So I was reading this post on Gemini from someone who deleted all of their social media apps on their phone and they found
themselves staring at their phone at times, as if they wanted to go on social media for their doomscrolling dopamine hits.

I did something very similar on my iPad, which I usually use at night when I get to bed. I only had Discord and a 3rd party Reddit
app on it but I nonetheless experienced the same thing as this person. I found myself staring at my iPad, looking for something,
anything, to get that dopamine hit. It almost felt like withdrawal, which is weird because I never considered myself addicted to
the platforms!

After a while, though, I chose to either just go to sleep, or read a magazine, or play a game instead, and I feel like my mental
health has improved significantly since. It makes me realise how dangerous Social Media is to one's mental health, and it's a
wonder why it isn't talked about more.

I'm no doubt preaching to the choir here, but I'm of the opinion that Social Media has done nothing but bad to our society
overall. Everything social media, and their defenders, claim to do was already possible on BBS, email and Forums, but most of the
time, not even as good of a job (With the exception of Twitter, which is a great tool as a Game Dev for attracting attention),
and on top of that, they have their algorithms to keep you addicted to their platforms so they can show you more ads generated by
the data they harvested for you. They also provide less and easier targets for the wrong people to get their way, as we've seen
with Brexit and Donald Trump campaigns. It's a mess.

Would even go as far as to say the social part of their name is a lie, since it's pretty clear being social isn't the goal.
Sure, you get to meet new people and interact with them, but you can also do that in an office job, but you wouldn't call those
social gettogethers, would you?

Anyway, I'm getting off track. Has anyone else done this? What were your experiences?

... A social life? Where can I download that!?

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/13 (Linux/64)
* Origin: thE qUAntUm wOrmhOlE, rAmsgAtE, uK. bbs.erb.pw (1337:1/101)

Anyway, I'm getting off track. Has anyone else done this? What were your experiences?

I had a similar experience. I removed FB and IG from my phone, for reasons, and then spent about the next week pulling my phone out, going to tap the icon, and then telling myself, "right, I uninstalled it!"

I put it back on a few weeks later and while I'm not as bad as I was before, I'm seeing some of the same compulsive behaviors come back. I think it's about time to limit my social media use to on my PC only. :/

GreenLFC ║ e> greenleaderfanclub@protonmail.com
Infosec / Ham / Retro ║ masto> greenleaderfanclub@distrotoot
Avoids Politics on BBS ║ gem> gemini.greenleader.xyz

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Raspberry Pi/32)
* Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbs>>>20ForBeers.com:1337 (1337:3/129)

On 26 Dec 2021, Greenlfc said the following...

Anyway, I'm getting off track. Has anyone else done this? What were y experiences?

I totally agree with you Cobradile, which is pretty much why I made that Part
3 of the BBS documentary. It's sucking away at our society, not adding to it, in a lot of cases.

What I've done is made Facebook unusable on my phone between 9-5 mon-fri. The phone has a feature called focus mode or something, fairly newly introduced, that stops the app running and also won't allow any notifications during the hours you set. I'm not big on Twitter, I only really use that for promoting
my YT Channel, same with insta. So I think I've turned it around. I don't
spend time on social media apps at all now for personal use. I do spend time watching favourite channels on YT much more than I did, that could be a bad thing, could be okay, depending upon what way you look at it. It's kinda
more analagous to watching TV.

Cheers,
Al


hyjinx // Alistair Ross
Author of 'Back to the BBS' Documentary: https://bit.ly/3tRINeL (YouTube) alsgeeklab.com

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Linux/64)
* Origin: bbs.alsgeeklab.com:2323 (1337:2/104)

On 10 Jan 2022, hyjinx said the following...

I totally agree with you Cobradile, which is pretty much why I made that Part 3 of the BBS documentary. It's sucking away at our society, not adding to it, in a lot of cases.

Social media is terrible, 100% agree. I ditched Facebork and Insta many years ago, now, and I'm much better for it. If friends/family wanna speak with me or I with them, I use IM with Matrix or Signal.

What I've done is made Facebook unusable on my phone between 9-5
mon-fri. The phone has a feature called focus mode or something, fairly newly introduced, that stops the app running and also won't allow any notifications during the hours you set. I'm not big on Twitter, I only really use that for promoting my YT Channel, same with insta. So I think I've turned it around. I don't spend time on social media apps at all
now for personal use. I do spend time watching favourite channels on YT much more than I did, that could be a bad thing, could be okay,
depending upon what way you look at it. It's kinda more analagous to watching TV.

Yeah I've seen that option, I really don't need to use it though as I use my phone so little it's almost not worth having it lol. I do use Signal and Matrix on it, so that is how I have comms with friends/family, and occasionally use Twitter to post some silly meme or something I'm working on etc, having a flick up the feed while I'm there, but that's about it.

I do like to watch YT and have a bunch of channels I sub to, I use YT as my "TV" though, so I will watch that on my TV mostly, I don't watch it on the phone or computer unless I specifically need to.

---
|14Best regards,
|11Ch|03rist|11ia|15n |11a|03ka |11Me|03aTLoT|11io|15N

|07── |08[|10eml|08] |15ml@erb.pw |07── |08[|10web|08] |15www.erb.pw |07───┐ |07── |08[|09fsx|08] |1521:1/158 |07── |08[|11tqw|08] |151337:1/101 |07┬──┘ |07── |08[|12rtn|08] |1580:774/81 |07─┬ |08[|14fdn|08] |152:250/5 |07───┘
|07── |08[|10ark|08] |1510:104/2 |07─┘

... Kids: They're not sleeping, they're recharging!

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/13 (Linux/64)
* Origin: thE qUAntUm wOrmhOlE, rAmsgAtE, uK. bbs.erb.pw (1337:1/101)