Just wanted to share this with you guys.

I've pretty much quit all social medias I was using, mainly the ones that were corrupting my brain.
Such as twitter, instagram, snapchat, tiktok.
Ever since then it's been a struggle to keep myself entertained whilst waiting for time to pass in boring moments, but it's much better that way. Sometimes it's nice to just sit with your thoughts and reflect upon your day or just sort your thoughts out.

I feel like those I mentioned above are horrible for your brain, and impact you in a negative way.
The amounts of messed up shit I have seen on the internet made me numb, the amount of endless content of which you desire makes you blind. You see without seeing, and now I am able to truly see and I feel a lot better and my mind is at rest. I've become calmer as well in real life, and I notice that a lot of people are coming closer to me instead of keeping their distance.

The only ones I will continue with are Discord, This forum (can't leave my babies behind) and Youtube.
Luckily for me I have figured out the most effective way to make those platforms much better, by doing the horrible task of actually clicking ''I don't like this'' on the content that is given to you that you don't like.
I also suggest that if you see negative content on the internet to make sure your algorithm learns that you don't want to see that type of content or that you drop the website all together. Like Twitter, it's hopeless just don't go there :)

I know I haven't been cool here all the way with you guys, my journey went from Admin to bottom tier shit poster to top tier shit poster to whatever I do here now but if I may ask for you guys to take one piece of advice from me it is this. Don't let it all corrupt your brain, don't believe the hype, and avoid things on the internet that aren't normal for a day to day life to see.

I actually have time and motivation in the day now to get fit, to work on my mental health and to pick up new languages for example. Reconnected with my old passion of jamming out to Funky oldschool house and just enjoying my days a lot more.
All because I dropped some website, how amazing : ')

Happy holidays frens.

 

I've been doing a lot of research about addictions/dopamine addiction and how it influences your brain and what it changes in your behavior.
In short it's not looking well for the future generations who grow up with all these dopamine overdoses.

If I may suggest, drop Twitter. I think that the time spent on there trolling politicians is better used on yourself or your kids.
I still like to mess with people too, it's just my type of humor and it's what gives me the most enjoyment. But and here is where I will contradict myself is that it's probably not very good for you in the end. Being playfully-rude with friends and family is better than being rude to people you don't know.
I have the internal battle going on and I don't know which side will win but I hope the more kind side : ')

And Tiktok is probably the best example of how bad things can get, my time spent on that app is all time wasted. I let it draw me back in to look at bullshit whilst I could have spent that time with my ex, focusing on what really matters.
I got to a ''good'' side of tiktok in my final few weeks on it, and I realized that I started looking less and less at it because that side was about mental health but didn't create any dopamine. Meaning that, it's actually just a boring app that keeps you hooked by giving you dopamine at the right moment and then keeps you on it only to give you another boost when you really need it.

 

Felt this. I'm nuking my social media soon too

 

jesus christ this thread is fucking deep
as an artist though, social media was always a good outlet for me to show my hobby, i never looked much deeper into it as I never focused on politics and much of what people thought (obviously)
But I do agree social media and the internet overall has just been one big circus ball of starting drama and shit just because you can, because there's little to no consequences when you're sitting behind a screen! 17 year old me really took advantage of that oops

As much as i'd love to quit social media, without it I literally would have 0 special about my life, which overall i don't know how that reflects on me as a person since I rely on it so much, but I have made some good friends, even off of the worst piece of shit places on the internet (furaffinity )

But if I could i would leave everything in a heartbeat. These forums still being here are a great example of how smaller communities thrive off actual human interaction instead of "i wish this person would notice me :(" or tiptoeing around every word as not to offend someone

 

but if im not constantly consuming multiple forms of media a thought of my own might form

 

All I see on Facebook is previous schoolmates of mine having kids too young and getting engaged after announcing the pregnancy or giving birth - so I’d rather not check that app frequently. But, gotta say though, it can be a strong form of birth control seeing it lol.

COVID has been an example where social media dramatises things. Fear mongering…alpha beta delta omicron megatron, I don’t care. I’ve done my bit and im fully vaxed. Don’t get too roped into the news articles on the covid situation.

 

Glad to see this, I keep by my own rule of sharing these type of thoughts once and hopefully it is the push someone needs to also start making the same moves that I did. Hope you can stick to it! Goodluck.

I think it would be a hard but good few days just to drop your socials for a few days and see how things turn out.
I've started to read, work out or just hit up some friends or go out alone instead of wasting my hours away on socials. It's so much easier to just sit there and scroll your mouse wheel until it can no longer scroll, but it's not going to satisfy you in the end.
And yeah, that's why I still stick to Discord or the Forums for example. You can join these big communities that have followed the communication ways of twitch chat or you can stick to the smaller ones and actually have meaningful conversations with people.

The hardest things I do these days is sit alone with my thoughts, they have been destructive and hateful. But why does that happen? Does a Deer look up at the sky and think ''I fucking hate this political party'' no, it looks up at the sky and (presumably) thinks about it's day and what it has to do next.
You think of the things that you surround yourself in, I surrounded myself in edgy websites and extremist sides of things.
Without that, my thoughts lurk there sometimes but they're the fastest thing that is changing about me. They're getting so much more positive, it's good.

''I'm not a hooligan just living my life, take my advice don't believe the, don't believe the hype''
Everything about covid and the news is tiresome, I dropped it and I am clueless as to what happens now in the world. But let's just say I don't miss the shit going on in others their country and mine. Life is unfair, it either does well for you or it doesn't I cannot be bothered by hearing stories of people who suffer who I don't know.

