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How many of you have completely quit using social media?

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I quit FB since August 2015. Never used Instagram, Snapchat, etc.

But yeah I consider GAF to be a form of social media, so is YouTube, and to a lesser extent WhatsApp... and I still use those.

Actually I quit GAF in June last year until a week or two ago, that's 17 months straight being completely away from NeoGAF for me. My longest break from this place, and as soon as I got back I realized why I quit in the first place... it's so addictive and an incredible time sink, which makes me depressed when I become conscious of it. So another break-away might be in my future soon...
 
That's what I'm afraid of. I'm not good at going cold turkey on anything :/
I kept reactivating FB and getting stressed. So, I got on, spent an hour deleting every friend on my profile, then deactivated. Now I have absolutely no reason to reactivate. I do still use IG though.
 
I've stopped using Facebook for about a year now. It was completely freeing.

Still use Instagram/Snapchat.
 
I think I use twitter once or twice a year to look up random stuff (mainly news), other than that I have never used any social media.
 
Never got into facebook, but I do use twitter a lot.

I think it helps that it's completely separated from my real life, don't use my name or follow anyone I know irl.
 
I haven't had an account on Facebook in years. Other than GAF, the only social networks I engage with now are those with a professional purpose like LinkedIn and Stack Exchange.
 
I stopped using everything. It is freeing and when you stop using it you find out who really cares about you and who doesn't.
 
Me , more or less 3 years ago , obviously it was like a social suicide by that time. I'm still using social media that i don't need to directly identify myself (or isn't somehow connected to my real life) like GAF , others forums , youtube , etc
 
You guys sure do love talking on forums about how much you dislike/don't use social media

I think the problem is the term 'social media'. That was useful when they were introduced and had to branded as 'new flashy thing!', but it's long since lost any significant distinction from 'media', which of course, is an inherently social construct anyway.

The other part is that it's just regular old friend 'peer pressure' and not really a social platform. How many genuine new connections to people and groups you didn't know about before have you made through Facebook, Twitter, or any other 'social' website? How many actual insightful conversations where you really got something from it?
Don't bother thinking about the number, it's not the point. The point is that you are not more likely to experience actual social interaction through an unfocused website than you are through a focused message board like neogaf here, or reddit, or maybe even 4chan. Sure, they're all echo chambers and they won't teach you anything you don't already agree with, but "social" sites are even less likely to result in that. It's kind of like choosing between CNN and FOX News. They're both trash, but only one of them is full of lies to the point of brainwashing.

If you really want to go all-out and be consistent, you could just go offline altogether. It will probably do you good, since cognition and well-being tend to go up after the initial 'detox' from the addictive online environment.

Personally, I like neogaf. I sometimes do learn something new, or see someone commenting on a cultural concept in another I'd never even heard of. It doubles as a news aggregator (mixed blessing, see echo chamber), has the occasional collective 'yay science!' topic (it is crazy hard to find someone who cares about science in real life, or even social media), and having proper moderation means you tend find genuinely nice supportive people without having to walk into the forest of dicks known as relatives and people you grew up, you never liked, but somehow they added you on Facebook.

So neogaf it is.
The only real issue is that I like taking photos and sharing them. I should probably switch to instagram, but the reality is that none of those sites are really just the service that I want: sharing pictures or events with people I actually like, without any bullshit.
Facebook, unfortunately, has gone full bullshit in recent months where I can't even browse it between all the ads anymore. It's sad, but it's not the service I need, nor inherently require. If you had to pay for it, nobody would be on Facebook today.
 
I deleted my Facebook profile a long time ago (back when it was still just for college students) and recently deleted my Google+ profile because nobody I know uses it any more anyway. Even (most of) the companies and organizations I followed just stopped posting on it back in 2015. Now I just have a Twitter account but never tweet and just follow those organizations and companies there instead. I don't follow people as even well-known people who seem interesting would fill my Twitter feed with stuff I don't care about.
 
I don't use any of them, don't even know what half of them are.

But then, I don't even have a phone, nor do I have any friends to actually social media with.

heh heh... heh...
 
I use twitter for political stuff. I don't use Facebook or instagram or anything like that. None of my mates or even that many people in my wider circle do. I like it like that. We're quite young too mid twenties to early thirties.
 
I deactivated my Facebook about a year ago and it's been great since but I still log in real quick every few months if I need to grab one of my old pictures or something (never longer than 5 mins)

Instagram I check once a day or so but it's not for longer 5 mins

90% of my friends use GroupMe so we just chat in there all day instead
 
I've abandoned Facebook for more than a year now and never really used any of the other ones regularly. I still use Reddit, but more as a news aggregate than anything else.

