| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* 13:03 - Nov 4 with 1833 views | NedPlimpton |
As others have said with X it's just an absolute cesspit. I can't open social media in general without seeing misinformation from groups, pages or influencers that I've never followed or engaged with. I can't scroll through a couple of posts without someone telling me to buy something that I definitely don't need or want. I can't look at comments under a news story without seeing overt racism (actual racism, not just subtle xenophobia dressed up as genuine concerns)
How has it come to this?
Has anyone completely left all social media and care to share their experiences?
Any tips for making it a happier place without leaving entirely? (I already try to curate my feeds as best as possible by saying what content I do and don't like, but that doesn't make a difference)
I feel like I'd miss a lot of things like music recommendations, gig listings, Facebook marketplace which is genuinely quite useful. I do a lot of running so event info is also quite often only available on socials e.g whether a particular parkrun has been cancelled that morning
I also run a couple of accounts for small community groups that I'm involved with and so even if I deleted my personal accounts I'd still need to go on there, but it's just so bloody depressing!
*obvs not counting twtd
|  | | |  |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 13:09 - Nov 4 with 1442 views | belgablue |
Binned any I had at the start of covid. Not missed any. Not sure you can avoid adverts though.
For music just subscribe to bands, sites you like, venues etc... |  |
| |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 13:18 - Nov 4 with 1389 views | Denny32 |
Throw away your phone and just get a basic phone. Old nokia |  | | |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 13:21 - Nov 4 with 1357 views | Rozz |
I keep my accounts but periodically delete the instagram app for periods of a few weeks. All of a sudden I find myself getting more done, finding time to read and exercise where normally I’d lose an hour or so a day scrolling. I have removed myself from X for the reasons you mention and don’t visit anything else. I actually enjoy instagram for the most part, but find it a total time sink. |  | | |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 13:33 - Nov 4 with 1298 views | Swansea_Blue |
My only guilty pleasures are this place and YouTube for music videos. I do unfortunately have a Facebook account, but only use that to see info about the kid’s activities and will bin it as soon as they leave school. It certainly eases the stress by not being on X and similar places, so yes I’d recommend it. It takes a concerted effort to break the habit of constantly looking at your phone though - I struggle and that’s just because of this place. |  |
| |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 13:35 - Nov 4 with 1263 views | Illinoisblue |
You cannot leave. The algorithm owns you. |  |
| |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 13:46 - Nov 4 with 1199 views | Pippin1970 |
Got shut off it all nearly 2 years ago . Best thing I did . Obviously you miss out what hot destinations people going on and what people had for breakfast. | | | |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 13:49 - Nov 4 with 1174 views | bluelagos |
So my advice would be to simply be selective about who you engage with - much as you would in real life.
If someone drinks in your pub who is an a vile prick - do you stop drinking in the pub or use the other bar and avoid them? Or if a neighbour is objectionable do you not walk down the street or simply choose not to stop and chat?
Apply the same logic on social media would be my advice. There's a couple of posters on here who I find difficult - and simply choose to rarely engage/respond to them as I think they are bellends. Am sure there are plenty that do the same with me too.
Better than falling out and/or one of you losing it and getting a ban-hammer. [Post edited 4 Nov 14:23]
|  |
| |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 14:12 - Nov 4 with 1093 views | Churchman |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 13:33 - Nov 4 by Swansea_Blue |
My only guilty pleasures are this place and YouTube for music videos. I do unfortunately have a Facebook account, but only use that to see info about the kid’s activities and will bin it as soon as they leave school. It certainly eases the stress by not being on X and similar places, so yes I’d recommend it. It takes a concerted effort to break the habit of constantly looking at your phone though - I struggle and that’s just because of this place. |
I have kept all my accounts from FB to LinkedIn, X etc. but I never access them. Here is it really.
News online, well the headlines, banking etc - all online. I also have the library app (Libby) which I use all the time because I read a lot and it’s free! I use Kindle, but won’t spend more than 99p because you don’t own the book.
With AI I think the internet will become ever more dangerous and needed to be treated with ever more care |  | | |
Login to get fewer ads
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 14:13 - Nov 4 with 1088 views | DazBoGangles |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 13:46 - Nov 4 by Pippin1970 |
Got shut off it all nearly 2 years ago . Best thing I did . Obviously you miss out what hot destinations people going on and what people had for breakfast. |
100% agree - missed twitter / x initially due to football news etc but honestly I think it's the best ever thing I did for my head
Would never go back | | | |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 14:19 - Nov 4 with 1070 views | itfcjoe |
I just have notifications on for X for accounts I care about - basically Ipswich and England football news and don't go on it bar to look at those notifications |  |
| |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 14:21 - Nov 4 with 1054 views | DJR |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 14:12 - Nov 4 by Churchman |
I have kept all my accounts from FB to LinkedIn, X etc. but I never access them. Here is it really.
