I got rid of my social media accounts years ago to preserve my mental health and I have never regretted it. I think it has its positive qualities and I don't judge others for using it, but in my personal opinion it has done far more detriment than good.
apparently i've commented here before, and i have no idea what my opinion was then, but presently it's mixed? i think it's definitely taken a sharp downturn in recent years. there's so much misinformation being spread -- like right now with celebrities posting photos of Palestinian children and devastation and claiming they're Israeli-originating instead -- and then you have this whole "trend" with people, especially on tiktok, having no respect for other people out in public and filming/posting them without consent or filming themselves doing something somewhat disruptive. the only social media i have is twitter and tumblr. tumblr i can't speak for as a whole because you can heavily curate your experience, so anything i don't want to see, i simply don't, and twitter... well. if i'm being frank, i think it's mostly a cesspool, largely because of who's now running it. i know people like to throw freedom of speech around, but i don't think hate speech should be tolerated, and there's a lot of it on there. (and the "i'm not interested in this" button does not do its job half the time.)
i am tempted to just delete sometimes, but unfortunately i don't have much of a social life offline because of debilitating mental health, so social media is my only way of communicating with other people. for the most part, it's good in that regard! in others, especially when my account was public... not so much. people abuse their anonymity and will use it to say horrid things over nothing, regardless of how old they are.
I don't care to use any kind of popular social media websites. I've actually NEVER had any accounts on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Snapchat, TikTok etc. (I'm not completely sure if Reddit counts too, but I also haven't ever had any account there, and don't plan on getting one anytime soon). As I've already stated before here on another similar thread, I once made an account on Instagram but I wound up deleting it the very same day due to a major lack of interest (the ONLY reason I made that account there in the first place was because a former acquaintance of mine asked me to. From this experience I learned to never make an account on some website I have zero interest in just because someone wanted me to).
Judging from all the negative things that I constantly keep on hearing about social media, it feels as if I've made a wise choice in staying away from it all.
PS: I use YouTube, but I personally don't consider that as a real social media website (and 90℅ of the time I just use it to stream music that I don't own yet).
Its still getting worse. Especially whenever you try to have an opinion or different viewpoint you have to worried about being attacked all the time. Its happened to me so too many times in the past. Its no matter how much I try to share a different opinion or viewpoint I get attacked so easily these days. Its hard trying to be different without having those trying to tell you to think or behave a certain way. Seriously you try your best to be respectful to others and the worst thing you get is a bunch of people attacking you just because your opinion is different and they start to insult you. Why has this become the new norm?
Social media has its good and bad points, however I believe you can make the most out of social media if you find the right group of people to follow in a topic you're passionate about. Also I believe in using social media in moderation e.g. logging off at a certain point in the day and not returning for 12 to 24 hours and if you find a social media site is bringing your mental health down, take an extended break or simply delete the app. Don't flit back and forth with deleting and creating new accounts and then following people you unfollowed to begin with as it just sends out mixed signals.
I call reddit, tumblr and Xwitter the unholy trinity of mainstream social media sites ‘cause they’re so toxic. I use tumblr occasionally but mainly just to store images or look at pretty pictures. I use reddit for certain subreddits I love like thomastheplankengine, geography, etc. I made a twitter account just as a test to upload photos for links and I use it to access twitter sometimes. I actually did start an account in 2021 iirc. Didn’t really share anything but retweeted and followed artists I liked. One artist said such a disgusting overgeneralizing message that made me so pissed off I eventually decided to delete my account.
That’s not to say other socials don’t have toxicity but those are the main 3 to me. Also tiktok can extremely annoying, might have to add it and make a quartet.
I’ve never really had a reason to use like 99% of social media. I don’t like posting things about my life, I don’t like watching random videos, and I don’t like talking to people. I’m sure I would be willing to try it sometime if I ever had a good reason to, but for now I’m not really entertained by it. I also credit social media in playing a part in destroying my relationship - of course I know it wasn’t literally social media itself but the things my partner unfortunately chose to use it for, but looking at it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Social media today is a lot different than in 2010. It is a lot more toxic for sure. I think before, it was taken as a more casual light thing. Now it is taken more serious and people can't stay away from it. Corporations and political parties hopped on board hard because people basically live in there now.
There is a fight about censorship and freedom of speech and rumors and misinformation. It's like a town plaza from Roman or Greek times that is the size of half of the world. And anyone at any time can have a megaphone. There is bound to be chaos.
I can't tell if we are better with it or without it. I think we should instead look at how we use it. Social media like Facebook, Tiktok, and twitter isn't the best place to purchase something, nor the best place to receive news about the world, nor medical advise impo. I would go as far as saying it is dangerous to use it in those ways impo. And I think older folks would agree with this with a TV too. But those kinds of social media is good for talking to people you know or to find out about local events happening whether a protest, or food drive, or a festival.
I do think we were better off with forums than with fast paced social media like Twitter, Tiktok, or Facebook. Tvs are fast paced too. Forums are slower paced and I also feel like YouTube (without its shorts) is also slower paced.
I do think that social media attaching your name and identity together may help curb the chaos on there. Not necessarily because of accountability, because it could actually increase chaos if a person feels strongly about x and gets penalized, but rather because it may encourage people to think a bit more before slapping their keyboard. But it also has its downside like censorship and oppression irl.
The only social media I use is this forum, one other forum I recently joined and I am barely on that one, and YouTube. YouTube I just find so useful and it's main feature isnt talking to strangers, so I feel like the toxicity is lower. I mostly just watch things on there I want to learn and I normally don't comment.
For the most part, I don't find most social media beneficial nor fun anymore. And many people get so offended easily for one reason or another and then dwell on it. So I just stay away from it.
I’m on social media. I have Twitter and Instagram under another name, where I mostly share my art and writing. There are probably exceptions to the rule, but I’ve noticed that if you stay in more niche parts of it, you attract less of the general public, and less rude people than, say, world or celebrity news portions…or the general home page of Reddit.
I don’t have a Reddit account but I like looking at it, but only in doses and specific subreddits that I find interesting, like r/goblincore or some relating to history. (I must say, though, I like r/AITA sometimes lol.)
I think social media is good as long as you approach it in a balanced way with a specific interest.
Like anything that's been made toxic, social media is not inherently bad, it's just *******s on the apps that ruin it. That being said, I think that X's reputation has been ruined beyond repair. I don't have any social media besides YouTube, but I think as long as you can just be a decent human being on social media, you're okay.
I don't mind social media too much, but I am also really careful about who I interact with and what I look at. I don't really consider reddit a social media site it reminds me of one huge message board with sub-forums. I'm only on twitter really to follow Tayor Swift stuff or housewives stuff or my friends, I don't really go looking for anything else. I'm grateful that social media wasn't a huge deal when I was a teenager or a child, I think it's bad for children to be on it as well as teenagers. I do go on tiktok, but I mostly once again like to watch taylor swift tiktoks, disney tiktoks, genshin impact tiktoks, I try to stay away from anything political or if I find something that makes me nervous I block the user.
