“[For] people who live in the country or in remote areas or minority groups or [who have] small businesses, that is a really good way for them to communicate and reach other people,” she says.
“It’s just not possible to set up an alternative at this point in time. So, to put it bluntly, we’re in a bit of deep shit, to be honest.”
No mention of Pixelfed, but I can understand why. Will it only be seen as an alternative once a critical mass of users move there? And can that happen if they don’t see it as an alternative? Chicken and egg. I’m trying out, but it’s a little vapid when everyone I know is on Instagram.
I asked a younger coworker something similar about Facebook and facebook messenger a few years ago in relation to cyber bullying. I asked her why the younger generation doesn’t just get off social media if they’re being bullied, and her response was that these platforms are how people communicate now. Without them, you don’t find out about parties, trips, events, etc. Without them you get left out. If you abandon them, you’re essentially ostracizing yourself.
After hearing that I understood why just giving them up is difficult.
Rather than tell bullying victims to get off social media, why not tell people to stop bullying people?
Can confirm. I’m a bit older, but when I stopped using social media it was like my aquaintances forgot I existed. Sure, close friends would usually still invite me to social events, but even that tapered off after a while. When I’d call someone out for not inviting me, their response was always “but you never shiw up to anything”. It’s not like they don’t know that I’m not on Facebook. What, you think that when you don’t invite me that I’ll just magically know it’s happening? I’m finally getting some people to use Signal groups but that has been an uphill battle.
Ding ding
It’s not just younger people. A lot of my fellow GenXers only communicate via Facebook messenger.
It’s why nobody left Whatsapp when Meta bought it.
As soon as they’re forced to allow interoperability with other apps, I’ll be deleting WhatsApp. Had a Facebook from the beginning but deleted it when the Cambridge Analytica scandal happened. Have never had an Instagram. Fuck Meta and its horrible owner.
i hate it, but we are gonna be slow boiled into having meta read everything we say over there if we aint already
I’m betting you are.
Why wouldn’t they?
I agree up to the point that someone could use Facebook for the parties and stuff, and then not use any of the main page stuff. I have Messenger because that’s the prime option for those I know, but I don’t use it for anything but messaging and don’t have a Facebook.
I’ve had a facebook account since it was first unleashed on the world, but these days I only use it for messenger and marketplace. I’ve changed all my privacy settings to as strict as they can possibly be, and I never browse or post anything.
Facebook is only useful for the ancillary stuff. The main page and status updates have been monetized and engagement hacked to death.
Getting info on events and businesses is so much tougher now that I don’t regularly use Facebook. I missed both holiday garbage pickups because my county waste management company ONLY posts schedules on Facebook.
I’d bitch to the county commissioners about that.
One thing about the town I’m in, they do a fairly good job of keeping the services running, and most of the normal stuff is fairly easy to find on the town’s website. Stuff like “Who do I talk to about installing a detached garage on my property” is an act of open heart dentistry…
Okay and on the topic of garbage I will bitch about one thing: they posted a map of the town with some teal area and some purple area, and it said “Teal is Schedule A, Purple is Schedule B.” And then didn’t say what that meant. I’m sure it was discussed verbally in the meeting that map was presented in.
I understand that logic, but “being the product” must not really be that bad for them. They might complain, but if it was truly distasteful, they’d do something about it.
And being exploited for profit and explicitly knowing it is about the saddest thing I can think of for my fellow humans. It’s no wonder the billionaires just take and take, because people let them.
One may as well have said the same things about cigarettes up through the 1960s. Sometimes we do things against our best interests. Sometimes it’s really, really bad for us. Sometimes it’s painful and deadly.
Humans aren’t rational creatures.
The desire to belong is primal, and strong.
And it served us well for millennia. In a lot of ways, it made us who we are.
That’s a truism, but it’s not justification for allowing it to happen. People being naturally irrational is not an excuse to continue being irrational.
And if it makes people feel uncomfortable to be reminded that they’re choosing to be abused by billionaires for free, then good. Get uncomfortable. I hope they feel uncomfortable every time they scroll Facebook. I hope they feel a little shame every time they complain about housing prices on Instagram, because clearly, knowingly having their worst impulses monetized for the benefit of the absurdly wealthy isn’t enough.
It is a justification, actually, because other people are using it against them to extract value for themselves. Users of corporate social media are no more responsible for their addictions than alcoholics are. Some people break it, sure. And some people use it without developing an addiction. But those aren’t the people we’re talking about here.
Exactly. I’m not trying to victim blame here, but I do want to point out that you can leave social media and still have a social life. It takes a lot of effort, but it can be done a little at a time.
For example, tell people you don’t check Messenger or WhatsApp or whatever very often, but you do check Matrix or Signal or whatever a lot more. If they ask, tell them why you prefer the other platform (e.g. less SM noise), and if they try it out, reward them by being super active on it. If you get enough people on it, try organizing your own events or whatever and communicate about it on your preferred platform as a sort of reverse network effect.
My SO is still on Instagram and sends me links occasionally, but neither of us use Facebook or WhatsApp (granted, WhatsApp isn’t very popular here in the US).
This stuff was happening even in the early days of Facebook let alone now so I get it.