It's not necessarily age but wisdom. A lot of us are realizing that social media is... well, a scam. I still use it. My job requires it, and I can occasionally connect or support people I truly cherish. But a lot of us are aware that, as much as we think we can tweak the algorithm, it's not that easy. If you can (if your job allows it), leave. I did so for a couple of months during my no-smartphone experiment, and I swear it opened 30% of brain capacity I didn't even know I had.
30% more brain capacity isn't bad at all. And you're right - all things that are deliberately marketed as something else than they really are, are scams.
Besides being a brain draining scam, social media is also a time robber. Like TV - or newspapers, when they still existed (I know they do in some parts of the world, but here; almost not).
No matter the scammy and time robbing and brain draining nature of such things, they are – have become – the replacement for most of our social life. Doing completely without this, means being away from what looks like society.
I like being alone, concentrated, thinking my own thoughts. But I like that even more if it is possible to talk to other people about it. Like we are doing now. Without this, life becomes dull.
Oh, I enjoy talking to you and a select few, but, as you mentioned, we see less and less "content" from these people.
Even newspapers or TV weren't as bad, weren't it? At least in my house we used them as family activities. My mom and I read the newspaper together, and it was a bonding time I will always cherish. We made fun of silly grammar errors or commented on the events, depending on my age. Even for people who read the newspaper by themselves it required thinking skills that are not really necessary for scrolling on social media. My parents only allowed one TV, and it was in the family room, so I guess that would have taught me some negotiating skills if I hadn't been such a pushover. My parents also didn't allow cable until we were in high school, so the TV was never that enticing for me...
You grew up in a mostly healthy environment, it seems - considering the personal development and social activities, I mean. We had only one TV, as it was common then. It was huge and expensive, with tubes inside, producing heat like an oven, and it went on fire a couple of times; then repaired and used a while until the next fire...
Also, when I was very young, we had one TV channel plus three from the neighboring country. Our local channel sent from 6 in the afternoon and about 3.5–4 hours, until it was over for that day.
This scheme naturally led us to do other things than watching TV all the time, such a playing board games, reading books, knitting or simply talking to each other. Cable TV didn't exist in our country, but it would have been forbidden to use it if it had – until one day, a rebel parliament member decided to, against the law, put up a parabolic antenna at home and start watching satellite TV. That spawned a debate which, eventually, led to permitting such things.
About newspapers: What I mostly liked about them was that it was possible to spend some time with them. They had various sections, some interesting articles about topics I wouldn't have looked for on Google, had that existed, but the sudden inspiration helped introduce new thoughts and understandings.
Newspapers were also much cheaper in those days – now they cost a small fortune, and there are not many left. In a way, the current situation should be better, with many online newspapers and other news sources, but the style has changed into one that shows preference for news that have good pictures and videos. This effectively means that a lot of news, no matter which country you are in, are from the USA, because the USA has so many news channels filming everything non-stop.
It leads to a news-bias, making most people believe in a world that has a construction like it is told by American news. As people in the USA by large have no interest in most of the world, and in particular with such as our local elections, etc., we see the US elections spoken about to a much more comprehensive extent than our own.
Same concept for many other topics. It is not strange that some people consider themselves to be under control by the USA, which to some is a good thing, to others a bad thing.
I am not a spokesman for strictly nationalist and local news, as this is just as skewed as the USA-based news. But it is difficult to find a good balance. Social media actually just make the balance worse, as, again, these are controlled by USA-based companies and prioritise topics and constructions that are popular with readers in the USA, while expecting that all the rest of us just follow two steps after without interfering too much.
Okay, this all is put a bit on the edge, but the news, including social media, don't match the focused intensity and direct relevance that the local coverage had in the old days.
TV has even been hi-jacked now. I don't know how wide-spread this is, but my Samsung TV suddenly one day began showing a commercial, a small one, in one end of the menu line on the screen. Later, suddenly a large amount of channels appeared, first under the name Pluto, I think, later also under the name Samsung TV.
