Can I just brag for a moment? I feel like I am among my people, and there is a little lesson at the end.
to calibrate: White dude in my 40s, nerdy by nature but non-technical in my education/employment
Twitter - signed up in the early 2000s when it first came out, pretty much stopped using by 2011
Facebook - signed up in the early 2000s when it first got big, pretty much stopped using by 2011, deleted my abandoned account last year
Google +, I’m sure I never signed up, but I had an account that I never used. Google being google negated me ever having to contemplate whether or not I would ever use it
Snapchat - never used
TikTok - never used
Instagram - never used
Are there others? I don’t know.
Reddit was the only “social media” I ever used for a sustained period of time and the only one where I felt part of any sort of community. I left reddit in June of 2023 when I made this account and I’ve never been back.
So, in many ways, I am successfully resisting/avoiding “the algorithm” and I am a good example of high media literacy with good resistance to manipulation by social media.
But, just to emphasize why community itself is so valuable and worthy of exploitation by techbros, here are life changes I’ve made since joining Lemmy, even without any algorithms or dark patterns. Not that Lemmy is strictly causal in all of these, but the relationship is there:
I am now making my way through TNG, and am generally more Trek-literate
Linux, natch
Cancelled all streaming services (honestly most ‘subscription services’) in favor of a NAS running Plex (for now, will probably move to Jellyfin), Calibre, AudioBookshelf, Immich, Joplin, NextCloud, etc, etc, etc
Now using Steam Deck as my daily driver for gaming
In other words, though I prize my independent thinking and avoidance of Big Cloud, and though I think all of these are positive changes representing a positive influence, I am clearly impressionable. And so are you.
I was once working for a company that wanted to post pictures online. They had the option to opt out, so there is no picture or a blurr or whatever. I was the only one who had no picture and they didn’t like that, they didn’t ecpect that anyone would check that mark. They pressured me to have that picture there. I didn’t even really care tbh, i just checked it because i could. They told me that i have puctures online anyway and it doesn’t matter. I told them that if they find a single picture of me online, they could use that. I have no social media, no pictures online and nothing. They were quite disappointed
“Now, you know it’s up to you whether or not you want to just do the bare minimum. Or… well, like Brian, for example, has thirty seven pieces of flair, okay. And a terrific smile.”
I am not immune, and I don’t find all algorithms predatory - for example, I log on knowing that steam is selling me a product, but I am not the product. I just said in many ways I am successfully avoiding “the algorithm”, though the scare quotes immediately following a run down of social media networks was meant to indicate a specific type of algorithm that is meant to induce engagement or enragement (both are profitable) and change my behavior because I am the product.
I still have plenty of time for algorithms that serve me up games for that crucial 15% of my library that I bought but haven’t played yet.
Wow,
I just read my own use bio. Exactly down to the T. Except still on OSX and I am using infuse instead of plex jelly fin. But all other use patterns are identical.
I’d say. I never posted on reddit though. Just a lurker. On lemmy, I post :)
There is this insight that I remember reading about internet scams, that they are poor quality with lots of misspelling by design. According to what I’ve read, this acts as a useful filter: If you’re smart enough to pick up on things like misspellings, we don’t want to waste our time scamming you.
That is now essentially the entire ethos of the modern internet.
Many props to you. I feel like reddit doesn’t count as social media, but I couldn’t energetically defend that position. They are certainly engaging in social media tech bro behavior, so the distinction probably doesn’t matter at this point, but it felt different than social media before it went to shit. Now, obviously when it “went to shit” is a point in time that is highly relative to the observer, but always sometime after the observer joined. That’s just the nature of enshittification.
There is a lot of heated debate about this. They’re saying due to COVID, that “early” can mean anything from 0-8 now, which obviously I don’t understand but what can you do? They are saying it.
I must assume from your helpful correction that 2006 is the actual year twitter came out but even then I literally cannot be arsed to look that up on purpose because, I cannot stress this enough, I very much do not care about social media, as per my comment. So if you say 2006, that is what we’re going with.
Can I just brag for a moment? I feel like I am among my people, and there is a little lesson at the end.
to calibrate: White dude in my 40s, nerdy by nature but non-technical in my education/employment
Twitter - signed up in the early 2000s when it first came out, pretty much stopped using by 2011
Facebook - signed up in the early 2000s when it first got big, pretty much stopped using by 2011, deleted my abandoned account last year
Google +, I’m sure I never signed up, but I had an account that I never used. Google being google negated me ever having to contemplate whether or not I would ever use it
Snapchat - never used
TikTok - never used
Instagram - never used
Are there others? I don’t know.
