| I'm not sure how to feel about this. From social media I've been able to connect with old friends, enjoy good memes and keep up with current affairs. It's also been useful at times where I've found people willing to put in a good word for a job, mentor me and there are a few people who are really good at providing a fruitful environment for discussion (even controversial topics) that makes me sad to leave. Unfortunately, it just got too extra for me. I mean, there is a lot of bullshit in the world, but at times it looks like people just want to get mad for the sake of it. While I'm not a big proponent of don't feed the trolls, I doubt quote tweeting some asshole to score a satisfying dunk does any favors. It just seems to import garbage into other people's timelines. Also, they'll be done people going about their day, or writing something intended for their like-minded friends and it catches wind far beyond where it was supposed to go, setting you up for an unwanted roast. Even though I deleted my social media, I'm hoping that it becomes less extra because there can be a lot of value in it. Sadly, it's hard to see that happening, especially with how social media is becoming the whole internet and IRL for many people in the world. The Telecom operators in my home country insist on selling unlimited social media packages rather than just giving us cheaper internet even though they can somehow provide 2GB of data for $5 that has to be used in 24 hours. |
The world of Usenet, BBSs, forums, blogs, etc. Had their dramas and trolls and whatnot. What they had much less of was the clickbait, post order manipulation, and spammy notifications. Whether major social media can become less "extra" probably depends on whether an alternate commercial model can be found, I guess.