Is using social media addictive?

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What next for big tech after landmark social media addiction verdict?

Time to rename this thread, it is not relevant and off-topic to the conversation, and has not been related to the title since 2021

I'm still just using Facebook. Despite having a better laptop I still avoid clicking any X links. I do have an account on Instagram but only use it as a last resort to send my niece and sis in law happy birthday greetings.

I had an embarrassing moment on Instagram when using my mobile. I was looking at the profile pictures of a 30 year old girl I know here. She was posing in her bikini in two pictures with most of her bare backside on show. I accidentally clicked the Like button which is easy to do on a mobile. So once I had realised what I'd done I had to go back and unlike them. Not sure if she noticed what I'd done or not. If she did she must think I'm a dirty old man.

Quote from GlasgowJohn

Yip , if you dont post on FB , people worry you may have "disappeared" for ever....

I deleted all my FB accounts several years ago, one can either call me, text me or visit me!! Other than that, I have no desire to communicate!!!

UK Man , you’ve touched on a question I’ve had about Facebook from the very beginning, and then instagram: When you want to send birthday greetings to your niece and SIL, why use a middleman? Why not just email or WhatsApp a message directly?

People always say things like “I use Facebook to keep up with my family and see the baby pictures, etc.” I just don’t get it. If you are close enough to these people to want to keep up with them and care about seeing the children’s pictures, aren’t you close enough to text or email them directly?

Also, why do people use a public platform like FB to post private msgs to their significant other? Like “Happy Birthday to my wonderful and beautiful wife, who means more to me than the whole world” [usually posted with a flattering photo of the two, looking lovingly into each other’s eyes]. Isn’t this personal sentiment something to be said privately rather than blasted out to the Chinese army?

Will someone please explain this to me?

Quote from Rice

UK Man , you’ve touched on a question I’ve had about Facebook from the very beginning, and then instagram: When you want to send birthday greetings to your niece and SIL, why use a middleman? Why not just email or WhatsApp a message directly?

Good question. I tend to use the private messaging on Facebook/Instagram for such events rather than post publicly. I don't have them on WhatsApp and using email feels rather too business like. I don't have their email addresses anyway.

I guess FB allows to share happy memories with your loved one in bulk vs. sending one to one messages. You can set your profile as private and share your content with a selected audience (you end up sharing it with Meta, too, but that's a different matter).

I originally set up a FB account some 20 years ago when I was in my last year of university. At the time, it was still a social network for college students. Very few classmates were on it, and it was just to share fun stuff or pictures from parties, or maybe ping someone you liked but didn't dare to approach in real life.

When I graduated, I did post stuff occasionally to keep up with former classmates. This way, with a single post I was sharing an update with 40+ classmates vs. sharing individually with 3-4. They were mostly pics/posts about work stuff, moving houses, taking trips.

Subsequently, I moved to Argentina and instead of conversing privately with 40+ friends about my new life, I could simply post a picture and some text to say "Hey, I am fine". I also began using FB to socialize in Argentina or to buy/sell second hand stuff. I can't deny it has been very helpful in that regard.

About 7 years ago, I started using FB for my business by participating in DIY forum where my clientele was. Advertising was not allowed, and businesses aren't, either. You can participate as an individual, which I did. Therefore, I started getting lead on FB using my personal profile. I guess it felt reassuring to see an actual person behind a screen name.

Most of my clients are older than me, so they add me on FB to send me a message - something that is not necessary most of the time, but perhaps that's how they think it works. As such, what I was sharing with my close friends and family became available with my clientele. I had to carefully craft each post because you'll never know how they must be interpreted by a client.

Even a simple getaway could be misinterpreted as an undeserved treat/reward by a resentful client, or - worse yet - they could see a political angle to an innocent post. Even sharing a newspaper article can tell about your political stance because of the newspaper you read.

Therefore, I found the only neutral content I was comfortable sharing was cat pictures of my own cat. If you share an article against declawing, you may irk someone who declawed their cat "and lived happily ever after" and so on. You can't make everyone happy.

I have to refrain from commenting on certain posts (especially political ones), and by "commenting" I mean either in agreement or disagreement.

A client recently shared pictures of her son's hunting trip. She was just a proud momma showing pics of her boy with different dead animals in hands. To me, it was horrific because that's just killing for fun. However, I simply closed FB and woved once more to use it less and less. They wouldn't stop killing for fun because of my comment, I wouldn't think about hunting any better just because they did it.

Quote from serafina

I have to refrain from commenting on certain posts (especially political ones), and by "commenting" I mean either in agreement or disagreement.

Me too. I've got a Facebook friend I used to work with years ago. He's a hell of a nice bloke but he doesn't half post a lot of political shit which he never used to show in daily life. His normal posts attract a lot of likes and comments whereas his political posts get sod all feedback. I would have thought he'd have taken the hint by now that nobody gives a stuff about his political views.

Quote from Splinter

Likes give you nothing on most social media, however views on YouTube can generate income.

Indeed.....especially the AI bullshit content. I can see the day coming when that'll be stopped by new laws being brought in and enforced.

Got to the stage when I view everything I see on the internet with suspicion. Mind you, certain newspapers have been getting away with publishing bullshit for decades.

Quote from Splinter

https://davescomputertips.com/under-16s-to-b…al-media-in-uk/

Will the ban be effective?

This is an unenforceable situation.
As you pointed out, Splinter , kids are a lot more savvy at tech than most adults.