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I stopped virtually all social media (except commenting on YouTube videos and telling people they're wrong in HN comments) years ago. No twitter, no mastadon,

I stopped virtually all social media (except commenting on YouTube videos and telling people they're wrong in HN comments) years ago. No twitter, no mastadon, no bsky, no facebook. I keep hearing myspace is going to re-launch and I would consider getting an account there for the purposes of irony. But... instead of tweeting for an hour a day, I spend that hour reading long form dead tree format texts. I'm not saying this is what you should do, just offering it as an observation that it is an option.

mvdwoord 20d ago
You are so awesome for that.
freewilly23 20d ago
yeah i have been doing the same for a few months now.. deleted all social media accounts and blocked sites like reddit, twitter etc., so i don't get into the trap of 'only quickly checking'. hn is the only social media site i still visit. it's done wonders for my mental.
ttoinou 20d ago
Somebody should relaunch that dead tree format into a new tree format
- contravariant 20d ago
  No need, it's like emacs, it has a stable cult following that keeps the whole thing going even as alternatives come and go.
deleted 20d ago
[deleted]
SaltyBackendGuy 20d ago
Same. My last vice is Reddit, which I really need to quit.
- stvltvs 20d ago
  I boycotted with the API nonsense a few years ago and noticed I didn't miss it that much. Haven't really been back since. When a web search leads me back, it seems to have gone downhill with lots of low effort and bot-ish posts.
  - phplovesong 20d ago
    Reddit is gone. You can view it without an account. You get blocked by a popup that forces you to register. Its basically facebook at this time.
  - jsbisviewtiful 20d ago
    I pulled back significantly on reddit in that period too. Now I probably look at it 10% tops of what I used to. After being away from it and trying to enjoy looking at it these days... It's not the same as it was and simply not very good now. Most of the good communities died off, closed or got too big, the biggest communities are too big and the quality of posts+comments has plummeted. It feels either overrun with bots or it's the alternative: idiots that post so poorly they appear to be bots. It was fun while it lasted, but with everything going on it often feels nicer to just not look at the internet and do something else. Rage baiting, copy cat posts and spam have become so common on Insta even that's become harder to enjoy. It's been wild to see the Dead Internet Theory mature in real time after reading about it like... 15 years or more ago.
- nickburns 20d ago
  Reddit is a cesspool of mediocrity and groupthink. Hope that helps.
- phplovesong 20d ago
  I got banned (always for some political stuff, like being too anti trump, anti isreal etc) for the Nth time so i just uninstalled the app. I browse sometimes in bed, but thats only as anon on some libreddit instance. Never poltical stuff, usually just programming and some related subreddits.
sailfast 20d ago
It’s all fine until the entire community you’re trying to participate in decides Twitter is the place to post things. ahem Would be great if we maybe chose someplace else to do this as a community… but I guess the eyeballs are there and that’s what is valuable to the folks posting.
- commandlinefan 20d ago
  I live in an HOA. The only place they post information (like when trash pickup schedules change) is on Facebook.
  - neuronsong 20d ago
    Our HOA is forced to use an email mailing list. Enough older people who don't use facebook... and now younger people who refuse. Maybe ask for a show of hands at the next meeting. Sentiments can change overnight. Especially with the meta stuff happening at the moment.
    - sailfast 19d ago
      We use a SaaS provider for our HOA and it works well, but there is a monthly / annual cost for that. That said, people still insist on posting to Facebook but the group can easily turn to poison and sniping which is super awesome for being neighborly…
  - sailfast 19d ago
    Yeah sometimes the ubiquity of access and familiarity for HOAs and smaller community orgs make that gravity too strong. Mostly I was thinking about tech folks and AI news that seems to go out on Twitter most of the time.

mvdwoord 20d ago

You are so awesome for that.

freewilly23 20d ago

yeah i have been doing the same for a few months now.. deleted all social media accounts and blocked sites like reddit, twitter etc., so i don't get into the trap of 'only quickly checking'. hn is the only social media site i still visit. it's done wonders for my mental.

ttoinou 20d ago

Somebody should relaunch that dead tree format into a new tree format

contravariant 20d ago
No need, it's like emacs, it has a stable cult following that keeps the whole thing going even as alternatives come and go.

deleted 20d ago

[deleted]

SaltyBackendGuy 20d ago

Same. My last vice is Reddit, which I really need to quit.

stvltvs 20d ago
I boycotted with the API nonsense a few years ago and noticed I didn't miss it that much. Haven't really been back since. When a web search leads me back, it seems to have gone downhill with lots of low effort and bot-ish posts.
- phplovesong 20d ago
  Reddit is gone. You can view it without an account. You get blocked by a popup that forces you to register. Its basically facebook at this time.
- jsbisviewtiful 20d ago
  I pulled back significantly on reddit in that period too. Now I probably look at it 10% tops of what I used to. After being away from it and trying to enjoy looking at it these days... It's not the same as it was and simply not very good now. Most of the good communities died off, closed or got too big, the biggest communities are too big and the quality of posts+comments has plummeted. It feels either overrun with bots or it's the alternative: idiots that post so poorly they appear to be bots. It was fun while it lasted, but with everything going on it often feels nicer to just not look at the internet and do something else. Rage baiting, copy cat posts and spam have become so common on Insta even that's become harder to enjoy. It's been wild to see the Dead Internet Theory mature in real time after reading about it like... 15 years or more ago.
nickburns 20d ago
Reddit is a cesspool of mediocrity and groupthink. Hope that helps.
phplovesong 20d ago
I got banned (always for some political stuff, like being too anti trump, anti isreal etc) for the Nth time so i just uninstalled the app. I browse sometimes in bed, but thats only as anon on some libreddit instance. Never poltical stuff, usually just programming and some related subreddits.

sailfast 20d ago

It’s all fine until the entire community you’re trying to participate in decides Twitter is the place to post things. ahem Would be great if we maybe chose someplace else to do this as a community… but I guess the eyeballs are there and that’s what is valuable to the folks posting.

commandlinefan 20d ago
I live in an HOA. The only place they post information (like when trash pickup schedules change) is on Facebook.
- neuronsong 20d ago
  Our HOA is forced to use an email mailing list. Enough older people who don't use facebook... and now younger people who refuse. Maybe ask for a show of hands at the next meeting. Sentiments can change overnight. Especially with the meta stuff happening at the moment.
  - sailfast 19d ago
    We use a SaaS provider for our HOA and it works well, but there is a monthly / annual cost for that. That said, people still insist on posting to Facebook but the group can easily turn to poison and sniping which is super awesome for being neighborly…
- sailfast 19d ago
  Yeah sometimes the ubiquity of access and familiarity for HOAs and smaller community orgs make that gravity too strong. Mostly I was thinking about tech folks and AI news that seems to go out on Twitter most of the time.