The morality of staying on X and Meta

I have a Facebook account and will keep it as it allows me to maintain contact with people I may not otherwise do. Am I active on the platform, not really. I'll scroll through, see what the various groups I'm in are up to but I wouldn't class myself as an active contributor.

Twitter / X on the other hand, I closed my account a few weeks ago. I noted a marked shift in the toxicity on there and the bias towards stoking up divisiveness. I don't ever see myself going back on there.

It’s a dilemma.

It’s all tits and Nazis now…and I hate Nazis.

I only have Facebook for local community information and a few groups.

I cleared out my page a few years a go so there's  virtually no personal information, so don't post and just have a few close friends/relatives as friend on there.

I have noticed a lot of people have stopped posting their lives on there like they once did. Perhaps they've moved across to other platforms like Instagram or tiktok ,but as I don't 'do' them I wouldn't know.

On Facebook as per Coyote, deactivated and deleted Twitter, browse but don't post on Insta. Bluesky's my msin social media now.

Same as Coyote, but I ditched  Twitter/X a long time ago. The other problem with Facebook is it seems to be the default means of local info dissemination. Eg this morning the parish council announced on Facebook that a well used local trail area was shut for 2 weeks due to bad walker and biker behaviour. I would have probably been up there otherwise tomorrow and faced the wrath of the ranger.

It’s all tits and Nazis now…and I hate Nazis.

perkypanther?

Yep, wrestling with this one too. I've never signed up to Twitter/X and no intention to change that now - considered it as mini-a11y's schools use X to share stuff, but I'm not missing out as the importanter stuff goes on the school app anyway. Facebook I'm still on but not a frequent user. More to get info on (again) mini-a11y's clubs etc who use it to communicate, but I do post occasionally - almost always biking photos though as it's nice to have the memories looking back.

Left Facebook, can't do that with Twitter as I can't recall my details! Was easy enough to do as I wasn't a big poster, just a browser and I figured if fact checkers are being reduced there will be a higher chance of wrong oddness starting to appear on my timeline.
Won't make a difference to the companies but I'm fine not being part of them.

Closed Twitter (easy as I was never a poster and just used it for news etc) and cancelled Amazon Prime last year. Taken FB off my phone after Zuckerberg did his fact check reversal last week.

I realise its only pissing into the wind and all its doing is making me feel better about myself but sometimes that's reason enough.

All mainstream media is owned by some meglomaniac.

Personally I don't care and don't engage with politics on any of them.

For me...
X = F1 and sports news
Facebook - bands, local spotted and info pages, car related facebook groups
Instagram - 30mins of funny reel scrolling when I get home from work! 🙂

Bluesky and Threads - not quite there yet for me.

I'm taking myself off pretty much all social media as I think that they're rapacious cess pits that are not good for my mental wellbeing.

For personal reasons I've actively stopped posting on IG and FB in recent years.

Twitter I got banned I think for being rude about Nigel Farage a few years back, I was only really in there to bag a PS5 for my son when they first released so no real loss.

IG will be harder to leave, but it's become rubbish over the years with more and more adverts.

The absolute turn around in Zuckerberg from kicking Donald off FB to bending at the knee is worrying. If someone that rich can't hold on to their morals then those morals were only their for show in the first instance.

I've escaped to Bluesky and remain a lurker on here.

WhatsApp is an issue. I may jump to Signal but there needs to be critical mass for that to work...

I'm going with b.

I've taken the FB apps off my phone and iPad, and deleted my Twitter account. Not deleting my FB account yet as I'm in some community groups for which there isn't really an alternative, but I've moved their SoMe channels to Bluesky.

Usage right down and not missing Twitter.

@Mark's thoughts here:

https://bsky.app/profile/singletrackmark.bsky.social/post/3lf6aijekkk2l

Ditched Twitter a while back.

Still use Facebook to remember peoples birthdays but don't really post on there. Might delete off my phone - like that idea.

I’ve left both. The added benefit of the world feeling like a much less toxic place has made it a very easy decision to stick to

Apart from specific FB groups (e.g. local community) it would be easy to ditch completely. X has become an absolutely shit fest so just don't engage with it anymore.

WhatsApp would be an issue. It's pretty much defacto for group chats for sports, scouts, work, other socials etc. Nightmare!

I do use Signal a bit, it is excellent and would work just fine as an alternative, but it's not as ubiquitous. Damn it.

I left X early last year.

I left Instagram a few months ago - and have to put up with not seeing my son's posts easily.

I've suspended my Facebook account, mainly as there are some contacts in have who I would hate to loose.

So far I'm not really missing them and hope to maybe completely come off soon.

My big issue is WhatsApp. All the family, immediate and wider, use it. I'm properly hooked in because of their use.