So, next to the cable channels that I have sort of chosen myself (as a package offered by the company chosen by the company that owns the building) I now have many more channels full of old TV series that are running over and over again.
Could I expect that the TV will then, as a later step, remove the self-chosen channels and be completely controlled by Samsung? Maybe even in such a way that Samsung decides when it should switch on and what it should show? Who knows, but I am close to throwing the thing in the garbage and just not have a TV at all.
I could trust them to behave like that, considering that they did equip their TVs with a camera during a period, and that they did switch this on and record people's living rooms without permission. A great mystery, I think, that this didn't get severe consequences for them when it was discovered.
We do not own our own lives when we engage with anything online. The providers own us.
A healthy life where we can feel that we have some control requires limiting the utilisation of anything online. But then again, as I mentioned, when we have ruined all the old ways of being connected, burned all the bridges to the past, it takes a high toll to skip the online stuff, because then there is no connection with other people left.
Your TV is possessed by a poltergeist and should be disposed of accordingly. 😜
In all seriousness, that's scary! I get ads, but the normal ones that come with streaming.
And yes, thank God I had a very childish childhood. My parents prioritized us going out and playing or reading, drawing, etc.
I had already noticed the US phenomenon, but I thought that was just me because I listen to a lot of content in English. I swear I know more about the US justice system than the one in my own country. It gives us quite a skewed perspective. But we are trapped in this mess, so I'll take the gratitude of getting to know people like you, whom I wouldn't have met otherwise.
And I will start an exorcism session ASAP on the TV. Only, i think that requires some special training, and to be a believer of those things, which are not really to be found on my CV.
I am just sad, to be honest, that we live in a society where such things can happen without anybody reacting on it. We are, indeed, owned by the industrialists. But the plus side of it is that it makes some of us think – and change our lives to get rid of this control. We become freedom-seeking and open our eyes more than we would have under more reasonable circumstances.
It's not necessarily age but wisdom. A lot of us are realizing that social media is... well, a scam. I still use it. My job requires it, and I can occasionally connect or support people I truly cherish. But a lot of us are aware that, as much as we think we can tweak the algorithm, it's not that easy. If you can (if your job allows it), leave. I did so for a couple of months during my no-smartphone experiment, and I swear it opened 30% of brain capacity I didn't even know I had.
Thanks - I prefer to be wise :)
30% more brain capacity isn't bad at all. And you're right - all things that are deliberately marketed as something else than they really are, are scams.
Besides being a brain draining scam, social media is also a time robber. Like TV - or newspapers, when they still existed (I know they do in some parts of the world, but here; almost not).
No matter the scammy and time robbing and brain draining nature of such things, they are – have become – the replacement for most of our social life. Doing completely without this, means being away from what looks like society.
I like being alone, concentrated, thinking my own thoughts. But I like that even more if it is possible to talk to other people about it. Like we are doing now. Without this, life becomes dull.
Oh, I enjoy talking to you and a select few, but, as you mentioned, we see less and less "content" from these people.
Even newspapers or TV weren't as bad, weren't it? At least in my house we used them as family activities. My mom and I read the newspaper together, and it was a bonding time I will always cherish. We made fun of silly grammar errors or commented on the events, depending on my age. Even for people who read the newspaper by themselves it required thinking skills that are not really necessary for scrolling on social media. My parents only allowed one TV, and it was in the family room, so I guess that would have taught me some negotiating skills if I hadn't been such a pushover. My parents also didn't allow cable until we were in high school, so the TV was never that enticing for me...
You grew up in a mostly healthy environment, it seems - considering the personal development and social activities, I mean. We had only one TV, as it was common then. It was huge and expensive, with tubes inside, producing heat like an oven, and it went on fire a couple of times; then repaired and used a while until the next fire...
Also, when I was very young, we had one TV channel plus three from the neighboring country. Our local channel sent from 6 in the afternoon and about 3.5–4 hours, until it was over for that day.
