[dubliner2077]

I dont have Facebook as I found it stupid as fuck when it started.

I dont have Instagram cause why the fuck I would?

I don't even have a LinkedIn since I like privacy on my carreer and because I wanted to do it before it existed lol

I have a "read only" Twitter to follow some friends and technical people which I barely use.

You know what the problem is? Dota2, Hearthstone, Overwatch... Too much time "wasted".

[criddell]

> I dont have [social network] cause why the fuck I would?

Because you have friends, family, and former coworkers in far away places that you enjoy keeping in touch with. It's one thing to write them an email or letter regularly, but it's also nice to open the app and see a random picture of your nephew at the zoo or see a pic from an office birthday gathering or maybe a short clip of a former coworker playing their new guitar. It's a low friction, low effort way to stay connected and it generates happiness.

[cgriswald]

> it's also nice to open the app and see a random picture of your nephew at the zoo or see a pic from an office birthday gathering or maybe a short clip of a former coworker playing their new guitar.

Serious question: Is there a social network that allows me to do any of those things anymore? The first 10 things on my Facebook feed are:

1. My own un-republished 'memory'. 2. A 'humorous' re-post. 3. Someone else's re-published memory of a humorous re-post. 4. A scammy ad. 5. A photo from someone I know posted to someone I know that I have no interest in. 6. A real person status (in large text with obnoxious background that I thought was a re-post of some meme). 7. A humorous re-post. 8. "People You May Know" 9. A real, honest to god, set of pictures of family and friends. 10. Someone else's memory of a humorous re-post.

If I'm honest, I care about (6) but I'd like it to be actual text, and (9). (5) is acceptable because depending on the photo I'm sometimes interested. So at best we're looking at 30% of content I want, 10% ads, 10% FB trying to sink its claws a little deeper, and 50% other noise. I know I can make my experience better by doing certain things. But those things move around, change, and feel like switches that don't do anything plugged into a black box that just does whatever it wants. So, I'm kind of at a place of 'why bother'.

Instagram mostly works for me, but its photo-oriented and most of the people I know on it are my younger friends. Twitter is a mess. Anything else I've heard of none of my friends or family use.

[criddell]

Instagram is the only social network that works for me. Photos are exactly what I want to see when I open the app (which I do once or twice a week). I follow only people I know personally and I don't follow hashtags or brands.

The percentage of ads is going up and that bothers me. If I could pay a reasonable fee (maybe $5 / month) to get rid of them, I would.

[Nextgrid]

I’m in the same boat. I want an actual social network to keep in touch with people. No memes, no ads (give me the ability to opt out of ads by paying), no creepy “people you may know”, etc.

Is that so hard? I feel like there’s opportunity for a honest business with non-intrusive ads that you can opt out of by paying.

[smohare]

That is an entirely unconvincing argument. Social Networks facilitate those sorts of activities to an astonishingly marginal degree.

[criddell]

Maybe, but there's nothing better right now.