I've left Twitter, couldn't be bothered deleting my account but I won't be going back. I still have Facebook but rarely go on there now and never post on it. I'm still using Instagram as I don't think I want to leave all social media and I like it for following the football and music. Bluesky is slowly getting better but I don't want to waste as much time as I did on twitter so I'm not sure I want to spend any more time on it anyway.

Oh, and I forgot, work left X in November as it was both crap for marketing and we had our moral concerns.

We're having discussions around Meta products as well, but there are people on there still.

One of our discussions is to just post a 'we've left here, find us there--->' link and allow it to slowly degrade.

Same as most above - I use Facebook to keep up with friends and a few local community / news / weather pages. I very occasionally post or respond to others' posts, but I am not very active on it. Likewise with Insta, but even less-so. I ditched Twitter a few months ago as it had become painful to use – for every useful post, there's about 1,000 pointless ones. I have joined BlueSky and it's kinda what Twitter was like about 10 years ago and generally a nice place to be.

Not happy about Zuck's recent moderation decision and spouting manosphere bollocks, but I'll hang on with FB and Insta for now.

Insta particularly is still a relatively positive and nice place, in my experience of it.

Find myself using FB less anyway, but reluctant to cut it off as I'd have no way of contacting lots of people without it.

Never been on twitter, Instagram or anything other than FB and what's app.

I do use Facebook, in a few groups which are very useful and I like the messenger, often the only way to contact someone if you don't know their number, or for someone to get in touch with me. There's nothing personal on there and I never post, other than in the groups

What's app we're kind of stuck with because it's what everyone uses.

Already closed the ****ter/X account back when Musk bought it, so I can't quit it again.
F1 stuff I get from other sources.
Anyone that still supports X/****ter I will classify under the group of Nazi sympathisers etc.
And every website with and X logo at the bottom it will cross my mind that they are also supporting that axis of evil.

It’s only a matter of time before X gets renamed Twitler

Trouble is just about every single item you buy / consume has been lobbied/ pushed at our leaders , or the business leader has influenced/ tried to influence political leadership

I'm liking BlueSky.

Twitter is just a ridiculous Alt-Right crazefest now and should be shunned by anyone who's not on that spectrum. Businesses and organisations should leave it because to stay is to be tainted by it.

Facebook still provides lots of useful stuff, you just have to ignore Zuckerberg's new Caesar cosplaying, he's just a 21stC Murdoch.

I left all of that years ago, when people started checking in to Tesco.

STW is my social media fix

I think I'm done with X. I was mostly happy with the content I saw but don't want to support Musk in any way. There are some content providers not yet using other platforms though...

Facebook is getting harder to retain. It's definitely still a default for many groups (local, sports, activities, hobbies etc) but, regardless of how much I try to avoid it, I'm getting more and more random spam. I think this may be due to fewer friends posting on it, therefore falling below some sort of critical mass.

I hardly used Instagram anyway and that seems to always have been full of crap, so sacking that off is easy.

That really just leaves a few forums. Including this one there are 3 or 4 in which I actively participate, to varying degrees. Does Strava count? I'm on there occasionally too.

I closed my Twitter account a few years ago.

I still have a FB account for local info and a few other small groups but hardly ever post.

I use Reddit, bluesky, Mastodon, Radio3 and STW instead. STW would get more use if not so slow.

Xitter is a cesspit. Most of my follows moved to bsky a while back and the few who I saw still staying on there last time I looked are those who treat it very much as a one-way broadcast medium to promote themselves and their views.

Meta (FB) is somewhat necessary for local sports clubs and the cat rescue also gets a lot of traffic that way. I would happily switch but currently there isn't a good alternative. I don't actually post on it.

I only use X to troll rabid rightwingers. But as someone said recently, it just feeds the algorithm so you end up with more vile rightwing sewage flowing at you. It's probably time to heave-ho it altogether. Leave it for the festering cesspit it is.

FB is just contacts for me. I used to troll a few morons on there too, but it is so easy to block feeds and themes that I just do that now - so I don't have to see it even in passing.

It's all a bit meh apart from being able to organise riding easily on it.

a) Stay, don’t surrender ground to them as the problem will only get worse if unchallenged by moderate voices.

Seems rational but practically no-one goes on those places to learn or have their minds changed. A tiny % of users might. Arguing with people or attempting to redress the balance just feeds the algorithm, the site owner gains more than you or I ever will and it's why Musk shitposts all day to get a reaction. So the only option for change is to ditch Meta and X and at the same time sign up to an alternative. As one fades another grows.

WhatsApp is an issue. I may jump to Signal but there needs to be critical mass for that to work…

Hence why I think it's good to support their competitors. Whatsapp is a great example - it's just a messenger service with groups, a competitor should hit a tipping point fast because we all influence each other's choices. I only use it because family does.. etc. Sign up, ask your friends to do so .. if Gamestop can happen MetaStop can happen.