News online, well the headlines, banking etc - all online. I also have the library app (Libby) which I use all the time because I read a lot and it’s free! I use Kindle, but won’t spend more than 99p because you don’t own the book.
With AI I think the internet will become ever more dangerous and needed to be treated with ever more care |
I have Press Reader through my library which gives me free access to the digital editions of many newspapers.
And even though I might have read some of the stories online, I read the Guardian and Observer on it with my breakfast because there will have been articles that I haven't read. I also dip in and out of other papers including Haaretz.
And it's much easier to eat your breakfast with a tablet than a newspaper because you don't have to turn the page. |  | | |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 14:27 - Nov 4 with 1014 views | Bluetaff |
Binned the lot off around 6 months ago and in all honesty, as many on here have also said - best thing I have done for my own sanity. Came back to Instagram around 2 months ago with a complete reset in order to sell art and photographs so my algorithm 'reset'. Would never again go back to the likes of X and Facebook etc... |  |
| |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 14:39 - Nov 4 with 946 views | iamatractorboy |
I stopped using Facebook about 15 years ago because all people seemed to use it for was attention seeking ('look at this photo of something amazing I ate/saw/did', that kind of rubbish) and then getting into petty arguments about posting/not posting/commenting/not commenting on something.
Never had Instagram.
Never used Twitter/X although did sign up many moons ago, god knows why.
Belong to TWTD and a (primarily US-user, although I'm in the UK) chat/post thing, not dissimilar from TWTD really.
That's it. Don't feel like I'm missing out except sometimes hearing very old (sometimes important) news because people assume everyone on the planet uses FB. But I'll eventually hear that through mates who know I don't use it. Hasn't spoiled my life and probably stops me doom scrolling endlessly! | | | |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 14:42 - Nov 4 with 929 views | Ryorry |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 13:49 - Nov 4 by bluelagos |
So my advice would be to simply be selective about who you engage with - much as you would in real life.
If someone drinks in your pub who is an a vile prick - do you stop drinking in the pub or use the other bar and avoid them? Or if a neighbour is objectionable do you not walk down the street or simply choose not to stop and chat?
Apply the same logic on social media would be my advice. There's a couple of posters on here who I find difficult - and simply choose to rarely engage/respond to them as I think they are bellends. Am sure there are plenty that do the same with me too.
Better than falling out and/or one of you losing it and getting a ban-hammer. [Post edited 4 Nov 14:23]
|
Have been saying and doing exactly this for 14 years re X and fb (never bothered with any others apart from this place). We don’t stop reading books because there are some cr@p as well as brilliant ones out there.
The absolute need to retain those two above was highlighted for me recently by YW failing to inform almost an entire local community for 5 (five) days after it became unsafe, that their water wasn’t safe to drink, they needed to boil it.
The first & only time the majority heard about it was from a fb community group page, & people spreading the word from that - probably saved many from becoming ill. |  |
| |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 14:49 - Nov 4 with 890 views | thebooks |
Pretty much, although I have a Mastodon account. No algorithm, ads or anything like that, but I can take it or leave it. There is no football on there, apart from a Burnley fan I follow. When I see the rubbish on X and YT that really doesn't bother me.
The music accounts on there are very niche, but very good. I subscribe to The Quietus website for music recommendations; that's a brillaint site.
I'm old enough to have used RSS the first time round. Lots of websites still offer a feed of stories that you can pick up in a feed reader, away from X Facebook etc. I find that helps.
Like a couple of posters say, the library service will offer you some decent free services as alternatives (I'm not a huge fan of PressReader, but I can see why some like it).
Getting off X etc. was one of the best things I did. There's a lot of FOMO. |  | | |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 14:53 - Nov 4 with 862 views | thebooks |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 14:42 - Nov 4 by Ryorry |
Have been saying and doing exactly this for 14 years re X and fb (never bothered with any others apart from this place). We don’t stop reading books because there are some cr@p as well as brilliant ones out there.
The absolute need to retain those two above was highlighted for me recently by YW failing to inform almost an entire local community for 5 (five) days after it became unsafe, that their water wasn’t safe to drink, they needed to boil it.
The first & only time the majority heard about it was from a fb community group page, & people spreading the word from that - probably saved many from becoming ill. |
That's interesting how Facebook has become a sort of infrastructure. Not a healthy thing.
(Obvs YW should be informing customers directly. You shouldn't have to rely on an indirect, commercial service like Facebook for important information -- that's caused untold problems.) | | | |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 15:08 - Nov 4 with 806 views | Ryorry |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 14:53 - Nov 4 by thebooks |
That's interesting how Facebook has become a sort of infrastructure. Not a healthy thing.
(Obvs YW should be informing customers directly. You shouldn't have to rely on an indirect, commercial service like Facebook for important information -- that's caused untold problems.) |
In this case, fb was obviously the healthy thing!
This is it - you and others can go on about what should or shouldn’t be, ideally, but I’m a very practical person and getting by in the real world means taking the good, useful things and ignoring the rest.
