Social media is driving me nuts

[Kittenrain]

Hi,
Lately I don't know what to think... Or what to believe. I am afraid of everything. I have been looking around online and came across some health information that has turned me into a wreck. I have become scared of gluten and dairy and meat and medicine. I am afraid of chemicals in water and body care products.
I am sitting here planning a new "clean" menu and I feel like I am losing my mind.
I am tired of social media and "influencers" I feel like life is fake. I don't know what is healthy anymore or if I even know what's right anymore.
I am overwhelmed by all this information. I am scared my kids toys are full of chemicals.
I am wondering if I should be a minimalist or vegan or any of the other things online that promise a better life.. I am sorry, I don't know who else to vent to. But I am so paranoid about everything. And so confused by it all.
I know these people do not have all the answers and that it's not real.. But is there truth to it, I mean what is the alternative? Consume all the chemicals and just be normal? Is there even enough chemicals in things to hurt us...?
Thanks guys

[cactina]

Hey, did you get any responses? Am in this exact boat right now.
Feel like I should quit Instagram and then I feel people will laugh if I do so- "oh, she could not handle social media", etc etc etc. Let me know if you'd like to talk. Cactina, 40, in UK.

[jray23]

Quite honestly quitting social media is probably the smartest thing most of us can do socially. Anyone who would laugh at someone for dropping off of it, especially at your/my age range (I'm 36) is clearly having insecurities of their own. Maybe if you're 21 it's a must-have but mature adults can function just fine without it! It was novel a few years ago and does have a few good uses but it's mostly become a trainwreck. I know you mentioned you saw a study say it actually helps mentally but I've seen numerous studies that have shown the opposite, that it correlates with rises in anxiety, depression, mental illness, teenage suicide, and other undesirable characteristics like narcissism.

Basically we see a fake representation of everyone's lives. Very few post the bad with the good. We put out a fake representation of ourselves as well. That can't be healthy.

The mechanism that drives social media operates like a drug (seeing likes and followers has been measured to give spikes in dopamine). It wastes time. Kills productivity.

I'm still on Facebook myself but that's as far as I'll ever go and I now post vert sparingly. if Fb ever goes under I'm done on social media. Honestly I'd probably have dumped FB already too but it's used for logging into a lot of things especially dating apps which I use quite regularly! (wouldn't mind having a reason to delete those too!)

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

[Darksky]

^^^^^ yes ^^^^^^

[FrankT]

You think that's bad? Just look at Tumblr and what they're trying to do, banning seditious material and whatnot!

[rcs]

I agree it creeps up on you, 10 years ago i swore i wouldn't get too involved with it now i try to keep it to a minimum. ' Bloody Mark Zuckerberg' :D . i am sure he will turn into a Bond villain one day !!!.
At least i grew up without it...





I sent the club a wire stating, PLEASE ACCEPT MY RESIGNATION. I DON'T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT ME AS A MEMBER.(Groucho Marx)

[cactina]

Thanks JRay23, and others :-) I am on Facebook, but keep my account deactivated most times. My current poison is Instagram, which I'm trying to quit, taking advantage of a new year's resolution. Hopefully I will make it beyond Jan 10th :-)

[Confusion]

Get off social media. This is the single most important piece of advice I could give anyone suffering from anxiety.

[FrankT]

I have actively pursued getting off social media. Trouble is, I've been on it for so long that if I suddenly went cold turkey, I'd die. So I'm gradually weaning myself off it by spending less and less time on it.

[cactina]

Well Instagram just made it easy for me to quit- by introducing the side swipe feature on posts. What a FUKKINGGGG awful feature. You know, we keep vilifying Facebook's algorithm, but Instagram has the most evil, most simulated universe I have ever experienced. And I've been working in the design and tech industry for 20 years. Gonna go start bitchin on reddit now I guess.

For the one trying to quit social media cold turkey- you can't. Be patient with yourself and treat all momentary setbacks as part of the process, because they are. That's how I quit Facebook, over a period of about 4 months. The beginning was as painful as when I quit sugar. I relapsed many times. But you can do it. Just be at it and you'll get better :-)

[FrankT]

Side swipe? Algorithm?

[cactina]

Side swipe? Algorithm?

It's going to be a long post and I only have my phone with me today. Will post my response tomorrow, when I'll have access to a laptop :-)

[FrankT]

By the way, does Tumblr count as social media?

[cactina]

Part 1 of 3
To answer the questions first:
Tumblr, as a blogging platform is definitely Social Media. if you think about it, even forums such as this one are social.

Algorithm: A set of rules that govern how a machine, a computer program, a social media platform functions or reacts to events. When you post a photo from your hiking trip on Facebook, and within a matter of hours it is showing you ads for tents and mountain boots, it is reacting to your post on the basis of an algorithm. this is just one algorithm that is part of thousands of lines of code written by hundreds of programmers over several years. The algorithms can self adjust, and can also be rewritten by programmers, based on how users are reacting back to the algorithm (and with each other), and also based on the wishes of the advertisers.

Side swipe: On 27th of December 2018, for a brief period of about 20 minutes, Instagram implemented the side swipe feature on its homepage. In the face of universal pushback and ridicule, Instagram has since rolled back the feature, but kept the door open for re-introducing it, saying they were only 'testing' the features now on a select group of users.

---------- Post added at 18:57 ---------- Previous post was at 18:42 ----------

Part 2 of 3

What is side swipe?
Currently when you log into Instagram, your home page shows posts from other accounts that you have added. Like most other online pages, you scroll down vertically to see these posts. However, with the side swipe, The vertical scroll goes away and you can only see one post at a time. You click on each post to see the next. This has the following disadvantages:

1. it is much faster and easier to scroll up and down than it is to click multiple times to browse through individual posts.

2. Since the feature is not yet rolled out there is no way to gather data, but clicking through is so foreign an interaction to users that they will most probably be fatigued and stop browsing much earlier than the time they currently spend on the homepage. Why is this bad? Because Instagram will surely use an algorithm to push advertisements, sponsored posts, and posts from influencers so that these appear first. By the time the user has arrived at posts from ordinary people like you and I, they are fatigued from all the clicking and most probably log off. This means our posts get fewer views, leading to fewer likes, fewer comments, and fewer shares. All of these are further treated as ground for pushing your posts further and further back in the queue. So: step i) your posts are pushed back not because they were bad or uninteresting or broke community rules, but just to make way for advertisers, and step ii) your posts are pushed back even further because "let's admit it, if they were not at the top of the line they were probably not good content!"

---------- Post added at 19:03 ---------- Previous post was at 18:57 ----------

Part 3 of 3

Instagram vs Facebook

Personally, I think the biggest difference between Facebook and Instagram is this: Facebook started as a network for interaction between friends. It started catering to advertisers much later. So, it's native algorithm is still written for human networks. When I sit and observe how Facebook's non-advertising algorithm works, I find an ironic replication of human behavior- complete with human biases, ignorances, and weaknesses. I personally don't see anything evil in it. And, if you are tech savvy, and read through Facebook's instructions and the Help section, you can subvert about 95% of its features. Facebook gives you a way out.

Instagram, on the other hand, was designed as a platform for advertisers. Common users like you and I can use the platform, sure, but we must make do with the interfaces, lexicon, and algorithm designed for advertisers. It is built on the premise of 'profit', and not 'value'. And it has a surprisingly inflexible and punitive algorithm. There is hardly any way to opt out of its features.

Many apologies for this long post on a festive weekend. I have just been so troubled by social media and how it is manipulating sweet, unsuspecting folk. I hope all of you are doing as well as you can. Wishing all of you love and a Happy New Year.