Comment by purple-leafy | Hacker News Reader

Comment by purple-leafy | Hacker News Reader

I already have if you don’t count HN.

You don’t need social media, and I think less of people who need the acceptance of others.

I quit all social media about 10 years ago, when I wasn’t yet 20. I don’t watch or read the news either.

People are sheep though, so they thought that odd. But I’m not a sheep. You soon learn the important relationships, and the pointless ones.

I have nothing but HN. I don’t even have a LinkedIn, I still have a good software job.

You don’t need any of it, it’s all just noise and self-felating, distractions.

I have a great quality of life, very close friends and proper relationships with people, and I spend my time outside or furthering my studies.

I don’t care what Stacy ate for breakfast yesterday, and I don’t care about John’s new car. I don’t care about Bobs new position, I don’t care about Jacks political prowess. I don’t care about the “edgy” meme that Kate posts.

You are what you consume. So if you consume banal, shitty content, non-genuine surface level relationships, and manipulative advertising, and put up a false digital grandiose mask of who you are- what does that make you?

Hot tip. also delete and create a new HN account often then you're not invested in the replies to your posts or how many upvotes you get

The points I get, but why replies? I thought the point of this site was conversation.

In addition I feel like an account here having a long history/high karma is somewhat unique versus other sites since some actions and features aren’t usable until you’ve passed certain thresholds. To me at least this is interesting to think about, but I also don’t have accounts in any platform besides this one, so I don’t know for certain what other places do.

I love this idea, but have to ask - why is your account 8 years old?

Social media has it's uses. For most people it's a way to kill time, which they usually have too much of. I don't see anything wrong with that.

Like you I find a lot of what people share boring, but I have had a few nice friendships made possible by social media. Without it we would have lost touch a decade ago. And there are many others who are only a click away because of it. Maybe some of these relationships aren't that important, but so what? Why not maintain ties?

To me the real enlightened view is to use social media as a tool while not letting it consume your life. Take advantage of the ways it adds, while avoiding the negatives. But to each their own, if people prefer to get off of it completely that's ok too.

It has its advantages as you pointed out, but the issue is the torrent of garbage information it pours out. If it was possible to restrict your feed to only what you follows and have working filters, it would be great. But you don't.

And this amount of information on a singular person was only available if it was a roommate, coworker or a close friend. Which amounts to a small number of people. I don't think we were meant to deal with this.

While we also have a lot of information, interactions are starved. No real conversation is taking place. And it tends towards selfishness.

> To me the real enlightened view is to use social media as a tool while not letting it consume your life.

That's where the trouble starts. You don't have control when you use social media. By its very nature, it draws you in like a vortex. You can't get out.

I think it can depend on who's using it.

Personally, I live in a city with no natural community. I'm married but have no family here and only a couple acquaintances. I tried to quit Instagram a couple years ago but just ended up more isolated than I already am.

I think this type of situation is common for a lot of people. Social media is the glue that ties us to friends in distant places, which is why it's successful.

If you have actual community available to you quitting is much more doable.

I agree with you at some point.

I think the problem starts when you have no real life community. You are prey to the algorithms with nothing to balance them out.

You may be ok, but I know a few people who have been possessed by the algorithms and influencers. They have one thing in common, they live in isolation with no community.

> I don’t watch or read the news either.

I could agree with everything you said except this. I believe it is important to have some source of news. Even if it is just reuters news or some conscious choice, one needs to be informed of certain events in daily life.

Ideally you read the news like you check the weather forecast.

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