Instagram, snapchat, twitter, fb

Yes! Or photos with beaks, rabbit ears pig noses and I dont know what else, some people’s photo gallery is full of those. I used Facebook while I was a student and it was even useful for the purpose of studies - group, sources, projects everything uploaded and shared in one place. But after graduation I happily removed my profile permanently. 

I have very strong views on this given what I’ve seen and experienced, even in my extended family and I firmly believe that no age limit is high nor low enough for these apps and the same applies to Grindr given the Stephen Port gay Grindr murders some years ago - before they passed in the 1980’s in our teens, our grandparents were totally against the internet and mobile phones and it was only long after their passing that their warnings and predictions came to pass and become true - no child under 21 should ever be allowed anywhere near the internet nor mobile phones for any reason because it’s just far too dangerous, even with close parental supervision  

I use FB to keep up to date with my widespread family, and only have friends that I personally know. I post alot on private groups that cover my interests but not on public ones. Post very little about me. Use twitter lots, its my place for political venting that I can do without anybody I know knowing its me. I normally enjoy 1/2 hour on there when I get home. My FB and TW accounts are very, very diffrent.

Twatter.....priceless! Thank you.

Same. I've tried Fecesbook and Twatter. Boring. And full of morons. I'm not on any anti-social platform at all.

I've ever used any of them, they just don't appeal to me, I couldn't be bothered to look at endless pictures of peoples dinners, I mean WTF, my daughter in law does it and it really annoys me, it's not special meals or anything like a wedding cake she's made, but just normal dinner.

I would agree on a higher age limit for social media apps. You can't ban them from the internet completely though.

I'm not sure why Grindr should be banned. I don't use it but it seems to be a controlled enough environment for those who use it, so it doesn't bother me.

Frankly, I think that these social media platforms should be banned, just like gay dating apps like Grindr - during Covid, during my time in support of the Irish truth and patriot movement, we found that so many of these platforms were pumping out lies and falsehoods and they were known for all sorts of bad behaviour long before Covid - I’m also totally against any child under 21 being allowed anywhere near the internet nor mobile phones at all, for any reason, regardless of the circumstances - even the globalist elites don’t allow their under 21’s any access to the internet nor have mobile phones, because they know there is only harmful content on there 

Ditto.  I rarely "need" to actually watch what I am "listening" to because most of it is discussion / lecture / debate format stuff.  The visual speed of changing snippets of video (often pointless and superfluous to the subject matter) just irritates me on most 'normal' Youtube videos.....so I avoid.

Thank you for advice. I often use YouTube for listening, but only late in the evening when everyone sleeps and it’s quiet, I also make pauses to process what I just heard. Subtitles would be good but I actually don’t like screens I get eye ache from them even with low contrast. So your solution seems to be the best. I will try 

Hey there Alienatedhuman........you can watch Youtube videos via duckduckgo and 90% of the ads will not be present.  I watch almost everything (video wise) via Duckduckgo rather than Youtube because I cannot abide the endless ads therein.

In case you don't know, Duckduckgo.com is a search engine like Google - so simply type in the search for the video you want and click on the "videos" filter.  When you find the video you want, a pop-up window will appear saying "Watch here or on Youtube" = you know which option to pick.

I hope this may save you some valuable minutes of your life !

So many little windows with flashing little pictures are awful. And yep, lack of friends in there makes it kinda pointless to me. But I noticed that people mostly use it to show off. I don’t do it and for me it’s boring and vain. Waste of time, when I can dive deep into my world and do something creative or read some book. Once I met a former colleague in the town and she asked me if I’m a victim of domestic violence and if I’m not allowed to have a social media account. I was shocked and laughed. I’m thriving without these things. I enjoy only here and I can say YouTube is also useful for me, although annoying with ads and it’s also kinda too much, but they have some good resources to watch and music to listen. 

Disappointed to feedback: the session with the Library's "Digital Helper" was ... abysmal.  (Really an unexpected outcome).

I will have to approach this quest from a fresh angle (once I have regrouped / recovered from having expended the energy for so very little return on that investment).

