Deleting Social Media

[Dragon]

well i just got two mentions in one day. you're really oscillating my dopamine bro

[oscillik]

[TubularCorporation]

1 hour ago, Dragon said:

we fixate on things like witches or qanon or rape

One of these things is not like the others...

[chenGOD]

1 hour ago, oscillik said:

networking for photography stuff

Is flickr not useful for that?

[J3FF3R00]

52 minutes ago, oscillik said:

I deleted my Facebook a couple of years ago now, after tentatively bringing it back into life in the hopes that it would assist in networking for photography stuff. It didn't, not really. I do not miss it, and it hasn't negatively impacted my life not having it.

My Instagram account is essentially dormant. I have about 2 photos on there so that it looks like it's not a lazy bot, and I use it to keep an eye on friends photos etc. I am considering deleting it because of the same concerns you have @Dragon pretty much. This one will be a bit more difficult for me to delete because of contact avenues with people I'd like to keep in touch with

My work is also in the realm of visual arts. In a way, that’s another thing that gets under my skin. It often feels like there’s this industry standard that your Instagram presence/influence equates to your success level. I know lots of people who’s careers seem to be inextricably linked to their Instagram and they do get work from it. I resent that there is some validity to that, even if it is only a small amount. It’s not like people couldn’t have careers prior to Instagram, right?

[psn]

1 hour ago, oscillik said:

WhatsApp is getting nuked before 15th May, due to the terms update. 

Please elaborate. 

[WurstPLUS]

I try to limit myself using SM only for special interest related stuff.

I use Facebook only because local town people participate in a group there. But I end up being disappointed about my fellow citizens. They are often incredibly stupid, have a terrible orthography, judge immediately without having enough data. Example: A car crashed, more is not known... and they start talking about drivers driving too fast. 2nd next person already wishes the crash driver to die. 

Probably the rather uneducated, unemployed or bored people are at home there. I usually do not write. But it's enlightening whats in my fellow citizens mind.

Was on Facebook since the early days. It was a student thing back then. Plebs came later

Edited May 7, 2021 by WurstPLUS

[oscillik]

3 hours ago, chenGOD said:

Is flickr not useful for that?

Not really, I meant for getting paid work you know? Flickr is just a place where you get "Internet Photography Experts" critiquing why you've taken a shot above base ISO, etc.

 

3 hours ago, J3FF3R00 said:

My work is also in the realm of visual arts. In a way, that’s another thing that gets under my skin. It often feels like there’s this industry standard that your Instagram presence/influence equates to your success level. I know lots of people who’s careers seem to be inextricably linked to their Instagram and they do get work from it. I resent that there is some validity to that, even if it is only a small amount. It’s not like people couldn’t have careers prior to Instagram, right?

Yeah I definitely agree on this — somehow having an active and prolific Instagram account has become the de-facto yard stick of whether someone is good or not. It's bullshit, and I'm not playing to it. If you get work through it, that's awesome news great job. But for me, the constant producing of "content" is bullshit.

 

3 hours ago, psn said:

Please elaborate. 

Elaboration (article is back from when the original deadline was sometime in Feb. Facebook had to delay the change due to the kickback, and that deadline is fast approaching)

[oscillik]

WhatsApp terms update looks like there's a bit more on it here, but basically it's still coming, and I'm still not okay with it. Fuck them.

[oscillik]

Also, it is possible to track whether someone is "Online" on WhatsApp, since this information is accessible publicly, and there's no way to turn it off. This has created a cottage industry of sites and services that will let you "snoop" on people to see if they're online at the same time as someone else, usually marketed towards partners who think they're being cheated on

[Nebraska]

1 minute ago, oscillik said:

Also, it is possible to track whether someone is "Online" on WhatsApp, since this information is accessible publicly, and there's no way to turn it off. 

yes. WhatsApp, by default, will show you whether someone is online and if they have looked at your message (if you have sent them one). they can however opt out of this feature under the privacy tab in settings. i also believe, if you set yourself to be private, you will not see when someone is online (or if they have seen their message) and you won't see the 'last seen' timestamp.

 

[oscillik]

21 minutes ago, Nebraska said:

yes. WhatsApp, by default, will show you whether someone is online and if they have looked at your message (if you have sent them one). they can however opt out of this feature under the privacy tab in settings. i also believe, if you set yourself to be private, you will not see when someone is online (or if they have seen their message) and you won't see the 'last seen' timestamp.

 

Nope, the online status is always enabled, you can't turn that off.

You can deffo turn off receipts, and typing indicators, but not the online indicator.

[Nebraska]

7 minutes ago, oscillik said:

Nope, the online status is always enabled, you can't turn that off.

hrm... there is someone on my WhatsApp contact list and i cannot see their online status. not sure why that is then 

[o00o]

53 minutes ago, oscillik said:

Not really, I meant for getting paid work you know? Flickr is just a place where you get "Internet Photography Experts" critiquing why you've taken a shot above base ISO, etc.