A bit like ignoring a few eejits on here. Or maybe it’s a Yorkshire thing, extracting the brass from the muck! | |
| |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 15:13 - Nov 4 with 773 views | NedPlimpton |
Thanks all. Some useful stuff
Not tried and RSS reader but might give it a go
I have up on X a long time ago too and absolutely do not miss it. There's still some functionality within Facebook that I would definitely miss. If there was a way to completely remove anything from your feed other than your friends and groups that you have chosen to follow that would be amazing, but I can't see that being a thing
Instagram has also just become full of stuff that I've never wanted to see and feels very much like it's going the way of Facebook and just becoming more negative | | | |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 15:30 - Nov 4 with 707 views | SuffolkITFC |
Left over two years ago. Still use YouTube and lurk on here, but otherwise nothing.
It was hard initially as I got real FOMO, but with time I realised all I was doing was doomscrolling and not getting anything constructive from it. Since leaving my stress levels have dropped as I am not longer pointlessly arguing with antivax morons etc. I have to admit there are times I want to comment on news articles, or jump on Reddit for a rant, but I generally pick up a book or fling a podcast on!
I now read more, am far more engaged with friends (actual friends not the girl who sat behind me in Geography 35 years ago), and listen to podcasts related to beer, history, football etc
I would highly recommend making the break and going cold turkey. It's hard, but totally worth it. | | | |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 15:32 - Nov 4 with 697 views | WeWereZombies |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 14:21 - Nov 4 by DJR |
I have Press Reader through my library which gives me free access to the digital editions of many newspapers.
And even though I might have read some of the stories online, I read the Guardian and Observer on it with my breakfast because there will have been articles that I haven't read. I also dip in and out of other papers including Haaretz.
And it's much easier to eat your breakfast with a tablet than a newspaper because you don't have to turn the page. |
And easier still to eat your breakfast with a spoon...sorry, couldn't resist.
Anyway, this place and YouTube are the only remotely social media things I do (as well as using Wikipedia much more than I ever thought I would.) YouTube is paying dividends - I got a notification this morning that I have been awarded a badge for being a top listener to The Eagles, wonder if it will be enamel or silver-plated tin ? |  |
| |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 15:40 - Nov 4 with 666 views | hype313 |
Deactivated Facebook a year ago, haven't missed it, found it was just adverts, had Tiktok for a bit but deleted that, came off X a long time ago and only have Insta now as I run the account for a couple of sports teams.
Never had Snapchat, although I'm probably the wrong demographic...
Like everything, they were fine when they started but then morphed into absolute dross over time.
Regarding Facebook Marketplace, it is useful, but if you know lots of people locally then I just use their profile to sell stuff.
So basically I have Insta, Whatsapp and Telegram. So I don't spend hours doomscrolling |  |
| |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 15:43 - Nov 4 with 656 views | NedPlimpton |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 15:13 - Nov 4 by NedPlimpton |
Thanks all. Some useful stuff
Not tried and RSS reader but might give it a go
I have up on X a long time ago too and absolutely do not miss it. There's still some functionality within Facebook that I would definitely miss. If there was a way to completely remove anything from your feed other than your friends and groups that you have chosen to follow that would be amazing, but I can't see that being a thing
Instagram has also just become full of stuff that I've never wanted to see and feels very much like it's going the way of Facebook and just becoming more negative |
I've just come across my phone's in built app-timers so have set some pretty strict limits on there to restrict doom scrolling.
Unfortunately cold turkey isn't really an option as, like I said, I managed a couple of accounts for various groups that I'm in | | | |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 15:43 - Nov 4 with 652 views | RadioOrwell |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 13:35 - Nov 4 by Illinoisblue |
You cannot leave. The algorithm owns you. |
After about 5 years I still know that my Facebook account is still there despite me trying to kill it.
I suspect it's the same for all of them.
You just have to be strong and not give in and that's hard when friends or anyone send you links to stuff which are direct to FB or whatever.
In short, get off all of them.
You are still allowed to have friends. |  | | |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 16:02 - Nov 4 with 596 views | SuffolkITFC |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 14:21 - Nov 4 by DJR |
I have Press Reader through my library which gives me free access to the digital editions of many newspapers.
And even though I might have read some of the stories online, I read the Guardian and Observer on it with my breakfast because there will have been articles that I haven't read. I also dip in and out of other papers including Haaretz.
And it's much easier to eat your breakfast with a tablet than a newspaper because you don't have to turn the page. |
Hadn't heard of this app until you mentioned it.....now downloaded and signed in with the library! I was paying for Kindle Unlimited just to read a couple of magazines, but now I can do it for free! Thanks!!! | | | |
| Anyone got any experience of leaving social media entirely* on 16:08 - Nov 4 with 576 views | DanTheMan |
Other than Reddit (which is closer to a very large forum), I've not used any of it for years. |  |
| |
| |
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.