I still spend most of my internet time in NeoGAF though.
 
I quit all social media about 10 years ago. It made me feel like shit all the time.

Problem is I ended up replacing it with GAF and off-topic seems to make me feel like shit just as often. God damn it, humanity, stop making me feel like shit.

I feel terrible at all the social opportunities I've lost though. 'Oh I haven't seen you in a decade! I got married! I would have invited you but you're not on Facebook!' etc etc
 
I'll browse some pages on Twitter from time to time, but that's it.

Thinking of quitting gaf. It's a huge time waster. Other social media isn't a problem, I just check in quickly on there. Anyone know a way to self-block gaf?

Block Site for Chrome or LeechBlock for Firefox does the job for me.
 
the only social media I frequent are gaf and some programming communities. quitting facebook seven years ago made me a lot happier.

also this:
Quit Social Media. Your Career May Depend on It.

One crucial problem that he is ignoring as everyone has been ignoring it:

the reason so many people fall for the trap of 'putting yourself out there' is because there are more desperate people on the job market, courtesy of the 'gig economy'. I feel that everyone, considering the responses to the election in particular, has been ignoring what the world is like now if you are NOT on the perfect, nominal, straight-to-career pathway.
Meaning that you WON'T get opportunities, will remain stuck where you don't want to be, and everybody loves blaming, but nobody loves helping. Social media SEO is an act of despair, not "I have a career that really works". Like I said, most people wouldn't be on them if they didn't feel like they have to.

Hell, real-world example: a lot of temp agencies now ask for an introduction video instead of or alongside an application. How you are supposed to negotiate this clear threat to your big data / metadata profile if you won't be selected without one?

I've seen articles that say exactly the same as what he's claiming ever so often now, and it's always basically "yeah, but it works for me!" while ignoring what actually is relevant to people who are not on a great career or even professionals for that matter.
 
The only social media I've ever had is Facebook. Never got twitter, instagram, snapchat etc.. don't really see the appeal of those. I'm 24 and most of my friends are into those but I can't be bothered.
I've also greatly reduced the amount of time I spend on Facebook to the point where I've debated getting rid of it, but I figure I'll just leave it alone and stop using it. Messenger gets some use for group chats.
 
I've left nearly all of them a long time ago. The only one I have is Instagram and that is to keep up with my friend who I don't see as often. I just don't need them right now.

The only one that I frequent now would be NeoGAF. You da best GAF!
 
I've never been that engaged. Facebook only, which i check 1-3 times a day, occasionally get in chat conversations with people and swap occasional witty observations.

But i prefer forums. Most of my computer time is spent on TVTropes, the Penny Arcade forums, and GAF.
 
I quit facebook a couple of months ago. I'd been wanting to do it for a while, but I was responsible for running the pages of some organisations and they were attached to the account. Once those responsibilities were over, I pulled the plug. I thought I'd end up missing it but it really does feel weirdly liberating. Not being involved in the whole thing gives you some perspective on how crazy much of it is.

Using forums and stuff with pseudonyms isn't the same thing, imo. Yes it's social and there is media, but the restriction of private information makes it different. It's not like tied to your real life personality, which is the scariest thing about the way we're adopting and using social media, especially given the recent moves towards authoritarian internet surveillance.

I've still got an instagram account and a twitter account but they're not really about me or my life, and I don't use them frequently.
 
Deleted Facebook a few years ago.
I almost never use Reddit anymore.
Does Goodreads count? I don't really interact with people on it.
Twitter I use for when big things like the election or the superbowl happen.
Don't use anything else.
 
I've deleted everything except Facebook. Will probably delete that someday as well.

edit - if we are counting reddit and gaf, then I have those too along with facebook.
 
I barely use Facebook unless I get some kind of notification, but I've never been a big FB user. All of the others like Twitter, Instagram, etc. I never really "got" personally. Just seemed like a lot of noise.
 
Have a facebook account, but rarely spend more time on it than just checking to see if someone messaged me. Most often just go on to message/check organizations I have questions for.

I am not interested in what other people are up to, especially through the selective filter of all their most exciting/beautiful/adventurous/emotional activities and achievements. I would rather live my own life than read about other people's, and I am glad for it as I can see the effect it has - making people feel like their own lives are boring and uneventful in comparison to the collected highlighted adventures of everyone they have on there.

Aside from using it for things like contacting organizations, I keep it active primarily out of social obligation, and as a potential connection avenue to those I am not so often in touch with.
 
I use Facebook messenger to talk to my friends, and my YouTube is basically defunct now since Nintendo compositions aren't as popular as they were during the Wii era.

So yeah, I'm out.
 
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