Reddit was the only “social media” I ever used for a sustained period of time and the only one where I felt part of any sort of community. I left reddit in June of 2023 when I made this account and I’ve never been back.
So, in many ways, I am successfully resisting/avoiding “the algorithm” and I am a good example of high media literacy with good resistance to manipulation by social media.
But, just to emphasize why community itself is so valuable and worthy of exploitation by techbros, here are life changes I’ve made since joining Lemmy, even without any algorithms or dark patterns. Not that Lemmy is strictly causal in all of these, but the relationship is there:
I am now making my way through TNG, and am generally more Trek-literate
Linux, natch
Cancelled all streaming services (honestly most ‘subscription services’) in favor of a NAS running Plex (for now, will probably move to Jellyfin), Calibre, AudioBookshelf, Immich, Joplin, NextCloud, etc, etc, etc
Now using Steam Deck as my daily driver for gaming
In other words, though I prize my independent thinking and avoidance of Big Cloud, and though I think all of these are positive changes representing a positive influence, I am clearly impressionable. And so are you.
I was once working for a company that wanted to post pictures online. They had the option to opt out, so there is no picture or a blurr or whatever. I was the only one who had no picture and they didn’t like that, they didn’t ecpect that anyone would check that mark. They pressured me to have that picture there. I didn’t even really care tbh, i just checked it because i could. They told me that i have puctures online anyway and it doesn’t matter. I told them that if they find a single picture of me online, they could use that. I have no social media, no pictures online and nothing. They were quite disappointed
“Now, you know it’s up to you whether or not you want to just do the bare minimum. Or… well, like Brian, for example, has thirty seven pieces of flair, okay. And a terrific smile.”
Steam has an algorithm feeding you game suggestions
yeah and I gobble that shit up like candy.
I am not immune, and I don’t find all algorithms predatory - for example, I log on knowing that steam is selling me a product, but I am not the product. I just said in many ways I am successfully avoiding “the algorithm”, though the scare quotes immediately following a run down of social media networks was meant to indicate a specific type of algorithm that is meant to induce engagement or enragement (both are profitable) and change my behavior because I am the product.
I still have plenty of time for algorithms that serve me up games for that crucial 15% of my library that I bought but haven’t played yet.
One thing at a time Maxxie.
Fair enough :)
Wow, I just read my own use bio. Exactly down to the T. Except still on OSX and I am using infuse instead of plex jelly fin. But all other use patterns are identical.
I’d say. I never posted on reddit though. Just a lurker. On lemmy, I post :)
It seems like you got your taste of social media, decided you were essentially done with it and moved on.
I am just about in the same boat, I feel social media doesn’t offer me much that I value, and so I have been looking elsewhere.
My only use for social media is finding a $30 push mower or used TVs on marketplace.
Other than that, the content around most social media sites is mostly a slurry of bullshit mixed with Ai, so… waste of time, mostly.
I never even signed up for Twitter.
The modern internet makes me want to live in a cave and grow moss.
That isn’t an accident.
There is this insight that I remember reading about internet scams, that they are poor quality with lots of misspelling by design. According to what I’ve read, this acts as a useful filter: If you’re smart enough to pick up on things like misspellings, we don’t want to waste our time scamming you.
That is now essentially the entire ethos of the modern internet.
Got you beat. 40’s dude who’s never used any social media except for reddit (if that counts). I also have never used a smart phone.
Many props to you. I feel like reddit doesn’t count as social media, but I couldn’t energetically defend that position. They are certainly engaging in social media tech bro behavior, so the distinction probably doesn’t matter at this point, but it felt different than social media before it went to shit. Now, obviously when it “went to shit” is a point in time that is highly relative to the observer, but always sometime after the observer joined. That’s just the nature of enshittification.
2006 counts as early 2000s and not mid 2000s?
There is a lot of heated debate about this. They’re saying due to COVID, that “early” can mean anything from 0-8 now, which obviously I don’t understand but what can you do? They are saying it.
I must assume from your helpful correction that 2006 is the actual year twitter came out but even then I literally cannot be arsed to look that up on purpose because, I cannot stress this enough, I very much do not care about social media, as per my comment. So if you say 2006, that is what we’re going with.
I would love to hear the logic behind that
Me too but, sadly: paywalled. That’s how they get you.