Ask HN: Do you use social media? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Do you use social media?

20 pointsirixusr27 comments

We've all read the dangers and abuses of social media. We all know the positives.

Do you have a Facebook account?

How long are you on it?

How about a "professional" social media network?

For the above, why why not?

I signed up on FB in 2005 and linkedin in 2003. This was when social started to get some serious momentum. I was on myspace before FB. 10-13 years later I do not use any of them. Why? FB seems more appropriate for teenagers or young adults. I grew up since then and have other hobbies. Linkedin is like a Resume, totally worthless (in my case) besides searching for a new job every 3 to 5 years.

Twitter? I opened an account a while back and didn't see any differences between FB status update and 140 character.

> FB seems more appropriate for teenagers or young adults.

They're all on Snapchat now, and the teens who joined FB early have since locked down their FB accounts to super-private and use it to talk to their parents, because their parents shy away from Snapchat.

Doesn't HN itself qualify as a social medium?

Technically it should but it's still a pretty niche site, what general populace regard as social media is things like twitter, facebook, youtube and sometimes google+ and reddit, I'm sure there is a couple more. But as a general rule of thumb if it's not owned by a major corporation and doesn't have millions of users no tv channel or newpaper is going to call it social media. So practically speaking it's mainstream websites where people interact, oligopoly so to speak.

I have never had a FB account. The very idea of having my personal data, keyed by my real name, and managed by an opaque advertising company has always seemed like a shitty proposition to me.

However I do use reddit daily.

FB - Been on and off and after some introspection left it for good since all I see was people posting their wedding and honeymooning photos and also none of them were really 'friends'. With the people I consider friends I prefer to just pick up the phone and converse.

LIinkedIn: Visit now and then to check out jobs and rather have to some extent used as a FB replacement (though in a better sense) to be in touch with people and network mostly to know about their professions or their higher education so as to get an idea of what kind of work or courses they do. Just helps formulate an opinion and build a career path sometimes.

Twitter: Just for news updates and its mostly fun seeing politicians and celebreties wage war of words and then news channels debating and analyzing who trolled whom and what it could have meant. Just to relax after a long day.

Quora: if that qualifies as social media, find it useful to get a general opinion on any random topic. Been spending some time here, though been reducing it to focus on the real world

HN is social media. Anyone who answers you here is a social media user. Try asking acquaintances offline and you might find some who aren't.

Facebook - I mainly use it to post pictures of my kids and random thoughts that get a couple of likes to satisfy my appetite for someone else's approval. Come to think of it, posting pictures of my kids seems like a bad idea. I visit is occasionally, but don't really engage in other's political post rhetoric, opinions, etc.

Twitter - I use it professionally and religiously to acquire new follower, follow people in my industry and to keep track of the latest trends, etc. I also randomly reach out to people in the same line of work to solicit feedback.

LinkedIn - more of the same, but I don't put that much effort behind it. I just made sure there is a consistent tone of message between LinkedIn and my Twitter handle regarding my professional persona, etc.

Also, why do you ask?

I have a Facebook account but only use it once a month or so.

I'm trying to pump a motorcycle Instagram account right now, so I'm active there multiple times a day using a Chrome extension I wrote for the purpose.

Magis for Google Chrome gets you more followers and increases user engagement by giving you a few keyboard shortcuts that make you fast. One button likes and a quick keyboard combination for comments.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/magis/kahkfpeemmmj...

I gave up twitter/facebook/instagram at the end of 2016 mostly because all the political news and discussion was becoming too much. I don't miss it.

I think I still have a LinkedIn account but never use it. I have never found professional social networking tools useful. I think thats mostly because I don't really need to do a lot of networking as a data engineer. If my job had more of a 'social imperative' (e.g. sales, leadership, marketing, or freelance) I probably would use it.

How do you engage politically?

> Do you have a Facebook account?

> How about a "professional" social media network?

Have never needed either past college. None of my current friends use it or spend time on it, don't really talk to people I went to high school or college with, and I use iMessage for family. I see no benefit.

For professional social networks, I just never made an account and have no desire to do it. Maybe one day, but maybe not.

For me it's not about wasting time (I waste time on HN, Lobsters, and GameFAQs), just lack of interest and utility.

I have a FB account and use it mostly to post pictures of my cat to my friends and talk to the breeders of my cat as needed. I also have a much more active Twitter account and use it to post pictures of my cat to anyone who will listen. Then I've got two not too active Instagram accounts that I only post to sporadically - one for my fitness/workout posts and the other to post pictures of my cat.

You should post a picture of your cat.

I am so happy you asked: http://i.imgur.com/nj3H28P.jpg

While I do have an account on most of the social media portals - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Reddit - I am mostly a lurker and a very rare contributor (Instagram is a small exception).

I do like seeing what other people are up to but I am not sure I have a lot of interesting things to contribute myself :|

I don't use my FB account. I think I am averaging a login every 5 years.

I use LinkedIn for professional networking but very sparingly.

I started using Mastodon recently and participate there but maybe a few times a week.

I am on a few programming Slacks and fairly active there. That seems to hit the sweet spot for an old IRC user like myself.

My main use is reddit, followed by Hacker News and then Twitter.

I hard-deleted my Facebook account ~5 years ago; it had become a time-suck, downer, and an obligation more than something fun. I don't miss it, though I am aware that there are a few things I'm missing.

I use Facebook to chat with friends and organize social events but do not post personal content. LinkedIn is truly awful, my feed is flooded with recruiters complaining about candidates or posting cringy motivational stories.

facebook: Was fun way back in 2004 when it required a .edu email. Lately, not so much as it has just become a photo-fest of who is doing what and where.

linkedin: I used it well for a while to connect with existing co-workers. I still login once in a while to see my network. Ever since I started running my own thing, recruiter emails have dropped even though not entirely.

twitter: Have one but who wants to see my tweets. No one apparently. I am convinced that twitter is only for celebrities or for updates if you are a company/organization.

Only twitter, less than 30m per day. I'm also planning to use flickr to keep family photos.

I don't have a facebook account.

Professional social network like... LinkedIn?

I use Twitter once in awhile, but I tend to use apps like Nuzzel, and CrowdTangle to get "curated" news from my friends/followers

I have never had a Facebook account.

I signed up for LinkedIn 2 years ago.

Goodreads is the only social network that I enjoy participating in.

Facebook is my life

Scuttlebutt.nl

only HN and reddit, FB is toxic IMO

No for both of them. I closed Linkedin few years back and now I receive some emails through my website; much better quality.

Recently I closed Facebook as well as I was spending too much time there involuntarily, and I've been really productive since then. Every day I miss it less and less. Take into account that I used before and after Whatsapp as the primary means of communication among my friends and family.

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