"Social media is awful and we're all going to die someday (plz like and subscribe)," reads the hilariously ironic video description of this short film depicting what happens when a couple steps away from the din of social networks. Check out what happens when you sign off the computer and step out of the house.
I'll be honest: I really hate having a Facebook profile; alas, I have too many professional connections and work requests that come in through it to justify deleting it. I suspect many of you are in a similar boat as well. You might be annoyed and frustrated by the depressing way social media, at its least damaging, habituates us to constantly check our phones and at its most damaging, teaches us to associate meaningless numerical quantities such as "likes" with our self-worth. Nonetheless, you might maintain a presence, because hey, that's where a lot of the work comes from. If you feel similarly to me, I think it's important to always treat it like a business tool, not allowing it to suck you in beyond simply being like another email address or phone number — a place where people can reach you — and a marketing tool if you so wish it. Beyond that, life happens off the screen.
For all the reasons outlined above, I don't have a smartphone. Instead, I have a decidedly dumb phone for occasional mobile calls - but that's all. My internet use is confined to my computers, desktop or laptop. I do use social media, primarily Facebook, but only reference my homepage from time to time (as in maybe four times a day) and never use the news feed. I feel that's quite enough connection for me and I spend a lot of time away from a screen. I do believe it's better for my mental health to keep away from these addictive tools as much as possible.
What I find most interesting about social media interaction from a place like Colorado. Is you keep hearing people say go outside, go outside and go see things. Than on Outdoor pages and forums all you hear is people bitching that people are going outdoors.
You can do all those things, even more, while you still have social media accounts on your phone. It’s not the phones are to blame is what you can prioritize.
Grow up.
This speech was pretty compelling how all of these companies are competing to "schedule time in our brain" that we may not want to spend on social media. That's how they make money, by making us check social media and making us stay there as long as possible. Once we're there, one of the best ways to keep us there is to make us angry. Makes a lot of sense. I deleted Facebook and while there's a few things I miss, it's mostly been very positive.
https://youtu.be/C74amJRp730
Another useful link:
http://humanetech.com/take-control/
I'm totally sharing this on social media...
I figured this out myself as well a few months ago.
I drastically reduced the time I spend on my phone.
Still, I have social media to share my photographs and to organise meetings and events.
You don't have to delete it, you just need to be discplined. Limit yourself to one post per day maximum.
But the sad thing is, no one of my friends "has time", so I still spend my time alone.
But I spend it way more active. Every day I go swimming, or running or skating or whatever comes to my mind. So yes, social media fucks up our lives
Totally agree, I canceled my FB account, don't use Twitter and only (...) follow IG and that on its own rips quite some time off of me.
I can see my son, who is 17, being on the phone all day long, if we having lunch or dinner I can hear his phone ringing all the time, be whatever it is but not a minute without some activity.
My sis is on FB all the damn time and even when she works, and she works for her own business, if I walk through her the computer browser is on FB and she pretends it's for business and on top of that adds I should have a FB page for my business :-(
My ex partner, we used to meet couple times a week a while ago and in the morning first thing she does is to check FB on the phone and at some time she made a point for me being anti social because I only had kind of 200 contacts in my friends list, that's when I realized the impact "social networks" have on our lives and shortly later I suspended my FB account but, still, like many of you being an amateur photographer I spend time on IG and even tho I use my time, in the off season, to go around taking photos or hiking the purpose is still the same, to show off through IG even tho in my case "only" to publish my photos but, still, be it IG or Flickr or DPReview et similia it's the same damn trap and even walking through the street in a small place such as where I live (less than 15K human beings) many a times one skips to recognize crossing people because be it one or the other or both are bent on the phone chatting, checking, texting...
I just read that next gen iPhones will only carry facial recognition to unlock and that's what I told my son, if back in time they used to mark people with fire and then with ink now we are doing it on our own, we are giving whoever it is all of our informations to build the biggest ever database, I go to the food store and pay with my card and they know what I eat, I place my finger on my smartphone to unlock it and they have my fingertip, I publish my photographs on social networks and they know my gear, I go jogging and they know where I am and my health status, I browse the web and the know which kind of women I like, I listen to music and they know which genre I am into... how hard is it now to have a little bit of privacy? Does getting an old style GSM phone save us from all of this?I would be the first to lie and say that I need a smartphone for my business, it's partially true, it revolutionized the world, I can share my position with my clients to make it easier for them to find me, they can see my face on WhatsApp so they know what I look like, they can contact me last min or when I am off the office in real time and going back will not add anything to my life, I feel sad for the new generations who are slaves of "social networks", I still enjoy reading a book or a magazine, listening to a CD or even to vinyl (just going to put my extraordinary turntable back in working conditions!), going for hike with the phone off but I have never seen my son reading a book, I think he never bought a magazine and he didn't probably even see a turntable till I got a beautiful used one, I can tell he doesn't have proper handling of language (don't get me wrong, he speaks good and fluently but you can tell he, along with his mates, lack in the vocabulary since they don't read anything and school is even worse, (I better don't touch this argument but I recently read that here in Italy the ministry of instruction :-( thought to allow the usage of smartphone in class, can you imagine that?).
We are creating new types of illness, we are giving pharmaceutical companies lot more business than 10 years ago, depression is spreading like never before, people feels more connected but is actually more isolated than ever, the impact of "social"on society is huge, it is an amazing business, it's not just the income for FB or Google or IG or whatever it is but the connected businesses, there will soon be insurance companies promoting insurance policies based on usage of smartphone, if you are a heavy user you'll have to pay more for your car policy since you are more prone to accidents than others...
One last bit or a long rant, this is a very small place where I live, I get out of home and walk two min to be in the center of this beautiful spot my island is, along the road I cross so many surveillance cameras that I feel like not even at home I have privacy, no matter how I can shut the shades or protect my wi-fi etc, can't go and, say, buy cigarettes or to an affair without somebody to know, I might be a little paranoid but I can foresee a close future in which somebody with access to this huge database we are building will know everything about us in real time with facial recognition and we can pass the immigration desk without to even show the passport any longer...
Globalization?! No grazie!!!
You wouldn't give the detail of personal info and updates to a government through a census, so why give to a private company who does not have your best interest in mind, cares nothing about you, save as a source of data, and can build accurate psychological profiles of individuals through the drip drip of accumulated info.
It's very creepy, especially when considering the governments then harvest this info themselves to fill in their own records.
I hear the argument many times, "I have to have Facebook because all my friends use Facebook", but friends remain friends regardless. All you're doing is feeding the data machine and their disturbing terms and conditions which takes ownership of all that is posted, photos included, just makes me panic.
Real life is outside. It's not just a big room with fast frame rates, it's real and full of possibilities.