Unsocial Media?

BuilderPlumber

A pet hate of mine of recent years are ignorant people who continue to tap away on a phone when one is meeting them. It has happened to me personally when I met a person who never stopped tapping on a phone during the full 2 hours meeting. I see it all the time with others too. Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, and whatever other new site is out there. Most annoying thing is one has to repeat over and over something to such people and they ask what did I just say.

I gave up social media a few years ago because it is a load of rubbish for the most part. It is an obsession with some people especially with the rise of the smartphone. People can be very nasty and cruel on it too and it provides for a nastiness that they could not get away with in the real world. Bullying, mindgames, etc. are all common and I feel that someone tapping away in one's company could be tapping away what one is saying to someone else.

In themselves, social media sites are ok but it is the obsession and nastiness that goes on and the abuse of them that is the problem. I once had sites on some of these social media but found the negative outweighed the positive. I had friends from many places on it and had no problems with non-Irish people. Most problematic group of people were youngish people from rural Ireland, especially border counties, living away from home. 5 out of 7 problems with social media I had came via such people.

I feel social media and both its positive and negative influences are here to stay. Bebo and others died away but Facebook, Twitter and some others have been taken on commercially as well as personally which means we are stuck with them. Let's hope eventually they can fit into a balanced lifestyle where they are part of but not the dominant part of life.

Wanderer78

Large scale marketing scam, wouldn't be bothered with it, boards is as close as I ever got to social media, more to life

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

miamee

Yes it's very easy for people to get sucked into these and lose a large amount of time - I'm guilty of it myself at times. I hate it when in the company of another person though, that you might be talking to them and they are glued to YouTube or something. A friend shared this on Facwebook earlier today (ironically ) but it is relative to this topic:

Former vice-president of user growth at Facebook, expressed regret for his part in building tools that destroy ‘the social fabric of how society works’
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/dec/11/facebook-former-executive-ripping-society-apart?CMP=share_btn_fb

BuilderPlumber

miamee wrote: »

Yes it's very easy for people to get sucked into these and lose a large amount of time - I'm guilty of it myself at times. I hate it when in the company of another person though, that you might be talking to them and they are glued to YouTube or something. A friend shared this on Facwebook earlier today (ironically ) but it is relative to this topic:

Former vice-president of user growth at Facebook, expressed regret for his part in building tools that destroy ‘the social fabric of how society works’
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/dec/11/facebook-former-executive-ripping-society-apart?CMP=share_btn_fb

YouTube is another obsession with people. All sorts of stupid videos of people can be posted up. It can be also a place for pirated music and film as well. The concept of this video sharing site is good but it has ruined a lot of traditional businesses.

ILikeBoats

Is whatsapp a social media? I thought it was just for messaging?

BuilderPlumber

ILikeBoats wrote: »

Is whatsapp a social media? I thought it was just for messaging?

Isn't that what social media is about? They are all forms of the same type of thing. Some are officially called social media some are not. Twitter was first called microblogging.

BuilderPlumber

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

I think almost everyone will have Facebook, Twitter and other similar sites for a time. I gave them up because they are full of fake people and often nasty people. I met a friend yesterday and this person was crying about a 'great friend' he had who suddenly sent a nasty message on Facebook and did not want to talk to him anymore. When I asked him the name, I immediately knew and had the very same experience with that person. I think there are a few people on it who add everyone and try to make them feel they care and then they turn on one and get nasty. 7 years have passed since I had dealings with the person in question but she is still acting the very same. I will stick to people I know in the real world and leave faceworld and twitterworld to its own devices. Given the immaturity of Donald Trump on Twitter, there is little example being set from even the biggest names to act decently online. Social media = an excuse to treat people poorly and get away with it.

baby and crumble

BuilderPlumber wrote: »

Isn't that what social media is about? They are all forms of the same type of thing. Some are officially called social media some are not. Twitter was first called microblogging.

I think though there's a difference between folks interracting in p;ublic fora like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook (which is what I would consider social media) and then using a private messaging service like Whatsapp.

Folks get sucked into the social media stuff (myself included tbh) and it can be just mindless scrolling, but at least whatsapp etc is actually social with friends you know. They're two different things really.