Have you ever read "Ten arguments for deleting your social media right now", by Jaron Lanier?

[cyberdream]

I'm wondering if anyone in this forum read this book. I've deleted most of my social media due to what I've learned while reading this book (I'm only with YouTube and Whatsapp) but I'm trying agora road as an alternative way to have social experiences on internet.
Do you guys have social media?
And a question for the ones who read this book: Do you consider >reddit a bummer? Because I think it's pretty different than other famous social media like Instagram and Twitter.

 

[Jade]

Not much reason to read a book like that if I never had social media in the first place, lol
When I do make accounts for social media it's usually just in relation to some other service, like how with nintendo's garbage online it used to be the only way (I think) to send pictures from the console to the computer was by posting it to twitter first from the console, unless you were doing more tedious and complicated things with capture cards. Even then I always try to stay as anonymous as possible and only use e-mails I almost never check.

 

[cyberdream]

Not much reason to read a book like that if I never had social media in the first place, lol
When I do make accounts for social media it's usually just in relation to some other service, like how with nintendo's garbage online it used to be the only way (I think) to send pictures from the console to the computer was by posting it to twitter first from the console, unless you were doing more tedious and complicated things with capture cards. Even then I always try to stay as anonymous as possible and only use e-mails I almost never check.

But why you never had social media?

 

[RisingThumb]

But why you never had social media?

Why would you want Social Media? It's easier to get into the hole than to get out of it

 

[Deleted member 3990]

Wouldn't need to read it. Already deleted all that shit years ago.

 

[Andy Kaufman]

I'm wondering if anyone in this forum read this book. I've deleted most of my social media due to what I've learned while reading this book (I'm only with YouTube and Whatsapp) but I'm trying agora road as an alternative way to have social experiences on internet.
Do you guys have social media?
And a question for the ones who read this book: Do you consider >reddit a bummer? Because I think it's pretty different than other famous social media like Instagram and Twitter.

I didn't read the book but last month also deleted all my social media because of some background checks from work and I didn't want to name my socmedia accounts but lying also meant trouble so I just deleted everything.

I stopped using social media like it was intended around 2015 or so anyway and just shitposted and followed meme sites on Facebook, since most people migrated to Instagram/Snapchat which I didn't.
Then earlier this year I tried out twitter and actually had fun and found some friends, 2 of which I still chat with now and then on Discord.

 

[MorphedSnowman]

I'm wondering if anyone in this forum read this book. I've deleted most of my social media due to what I've learned while reading this book (I'm only with YouTube and Whatsapp) but I'm trying agora road as an alternative way to have social experiences on internet.
Do you guys have social media?

I actually have some time ago. I don't think the book is intended for me because my social media presence is next to none. And I would actually suspect that applies for 70% of people who read the book. Not the fault of the book in any way, but I can't just see the average person in love with short content of social media picking it up and reading through a whole book. And I think this is a bit of an issue with this addictive entertainment content itself. It makes people hear what they want to be said, but not what needs to be said.

And a question for the ones who read this book: Do you consider >reddit a bummer? Because I think it's pretty different than other famous social media like Instagram and Twitter.

I would say no few years ago. Although he writes how social media without it's algorithm manipulation brings the worst in people anyway, so where the bummer really starts and ends is up to you. But nowdays it certainly is a bummer. The whole site was remade to bring in dark patterns in 2018. And you can see that in what is written. It's not like >reddit ever was a place for quality discussion, but just scroll down to one of the popular subreddits or even few niche ones. You see people behaving the same way as you would expect on facebook.

 

[Jade]

But why you never had social media?

Why would I want to get social media?

 

[cyberdream]

And I would actually suspect that applies for 70% of people who read the book. Not the fault of the book in any way, but I can't just see the average person in love with short content of social media picking it up and reading through a whole book.

Yeah, but the book is important even for people who don't use social media because they'll learn a lot reading this book. When I started reading it, I also didn't use social media a lot but I didn't know about manipulation thing and etc. This book gave me a lot of knowledge about social media's problem.
And even for people who use Instagram, Twitter and etc, the book is important to share the idea of having 0 social media.

 

[LostintheCycle]

Yeah, but the book is important even for people who don't use social media because they'll learn a lot reading this book.

You don't need a whole book to explain what's wrong with social media. Many people I know use social media and I don't even try tell them not to because its pointless, because they either already know what's wrong with it and continue to use it, or will never know what's wrong with it, or have to use it for business. It's more effective to wait for them to have an epiphany that makes them realize "Shit I really dont like this social media stuff", then you preach to the choir so they feel like they've got support in their moving off. But I've not really known anyone IRL do that besides myself.

