Social Media

>>18011439
It's unhealthy if you spend a sizeable portion of your day flicking your finger up and down while breathing through your mouth
It's also unhealthy if you're posting things that have no substance ('I love cats so much', 'This is so fucking stupid', 'Just 2 more days until vaca!')
Most of facebook and twitter these days are memes and George Lopez paying someone to post hispanic clickbait anyways

>>18011445
Since the election, my facebook has been the same 150 people posting these manic statuses and clickbait about Trump. They post about Trump like 5-15 times per day, not joking.

Whether you support him or not, the shit has gotten weird. I'm in Chicago, and these people are seriously starting to act like they have mental illness.

The rest of my friends list just share stupid shit or virtue signal in other ways.

It's gotten ridiculous. I deactivated my account, but I'm not sure if it's better or worse to be active on social media still.

>>18011452
I deleted the app on my phone months ago and I stopped posting a year and a half ago. I unfriended a lot of people during the election so now my feed is just two guys who share libertarian memes. I read Google News instead to get my information fix

I use social media to boost my self-esteem and validate myself.

Just like everyone else.

>>18011452
>Whether you support him or not, the shit has gotten weird.
This

It's so fucking bizarre. I don;t know what is happening to society

He's our president now. Sit the fuck down and shut up. This isn't normal.

Something not right is happening to western society.

>>18011439

its as unhealthy as junk food. not something worth keeping out of your life, but not something you should over indulge with.

>>18011462
It's that baby boomers have finally figured out the comment sections on news articles and the way the speak and write is like, uncool man. You ever cringe when you hear your parents speak? In 2017, most of the people writing their opinions on the internet are your parents now

>>18011462
I personally love the guy and supported him from day one. I understand if people hate him for whatever reason though, no problem.

But holy shit, I'll log on in the morning and it's like 30 posts in a row of people saying stuff like "TRUMP SUPPORTERS NEED TO FUCKING DIE THIS ISN'T FUNNY ANYMORE BLM NOW" and "FASCIST STATE ARE YOU OK WITH THIS??".

Okay, I get it. You don't like him or his policies. But this shit has been going on since July 2015. We're not far away from the two year mark of people posting about Donald J. Trump every single day.

I can't believe that doesn't seem bizarre to people. Two fucking years. Every single day. 5-15 posts per day.

That's not just chiming in on a trending topic, that's a fucking obsession.

I think we're in a cultural civil war, and I'm sick of hearing about it on social media.

>>18011439
Social media is dumb and I don't use it.

>>18011496
Not to sound like a cum drinking weeb sheep but Bo Burnham said something thought provoking in his last special, about how social media has made everything think that they're some sort of performer and they're privileged to an audience. There are two kinds of people on social media:
>the kind that says to themself, "who the fuck cares about my opinion" before posting
>the kind who doesn't

>>18011462
>>18011496
isn't this why you guys voted for him? to get all the liberal tears? Now you are complaining about it? Pretty retarded imo.

>Staying in touch with people you would otherwise never talk to doesn't make any sense and seems unnatural.

Phoning someone who doesn't live at my house to speak to them seems pretty unnatural too.

Writing a letter to someone who I haven't seen in a while also seems unnatural.

Reading information about groups of people that I have never met and arguably have no influence on my life is also pretty unnatural.

You're kind of arguing about the function of language here; even in days gone by the tradition of oral storytelling was a way to remember and repeat particular stories. Only then, each group of people had a few stories that would be told through ages.

All that's happened now is that it's sped up phenomenally. It's good and healthy to stay rooted and in touch with those that you know; those who are important. But social media does tend to distort this; mostly I think because it puts everyone on the same level. My parents would never walk around thinking "I have 565 friends", but for some reason it pops in to my mind every now and then.

It's probably fine but is designed to be addictive. Use it as little as possible and care as little as possible about it.

>>18011514
I just want the goddamn protests to stop
I live in the northeast so none of them have affected me, but knowing that people have been late to work because of it boils my blood

>>18011514
Dude yeah exactly.

I wanted to see them cry. But now I want them to stop crying, accept it, learn their lesson, and move on.

