Educated Germans avoid social media
dw.com
dw.com
In fact, I do have a device people call a mobile phone, however, I don't use the cellular network. I don't even have a sim card. It's virtually a PDA.
The reason for me to not use the cellular network is threefold. First, I like how one spends more time with the immediate vicinity if there is no way to digitally reach out. Second, I disagree with the widespread collection and storage of connection and location data. I feel nobody has the right to make a social graph of me or track my location. Third, and most important, I want sovereignty about the machines I own. That requires a level of openness in hardware and software which available mobile phones don't have.
a) You have a career that requires some PR management
b) You're the type who gets pleasure in showing off (the best image of) yourself to others
c) You are bored, and you get a small thrill from the attention
Are there any other reasons to be a regular, active participant on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook? I get 'just having one' as a sort of contact directory, but beyond that...
Would an educated, independent thinker, someone who really tries to engage and understand the world and has discovered interesting opportunities which they pursue, really have any reason to spend significant time on social media?
I don't really appreciate the snarky insinuation that using Facebook makes me somehow uneducated or conformist.
That certainly sounds like an attempt to insult those who do use Facebook.
> but can you image the great minds and innovators of our generation [...] updating their FB?
Absolutely, the same way that great minds of past generations had friends, went to social events, and wrote letters. Facebook is just the latest and easiest way to maintain the social bonds which are important to nearly all of us (including so-called "great minds").
I don't post status updates often (probably once a month), but I log into Facebook multiple times a day. It's great to see what my friends are up to and what they care about.
If not for seeing my friend at SpaceX post about today's launch, I probably would have missed out on watching it.
Get off your high horse. If you don't want to use Facebook, that's fine. That doesn't make those of us who do neanderthals.
I don't think I've come close to calling anyone a neanderthal, sorry if this has riled some emotions. If you are younger, you will certainly have a lot more pressure to use it (you can be ostracized), so you probably should use it.
Also, people tend to have a cognitive bias against judging themselves as conformist... myself included. We probably all are more than we would like to admit.
I recently read the Wulf's The Invention of Nature, a biography of Alexander von Humboldt - from the middle of his life up until his death Humboldt wrote 2000 to 3000 letters per year, crazy if you think how much work a "regular" letter is.
Your point about the great minds of the past is spot on. There's a reason why people buy letters from famous painters. I'm sure Van Gogh would at least have had a twitter account.
Anyways, based on artists I know - who aren't digital artists/ graphic designers, a scene where most tech companies are viewed as just an extension of greedy capitalism, I have serious doubts Van Gogh would be an active user on Twitter.
> a) You have a career that requires some PR management
Your post laid out three users of social media. One was a professional managing a brand. The other two were narcissists.
If you're not above it, what were you trying to get at with that post?
I could do this with email and calendars, but I don't know 95% of my friend's email addresses. We talk over SMS and Facebook Messenger. If I wanted to find another one of my friend's I just search for their name, and if they have privacy settings set to only allow friends of friends to search for me - that's OK too!
I don't have to ask a friend for their email address, or their phone number and then ask that person for their email address. I don't have to phone or SMS people to see if they want to come, and I have an easy way to track it.
Sure, we all got along fine before social media. But Facebook has made planning social events ridiculously easy.
I haven't posted on my wall since 2013 and none of my information like age, email, phone number, etc is public. Sure Facebook has access to all sorts of conversations I've had over the years, but so do my local ISP's and data centres.
For anything that I'd truly like to keep private, I use PGP, OTR or chat in person.
The freedom from data being stored about the respective persons?
The network effect works both ways, I was one of the few people initially who didn't adopt facebook, so anything that involved me had to be communicated over mail.
I mean, I get that a lot of social media content is narcissistic and vapid, but it's tool that you choose how to use.
I don't use but my wife does, because our extended families are on it. Grammas, cousins, high school friends, that couple across the street, the realtor, ... etc.
Could they use email? Probably, but they don't they use Facebook for whatever reason.
Personally I don't have an interest in it but like hearing once in a while how so and so is doing. I usually communicate via email, google chat, or phone.
One thing I never quite got was Twitter though, just never really saw an interest it, never understood it...
Party invitations. Facebook is Evite.
But your last, fairly insulting question could be rephrased as "would an educated, independent thinker..., have any reason to communicate with anyone else?"
Facebook is just a communication tool.
Even today in German schools the GDR and the Nazi time are some of the most important topics in history class, including us visiting the places, talking to eye witnesses, etc.
That leaves quite an impression.
[1] http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/governa...
[2] http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/governa...
I'm a German living in the United States and find this part of German society pretty annoying: Being super careful about anything that could potentially encroach on your privacy (for example see the fate of Google Street View in Germany).
and b/c you can't find everyone easily on facebook
>I'm a German living in the United States and find this part of German society pretty annoying: Being super careful about anything that could potentially encroach on your privacy
In the case of Google Maps, I understand that a non-functional application might be annoying and at least Google makes some effort to blur data. But in my reading of the original post, the poster is annoyed that the German community at large has decided to exercise their rights to privacy.
It's everybody's right to do whatever they want with their personal information, but in Germany it often gets to a point where you're being judged if you yourself decide to post something on a social network site.
It also leads to all kind of weird regulations from the government (again, see Street View as an example or the more recent EU-wide regulation of a minimum age of 16 to open social network accounts).
Germans don't care at all about stuff like this. Instead I bet they would be outraged if a US based company did the exact same thing.
No, this is not true. Me and my circles openly disgust that. Only because there is no public outcry doesn't mean they don't care. But indeed it's rather the younger generation that cares about these topics.
I don't think there's any need to play amateur psychologist. From what I can tell it's cultural from before the great "isms" of the 20th century. My (German) relatives, who arrived in the US in the 1920s, were less likely to share their business with non-family. That's how they were raised.
And, additionally, there are also those people who are still stuck on studiVZ.
Because Felix von Leitner (Fefe) has been arguing the same. Every time he tries to discuss something, he gets long, carefully argued info via email, and completely retarded insults via Twitter.