, I think it's a matter of getting people organized a smidgen and making it seem cool.
I've never had social media apps on my phone; I knew it was a slippery slope. I did have FB briefly in an open source wrapper app but it stopped working and I didn't bother to fix it. I have Telegram but with notifications turned off. I think one way towards deleting them would be turning off the notifications first, which lessens the dependence, then they can be deleted.
Make no mistake all of them are meant to addict you, and it's working, which is why so many people now have 'ADHD' (alongside the genuine sufferers).
You are so smart not to put them on your phone! It really is slippery. I’ve never used Telegram. Seems more popular outside the US. And agreed on the notifications. I have all of mine turned off.
And thanks for the Tik Tok link! I’ll give that a watch. Also saw that Tik Tok’s parent company Byte Dance just ordered 1bil worth of Ai chips from Nvidia... they got plans..
I used to worry about this, but at some point in the last year, I just realized that I mostly ignore these apps. I voted with the majority--I don’t want to delete them--but really, they’re just off on the side, something I visit once in a while. So I just don’t care enough to delete them, even if I don’t like how manipulative the big apps are. I sure hope Substack doesn’t keep trying to do more and more and more: I just want to read people with distinctive and interesting approaches to the world. Like you.
I've deleted them all except Instagram. Reddit was the latest. I will pop in to look at my regional sub on occasion but I no longer scroll, or post at all. Twitter was easy to leave, Facebook was too. I returned to FB to join a few groups and I don't friend anyone, even family. I refuse to use their marketplace and still use craigslist and eBay instead.
Good for you! So interesting. What do you like about Ig the most? I use Facebook marketplace to sell stuff occasionally and that’s about it for Facebook. Feel bad that I rarely respond to friend’s messages on there, but FB overwhelms me, just like Walmart does...
I think I like that the comments seem superfluous and I hardly read them on any posts but my own. You still get trolls, but it seemed ridiculous... Getting trolled for posting a photo!
I didn't have time to read this, but I got sucked in and found your brief histories of these apps quite fascinating. And scary. Now maybe I WILL get off some of them this year. Unfortunately, I might have to with TikTok, because my state recently made it illegal!
Oh no! Ha. Now I’m distracting you. But I hope it was a worthwhile distraction. And I’ll be so curious to see how states manage to actually ban TikTok. Anyone with a VPN on their phones will still be able to use the app, so I think it’s more of a symbolic act.
Thinking I too will delete at least one app for the rest of the summer... which one are you thinking?
Yes, I have no idea how they would ever enforce the ban. My first choice for Deletion would be Instagram, for all the reasons you've stated. I cannot get the hang of it!
It has just dawned on me that the American federal government has also done a TEA operation on its citizens... Perhaps this is simply what every large entity wants.
I'm down to FB, IG and YouTube, all of which I peek at for about 5 minutes a day, and even that is becoming too much. The constant IN YOUR FACE TO BE ANNOYING AS SHIT ALL THE ADS is insane.
Yes! The ads and the bots. I rarely use Facebook anymore and it is a shame in some ways because I used to find a lot of value in certain FB groups, but I just can’t deal with that platform anymore. I’ll turn off all my notifications and somehow they still keep sending BS notifications.
Great overview. I think X is the frontrunner for making TEA a reality, although I do hope they fail. I've read multiple Substackers calling for a digital fast to be put in place, I think it's a matter of getting people organized a smidgen and making it seem cool.
Yes! And I wrote this even before threads or x. The race accelerates! Guess they will battle it out in a Roman Cathedral literally...
Lol
I've never had social media apps on my phone; I knew it was a slippery slope. I did have FB briefly in an open source wrapper app but it stopped working and I didn't bother to fix it. I have Telegram but with notifications turned off. I think one way towards deleting them would be turning off the notifications first, which lessens the dependence, then they can be deleted.
Make no mistake all of them are meant to addict you, and it's working, which is why so many people now have 'ADHD' (alongside the genuine sufferers).
TikTok is arguably the worst and the most blatantly based on casino psychology: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxJ6XlUfauM
You are so smart not to put them on your phone! It really is slippery. I’ve never used Telegram. Seems more popular outside the US. And agreed on the notifications. I have all of mine turned off.
And thanks for the Tik Tok link! I’ll give that a watch. Also saw that Tik Tok’s parent company Byte Dance just ordered 1bil worth of Ai chips from Nvidia... they got plans..
oh yeah, they got plans all right! :o
I used to worry about this, but at some point in the last year, I just realized that I mostly ignore these apps. I voted with the majority--I don’t want to delete them--but really, they’re just off on the side, something I visit once in a while. So I just don’t care enough to delete them, even if I don’t like how manipulative the big apps are. I sure hope Substack doesn’t keep trying to do more and more and more: I just want to read people with distinctive and interesting approaches to the world. Like you.
Yes! Yes! Yes! I’m glad that they’re side items for you. And I also hope Substack doesn’t try for TEA. Love reading your Substack too!
I've deleted them all except Instagram. Reddit was the latest. I will pop in to look at my regional sub on occasion but I no longer scroll, or post at all. Twitter was easy to leave, Facebook was too. I returned to FB to join a few groups and I don't friend anyone, even family. I refuse to use their marketplace and still use craigslist and eBay instead.
Good for you! So interesting. What do you like about Ig the most? I use Facebook marketplace to sell stuff occasionally and that’s about it for Facebook. Feel bad that I rarely respond to friend’s messages on there, but FB overwhelms me, just like Walmart does...
I think I like that the comments seem superfluous and I hardly read them on any posts but my own. You still get trolls, but it seemed ridiculous... Getting trolled for posting a photo!
I didn't have time to read this, but I got sucked in and found your brief histories of these apps quite fascinating. And scary. Now maybe I WILL get off some of them this year. Unfortunately, I might have to with TikTok, because my state recently made it illegal!
Oh no! Ha. Now I’m distracting you. But I hope it was a worthwhile distraction. And I’ll be so curious to see how states manage to actually ban TikTok. Anyone with a VPN on their phones will still be able to use the app, so I think it’s more of a symbolic act.
Thinking I too will delete at least one app for the rest of the summer... which one are you thinking?
Yes, I have no idea how they would ever enforce the ban. My first choice for Deletion would be Instagram, for all the reasons you've stated. I cannot get the hang of it!
It has just dawned on me that the American federal government has also done a TEA operation on its citizens... Perhaps this is simply what every large entity wants.