<story><title>The benefits of staying off social media</title><url>https://durmonski.com/life-advice/benefits-of-staying-off-social-media/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>croutonwagon</author><text>This may not be terribly popular, and its admittedly just conjecture, but I&amp;#x27;m of the opinion that its less about the quantity of social media, and more how one interacts with it and even more so consumes it.&lt;p&gt;Some platforms are clearly more toxic than others, though I&amp;#x27;m increasingly of the opinion that they are all pretty toxic, just different flavors of &amp;quot;world outlooks&amp;quot; to choose from.&lt;p&gt;I feel that those that actively participate (commenting, posting, responding, reacting) are more affected and more caught in the feedback loop. Those that more or less passively read these platforms, rarely interact, and largely work to keep &amp;quot;perspective&amp;quot; seem to have less of a tough time on it and allow it to impact their outlooks and moods less.&lt;p&gt;Those that tend to interact more seem to get caught in a sort of feedback loop. measured&amp;#x2F;Nuanced&amp;#x2F;Moderate or considerate takes are generally frowned upon on most of the major platforms these days. Outrage and simplistic viewpoints reign supreme, and most will bury the rest, forcing even those with moderate stances to either &amp;quot;consider a side&amp;quot; when continuing or just outright not partake. And all of these seem to be, relatively speaking, vocal minorities.&lt;p&gt;There are plenty of people that consume stuff and just dont have anything useful to say, or just dont have the energy to say it and defend it etc. Of course this seems to depend on the platform as well, for example I would never post this take on reddit....&lt;p&gt;With that said, I go agree generally, that these are toxic and create unbalanced viewpoints and world views. As Dave Chappelle said, &amp;quot;twitter isnt real&amp;quot;, and to an effect that true. Twitter, reddit, youtube, facebook, dont necessarily pan out to the larger population&amp;#x27;s opinion as a whole, at least where its measured (such as in politics and polling)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>88913527</author><text>I concur with your view. After taking a long break from social media, it becomes obvious what the issues are. Look at these and suggested posts for people wealthier, fitter, and presumably happier than myself. For some people, incessant exposure to that content is toxic. It makes me feel behind in life, and I feel better without constantly viewing it. When you doomscroll, it absolutely produces a positive feedback cycle and gets worse. And this cycle applies not to just the aforementioned Instafit-type content, it applies to politics, it applies everywhere. I had to stop reading &amp;#x2F;r&amp;#x2F;FatFIRE, but &amp;#x2F;r&amp;#x2F;financialindependence is fine.</text></comment>
<story><title>The benefits of staying off social media</title><url>https://durmonski.com/life-advice/benefits-of-staying-off-social-media/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>croutonwagon</author><text>This may not be terribly popular, and its admittedly just conjecture, but I&amp;#x27;m of the opinion that its less about the quantity of social media, and more how one interacts with it and even more so consumes it.&lt;p&gt;Some platforms are clearly more toxic than others, though I&amp;#x27;m increasingly of the opinion that they are all pretty toxic, just different flavors of &amp;quot;world outlooks&amp;quot; to choose from.&lt;p&gt;I feel that those that actively participate (commenting, posting, responding, reacting) are more affected and more caught in the feedback loop. Those that more or less passively read these platforms, rarely interact, and largely work to keep &amp;quot;perspective&amp;quot; seem to have less of a tough time on it and allow it to impact their outlooks and moods less.&lt;p&gt;Those that tend to interact more seem to get caught in a sort of feedback loop. measured&amp;#x2F;Nuanced&amp;#x2F;Moderate or considerate takes are generally frowned upon on most of the major platforms these days. Outrage and simplistic viewpoints reign supreme, and most will bury the rest, forcing even those with moderate stances to either &amp;quot;consider a side&amp;quot; when continuing or just outright not partake. And all of these seem to be, relatively speaking, vocal minorities.&lt;p&gt;There are plenty of people that consume stuff and just dont have anything useful to say, or just dont have the energy to say it and defend it etc. Of course this seems to depend on the platform as well, for example I would never post this take on reddit....&lt;p&gt;With that said, I go agree generally, that these are toxic and create unbalanced viewpoints and world views. As Dave Chappelle said, &amp;quot;twitter isnt real&amp;quot;, and to an effect that true. Twitter, reddit, youtube, facebook, dont necessarily pan out to the larger population&amp;#x27;s opinion as a whole, at least where its measured (such as in politics and polling)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Sohcahtoa82</author><text>&amp;gt; This may not be terribly popular, and its admittedly just conjecture, but I&amp;#x27;m of the opinion that its less about the quantity of social media, and more how one interacts with it and even more so consumes it.&lt;p&gt;I feel the same way.&lt;p&gt;Facebook is a great way to keep up with what friends are doing.  When I adopted a kitten, it was the perfect place to show pictures to all my friends.&lt;p&gt;The problem is, &amp;quot;keeping up with your friends&amp;quot; turns into living vicariously through them.  This type of social media is just a highlight reel of your friends, and some people have a hard time internalizing that.&lt;p&gt;Personally, I&amp;#x27;m in a great position in my life, so I don&amp;#x27;t really live through other people&amp;#x27;s posts.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t use Instagram &lt;i&gt;at all&lt;/i&gt;.  On Twitter, I follow a bunch of people in the InfoSec world and a couple politicians, and I don&amp;#x27;t read replies to the political posts, half of which are probably bots anyways[0].&lt;p&gt;I keep my Facebook friends list relatively slim.  I deleted and blocked my racist uncle.  Everyone one of my friends, I can tell you exactly how I know them.  I don&amp;#x27;t accept random requests.  I don&amp;#x27;t follow political pages.  I&amp;#x27;m in a few groups, but they&amp;#x27;re well-moderated.&lt;p&gt;[0] I wish I could use a regex as a block list.  &amp;quot;[A-Za-z]{4,}[0-9]{4,}&amp;quot; would probably block 90% of bots.</text></comment>