I don’t get social media

[Chixdiggit]

I have a full time job and run my own business. I mainly use Social Media to keep up with people. I have recently been checking Facebook daily to get updates on a friend who has been in serious condition at hospital. Without his wife posting updates I doubt I would of even have known he was there.

 

[Trickster]

Different in their specifics, sure. But both are social media, and it's always funny when people on messageboards, reddit, etc say things like "Man, what's up with people and social media?" like they're not using social media right then.

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The whole "achtually resetera is also social media" is just arguing a technical point. If people ask me if I'm social media, I don't go "yeah man, I'm on resetera all the fucking time" Because clearly that's not what like 99% of people are talking about when they talk about social media.

 

[Ikuu]

The whole "achtually resetera is also social media" is just arguing a technical point. If people ask me if I'm social media, I don't go "yeah man, I'm on resetera all the fucking time" Because clearly that's not what like 99% of people are talking about when they talk about social media.

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Cool, that doesn't change the fact that this is social media.

 

[Trickster]

Cool, that doesn't change the fact that this is social media.

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Cool, do you also correct people, or point out to them when they get some grammar wrong, even though it's obvious to anyone with a pea sized brain what the person meant?

 

[Quick]

The goal of a forum is really different from that of social media, especially here on era not everyone can get it. Even if people use real names here it doesn't matter because the structure is different. And well I also don't use facebook so

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By this definition, people don't have to "get" Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. — like how you don't have Facebook.

And the structure of forums and other forms of social media are more similar than you think:

- You create a profile, with real info or otherwise.
- You share stuff (thoughts, opinions, photos, videos, links, etc.), and people comment and/or react to them.
- Each platform is moderated (lol Twitter).

While the forum format may not fit Twitter or Facebook, the same idea and features are there.

 

[astro]

I use it for keeping contact with friends, family, and acquaintances. Some of whom are distant and it's really nice seeing little updates about their lives.

Also invaluable for networking, I'm a web developer so having a happy customers post their positive experience working with me has led to many new projects.

To live without it right now would take quite a bit of effort to reorganise and manage these things.

 

[MonoStable]

Im with you OP not a real big social media person, don't really post on FB and my IG game is super lame. I don't like Twitter and never used any of the other platforms like Snapchat or whatever. Whenever I'm out with friends I'm just not the kind of person to say hey let's snap a pic, although I do regret it when looking back, fortunately my GF has that on lock for me now.

 

[Manmademan]

The whole "achtually resetera is also social media" is just arguing a technical point. If people ask me if I'm social media, I don't go "yeah man, I'm on resetera all the fucking time" Because clearly that's not what like 99% of people are talking about when they talk about social media.

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99% of people don't mean Google Plus when they talk about social media.

Google plus is still social media.

 

[Vincent Grayson]

Cool, do you also correct people, or point out to them when they get some grammar wrong, even though it's obvious to anyone with a pea sized brain what the person meant?

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No, because this is a totally different thing. When people talk shit about social media and suggest they don't use it...while using social media, it's a bit hypocritical. So in this case, arguing about the definition of social media is meaningful because I'd say you're trying to sidestep the inherent silliness of the position by quibbling over definitions instead of just admitting that ResetERA isn't meaningfully different than other social media.

 

[captive]

twitter is best IMO for finding the niche you're interested in following people related to that. In my case its microsoft related systems management, monitoring, azure and powershell. There's a whole plethora of hashtags related to just those things so even people i dont follow can still come across my feed.

 

[Ravelle]

I don't get "I don't get" posts.

 

[Hail Satan]

It's good/great for some stuff but I would never want to live my life on it or get to a point where I'm constantly checking on it.

Chasing those "likes" seems to be the only drug I have no interest in partaking in.

 

[Digital Dinosaur]

I'm pretty sure that most people understand that "social media" is generally taken to refer to the Facebook paradigm.

A platform to blog about your life, which by both human nature and intentional design, ends up acting as a curated advertisement that is often very misleading. And ends up causing a lot of people problems in areas like socialization and mental health.

I think if someone feels they just don't get it, they probably don't have a legitimate need for what it offers when used in a non-harmful way. As some posts here illustrate there are ways to use social media that can be beneficial.

However, there are underlying design and conceptual problems with it that are major pitfalls. I think more people are beginning to feel that social media as it exists today is not a neutral platform which some people use for good and some for bad. You actually have to try and not have bad outcomes with it.

 

[Mesoian]

I guess I'm one of those hipster lol but seriously I don't know how people use Twitter and stuff, I tried it but instantly regretted it.
followed some popular people and realized that it was a mistake, sometimes it's ok to not know what's on a person's mind.

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Era is social media

 

[Joe Shlabotnik]

The whole "achtually resetera is also social media" is just arguing a technical point. If people ask me if I'm social media, I don't go "yeah man, I'm on resetera all the fucking time" Because clearly that's not what like 99% of people are talking about when they talk about social media.