I tried Facebook a few years ago and started out with an introduction and saying about my autism and special interests and was completely obliterated by online trolls who made fun, called me names, and one person told me they wished I was dead. So that was that and I've not used Facebook since then and was put off of joining Twitter after that. I don't use Instagram either.

This site is the only form of social media I use now and already it's been a more pleasant experience than Facebook ever was.

Years ago, when LinkedIn was still fairly new, I had an account where I enjoyed keeping in contact with people I had known from work / monitor posts related to the sectors affecting my sector.  Then it was bought by a different company and the terms and conditions started to keep on changing.  This made it hard to keep changing profile preference settings as they updated them - and the quantity of relentless approaches by overseas "spammers and spoofers" made it more of an aggravation than an overall benefit to me.  So, I closed the account and had to spend quite a lot of effort getting the internet search engines to delete behind the trail of my LinkedIn remnants too.

For family reasons (some people lived and worked in challenging personal safety countries) and professional reasons (some of my roles have been in Teams where everyone is extra thoughtful about what they say online to protect e.g. the product / service / information / safety for colleague location & journey): I have always preferred to have as little a "digital footprint" as possible.  Therefore, I have usually chosen not to have a presence on social media at all.

That said, some years later now, still not being on e.g. LinkedIn and Facebook means there are sometimes barriers or reduced options to how I might be able to engage with the wider Autistic community, FaceTime with friends who are stuck at home or hospital during their medical treatment and for me to be able to follow up with professionals and academics I enjoy encountering.

(I do make use of Zoom and MS Teams to attend online training courses / work from home meetings / virtually attend conferences or interviews).

Thinking about how best to (safely) resolve the LinkedIn & Facebook barrier; I have now booked myself on a 1 to 1 training session with the "Digital Helper" service (later this month) run by our County Library Service.  I have pre-described to them: what / why / how I ideally want to use (but not be abused by) the two platforms. 

Unusually, for me, I did also pre-disclose to the Trainer: my personal style of Autism and also briefly signposted - how my communication / processing / interaction / learning style / potential puzzlement by contorted (non-logical) settings options etc. / potential distraction by my sensory surroundings ...might become obvious to the Trainer on the day.  Having taken this into account, the Trainer has set aside a session of 1 hour 10 minutes; for them to assist me in learning how best to set up the two platform accounts. 

(I will update this thread, later in April or May - when I have had a chance to: a) reflect upon the training experience and b) answer my own two part question: "Will I have been able to use the accounts the way I hoped / intended, plus, could I have done anything differently - with the benefit of hindsight / experience?").

ok

Mind if I ask if your group is around a dedicated interest? I'm in one like that, it's a great platform for that kind of tight-knit community with a shared hobby/passion.

Not on any SM, unless a small whatsapp group and a nerdy Discord channel each count. FB gives me the fear, even just thinking about being plugged into the unrelenting busy-ness and ever-expanding 'splurge' of all that is anathema to me. Also, the way it means that everyone you know is in your business and vice versa, forcing mutually unwanted contact in many cases. I suppose I like a quiet, private (and boring!) life. so that's that.

I do get on a lot better with Twitter. I'm not on it but can search or follow a trending topic/developing story in a nice vertically stacked chronology. It seems to have a lot more purpose and intuitive function that way. 

I really love social media, I have accounts everywhere, and I love it because I love watching the number of subscribers on my Instagram account grow. Moreover, I recently bought views and likes from this service -- [removed by mod please do not post sales links] to launch my Instagram account. Apparently, I'm addicted to big numbers in my profile, and maybe it's wrong, but I don't care. I have been running my blog for about 3 months now, and people subscribe to me because they are interested in me. I also follow other artists' lives because they have cool ones. Well, something like that.

I've had a FB account for many years, mainly as a means of keeping in touch with my extended family and friends. However, approximately 6 months ago I started to find it increasingly difficult to relate to these people and the things that were going on in their lives. It was like I just didn't belong there anymore. These days, I now only tend to use it for the desktop Messenger app, as a means of maintaining contact with a close friend.