Social Media

Ramblings about social media, why I severely reduced my usage of it, and how I achieved that.

Reasons why I stopped using social media

tiktok

tiktok is more addictive than any other social media, it's just endless scrolling and full hours can pass without you even noticing, and afterwards you feel horrible and don't even remember what you've seen
it absolutely ruins everyone's attention span
it keeps showing you stuff you're not interested in because it assumes that you like everything you watch for more than a few seconds; this means there is no way to be critical about content (aka watching it and commenting criticism)
the "i'm not interested in this" does not work well enough
it ruins people's (especially young girls' and women's) self-confidence because it perpetuates unrealistic body standards, romanticizes plastic surgery, and keeps finding new completely-normal things of a human body to suddenly hate
i don't want to support short-form video content, both because of the attention span problem and because i just think the content is worse if you need to squeeze it into just a few seconds/minutes. i don't even think most short-form video content of my favorite creators are very interesting!

twitter

it's a cesspool of hate
it's a popularity contest
funny tweets that get a lot of attention are immediately followed by ads by the same user
cancel-culture is so insanely prevalent, and it's actually scary how it teaches young people to think that people are irredeemable and even making a small mistake means that they are terrible
elon musk is dumb as hell, i don't want to support him, and the changes he made to twitter were the final straw

facebook

i don't think i need to say much here, i've never been a big fan of facebook but now it just adds absolutely no value to my life
i follow exactly 0 pages on facebook and my friends don't write posts, so my dashboard is 100% sponsored/suggested content, which is mostly clickbait-y articles shaming celebrities, and boomer humor

reddit (note: i think most small communities on reddit are fine, but as a whole - especially the big subreddits (with rare exceptions) and everything on r/all - it's horrible)

transphobia is everywhere
fatphobia is everywhere
hate against younger people / current teens is everywhere
"fake news" are everywhere (people read the title of posts and move on, even though the title often does not give all necessary context, or the title even contains straight-up untruths)
everyone lies in general, because there is absolute anonymity and no reason at all to back anything up. crazy personal stories are interesting and get voted up, so why wouldn't everyone make stuff up all the time?
many (popular) subreddits are just ragebait (e.g. r/aita), and i don't think that's a good way to spend your time
super-specific subreddits usually get the wrong posts voted up because people just see it on their dashboard. (most obvious example: r/unpopularopinion : obviously, only popular opinions get a lot of upvotes)
like tiktok, reddit is very addictive, but once you manage to peel yourself off the screen you just feel terrible and like it added nothing to your life
'karma' (upvote points) are just a horrible feature. it adds reason for people to repost, to steal other people's content, and to lie
less important, but still: the new layout is terrible. i'm not one of those people that hates every change, but the usability just got much worse.

instagram (note: i still use instagram, but solely for occasionally posting on my own private account, and seeing what a few select (~25) people i follow are up to. max 2 minutes a day.)

instagram reels are just a horrible format, and that it's just tiktoks obviously doesn't make it better
additionally, instagram pushes reels towards the users way too hard, so much so that users who want their content to be seen (e.g. artists) need to create reels or they have no chance at all
the algorithm knows your interests, but will show you posts that are negative about those interests
the "i'm not interested in this" does not work well enough
the comments on any post are just the worst, and there's no way to dislike comments
having a public instagram account means that the thought "i need to post something cool/interesting so that i appear cool/interesting to people who might see my profile" is on your mind all the time, and that's not a good way to live. if only those who you truly like and trust can see your posts (aka when you have a private account) this thought vanishes entirely.

On a more positive note...

i still use tumblr and pinterest. why?

tumblr doesn't have a forced algorithm. it has a "for you" page, but it's in a separate tab that can just be ignored. also, since many people have stopped using tumblr it's a pretty chill place. bonus points for having a very well-functioning blacklist. it's very political though, and there are a lot of pornbots.
pinterest doesn't really have a community, so i wouldn't even necessarily call it a social media site. it's a silent appreciation for things. still, it has its problems (e.g. tiktoks are everywhere, credits are nowhere).

even though i use these two i try to minimize my time spend with them to around 15 minutes a day total.

so what to use instead of twitter etc?

personal websites (like neocities). clearly, since you're on mine right now, you've stumbled upon this. personal websites are great for self-expression, and you get to learn how to code in the process!
listography. it's my favorite small-ish web community out there. it's all about making lists. there are now follower counts, likes, or algorithms. just vibes.
small/niche communities. if you find a small web community that you like, hold onto it and never let go. and support the creators! i personally enjoy picmix and spacehey
trackers. i love to track my media (such as shows i've watched, games i've played and books i've read) and share with my friends how much i enjoyed them.

i would like to add that i don't like the idea of "better" twitter clones such as mastodon or bluesky. it's just more of the same, and doesn't change the fact that these types of social media have core problems that you can't get rid of with better CEOs, a fresh start, or better UI. also, where's the fucking creativity? why create yet another twitter?

So how do you stop?

Stopping to use social media is hard. But there's good news. Most importantly: You don't need to quit cold-turkey, and there's no need to go completely social-media-free now. Try to take it slow and reduce your time spent on social media by a few minutes every month. In a year you will have made amazing progress! I went from spending an average of 18 hours a month on instagram/twitter/tiktok in 2022 to spending an average of 0-1 hour a month using the same apps in 2024, and I'm still continuing to reduce.

More good news: There's apps that help you with quitting social media. Here are those that helped me immensely:

AppUp: tells you how time you've spent using certain apps. quite sobering to see that you've spent 10 hours on tiktok in a month!
StayFree: the best app to set yourself time limits for scrolling, focus mode, and more. i couldn't have made any progress without this app (or a similar app). it's a must-have.
NoScroll: blocks all tiktoks, youtube shorts, and instagram reels. basically an app that came from heaven. unfortunately doesn't work with tiktoks posted on pinterest, tumblr, etc.

Some more random tips:

Set all of your profiles to private
Go on a mass-unfollowing-spree, or even delete your new account and start a new one for a blank slate
Block everyone you don't want to follow you
Only allow yourself to scroll though social media when you're standing up: you'll be much more aware of time passing
Don't take your phone to the toilet with you
Find something else to do on your phone when you need to pass some time (e.g. waiting for a bus). This could be a non-addictive casual game, reading wikipedia articles, learning a new language - anything. Personally I like to study for uni, update my lockscreen, and sort out the photos in my gallery.