I know many of you loathe Facebook but I've been a regular user since 2008. Lately I have noticed how ugly it's getting with friends and family over politics mostly and it just doesn't seem as fun as it used to be. I've decided to take a baby step and shut it down for 30 days, cold turkey, to concentrate more on the people that really matter right now; my wife and child and baby on the way.

There's been a lot of articles recently about how mental health experts are saying that limiting or shutting down social media has a tremendous impact on you in a positive way so it will be interesting to see. Who knows, maybe 30 days will turn out to be the break I needed or maybe I just leave it all together!

The wife has a Bookface acct, I never have. Her observations of the vitriol and toxicity mirror yours.

Seems there are less and less folks she wants to have contact with because they have turned nuttier than squirrel shit.

I treat my Facebook page like a bar: I don't talk politics or religion.

But in closed Facebook pages, I let her rip.

I don't respond to posts that show up on my page that are either political or religious unless I'm making a joke about it or, on the rarest of occasions, I have to respond in a serious manner.

No Facebook, no Twitter, no LinkedIn, nothing. I just won't do it.
This forum is as close as I get to social media. I do check out TTAG once in a while but these 2 are it.
To me, it's garbage.

You could give it up for Lent (ie the 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter). I know several people who do that annually since they have medical reasons they cannot fast.

I have it because my ten year old doesn't have cell service. He's always on wifi so I gave him an old cell phone and we can text and talk through basebook (RvB fans will get that reference) messenger. He can still call 9-1-1 if needed. He doesn't do anything on fb. So it's goid enough for now.

quote:

Originally posted by joatmonv:
No Facebook, no Twitter, no LinkedIn, nothing. I just won't do it. This forum is as close as I get to social media.

Yup. What he said.

You and me both. What a lot of people here don't realize is that facebook used to be exclusive to colleges and I joined when it was still invitation only. I agree completely and have unfollowed at least 25 people. I've stopped political posts and hide whatever comes in that is annoying. I've done the cold turkey a few times but it's really useful when planning events and getting reminders for events.

Immediately after deactivating facebook, I noticed what a toxic and useless distraction it was. I've been without it for years now and have been happier because of it.

I gave it up and have been very happy. I deactivated my account. But I can always turn it on again if I hear (through my wife) that someone in our network is in trouble and needs help.

The politics just got too crazy. I thought the election was bad. Trump winning made it exponentially worse.

Gave up on the MSM and spend my time reading history books and biographies from the Library free on my Kindle. I'm much better off.

If anything urgent happens in the world, I'll hear about it when I check Sig Forum.

ETA: A bonus is the fact that I'm not letting them data mine my valuable "clicks and data" to feed the Zuckerburg empire. The monetization that company has achieved is staggering.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by joatmonv:
No Facebook, no Twitter, no LinkedIn, nothing. I just won't do it. This forum is as close as I get to social media.

Yup. What he said.

What they said

A friend of mine, for 50+ years, blocked me from FB, shut down all the Words With Friends games we were playing, and probably blocked my phone number too, when I assured him I didn't vote for Hillary and the policies of insanity. He was a journalist, worked for the Boston Globe among other rags, so I knew where he stood. I just didn't care, I thought friends were friends. But what he did really awoke me like no other fact as to just how insane these people are.
Three women, all old friends from high school, were bitter about Clinton's defeat, so each of them posted 10 or 15 diatribes per day about how the world is going to end now. I didn't block them, like he did me, I just "unfollowed" them, which allows me to avoid their daily crap. I can electively check out their thoughts if I wish. Once in a while I do, but they're still three bitter old hags.
On a positive note, I joined a Gary Larson page, and the members post Far Side cartoons on a daily basis. Much better.

I use the Book of Faces for (1) keeping in touch with distant .mil friends that I would otherwise be out of touch with and (2) for fighting the Leftists on their own turf.

Like it or not, it's a battleground of ideology and some of Trumps success is do to what goes on there. And I speak from experience and firsthand knowledge that at least a handful of his votes in FL were due to information passed by me and my family.

People who were afraid of telling coworkers they weren't a hard Left liberal after reading stuff posted and having online discussions. They voted Trump.

Certainly, set boundaries with its use and don't let it consume your life, but I see it as a necessary way to get the word out.

In a battle, you never give ground unless it gives you an advantage, and here it gains nothing, IMO.

quote:

Originally posted by FrankMoses:
On a positive note, I joined a Gary Larson page, and the members post Far Side cartoons on a daily basis. Much better.

I'll have to check that out. I also follow a lot of space exploration pages / NASA stuff, along with dogs and funny animal memes.

Keeps it tolerable when it's full of leftist shit.

The only social media I participate in is the original one - Amateur Radio. I did facebook years ago for about 6 months and then they cancelled me. Cool! Facebook was boring compared to talking to other amateurs in cool places like; Falkland Islands, Japan, Isle of Man, South Africa, Indonesia and so on.

Ween yourself off. People need downtime. We were not meant to be connected 7x24. I saw enough burn out in IT over the past 35 years.

Of course don't wean yourself off of this site - sorta social media, mostly educational.

quote:

Originally posted by 45 Cal:

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by joatmonv:
No Facebook, no Twitter, no LinkedIn, nothing. I just won't do it. This forum is as close as I get to social media.

Yup. What he said.

What they said

^^This

I kind of have to use it. I run community sized events for kids in our school district, and it is the easiest way to pass along information.

But I have to belong to specific groups to do that, and you have to belong to a group to pass along or even get the information.

Other than that, I go through my friends list, and delete people if they get annoying. I only have ~100 friends, so I'm not popular by choice.

But I do use it a lot for the specific groups.

Bloom County. It's on FB. And as funny as ever.

Don't give up on social media because it has gone political. The real world is just as bad.

I spend most all day at work on a computer already, plus have a PC game at home that I can waste plenty of time on actually having fun. Never felt the least desire to do facebook because it always sounded like it would be more work than fun.

Being on Facebook is like sitting at the cool table
in the cafeteria of a mental institution.