Instead they're just ramping up to start LARPing for a civil war or some shit.

>>18011513
It's interesting, sometimes I'll listen to people I can't stand, but end up getting a good nugget of truth instead.

That's true though, social media has been a platform for people with a lack of self-awareness from the beginning. Seems like it's getting worse though.

>>18011522
Letter writing and phoning are very personal forms of communication.

passively having somebody on your Facebook isn't. You're still seeing their personal posts from vacations/weddings ect. ect., but you have no intimate connection with them as if you were talking to them on the phone.

You're right, social media is just another advancement from the letter or the telephone, but it has a different nature.

>>18011524
>>18011532
what did you expect? Trump alienated a lot of people. He wasn't a politically correct candidate by any means. A lot of people don't believe in him. Everyone calls him a racist and the travel ban he recently put forward isn't exactly helping him. Civil war LARP will happen and you are going to be the one to have to accept it and move on. Not to be edgy but I'll enjoy the ensuing chaos :)

>>18011580
Protests are an economically and efficiently poor way to push legislature

>>18011580
Well I'm not totally upset about a cultural civil war. If the left erupt into violence, then that means it was only bound to happen at some point. They couldn't continue to get away with their authoritarian bully ideology forever.

If they decide to escalate further, I'll enjoy watching them destroy their own ideology forever. I'd rather they just intellectually realize they lost and reform their party next time around though.

>>18011586
do you think protesters think of these things before they go out?

>>18011592
in their own minds they will probably just strengthen their own ideology and feel more empowered by having a "BIG BAD GUY" to go against

but you guys don't seriously see how notions which are rather extreme (like banning abortions) are going to rile people up? Imagine all the pro choice feminists and stuff marching the streets. I mean it's a pretty predictable outcome. Shit hasn't even begun

>>18011603
Well yeah, since 2008 executive orders have been near omnipetent (not really), it's only fair that they can be abused for conservatism this time around. Sucks to suck, maybe the president shouldn't have all this power after all

>>18011603
>abortion

Yeah I see that. I mean, it's been shifting back and forth between legal and illegal ever since roe v. wade back in 1973 when it was first legalized.

I personally don't give a fuck about abortions. The problem is that people think they are entitled to casual sex. Hollywood has convinced them that casual sex is a totally normal thing and if you get pregnant from doing the action where the sole purpose is to make a baby, you can just kill the thing. The real solution to the abortion issue is to stop pretending sex isn't specifically for reproducing.

I get it though, they want to fuck, and they want to be able to kill the thing if they get pregnant. I'd say they should just get over it and wait for a democrat to legalize abortion again. Pro-life people have been silently waiting for a republican to ban abortions, the democrats should follow example.

It's really a non-issue in comparison to economics, trade, and immigration though.


Going beyond that, I do think that we will reach a point where republicans and democrats won't want to live in the same country any longer. Our ideals and morals are becoming so completely opposite from each other, it is becoming impossible to tolerate politics.

It's going to turn into a waiting game where the republicans wait for their party to get in office, then the democrats wait for their party to get in office.

What's the point of that?

I use it mostly as a very convenient way of communication, mostly with my close friends but sometimes with my family or people I move appart from but will want to catch up with from time to time because I don't know, I'm kind of glad they're still alive

Also if for some reason anyone wants to speak to me they know an "inbox" is a sure way to get to me... but yeah I deleted the app from my phone because I never used it for anything good and it was way too heavy.

Back in college some of my girl friends used to upload half-naked pictures, I saved them as fap material (and now is kind of a collection) but nowadays nobody does that so whatever.

>>18011630
>pro-life people have been silently waiting
That's where I'll disagree with you
Anyways we /pol/ed this thread up so I'm out

Didn't mean to turn this into a politics thread, I just thought that the Trump posting on social media was definitely worth mentioning, no matter who you voted for.

>>18011641
I wish I could do this but then I end up logging on every hour.

>>18011650
What's wrong with it? I log in about every hour or so while at work to distract myself, I see the same boring shit and go back to working.

