where a market is saturated, capital will always seek to encourage overconsumption. i try to avoid overconsumption as much as possible, and cutting out most forms of social media has been a big part of that for sure.

I don't touch black-box algorithms, and platforms that want my name and face. I use alternative frontends like Freetube/Invideous, xcancel etc., libreddit etc. if it's the only way to see something.

It seems some folks call a forum that only asks you for a username and password "social media" nowadays, which is confusing, since to my recollection the term emerged alongside Facebook.

Usually, it tends to mess with my mental health.

I avoid it like the fucking plague. Have since 2017-ish. Life is certainly better without it.

I count this as a kind of social media. So in that way, I don't avoid it. But it's been a while since I was on the everybody platforms. Many of the ones I used in the past have deteriorated to the point it became unbearable. I've idly considered getting on XHS but my understanding is it's more of a mobile thing and I don't really want to do that sort of thing on a phone. I'm also just not sure the format would be healthy for me, even if it is less reactionary.

I'm on social media. However, I was able to reduce my intake of Western controlled social media for others like my Cuban Telegram channels and Xiaohongshu(Rednote). Rednote(after training the algo) is a breath of fresh air.

Yeah, 100 percent. Not only most social media are a privacy nightmare. But on top of that you are putting yourself entirely at the hands of whoever controls the algorithm.

Lemmygrad is the only social media account that i have.

federated, selfhostable social media like lemmy? apparently not.

centralized pig-owned "social" media? fuck yes

I get banned far too much so the matter is pretty much self-correcting, LMAO

Lmao, same. Only use Tiktok and reedit and reddit largely for NSFW stuff. Never for political stuff.

Yes

I never got into social media. Lemmy is one exception because almost all the independent small time forums got eaten up by closed-down, insufferable and pointless corporate platforms such as reddit and the like. I guess IRC counts too in a sense, but even then I'm a pretty sparing user of that.

I didn't make a conscious effort to stop. They got really shitty on their own, and I found more grass-touching activities. I still have accounts on all of the big social media platforms, since people will message me or send me links on them from time to time. But will go months at a time not even thinking about them.

I do spend a lot of time on lemmy and mastodon, as well as groups on the various messaging services (discord, matrix, signal, telegram, WhatsApp, and good 'ol SMS and email). Those are technically the same kind of "social media". But I think everyone understands now that there's a categorical difference between real communities of people using a technology to talk to each other, and the skinner boxes.

I'm on social media way too much.

Avoid... yall are ON social media!

As much as I can.

I've largely avoided the larger platforms, but was on Reddit for a decade. No more. My biggest presence is YT but I don't post much. The lower content (quantity not quality!) on sites like this that I am frequenting has me feeling a little lacking. But I do not see that as necessarily bad. What I would like is to find some real world places where I can talk with other ML. Build community.

Instagram is the only one I use regularly and will probably do a month without it in june just to see how it affects me and if I'm truly addicted.