(Rant) ...What exactly IS "social media"?

Yes - to all you have written.

It won't go back to how it was before...and I contend that the current pitfalls were wholly foreseeable from the very outset.  Inevitably, if you have a "free" service to consume, then you will eventually be force-fed whatever the "benevolent" [ha, ha, ha] provider wishes to serve up.  The only way to avoid this is NOT to become reliant or dependent on such any such "free" platform or service.

Incidentally some people have experimented with funding websites using bitcoin. Not that it expects you to pay in bitcoin. But while you’re browsing the site it hijacks the processing power of your computer and uses it to mine bitcoin. I think that’s a pretty fair exchange.

I mean ads pay for the site so that’s just the cross you have to bear but there’s no need for the ads to masqueraders content. That’s what really annoys me it’s one thing to have it floating in my peripheral vision it’s another thing for me to have to scroll past it wondering why it is that this looks like a post that I should be interested in and when I read it it’s just an ad.

I agree with you about the algorithms Peter, and also about the likes of Facebook taking the social out of social media. For years it had been my social media platform of choice, but I rapidly went off it when I found myself having to scroll past endless sponsored ads on my newsfeed, in order to see content from friends, or from Pages and Groups.

The problem as such is really the algorithm. Once upon a time social media sites like Facebook would just show you everything all your friends were doing in chronological order from recent to past.

now these websites try to be clever they try to decide what order to show you things in or whether to show you things you’ve asked to see at all. At the same time they’re showing you lots of things they think you might like to see but you haven’t asked to see. Things that don’t have anything to do with your friends.

They took the social out of social media. Facebook is more like a newspaper feeding you articles but they think you like or that your friends have liked. YouTube has become like a TV channel pushing you the content it thinks you should watch.

social media was pretty great in the 00s back when it was still social. And all it would take to make it great again would be to turn off the algorithm. Just blindly serve people the content they have subscribed to.

Social media often gets people hyped up and angry. Then it becomes virtual fish snd chip wrappers only to be replaced with something else the day after.

The amount of words and information online in general generates more thinking and processing for the brain. I can just about manage on here at the best of times.

P.S. i echo Number's sentiments above.  its nice to have you back.

With any social media platform, there will always be members that may say things we consider unkind, upsetting, abusive, etc. I feel the only way of successfully avoiding that is by restricting who can view your content and engage with you (i.e. family and existing friends only). However, the drawback with that is that it removes the opportunity for you to try to establish friendships with other members.

Thanks, mate. Good to see you. 

Ah.....so nice to see more "believers" appearing.  Social media is not good.  Being able to communicate with loads of people is good.....but social media (the way it is structured and predicated and organised) is bad, bad, bad.

Just my opinion...as always.

Lovely to have you back mate.

With warmth

Number.

And...sorry to pardon...but your avatar there has upsetted me. Today is really angering me with such "normal" things that not many get bothered by. It's just the "bow" objects that always annoys me, that's all.

Yes, Reddit as well I tried, but failed, and it's full of insults already. I tried making a thread *here* on NAS but it's so short-lived, as not many here know about my thing.

The idea of social media is not bad as such IMHO. However as with everything else, people bring out the best and the worst in it.

I like certain things and advantages it offers. You can meet people and stay in touch with anyone, like sites like this, we can connect and enjoy the experience. It also offers a possibility of spreading awareness on any topic or issue. You can also learn a lot from random people and just hear interesting stories and experiences.

But there's the bad, darker side to it. It's a breeding ground for weirdos, people can stalk online, harass, bully...

Social media is a solid idea but like a lot of things it's misused and it isn't policed like it should be.

I've always said, in my bleedin' obvious way, that social media is neither bad or good; only what you make it. However, having looked at Twitter lately (for news headlines), I realise that I'm a twit and that social media is dreadful. Twitter is especially unbearable now: not only because Musk is...well, Musk...but also because of the relentless ads, the betting tweets, people selling laptops for 1p who hijack every trending topic, and gonks who believe that the establishment are somehow the Christ-like victims of the establishment.  #pleaseshootme

If you're after a specific group of people who think of it the way you do have you tried a site like Reddit? I read you've tried Discord already, I never got on with Discord either.

Have you thought of making a thread here to talk about the things you want to? You might find other like minded people who will enjoy talking about the same thing.

imdonenow said:

even a few bad people there just stupidly said at me with swearing, "please shut up", when I wasn't even rambling on to begin with, nor said something weird but perfectly normal as I always try to do. I felt so horrible when I got told off

Have you tried analysing what you are saying when you get the rejections? Not just the post immediately  before but maybe the half dozen leading up to it.

You have said yourself that you find this pattern follows you, so I put it to you that you are creating the pattern, whether subconciously or not, and if you can identify it then you have a chance to modify your behaviour to be a better social fit and have more a chance to earn friends.

I know some people here will tell you to be your authentic self and when you find friends who can accept you for that then it wil all be fine, but you are not finding this to be the case.

It probably means you need to mask to a degree to be acceptable to others - to stop annoying them to the point when you get kicked off the dicussions or site.

This part hurts becuase we cannot be out authentic selves and gain social acceptance which is pretty depressing, but if you crave that social interaction then you need to work out what you are doing wrong.

You may need to get someone you trust to help you with that as it is sometimes difficut to acknowledge our mistakes.

I know you just came to vent but I'm the one being annoying now and suggesting a way to deal with it. No need to follow my advice of course.

Broadly speaking social media is any website / net service where users can create an account, post material to the website / net and follow the material of other accounts. People tend not to think of DeviantArt and YouTube as social media sites since people primarily use them to show of creative work not share details of their lives but in principal these websites have all the elements needed to be considered social media ... so does this forum to be honest. Anything where users post content and others can follow it.

Yeah... Work first, suffer hardships and all that...until it backfires with some people. So natural and accidental. I don't really know much to suggest myself.

...That's what I tried, actually, but no luck.

Sporadic Sparkly said:

Have you considered trying Discord? Whilst I have no personal experience of what it is like, it is possible that there may be members there that share the same interests as you and are happy to engage in lengthy conversations about those interests.

Yes I have tried Discord long ago too, from 2020, and though I still use it, it's only with a couple of my family members and one particular friend - VedranR. The rest of Discord... I did try some game-related servers but soon I got flipped, and even a few bad people there just stupidly said at me with swearing, "please shut up", when I wasn't even rambling on to begin with, nor said something weird but perfectly normal as I always try to do. I felt so horrible when I got told off.

Discord is a good suggestion, there will almost certainly be a server there (or several) for people who are interested in Pokemon like AF is.