Ask HN: Do you regret using Social Networking apps?

I have stopped using most soc-networking sites mainly because everything is endless ragebait. The human brain tends to focus more on negative feelings than positive ones and algos sure know how to optimize that for their own profits. Not to mention it creates a warped sense of view of humanity and seeing demons in people when there is none.

I regret signing up for 98% of the sites I’ve signed up for over the years, if for no other reason than deleting those accounts (and the data attached) is difficult or impossible.

Social networking apps have morphed into content consumption apps.

When they were still social networking they were useful.

There is an argument that they made it too easy to still feel connected. What should have been a phone call to talk to someone got replaced by liking some post from them.

I regret that we don't have sufficiently strong operating systems. I don't know what I could have done differently over the past 40 years to have changed that, I doubt there is anything. This is, in my estimation, the root cause of much of the grief we now suffer with the Internet in general.

Because we can't run our own servers without substantial risks, almost everyone is forced into the walled gardens where network effects make it feasible to economically run the servers, and the administrative staff to keep them running, and somewhat secure. This provides the honeypot that then draws in advertisement and all the ills that go with it, as we're not the customers, we're the product.

I would hope that we can collectively get our security act together, which will as a byproduct make it easy for everyone to run their own servers without risk. But that's always been 20 years off, like fusion power. Everyone seems to think that Linux is good enough, which it isn't, but here we are. 8(

No, I don't regret using social networks, because it's helped me connect and reconnect with countless people.

If I were addicted to social media, I imagine I'd have a lot of regret, though.

I regret that it's turned into "get users to view as many ads as possible" by algorithmically generating what is effectively an unlimited timeline of content.

This "unlimited timeline" thing has caused me to stop using several services and greatly reduce my usage of the services I still find valuable, like X. Actually, I think X is the only one I still use (albeit much less).

When I see family or friends acting as if their lives depend on social media likes or comments, I feel like a day will surely come when they deeply regret it.

I'm just going to copy paste a comment I made in a different thread.

One problem for me about leaving social media is that it limits my chances of getting updates about jobs, and if I start a business, social media is a good way of promoting the business. I wish I was in a financial position where I didn't have to bother about this.

I've been limiting my use of social media (aside Reddit and HN) for almost two weeks now and I've been reading books and doing other things with my time rather than consuming content that isn't beneficial to me.

Check out the Wikipedia article - The Shallows

"""

The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. The book claims research shows "online reading" yields lower comprehension than reading a printed page. The Shallows was a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction.

"""

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shallows_(book)

Stopped using them when I realized I had stopped seeing posts from my actual friends and family.

It’s mostly endless reels and ads now and I have to scroll for way too long before I see a post from someone I’m connected to/friends with. Bored of it all.

I have this argument with my friend all the time. Social Networking apps are great. Ask any immigrant and they'll tell you if it wasn't for apps like that, they would go crazy. It keeps you connected with people you love and care about. There are downside to SN apps like anything else but that is your personal responsibility to manage and mitigate.

No regrets. Facebook was fun for a while. Then it stopped being fun, so I deleted my account. The others I either tried but never saw the point so deleted almost immediately, or couldn’t see any appeal and so never tried at all. Perhaps if I’d stayed on Facebook longer I would have regretted not having deleted it sooner.

The only social network I don't regret are IRC channels but that's mostly dead these days and it is rapidly being outlawed.

They were valuable at a certain point in time. In 2006 facebook was useful. In 2009 I found reddit useful. In 2013 I found twitter useful. And then eventually that value evaporated not only with algorithms but then the huge surge of people and what that meant for these platforms. The algorithms didn't help cut the noise in some ways it just made it work. Every platform became toxic. There is nothing wrong with social networks, but we don't need to connect EVERYONE. Smaller groups, social circles of 100 or less is ideal. Even then thats too big and is only useful where you're able to moderate it. Once things get too big it decays.

So no, don't regret it, maybe some of the twitter use. Yelling into the abyss is not healthy. But that's not to say we don't need private social networks. Not public. Private. Public social networks are going to need 10 years to reset.

I do regret using my government name or some version of it on so many accounts.

No. Not at all.

My life has been made better through social media use.

I am more connected to people who live far away. More connected to people of different backgrounds and have connections to people who I never would have met but for the ability to discover shared interests online.

Do you know what was really detrimental to people's lives, being tied to the land by birth and laboring for the benefit of the Pharaoh, King, Lord, Brahman, Sultan, Emperor, etc. And only if you were lucky, you weren't killed in some dumb war, by famine, or just for shits and giggles. Good luck.

Social Networks were great. Social Media is destroying humanity.

No, not at all. I’ve done some of my best trolling on social media sites like Hacker News.