 

Yeah I definitely agree on this — somehow having an active and prolific Instagram account has become the de-facto yard stick of whether someone is good or not. It's bullshit, and I'm not playing to it. If you get work through it, that's awesome news great job. But for me, the constant producing of "content" is bullshit.

 

Elaboration (article is back from when the original deadline was sometime in Feb. Facebook had to delay the change due to the kickback, and that deadline is fast approaching)

Try 500px

[oscillik]

6 minutes ago, Nebraska said:

hrm... there is someone on my WhatsApp contact list and i cannot see their online status. not sure why that is then 

Bearing in mind that "Last Seen" just simply disables the timestamp of when you were last seen at the top of the chat message. It doesn't turn off the "Online" signifier when that person is actually online and you happen to be looking at that chat thread.

[chenGOD]

1 hour ago, oscillik said:

Not really, I meant for getting paid work you know? Flickr is just a place where you get "Internet Photography Experts" critiquing why you've taken a shot above base ISO, etc.

Ah I see - I always thought it was a more professional type place. I have a friend on facebook who does professional photography (well a couple), and they don't share much, but what they do share is always amazing. I remember some of your photos from the photography thread as being pretty damn incredible as well.

[oscillik]

1 hour ago, chenGOD said:

Ah I see - I always thought it was a more professional type place. I have a friend on facebook who does professional photography (well a couple), and they don't share much, but what they do share is always amazing. I remember some of your photos from the photography thread as being pretty damn incredible as well.

Thanks for saying so! A lot of people that frequent Flickr would disagree with you, and base that on inconsequential things like noise in the image, image blur, slight unsharpness, etc.

Flickr, in my experience anyway, is a breeding ground for armchair experts to pontificate on minutiae that ultimately either doesn't matter or completely detracts from the whole point of photography for me — an image that makes me feel something.

But now I'm pontificating so I'll stop.

You are correct though in that Flickr, at least used to, have a fairly professional userbase.

Edited May 7, 2021 by oscillik

[Amen Warrior]

Theres some top notch bants n memes to be found on twitter if you follow the right people.

All the other platforms are just different levels of shite.

[TubularCorporation]

We can all agree that whatever promise social media may have once had will be well and truly gone when Yahoo Answers closes this summer.

[iococoi]

On 5/7/2021 at 10:23 PM, TubularCorporation said:

We can all agree that whatever promise social media may have once had will be well and truly gone when Yahoo Answers closes this summer.

wikihow to the rescue

me logging out

me coming

Edited May 9, 2021 by iococoi

[WurstPLUS]

What can be done is setting WhatsApp offline (disable wifi/mobile/roaming just for WhatsApp) via Android setting... but it's too clunky to do that on a temp. basis.

I also hate you cannot disable Whatsapp calls. 

Edited May 8, 2021 by WurstPLUS

[Alcofribas]

22 hours ago, oscillik said:

the constant producing of "content" is bullshit.

 

[TubularCorporation]

Self-as-brand has absolutely poisoned human interaction and deleting your social media doesn't help much because no matter how off-grid you go that's still the norm and you're still going to be enganged with it because WE LIVE IN A SOCIETY HUGLAGHALGHALGHAL

 

The obvious solution is to embrace space dolphins and go full Posadist.

[Cryptowen]

11 hours ago, iococoi said:

wikihow to the rescue

there's something magical about that weird ultra-consistent art style that wikihow has on every one of its articles. i've been aware of it for at least a decade & it still feels like it's the work of one guy, just banging out hundreds of images a day by awkwardly photoshopping stock photos together & then tracing them with his wacom tablet

[toaoaoad]

6 hours ago, TubularCorporation said:

Self-as-brand has absolutely poisoned human interaction and deleting your social media doesn't help much because no matter how off-grid you go that's still the norm and you're still going to be enganged with it

My thoughts exactly. 

I've completely avoided instagram because I know my tendency to spiral hard with FOMO and comparison to others' lives. As far as I can tell that's the only purpose it serves: egoistic self-advertisement, pseudo-celebrity, just general fakeness etc.  If I want to keep in touch with people that's the last way I would want to do it. 

Never got into twitter or tiktok or pretty much anything else. 

As for facebook, I deleted it in 2016 and pretty much lost touch with everyone I used to know besides select family members and a handful of close friends, because I had other ways to actively keep in touch with those people (i.e. phone/text and email). I don't miss any of those other people, and if I want to get in touch with any of them I know how.  I did however have to open a new account a year or two later so I could maintain an artist page. I kept my friends list empty.  Then about two years ago I had to start adding people again because I was at a workshop and it was the easiest (i.e. only) way to communicate with all the other participants at once. This continues to be the case in a few other situations. However the years I spent without it made it a lot easier to control myself and avoid wasting time there now that I have it again. I also un-follow everyone so my news feed is mostly empty. There's no temptation to scroll endlessly and snoop on people. Basically it's just a hub for Messenger (still evil) and artist/business page. 

I wonder if I'm too young to already be shunning this stuff. I'm aware that avoiding it does keep me more isolated from people. But I just can't deal with all the bullshit.