 

thanks dude. My challenge is figuring out a way for my business to maintain a strong online presence (cause the internet is a goldmine) but i still have zero interest in my personal life being online anymore lol

this ^ is why i still pop on here and other places sometimes

also this ^ everyone in this thread is so smart

 

social media is good and healthy for everybody i love mark zuckerberg

 

Damn.. the vaccination got to this one guys.. Yeah yeah no I got it, I'll put it out if its misery.. poor thing

 

social media sucks
porn sucks
online communities (for the most part) suck
online entertainment (for the most part) sucks

the internet has made all those small destructive dopamine boosts so easy to get and it is a big part of what's destroying western society's mental health and the lowering of the average person's attention span.

i use the internet mostly as a tool to get news without having to buy a newspaper or a cable connection, to expand my culture, and to easily communicate with family members and friends. in doing this, the internet is an incredible tool that, if used properly, can expand anyone's knowledge and efficiency to the absolute summit of human ability

yet, i still let myself get comfortably numbed by these digital opioids, as do billions. when i look at instagram stories, tiktok, twitter, and all those other awful social medias that just try to get an insipid boost of dopamine in your brain while greying out everything around you, i can't help but feel as though i am witnessing a very poor age in terms of human philosophy and public mental health

and hell, i love these social medias, as do you and as do most people in our generation. they are as mentally addictive and destructive as ecstasy and as easy to obtain as water. we all know this, and yet, we go scroll tiktok when we are bored to get quick dopamine boosts and lowering the length of our attention span, we go watch insipid cash grab videos by youtubers like "alexa 2", we go stalk our exes on instagram while posting pictures that we know will provoke them cause we damn well know they do the exact same thing, then we go on tinder or bumble to quench our thirst for human touch while spending the rest of our free time numbing our sex drives with online pornography. no introspection, no inner connection, no emotion.

a few months back, i got banned on twitter (which was one of my main social medias), and it's frankly one of the best things that have ever happened to me. strongly considering deleting tiktok, facebook, then finally instagram in the next couple months.

i know this post might seem a bit dramatic, but these are genuine emotions i needed to put words on and place somewhere

best of luck to you on yr detox, saul, it's a very wise thing to do and i hope i will one day have the will to follow your path

 

did you just threaten to execute me wtf

eat some fuckin triscuits dawg

 

You have seen the light my mans, I have nothing to add to this post other than good luck with your journey.
I'm with you, so many others are with you and together you can overcome this horrible side of the internet and find joy in the lesser but more meaningful time you spend on it.

:gun:

 

I do acknowledge with all things considered that I am addicted to social media. I use three main apps (not counting streaming platforms like Youtube), being Instagram, Twitter, and Reddit. I check these multiple times every day and at points, I find myself dependent on them to help fill a hole left in me by boredom. I also do think there are definitely negatives to it, but for someone like myself who has never really been that proficient at getting out there and meeting new people, it's been a blessing to have such an easy outlet for me to connect with people around the world who share the same interests I do. The "hold" it has on my life isn't as concerning as I think it could be, as I don't spend every waking hour of my every day browsing it, and I do think that all in all the pros outweigh the cons for me.

I have thought about what it would be like to just... not use these apps. I don't think it's something I can do, which goes to my point in admitting that, in a way, I am addicted to them. But that's mostly because without social media, I'm completely isolated from the world around me. I use the platform to not only speak to online friends of mine but also to keep myself updated on certain sport, tv, movie fandoms I'm apart of. My life isn't something that's spectacular - I'm not going on adventures everyday, I'm not going out to a bar or to meet with people everyday. I spend most of my days in my house with just my immediate family so not having this outlet would hurt me more than help me, I think.

 

Thanks for sharing,
I think that you've told us in a very long detour that you are lonely, and suffer from the feeling of loneliness without social medias.
I think online friends can be great, and that you can share a good mutual friendship with the people you meet online. But you can also do that in real life and it's more fulfilling than it is online. Or at least, in my opinion.

It's easy to say to just go outside and meet people, to put some perspective on this I am also not very much a outgoing person on my own.
I'm more of a ''lone-wolf'' type of person and my life other than the troubles I get myself into isn't too spectacular either, but what I am able to do is have contact with people around me and try to do something with those people instead of having just a chit-chat and going home to spend more time on my computer socializing than that I sleep.
It's very easy to start talking to strangers online often, and it's easier to think that ''I can't do this in real life'' but I promise you that if you have made friends over the internet that you can make friends in real life. And it's not always as simple as that of course, people especially nowadays suffer from anxiety to talk to strangers even though it's constantly done throughout the day. I think the people just fear it because it's not from the safety and comfort of your own room but suddenly it's outside and directly to your face.
It also helps just to lower expectations on it and have a (in my opinion) clear view of the world, sometimes you click with people and sometimes you don't and that is fine. If you hangout with someone new you can have a wonderful day, or you can have a very awkward experience. And both outcomes are fine.

The boredom is also just your brain being addicted to dopamine hits, something that Instagram Twitter and Reddit will give you.
I think dimming down on them is a great first step of seeing if you actually need them, I went from always having Twitter open to the side to not having it open and finding myself looking to the side for it. To opening it once a day and realizing it's all useless shit to deleting all my tweets logging off and not having the feeling of wanting to go on that shitshow of a website ever again.
I'd like to add as always that these are just things that worked for me and everyone works in a different way so do with this what you want but, I think that for everyone who uses social medias that it's a great thing to either use less or quit them all together.