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.

 

[SageShinigami]

Things like that happened even before social media...

I don't get it, even people who deleted tweets got fired so what's the point. It's carving in stone your thoughts.

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Deleting tweets only work if you do it long before people notice.

 

[Pockets]

I've never given a single thought to partake in any social media.

Era has just been and experiment on my end so don't @ me with your debate.

And you may ask yourself, well, How did I get here?

 

[Doctoglethorpe]

Era is social media. It's the only one I really use and even that I question frequently like why do I waste so much time here? Sometimes I justify it as a place to test out my thoughts and work on how I express them before committing to them irl. Letting my dog take all the blame for a shitty half baked opinion works wonders for my self esteem. Then my fiancé gets a fully baked, edited version and I come off a lot smarter, or in some cases I just throw out the thought altogether like nah on second thought that was a pretty dumb fuckin thing to say, glad I learned that in anonymity.

Twitter is a great news source.

The rest of the big ones are for people craving attention.

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That's absolutely ridiculous. Twitter is full of attention whores. Like the fuckin president.

 

[Deleted member 47843]

Twitter is great for news if you just follow publications and reporters you enjoy. I have no interest in following random celebs, internet famous people or even actual friends as I don't care about people's random thoughts. But it's great as a news aggregator and seeing articles you want to read. I never tweet though, just use it for that purpose.

Facebook I like just for keeping up with people. Some local friends use it a lot for sending out invites to things they are going to/want to go to and it's nice for somewhat keeping up with acquaintances and more distant family that you want to know about but don't care to call and talk often. Plus seeing pictures is nice. I rarely post things myself though.

I don't use any of the others though. Unless you count forums and I really don't as to me social media are things that require you friend or follow people to see posts.

That's absolutely ridiculous. Twitter is full of attention whores. Like the fuckin president.

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It definitely is. It's just better for news as more publications and reporters seem to tweet out their stories/articles than share them on Facebook these days. And if you just stick to your curated feed you don't see the attention whores. You can of course avoid attention whores on other outlets, but there just doesn't seem to be enough news content on those to be worth my while. As above, Facebook is good for keeping up with friends and family if you have people that use it though. Instagram I've never seen the point of, nor any of the others.

 

[honest_ry]

Era is social media. It's the only one I really use and even that I question frequently like why do I waste so much time here? Sometimes I justify it as a place to test out my thoughts and work on how I express them before committing to them irl. Letting my dog take all the blame for a shitty half baked opinion works wonders for my self esteem. Then my fiancé gets a fully baked, edited version and I come off a lot smarter, or in some cases I just throw out the thought altogether like nah on second thought that was a pretty dumb fuckin thing to say, glad I learned that in anonymity.



That's absolutely ridiculous. Twitter is full of attention whores. Like the fuckin president.

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Yeah, but you have to follow them. Not saying twitter isnt full of attention whores but facebook and instagram are designed for people to show off. Twitter has always seemed more of a news outlet for myself.

 

[StrangerDanger]

I guess I'm one of those hipster lol but seriously I don't know how people use Twitter and stuff, I tried it but instantly regretted it.
followed some popular people and realized that it was a mistake, sometimes it's ok to not know what's on a person's mind.

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Maybe switch from following people to platforms instead. So rather than a tech person, follow a tech site or channel. That way you don't have to hear any personal thoughts and focus on the subject matter you care about

 

[corasaur]

OP you're on social media.

What you don't get is oversharing people do. Me neither, especially posting photos of kids, where they are going all the time, etc.

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for that one specifically? grandparents. the answer is grandparents and older relatives in general. throwing social media content at older relatives is the easiest way for parents to reach people who will get genuinely excited over everything their kids do.

 

[Deleted member 47843]

for that one specifically? grandparents. the answer is grandparents and older relatives in general. throwing social media content at older relatives is the easiest way for parents to reach people who will get genuinely excited over everything their kids do.

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Really just extended family in general. It's the easiest way for parents to get pics to all the distant relatives that want to see that stuff and are otherwise bugging them for photos and updates.

For Facebook, I just hide those types of people from my feed so I only see their posts if they tag or mention me since I'm not friends with anyone on their that I care to see that type of stuff from. Just some distant family and acquaintances that I keep on the friends list as I don't have other contact info for. None of my close friends have kids, so I'm safe there.

 

[Kinggroin]

i dont see pictures of news outlets posting pictures of themselves posing.

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Cause it's amateur hour over there

 

[Walter White Walker]

I tried twitter a number of years ago but hated the interface so that experiment swiftly ended. Facebook I post on like once every three months or so.

 

[JealousKenny]

I just msg people :/

at least I don't have my real name next to my shitty opinions ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Most people on Twitter and Instagram don't either.

 

[Deleted member 3038]

It's not that I don't enjoy it, I just do not see the positives. Does something good ever come out from twitter?

