Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I have always hated the idea of it since i first heard about "my space" and other things like that, iv never owned an account in any thing twitter/facebook/instagram or any of those sort of things, i personally simply don't like them. Yes its probably because im anti social lol, but any way i also just don't like the way a whole entire generation of old and young have decided typing messages on a screen has wiped out alot of the family structure and what it naturally generally consists of, like the fact there's alot less actual real life meetings resulting in less actual knowledge of one and other that you would get a proper understanding of in a face to face talk.

So yes its got pros, but the big picture says over all it is causing anti family future where people are more separated and less knowledgeable of their people.




Any way i dont want to get in to a big debate or any thing really, but i will just make a poll and see whats going on.

I was a Facebook slave for 11 years, and before that I had a MySpace. I deleted my Facebook last year, for a bunch of reasons. Personally I think phones are the problem. They allow 24/7 access to such sites. When I only had a dumb phone I was fine as I'd go online on the computer in the evenings, but now everyone just sits on their phones at work and no one talks to each other.

Yeah you’re also the only person who likes a plain cup of black coffee, not like these decadent cappuccino drinkers.

Yeah it’s a thing. These days they are very closely tailored to be a compulsive habit, as any company would they want you to spend as much time with their product as possible and give them as much data, while keeping you away from their competitors. One of the common phrases among people who are interested is “intensely online” that is people who keep a significant amount of their social and intellectual capital on twitter and youtube especially.

The problem as usual is t computers, it’s neo liberalism. Most people really do benefit from being able to send a cat picture to their real life friends, or read an article shared by a colleague of a friend. That’s not what social media companies are of course, because it’s not the postal service and you didn’t buy a stamp to mail that cat picture, actually it was you who was sold by that company to a vast complex of erectile dysfunction drug vendors and energy industry lobby groups, and to keep you sweet they made as mindless and sensational an experience as possible.

I do however use Instagram. Its good for seeing some fantastic painters and modellers, and you tailor the content you see by who you follow. It's a lot easier to avoid BS on there.

does whatsapp count ? ... if not then no, I only have facebook for easy login to twitch and other services that require (for god only knows why) it for reasons.

if yes, then the WA groups I'm in take up a good 60% of my day reading memes and the latest cheese list someone in group found.

I'm going to vote no because I use my insta purely for hobby reasons overall.

I have a facebook account that I use to follow some pages and send PMs to stores/companies. Sadly for some of them it's the only way to do it.

Facebook(and zuckerberg) is definitely a gargantuan behemoth in most peoples lives now. I just accepted that some things would have to be sacrificed for me to be free of it.

Look at all the scandals lately. and Zuckerberg just ignores the people asking him to answer questions on the issues, not that I blame him really, if the governments really had an issue they'd open a proper investigation. But then it should really be common knowledge that if you share info on facebook then its basically public property, and you're a fool if you think otherwise. The whole reason facebook is free is that its not a product, You (the fb population) are the product, and the ad companies are the customer.

90% of my Facebook time is hobby related. Either scouring trade pages, organising games in the weekly gaming club and catching up with upcoming tournament info or model news.

Very little is the usual "OMG I had a banana for brekkie!!! 11!1" silliness you very often see. And even that is me wishing someone happy birthday if I physically can't contact them any other way or out of politeness - people can get tetchy if you don't acknowledge it apparently...

I took about 3 years off of Facebook but went back on when I had to start administrating pages for academic departments/associations. Though I don't post on it a great deal myself, I quite like being back on it. So much easier for keeping on top of gigs and other events happening locally and for keeping up to date with friends.

I've been on Facebook for quite a while, never really post anything besides the odd photo of a model to a 40k group. We have a Twitter account for the company I work for that I manage, but even then I try to stay off it, some rather benign topics can really become quite toxic rather quickly so I avoid all other forms.

No. There are so many more productive uses of time.

 LordofHats wrote:
No. There are so many more productive uses of time.

I think it legitimately saves me time. Lots of stuff I used to spend a fair bit of time and effort to actively seek out just appear in front of me. Highly variable depending on what you actually do with it, I suppose. I didn't miss it when I took years off, but I did have to spend more time on things.

Well you use an online forum, so IMO you do use Social Media...

Wouldn't posting on dakka be described as "social media" though?

I lurk on twittah...

However, I'll repeat what another stated...there are many businesses that communicate on Facebook only, so I may have to breakdown and get one.

nfe wrote:

 LordofHats wrote:
No. There are so many more productive uses of time.

I think it legitimately saves me time. Lots of stuff I used to spend a fair bit of time and effort to actively seek out just appear in front of me. Highly variable depending on what you actually do with it, I suppose. I didn't miss it when I took years off, but I did have to spend more time on things.

I think that's fair.

For you certainly. When you're managing lots of information it makes complete sense, but that's less "social" and more "work" in a way. If I had a job where it was useful I'd probably use it, but that would be for work. For actual social interaction there are other formats I find much more productive.

Online forums are definitely a form of social media, so anyone who answers no is just lying to themselves.

I have a Facebook, mostly because my friends and family are scattered all over the county. Also, once upon a time they had an app called Speeddate. I met the Mrs. on it

 AduroT wrote:
Online forums are definitely a form of social media, so anyone who answers no is just lying to themselves.