Twitter I’ve left, there’s no value in it for me, there are a few accounts I miss but nothing I’ll lose sleep over.

Facebook is more difficult as it’s useful for small groups and club pages. I don’t post anything personal there but do use it to organise and promote club stuff.

Insta I like but find it very, very addictive. It’s generally positive (well, my feed is) but is so ease to lose time on there. So I've now time limited it to 15 mins per day which feels OK.

Blue sky is tempting to look at but I’m trying to cut down screen time and I’m not sure another social media account is sensible.

The other platform not mentioned is Reddit which I do still quite like. So long as you pick your groups well it’s relatively idiot free.

My big issue is WhatsApp. All the family, immediate and wider, use it. I’m properly hooked in because of their use.

This is a problem for me, too. It's widely (if unofficially) used for work and trying to persuade people to move to Signal or even just use iMessage when both parties have iPhones is a PITA.

Twitter is just a ridiculous Alt-Right crazefest now and should be shunned by anyone who’s not on that spectrum.

You can control your feed - if you interact with the crazefest that's what you'll be fed.

Twitter is a complete hellscape so I "deactivated" my account. I need to keep off it for 30 days then everything is deleted and I disappear from there. I found it sucked in large amounts of time chasing vacuous posts about nothing and it was just a black hole of grim. Bluesky has taken over and all the stuff I wanted on Twitter is there too.

Insta is fine, WhatsApp is good for messages and contacts, FB once the adverts are deleted is ok.

Mark Z changed track for Individual 1 so I completely believe the pendulum will swing back once Trump dies/goes to prison/spontaneously combusts/goes to Elons love island on Mars.

Edit: Anyone have a Truth Social account?

Twitter went ages ago.
Facebook went a few weeks ago.
whatsapp is a bit more difficult, I am informing people that I have moved to signal (quite a few of my friends moved to signal a couple of years ago anyway when there was the scare about meta processing data so I have been stuck on both), I will remove it soon.
Google is the really hard one. I think it might take about 12 months to extract myself as it is my main email address, but it has too be done.

I don't think there is a moral argument for remaining on them at all. Their actions are clear, they are promoting far right and fascist ideology, just because we might derive "some" use, being part of their userbase is being part of that promotion and the damage it is doing.

The Signal messenger app is not publicly traded. The Signal messenger is not on the stock market because it is a 501c3 nonprofit.

Oh.. interesting. One more reason to persuade your contacts to sign up and not to feeed whatsapp so much.

President Trump open to Musk, Ellison purchasing TikTok, Bloomberg says

Of course he would be.

“I have the right to make a deal,” Trump said at an event at the White House, according to Bloomberg. “So what I’m thinking about saying to somebody is buy it and give half to the United States of America, half, and we’ll give you the permit, and they’ll have a great partner.”

Jeez. State owned media under Trump.

The one Meta app I would miss is Instagram.

Closed my FB account in 2019

Closed my Twitter account in 2021 when it became apparent Musk was interested

Have an Insta account but just for personal interests (aviation stuff etc), thinking about binning that though. Don't post on it.

What else is out there that's morally defensible?

The young'uns are going on about RedNote, or something, as an alternative to TT/X/etc

Mark Z changed track for Individual 1

Can I remind you about Cambridge analytical, he has been at it longer than Musk in reality, he just doesn't promote it.

As for alternatives, I'm in a club that uses a discord server. I don't think the functionality is that great but it's adequate for the purpose.

Mark Z changed track for Individual 1 so I completely believe the pendulum will swing back once Trump dies/goes to prison/spontaneously combusts/goes to Elons love island on Mars.

I think so - he seems to put judgement aside and do the right thing for his business even if that is arguably a bad thing for society. I suppose the biggger picture is our own use of social media and suceptibility to addictive behaviour. Someone will cater for that whether it's him or not, perhaps better the devil we know at this stage. And in the end smoking rates went down, same will happen with SM. The mental hooks will weaken for most of us and it'll end up used more like a kindle reader, or flickr. There will always be trashy reality TV level SM but it'll be a sideline. (I'll need to check back in on that one to see how it ages.. ha).

Lots of reddit sub categories now banning links to Twitter. Big ones too.

Just been having this discussion.

And I'd forgotten to factor in...

WhatsApp is an issue.

This is going to be hard.

And... what MSP says... Musk has learned from Facebook... Zuckerberg is the original, it's just that he's been far more subtle and insidious with it.

Facebook has gone mad in the past few weeks. Absoloutly swimming in weird "make britain great again" and, "wasnt everything perfect before all the brown people and gays" tripe.

Something weird going on in the background