If I go into 4chan, 9gag or any other option then I get hooked and lose the track of time... also I won't lie, I do stalk my ex because I accepted I will never get over her and while it no longer stops me from moving on with my life sometimes I feel nostalgic and I'd rather embrace that feeling for however long it lasts than fight it and have it in the back of my mind for days.

Don't let anyone tell you what's right or wrong for yourself.

>>18011663
Yeah all of that is wrong.

I do all of that shit you just typed out. I check my ex's page, I check my other ex's page, check up on people I hate to see if their life is shit yet.

Then I scroll down my news feed, see a few things that kind of annoy me, and log off. Then I think about the annoying stuff I saw and start thinking about how irritaiting the people are who posted that shit.

None of that is normal. Before the internet, people would leave things in the past. You'd forget about your old friends after not seeing them for a while, because that is natural.

Now, I'm seeing old friends I haven't talked to in like 2 years post about their personal life and upload photos all the time. That's just weird.

I want to be able to deactivate my account and be okay with it. But every time i deactivate my account, I wonder if I made a mistake because sometimes I do re-connect with old friends or hook up with women that I knew through facebook.

>>18011439
It's becoming clear that social media are made to be addictive. Stuff like notifications didn't arise by accident. Human beings like attention and a notification is like some form of attention currency so people seek it out. We joke here on 4chan about getting our (you)'s but it's the same - except on 4chan the validation has nothing to do with how you look usually but with what you say. I know I'm hooked, I remember posts I made that got over 20 (you)s whereas it's just a dumb post so why does my brain store this information?

When you get online you have interactions, or you see things that leave little "hooks" in your brain, you commented or posted and you wonder how many people react.

Now, considering this, the moment you are on fb it's like being in a bar and drunk. This is why imo political discussions there get so vile and reeee-tier. Add to that the fact that people don't see you in person so it gets nasty quicker. Most people are also performing on fb and try to be larger than life. Few people talk in depth about what makes life hard on fb for them, or the fact they are not doing ok. If they do they're called attention whores anyway, which just goes to show how little true human connection there is on Facebook and other SM.

Anyhow to continue the bar analogy, fb and others are like alcohol. Highly addictive and they allow you to present a better version of yourself, but with s high cost in time, energy, and actual deep human connection. Having a moderate amount of alcohol doesn't hurt, but a lot will, and it can fuck up your brain.

>>18011739
The problem with social media and drugs is that it never stays in "moderation"

I can't have Facebook and just check in like once every two days. Not possible. I end up logging in like every 30 mins all day. It puts me in a mental loop that goes like

Bored>interested>annoyed>bored>interested>annoyed

It's retarded. But I've gotten laid on Facebook. I've gotten jobs from Facebook. It's a good social tool, but I end up just mindlessly scrolling through there and then getting mad because there's constantly people who I hate (but can't delete for social reasons) popping up.

It actually reminds me of drugs. When you start doing a new drug all the time, and you want to stop, but don't really want to stop, but know that you should stop. It's definitely nasty.

I wish I could deactivate my account and not feel like I'm missing out on potential opportunities

>>18011745
I manage it when my life is engaging enough, like on holidays or when there is something new and exciting happening.

Like drugs you turn to it to alleviate boredom or loneliness.

In social media you interact with people by means of limited expressibility. Humans are not built to deal with words only, in relationships. Things go wrong because of this. So yes. I do think it is unhealthy to do relationships in social media only. If you see someone every day and send some information in text or pic or vid, then your every day relationship will overshadow any perception you give in the social media. If social media is the only exposure, then you become your opinions rather than your feelings, and your relationship will be devoid of empathy.

You get out of Facebook/other social media what you put into it. I post once every couple of days, sometimes it's just about life, sometimes it's politics, sometimes its something funny.

Honestly, I don't have the free time anymore to dedicate to reaching out to family and friends with a call/letter/visit as often as I'd like. If I could do that? Then who needs social media? But let's be honest: One of my best friends lives in the UK. One lives in San Diego. I have family and friends all around the country, and I care to see that they're still alive and kicking.

On a more local level, it helps me organize events, see what might be going out outside of my little sphere of influence (like learning about a new restaurant, or a concert, or a friend's party).