This scheme naturally led us to do other things than watching TV all the time, such a playing board games, reading books, knitting or simply talking to each other. Cable TV didn't exist in our country, but it would have been forbidden to use it if it had – until one day, a rebel parliament member decided to, against the law, put up a parabolic antenna at home and start watching satellite TV. That spawned a debate which, eventually, led to permitting such things.
About newspapers: What I mostly liked about them was that it was possible to spend some time with them. They had various sections, some interesting articles about topics I wouldn't have looked for on Google, had that existed, but the sudden inspiration helped introduce new thoughts and understandings.
Newspapers were also much cheaper in those days – now they cost a small fortune, and there are not many left. In a way, the current situation should be better, with many online newspapers and other news sources, but the style has changed into one that shows preference for news that have good pictures and videos. This effectively means that a lot of news, no matter which country you are in, are from the USA, because the USA has so many news channels filming everything non-stop.
It leads to a news-bias, making most people believe in a world that has a construction like it is told by American news. As people in the USA by large have no interest in most of the world, and in particular with such as our local elections, etc., we see the US elections spoken about to a much more comprehensive extent than our own.
Same concept for many other topics. It is not strange that some people consider themselves to be under control by the USA, which to some is a good thing, to others a bad thing.
I am not a spokesman for strictly nationalist and local news, as this is just as skewed as the USA-based news. But it is difficult to find a good balance. Social media actually just make the balance worse, as, again, these are controlled by USA-based companies and prioritise topics and constructions that are popular with readers in the USA, while expecting that all the rest of us just follow two steps after without interfering too much.
Okay, this all is put a bit on the edge, but the news, including social media, don't match the focused intensity and direct relevance that the local coverage had in the old days.
TV has even been hi-jacked now. I don't know how wide-spread this is, but my Samsung TV suddenly one day began showing a commercial, a small one, in one end of the menu line on the screen. Later, suddenly a large amount of channels appeared, first under the name Pluto, I think, later also under the name Samsung TV.
So, next to the cable channels that I have sort of chosen myself (as a package offered by the company chosen by the company that owns the building) I now have many more channels full of old TV series that are running over and over again.
Could I expect that the TV will then, as a later step, remove the self-chosen channels and be completely controlled by Samsung? Maybe even in such a way that Samsung decides when it should switch on and what it should show? Who knows, but I am close to throwing the thing in the garbage and just not have a TV at all.
I could trust them to behave like that, considering that they did equip their TVs with a camera during a period, and that they did switch this on and record people's living rooms without permission. A great mystery, I think, that this didn't get severe consequences for them when it was discovered.
We do not own our own lives when we engage with anything online. The providers own us.
A healthy life where we can feel that we have some control requires limiting the utilisation of anything online. But then again, as I mentioned, when we have ruined all the old ways of being connected, burned all the bridges to the past, it takes a high toll to skip the online stuff, because then there is no connection with other people left.
Your TV is possessed by a poltergeist and should be disposed of accordingly. 😜
In all seriousness, that's scary! I get ads, but the normal ones that come with streaming.
And yes, thank God I had a very childish childhood. My parents prioritized us going out and playing or reading, drawing, etc.
I had already noticed the US phenomenon, but I thought that was just me because I listen to a lot of content in English. I swear I know more about the US justice system than the one in my own country. It gives us quite a skewed perspective. But we are trapped in this mess, so I'll take the gratitude of getting to know people like you, whom I wouldn't have met otherwise.
Thanks, likewise!
And I will start an exorcism session ASAP on the TV. Only, i think that requires some special training, and to be a believer of those things, which are not really to be found on my CV.
I am just sad, to be honest, that we live in a society where such things can happen without anybody reacting on it. We are, indeed, owned by the industrialists. But the plus side of it is that it makes some of us think – and change our lives to get rid of this control. We become freedom-seeking and open our eyes more than we would have under more reasonable circumstances.
Every mishap leads to improvements, somehow.