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Talking to like-minded individuals? Just because you see no benefit doesn't mean small communities don't either, it's like saying gaming side has no benefit, but there's a ton of OTs there with great information & awesome communities

 

[Bakercat]

You know online forums is kinda like a social media platform?

For me, I'm pretty much done with Facebook and only have messenger app to text people in case they need me. Other than that and here, I don't talk to people all that much anymore.

 

[night814]

Says the person posting on ResetEra

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Pretty much. You do get it, it's just that ERA is your jam OP and not FB or Twitter.

 

[Dream Machine]

I don't get social media that's like "please stalk me!" updates of every single thing in your life.

I need some distance online.

 

[Deleted member 48897]

Twitter is where my jokes go to die

 

[Ultima_5]

facebook is fine if you just use it to keep in touch with family and friends or w/e. the fact its a news platform apparently is fucking disgusting and should be stopped.

twitter I kind of feel the same way about. its mostly just for famous people or people w/ clout to post stuff and people who aren't just pretend that their tweets are being read.

IG I actually sorta like since it's just photos and you can ignore the shit you don't like pretty easily. wish people who have accounts that focus on one subject would stop doing the "hey I like ______. do you like _____? what's your favorite part of _____?" captions.

despite the fact message boards are social web spaces to talk, I don't think they're social media. they're smaller communities, its intended to be anonymous, and they're not there for people to interact w/ family or friends. just because social media can be used in the same way as message boards, mean the reverse is true

 

[Maurice Hamblin]

Cool, do you also correct people, or point out to them when they get some grammar wrong, even though it's obvious to anyone with a pea sized brain what the person meant?

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Semantics aside, I think when people mention that ResetEra is social media, it's mostly calling attention to the fact that looking down on social media as a whole while posting on ResetEra (that shares many of the same features and goals) is kind of a nonsense thing. So it's less about us all agreeing that we should call ResetEra "social media" and more trying to pose the question of what exactly you feel like you're excluding yourself from by posting here and not using "social media".

Spoiler

The answer is "nothing".

But I think the pushback comes from the fact that many people here like to tout their lack of social media (instagram, facebook etc etc) as some crowning achievement so when someone rightly mentions that ResetEra is basically the same it's almost taken as an attack. Because the thing you thought you were doing isn't really a thing at all and you feel less special. It's a perfectly human thing.

I don't get "I don't get" posts.

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This. Especially here where many people would look at ResetEra the same way. I'd be willing to assume that most of you don't really make it known you spend hours upon hours a day discussing sex, politics and videogames with [mostly] a bunch of adult and teenage men you've never met.

I don't get THIS.

 

[Deleted member 10629]

I like Instragram because everyone seems so happy there lol, and Twitter, if you follow the 'right' people.

 

[Lauren]

ResetEra isn't just a social media platform on a technical level - it's on the most literal level. Replies in threads are just like replies in tweets or comments on insta photos or facebook posts.

You don't come to ResetEra to look at the website design. You come to obtain information and opinions. It's the same base-content level of any *popular* social media platform like Twitter, Instagram, FB etc. It is what you make it.

If you don't "get" why people like Twitter/Insta etc but "get" why people like forums, it's more due to you having more experience with forum format than short-form content like Twitter/Insta and the different requirements to customise your experience.

ResetEra already customises your Forum experience by offering you a forum dedicated to a specific subject you're interested in. Which means there is already a huge host of content you're interested in from the get go making it an interesting and engaging platform you want to interact with. Regardless of "how do i wipe my ass" threads or not, the literal community is already one you understand, interact with, and value/respect.

Twitter/Insta, on the other hand, requires some more upfront work. You don't get that content handed to you from the get-go without putting effort into who you follow and learning how the tags work. It still offers insightful and interesting content but you have to put slightly more effort into finding it. And the platforms tend to pump out what's popular.

In the case of instagram, hot models in bikinis is super popular. Which is why - for new users - your explore feed is full of them. It won't customise down until you stop looking at that content and only look at certain types. My explore feed is now filled with mostly gaming related content, because that's what I look at, on top of some other hobby things I follow. It's customised itself to what I like the most. Twitter also suggests people who are into games mostly for me after seeing who I follow and content I post.

For example, if you followed everyone on ResetEra on Twitter & Insta, you'd probably find near-identical content on top of some more personable content.

There's a difference between these social media platforms but ResetEra is a social media platform. Just because people write long form here, compared to selfies on insta, doesn't make it more "noble" or "important". It just means you relate to it more.

 

[Kismet]

Never had a FB or Twitter account. Removed Instagram after a week or two.

It's just not for me. Everything seems so fake and superficial.

 

[Deleted member 14313]

Pretty much. Message boards are a form of social media

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Nope. Social media places focus on the direct interaction between accounts and building networks of accounts ie following or friending or whatever (while these things exists on some forums and imageboards they are very much not the focus). Forums and imageboards are not social media.