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by dfmooreqqq
1728 days ago
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> I think to reduce social media to some of the crappy jobs it does serve artificially diminishes what it can be. I agree completely with this. The article takes two bad parts of social media and assumes that those are the only uses for it. You've mentioned more. There's also keeping connected in a group context with family and friends that are scattered across the globe. I have an active family group in which my family shares pictures of nephews/nieces, vacation, and more - all stuff that helps keep us close when we can't see each other for long periods of time. I have an active friend group with my college roommates that does the same - when one of them discovered that his spouse was having an affair, we could all support him together. |
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- Local community groups - I have a few groups localised for my suburb and surrounds, specifically "good karma" groups which are for people asking for/offering help. I'm also part of volunteer organisations and specific interest groups that post updates.
- Buying/selling, both on the marketplace and groups specific for certain things.
- Events. Useful for keeping up-to-date with event information, offering lifts to places and buying/selling tickets.
- Chat. Both with my friends and certain chat groups and also being able to contact people within my network quickly and easily.
I rarely if ever post anything on my profile, and I block the News Feed with plugins/extensions to avoid the infinite scroll.
Granted, a lot of these things could be replaced with other services out there. I'm aware of the privacy concerns and the UI/UX is getting worse over time. I hate Facebook, but the community and people I want to access all use it, so I don't really have a choice if I want to keep in touch.
To claim that people only use social media to seek validation or because your life is so mediocre that you need to consume the best moments of other people's lives, strikes me as a bit out-of-touch and arrogant.