Anyone else lost with social media?

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FaceBook is great if you don't want a mobile phone account, I just use my mobile around free WiFi and communicate with friends and family that way. I think this is why mobile companies tend to offer unlimited texts these days as they know hardly anyone send a text anymore and just private message on FB.
 
Soldato
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I was an early adopter of Facebook and twitter but I have really only ever use them now for looking up information and following groups and news outlets. I have little interest in following individuals anymore.

I find it fascinating that these services have merged and are now deep rooted into the fabric of peoples lives. I'm not sure we can understand the social effects yet, as we are just too close to the situation at the moment. But in a few years I think we will probably look back on it like some kind of bizarre mass hysteria.

The potential for collaboration and greatness is sitting there in these services but at the moment they are mainly either a narcissistic outlet or a marketing tool. I think they have the potential to trap a generation in self indulgent nonsense and hold our society back to be honest.
 
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I only use 'social media' for news on subjects that I have an interest in and on various sport updates. I keep in touch with family and friends using email and the phone.
 
Soldato
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Do you remember the late 90s or early 2000s? Anyone who was in the online environment used mIRC, yahoo/msn messengers and other similar tools because it allowed them to connect to other people.

It's the same nowadays except the main tools for connections come from the social media and there are billions of people connected. Such a huge number of users have a variety of needs and that leads to a variety of tools. You don't need an account on all of them, just use what is useful for you, if any.
 
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If it's used right then it's a great tool. I volunteer for a dog rescue charity & we rehome pretty much all of our dogs via facebook. we've also managed to reunite stray/lost dogs we found with their owners witihin a matter of hours.

However I don't have a personal account as it seems to me that people's personal account are just an exercise in narcissism
 
Soldato
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I understand social media can connect people from all round the world, and I still see no interest in them. I have accounts for some (Insta, Twitter), but I only use this to follow specific people I like, which happens to be not many. I never post anything though and haven't any interest in doing so.

I've tried FB but ultimately closed it as I've neber liked it.
 
Soldato
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People not understanding or deriding "Social media' using an internet Forum to do so. So there is that...

Internet forums have been around since long before "social media" became a "thing" ;)

I was also going to point out that forums don't consist purely of posts which are essentially:

"OMG LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT HOW AWESOME/RICH/SEXY/INTELLIGENT I AM AND HOW MY LIFE IS BETTER THAN YOURS!".

Then I looked at some of the posts on GD and decided that might not be entirely true :p
 
Man of Honour
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They are tools. Like anything else use them how suits you. Not what other people do.
Don't accept idiots and you wont get stupid boring posts.

Plenty of companies, research institutions and other interesting news sources of what ever floats your boat post direct to such social media places. Far better direct from the mouth. Than it being garbaged and exaggerated by traditional media.
 
Soldato
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I tend to trawl through facebook daily, but rarely post anything on there.

I have a twitter account which comes very handy when there are issues with trains - FGW's twitter team are normally pretty good at getting back to you on queries.

Also have linked in from a professional perspective. But again, rarely post anything on there.
 
Soldato
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I was "into" social media when it first started for a little while but quickly realised it was pointless for 99% of my friends and to be brutally honest if I didn't keep in contact with school or college friends there was probably a reason - so why the hell would I want to chat to them now? I still use Facebook but only to share photos and the odd message with relatives abroad or keep in contact with my one mate who racks up a silly amount of air miles for his job (around 2,000,000 air miles at the moment apparently). For anyone living closer and in the same time zone picking up the phone is so much faster.

My brother on the other hand pretty much lives on facebook. He always loved attention though!

Oddly enough at work I tend to be involved in building a case against employees who mis-use social media, taking screenshots, building time lines etc. Just a few words on social media when you've got it linked in some way to your employment can land you in a world of trouble, just don't see the point in it.
 
Soldato
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I think you need to be quite narcissistic for them to make sense.

This, precisely.

I use Facebook only for the local selling pages but it astounds me the sheer level of narcissism some people demonstrate.

Facebook is just a bunch of people trying to demonstrate their lives aren't as boring as they actually are by taking photographs of every mundane event in their empty existence.

Twitter has a bit more use for me as I follow people/companies that interest me and although I rarely post anything myself, there is a clear use for information there. Still plenty of self indulgent wieners out there.
 
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Out of the 3 big ones (Twitter, Instagram & Facebook), I use Instagram the most, Twitter second (not a lot) and FB barely ever.

I really enjoy photography, so the visual aspect of IG is what draws me to it. I also use it to try and connect with people with like-minded interests (in particular one fairly obscure band who are my favourite of all time). I've met a few cool people through it.

Of course communities like Flickr or 500px would give me a higher quality photography to look through, but the sheer number of users on IG and whole social aspect just makes the chance of finding like-minded people higher.

I don't really use Twitter all that much. Frankly I'm not a fan of the whole short character limit thing at all. It just feels so snarky, like "how can I write the most sarcastic/"clever"/(not)quippy thing in the least amount of words?".

I've just never really bothered with FB much. Louis CK described it as "having another job/micromanaging" or something to that effect, and that's how I feel about it too. It's like, people will spend hours after an event uploading photos, tagging people, writing descriptions, and I just feel like "why not use that time to do something more interesting?".
 
Soldato
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I have facebook and find it useful i.e relatives abroad putting up pics etc but its very easy to live a fake life on it though. Whenever I see my close friends facebook profiles it seems like they live an awesome life full of interesting thing they are doing but in reality they are just normal like everyone else

Twitter is one thing I dont get. Tried it for a while. Almost impossible to say anything with so few characters. Dont see the appeal
 
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Can't stand all this carp, even the term "social media" winds me up. I don't use FB, instagram or any of that since I see no reason to share all of my private life with these companies. If I want to keep in touch with friends I send them a text or give them a call. Society is obsessed with FB and twitter now, everything you see on TV or hear on the radio is trying to get you to tweet something or follow something.

Obviously I'm in the minority though, seems the younger generation share everything about their lives by default. I'm 31 and work in IT, but still don't feel the urge to publicise everything I do. The closest I get to social media is posting on forums.
 
Soldato
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Thanks for replies guys, good to know i'm not alone with my views :)

Do you remember the late 90s or early 2000s? Anyone who was in the online environment used mIRC, yahoo/msn messengers and other similar tools because it allowed them to connect to other people.

I don't think it is the same. I was into all of the mentioned back in the day but it's different now. Back then you could easily turn off/on, the tools were there if you needed them.
Now the social platform seems to be so ingrained it's become a way of life for the majority of people. To not use them and keep up with the crowd is seen as odd.
 
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