DakkaDakka isn't a network linked into dozens of other websites, and it's not a place where you'll get solicited for conversations you're not interested in or give up information you don't want to give up.

It's social sure, but it's also obviously not what's being talked about when talking about "social media."

I too would argue there is absolutely no meaningful difference between modern social media precursors such as forums(Dakka) and modern ones like Facebook. The argument that the business model and administration is different is pretty weak sauce - that's like arguing the OTzone or BOLS aren't wargaming forums because they aren't owned by or administered by Dakka. The intent, use, and purpose is identical.

I do have a facebook account. Saying if you use facebook you are the product is a pretty groundbreaking idea but really, that's the nature of any given number of things and always has been, including any television program with advertisements - ie, all broadcast TV, ever, along with the radio.

Yes, Facebook is an awful company run by a lousy dude, but so are pretty much all of them. I don't think it's possible to live in the first world and avoid interacting with terrible companies. The advice to assume everything you do is public is accurate, but otherwise, a lot of this is just "old man yells at clouds" material. Most of the time I am on facebook I am talking with my family and friends who no longer live near me since we're all adults now. I don't know how that exactly has degraded my family structure.

The rest of the time I spend on Facebook I spend exactly the same as I do on Dakka - discussing hobbies. I have gotten incredible amounts of useful information on 3D printing from Facebook groups that I don't believe there is another avenue from, and at this point I get better and more useful feedback from my Facebook groups on hobby stuff than I do from the Showcase section of this site when I post them (that's a pretty recent trend).

If nothing else, they are amazing resources for the h-h-hobby.

I have some profiles that I rarely visit. I can find many old friends only there, especially foreiginers. But I do not understand what you can do there all the time. Liking meaningless posts? All day? Pfffff

I think key is "everything in moderation".

I uninstalled Facebook the app off my phone but check FB on my computer at night.
I also do not like them getting access to my contacts off my phone all the time with the app: it is none of their business.
I found even setting the various notification options to the minimum, FB was still very intrusive.

Emails, texts or old-school phone calls are sufficient levels of "escalation" to get hold of each other.

FB feels more like a "game" that keeps wanting you to push that button to get your pellet: I do not like being gamed on human addictions.
The constant advertising and interrupted videos for advertising has made me move-on.
I keep feeling this false sense of urgency, people wonder if you are 'ok" if you did not respond to their post for over a couple hours... nevermind a text.

I have been able to leave my phone by accident at home and not get the shakes.
I was an early adopter of technology for ages from the good old BBS's to the original Palm Pilot and keep finding ways to best use my tools, not have them use me.

I used to be very active on social media (Facebook and VKontakte) when I was a kid. Stopped using it completely some years ago. I have much more free time now (which I then very wisely decide to waste on internet forums).
I used to find Facebook and such very handy to keep in contact with friends who live far away, but nowadays I just use Whatsapp for that (which I guess is also a form of social media).
Whatsapp is pretty much a necessity if you want to have any sort of social life. I sometimes turn it off for a few days because I do not feel like talking to anyone, but sometimes I really miss a lot because of that.

 LordofHats wrote:
No. There are so many more productive uses of time.

Pretty much this, for me. While I do use and post on several forums, I don't really use any of the sites/apps that are what one usually thinks of as "social media". I do have a Facebook account that I created solely for the purpose of entering a contest, but I've not used it since (and I promptly set it to as closed off and private as I could). Apart from checking a local business's Facebook or Twitter page to check on things like holiday hours and whatnot, I don't use them. I already spend enough time on DakkaDakka, the BBQ Brethren forum, and YouTube.

Although, I do acknowledge the benefits that social media has brought to the older generations in being able to more easily locate and communicate with family members and old friends.

I don't have time, which is fortunate as I have no interest. When I DID have a FB account, it was a battleground over Southern Baptist family members and atheist friends, with a side helping of ex girlfriends who couldn't take "I'm married now" as an answer. I'm SO much happier without it.

I deleted all my accounts awhile back for all the reasons everyone does. Too much of a time suck, giving data to marketing, endless ads, bastion for passive aggressive behavior, trash culture, etc.

If I were to ever step into that arena it would be strictly to promote a business venture. I see no reason to maintain a constant stream of unconscious vomit for no profit.

I don't have and haven never used any of the traditionnal social media platform like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Reddit, Tumblr, 4chan or others, but I do use and comments on forums like this one and a few others linked to history and atheism. I do read some blogs on Patheos once in a while too.

there are definitely positives to facebook, and things that I miss. there were often funny posts that I now no longer see, and people who I could only contact through that site.

but it was the multitude of negative things that convinced me to delete mine.

The data scandals were one, how much access it had to everything on your phone, the tailored adverts etc. Then there was the pure banality of a lot of peoples posts and content, the amount of time I spent mindlessly scrolling down the page taking in absolutely nothing. The fact you couldnt engage anyone in decent debate on any article without it devolving into s**t slinging. the political/societal echo chambers suppressing civil discourse of any kind.. the list goes on and on.

The kicker for me was the day I looked up from my phone and realised my baby daughter was doing and discovering new things under my nose and I was missing it because my eyes were glued to my phone. I deleted my FB account that day and never went back.

The modern paradox: if you don't use social media, how to smugly tell people that you don't use social media?

 Polonius wrote:
The modern paradox: if you don't use social media, how to smugly tell people that you don't use social media?

Smoke signals?