It's a great tool for all of these things. For the life of me, I can't figure out why people are so against it. I don't get jealous or angry when someone posts about something fun that they're doing, I just scroll past.

A study came out today that found social media actually makes you anti-social and jealous of other people.

I deleted facebook years ago. I use instagram to look at guitar pedals, and really nothing else. I posted a video of my dog last year, only social media post for the past few years.


Since getting off facebook and avoiding social media my mental health has improved dramatically. I am much more focused on pursuing my goals, and I feel much more content with my lifestyle.

Social Media is also filled with degeneracy. #fitness girls posting shameless ass photos all day, horrible liberal propaganda, #woke posts about the illuminati etc etc.

You're better off not using social media in my experience. I think Frank Ocean is the singer who said he never uses social media and has zero presence on it because it distracts you from reality. I agree with him.

>>18011439
There's nothing inherently good or bad about anything. Everything can be a good or bad thing, healthy or unhealthy depending on how and how much it is used.

It's not social media that's the problem, it's genetics. Certain people who are prone to addiction and obsession or laziness regardless of what they are participating in and what century they are living in.

Plenty of healthy people use social media and keep some acquaintances on it. Many healthy people don't really use social media at all. Nothing really wrong with maintaining some relationships, regardless if they are close ones or old friends or whatever... unless you let it overtake your life for the worse.

It is an unnatural, very recent method of communication that I feel is more bad than good.

I really can't wait till facebook and twitter become a dead myspace memory. sadly, they will probably be replaced by something even more shitty, like tinder and other apps.

if anything we need to work on basic verbal human communication.

>>18011630
Lolwut? Sex is for procreation only? Hollywood made people think otherwise? M8, you taking the piss?

Sex feels good for a reason. It has proven health benefits that don't extend to procreation.

I'm not a fan of abortion either, but let's not pretend that if it were illegal tomorrow the same cunts standing outside clinics with signs wouldn't be passing legislation to ban prophylactic meds and rubbers too, "cuz mah religion".

Same deal with maintaining gun rights. I fight for my right to own an AR15 not because I need one, but because I like my 1911. I fight for the right to abortion not because I need one, but because while you argue about that no one is sweating me about condoms or my girl about the pill.

Glad I'm not the only one who has noticed that all I see on social media these days (for the past year+ honestly) is political stuff.

I thought I was going crazy, or that I was just getting older and noticing things more. But it feels like such a negative drain on my life to see it everyday. Both sides. It's just hate speech all day everyday.

For the record I voted for trump too and don't feel he was a great pick, but that he would be better than Hillary Clinton and that he didn't want to go to war with Russia. But obviously there's problems with him, like his education pick on DeVos she is obviously clueless. I don't see a problem with his temporary ban on those countries (I don't know why I keep reading my leftist friends calling it a Muslim ban when it's not), I think the wall is kind of stupid and don't really want my tax money going towards it but I do believe in strengthened borders.

Feels like I am in a sea of people who are extremists on both sides and no one can be logical or make up their own minds about things. For the record though the left is WAY worse about this than the right though

>>18011439
>>18011439

It is mentally unhealthy to have a social media account if:

- You obsess over it (checking phone every 2 minutes)
- You spend more than an hour a day on it (unless its actually appropriate like talking to family/work/partners/whatnot)
- It bothers you that more people have friends and look like they have cooler lives
- If you get anxiety when people have better things from their posts or whatnot

To me, social media is the same as having tools in my hand.

Its there to help me contact other people and not just to post "How cool I am" or to look down on myself or other people for having better/worse situations/things than me.

Its just a tool for easier communication purposes.

>>18013669
I think the main reason I deactivated it was the political stuff. It has gone way over the edge, and anybody who can't see that Is nuts.

15 articles posted every hour like
>study shows trump supporters have IQ of 45
>Trump's ban is unconstitutional
>10 signs we're in a fascist state
>punch a nazi!! >:)

Or my 2 right-wing friends just keep posting the lowest hanging fruit making fun of SJWs
>professor says transgender women need more love from straight men
>college students have a mass cry in at university

Can't take it anymore. Fucking ridiculous. People need to have some manners and just keep their opinions to themselves sometimes.