I found this article in the Guardian especially interesting, considering the source.

When we have discussed this in the past on here, one conclusion has always been to ‘just turn it off’, but it seems that things aren’t quite as simple as that.

Of course they’re as simple as that. Nobody is forcing anybody to use social meeja, nobody has to install the apps, or spend hours each day using them.
I have Fb, Twitter and Instagram on my phone and pad, I go onto Instagram once in a blue moon, usually following a link, same with Twitter, and I haven’t checked out Fb for two-three weeks; I’m sure I might have missed something, but so what, I have real-life things to concern me, it should be the same for others.

You know that this is Social Media, right? 😉

I started reading it, but about the third paragraph I was distracted by the call I was on and also STW.

Could you summarise? I seem to have the span of a

it should be the same for others.

Everyone should be like you?

There may well be some legitimate concerns but a good proportion of that article is the usual over privileged hand ringing whilst most of the world cant access the benefits of the internet.

It’ll end up like say, car use, a good thing unless you over do it.

I don’t think Justin Rosenstein has tried heroin

I don’t think Justin Rosenstein has tried heroin

If he had, he would have “liked” it.

I am never quite sure if I am a refusenik or just too old* to GAF about most of the stuff on sochul meedja.

*Probably this

Wait what?

An industry that makes money from people visiting their media outlet has been trying to make people visit more?

Well **** me.

If he had, he would have “liked” it.

While looking that this.

You know that this is Social Media, right?

Yes, and it’s your comments that keep me coming back. So you, personally, are to blame for my moral corruption.

That’s my mission.

Corrupting decadent western civilisation, one user at a time.

I’m on Twitter but not FB. I haven’t opened the twitter app or been to the site in well over a year, it could be two.

I think what happened is that for it (Twitter) be be worth visiting you need to follow a reasonable number of people whether that be friends or celebrities or whatever. So you start accepting the “Others you follow also follow these” recommendations.

Not everyone posts/tweets regularly but on average there might be five tweets a day from each person (just a guess) so that’s five times the number of people you follow. That can be a lot of things to read and keep track of so unless you check constantly then stuff just falls by the wayside.

After a while I just couldn’t be bothered, things were too “scatter gun” with no cohesion.

… but it seems things aren’t as simple as that…

Indeed. So we have a man who….

…now leads a San Francisco-based company that improves office productivity

Getting free publicity by moaning about how his previous employers products are wasting people’s time.

Clever fella.

Getting free publicity by moaning about how his previous employers products are wasting people’s time.

Clever fella.
Good point, well made, that hadn’t actually registered.

Everyone should be like you?

Well, I’m certainly not alone, there are a great many who are largely indifferent to social meeja, and only use it occasionally, there’s no actual need for any individual to be glued to Fb or whatever for hours at a time.
I haven’t been on here for a fair bit, I’m only on here now because I’m on holiday, and my g/f is asleep on the couch after having a seizure, so I’m sitting here catching up on STW.

I suspect you’re not a 16 yr old girl though, to them online is real live, we may not like that but it is the reality.

Sometimes its good, they can collaborate on work, share ideas, share knowledge all that good stuff but as the article points out that may be at the expense of something else.

I would like to see kids doing other stuff but that they aren’t isn’t entirely the fault of the internet, we have made “outside” a no go area for many kids.

I suspect you’re not a 16 yr old girl though

To most teenage girls social media is just a way of communicating.

They never phone or email one another.

Well, I’m certainly not alone, there are a great many who are largely indifferent to social meeja, and only use it occasionally, there’s no actual need for any individual to be glued to Fb or whatever for hours at a time.

I’m not indifferent to it but positively hostile. I don’t have a smart phone, never had a TwitFace account (and never will have) and find email quite sufficient for keeping contact with anyone I care about.

I also don’t read Grauniad articles so no idea what it’s going on about.

Most mainstream social media is a poison to the mind if you let it, but it’s tool like a hammer – if smash yourself in the face with it, it’s harmful, if you use it another way you can build yourself a shed – and a shed is a happy place.