this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2023
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Relaxed section for discussion and debate that doesn't fit anywhere else. Whether it's advice, how your week is going, a link that's at the back of your mind, or something like that, it can likely go here.

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Life after mainstream social media (beehaw.org)
submitted 1 year ago by marin@beehaw.org to c/chat@beehaw.org
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Recently, I decided to delete Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok from my phone. It was a conscious choice I had to make after experiencing an anxious meltdown last week. Reddit wasn't any better for me, and we all know where that place is headed. I haven't deleted my accounts yet, but prioritizing the loss of easy access to those sites was important.

As usual, I feel better now. A lot of the content on those platforms brings me hateful and unpleasant feelings. It's addicting, like a mess you just can't seem to take your eyes off of. I had to be honest with myself and accept the truth that profit-driven social media has a net-negative impact on my life.

I'm glad I'm here now. I'll never stop repeating this until it becomes untrue (hopefully not), but I enjoy being here. I don't see this place as an alternative to anywhere else. It's helping me break the habit of skipping long paragraphs of text and only relying on article titles at face value. The nuance present in several discussions feels more human.

Anyway, enough about me. How have your experiences been with other social media platforms? How do they compare to Beehaw?

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[–] tallwookie@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

dont forget to scrub your accounts before deleing them - those companies own that data if you dont, and in many cases (especially with facebook), you and your content are the product. I've subbed to a few @beehaw instances, but only the top level ones.

yeah, the interaction here seems to be more... organic I guess, for lack of a better word... more natural. the platform itself has a fair number of issues as well, it's not a polished product with several years of success behind it (loosely defining "success"). lemmy still seems to be in beta, but its perfectly usable despite that once you figure out how to get around on it.

not sure if I want to go back to how I used to access media prior to link aggregators - it was not ideal, slow, and difficult to find new things - like, imagine reading the newspaper (lol dating myself there) and never having seen sunday edition comics, but then you see them finally and it opens your eyes to a whole new world of what that kind of media could be. probably a bad analogy but its late and I'm tired :P

[–] marin@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago

I’m definitely going to do my best to scrub as much as I can with the help of my tech husband lol. I’ve had some of those accounts since 2010 and I’ll definitely have to put in some work.

The slowness actually helps me ground better. Like, it gives my brain time to buffer to better digest the information given to me. The learning curve to access this community isn’t that steep and I’m not a picky user anyway. I’ll stay primarily for the vibes lol