 

[juicy_ricky]

I log into Instagram to see what parties/clubs to go to this week in NOLA...post a link to a DJ mix i recorded on youtube...and that's about it. I'll go days at a time without even thinking about it and that's how I like it. Nothing about social media is so engaging to me that I feel the need to participate more than that. Can't wrap my head around why anyone would spend all their time on multiple social media platforms all day long every day - ain't got time for that.

Not sure this book is gonna change people's minds though - didn't read it but I did watch his presentation on this book and it pretty much just said what a lot of people, me included, were already thinking. If you are the kind of person that's balls deep in the facebooktwittergram world you are probably too far gone for a well reasoned argument like Mr. Lanier presents to change your habits at this point imo.

 

[Z0diacK]

Delete social media? Okay (deletes agora road account)

 

[Pangolin]

If I delete my Agora account I would have to face all the various negative aspects of my life as well as complete several doomsday devices and also lose track of them. I will sleep well at night not knowing where they went.


View: https://www.tiktok.com/@dailyfry1/video/7225423523068546347

 

[Aral]

I'm wondering if anyone in this forum read this book. I've deleted most of my social media due to what I've learned while reading this book (I'm only with YouTube and Whatsapp) but I'm trying agora road as an alternative way to have social experiences on internet.
Do you guys have social media?
And a question for the ones who read this book: Do you consider >reddit a bummer? Because I think it's pretty different than other famous social media like Instagram and Twitter.

No, first because I didn't know it existed, but second because I didn't need "arguments" to delete my social media. I just didn't want to have it anymore and figured out that I was more or less keeping it out of "because everyone else has it".

>reddit is... meh. I do get some specific information on specific stuff from it, or read subreddits like r/attachment_theory and other ones of the like, but other than that, I can't really be bothered with it anymore. It was nice to browse back when I discovered it in 2015 or so, but I remember somewhat growing out of it in 2019 or so (same ish time that I deleted my Instagram and Facebook), I had several accounts there over the years that I'd end up deleting anyway. I don't feel like Iike I really miss out on a lot.

 

[haitoy0u]

No but I know a little mr. Lanier and I must say it: he is a fucking cool guy, just look at those dreads in the nineties. He must ate so much acid.

 

[nul42]

I haven't read the book but I watched the video of Jaron Lanier's lecture at UC Santa Cruz, "How the Internet Failed and How to Recreate It." Prior to that the only social media accounts I had were Youtube and reddit. (I have since deleted both accounts) I always had a negative view of big social media but I still got a lot out of his lecture. I guess what I came to realize is how I can't escape the negative impacts of social media by simply not using it myself.

 

[MySpace Tom]

I haven't read the book either. I was on Facebook pretty regularly though. I found myself constantly scrolling the feed, or even closing the app on my phone just to open it a second later as if something new would magically reappear. I don't even know why

A lot of news stories were popping up too, like how Facebook run psychological experiments on its users, how they siphon data from users who aren't even registered on the site, or collude with the government. The final straw for me at the time was the Cambridge Analytica scandal where Facebook knowingly let a third party harvest private messages from users

Most people I know still have their accounts and "only check it once a week or whatever, it's totally not a big deal". I actually did delete my account, though, and it was a weird experience. I don't know if this is still the policy, but after you initiate an account deletion, it would take something like two weeks for the account to be deleted. If you logged in at all after that, it would cancel the deletion. Then, after your account is gone, nothing appears for any of your contacts. They just assume that you've blocked them

After my account's deletion, I've actually had a couple of people come up to me in real life and ask why I blocked them, or were mad that we weren't friends anymore. I just explained that I'm not on Facebook, but this didn't do much. I mean, why would anyone delete their Facebook account?! That's where everyone is!

I do miss out on some events since a lot of people exclusively use social media sites to organize them, but really, I don't feel like I'm missing out on much

 

[Mеченый Яков]

I'm wondering if anyone in this forum read this book. I've deleted most of my social media due to what I've learned while reading this book (I'm only with YouTube and Whatsapp) but I'm trying agora road as an alternative way to have social experiences on internet.
Do you guys have social media?
And a question for the ones who read this book: Do you consider >reddit a bummer? Because I think it's pretty different than other famous social media like Instagram and Twitter.

No, i usually ignore what others tell me to do, specially book nerds (like if i need a guide to life pfft), so a book telling me what should i do is a big NO on my list, is not even like a i use social media at all, is just that, let's just say " i'm my own man and i preffer doing praxis rather than hearing/reading theory".

 

[handoferis]

I haven't used social media basically at all since 2020, got sick of it when covid happened and everyone went batshit insane. I won't delete my accounts though, people seem to view you with suspicion if you haven't got it at all. I don't need them to be gone to not use it or log into it though.

 

[MySpace Tom]

I won't delete my accounts though, people seem to view you with suspicion if you haven't got it at all

Didn't they teach you to say "no" to peer pressure in school?