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Who here has quit social media?

MaxKhalus

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Same story. No social media for years. I cannot even remember how it felt to be using those things lol.
Pros are obvious to everybody. Cons of not using it? Business features probably. When it comes to meeting people, I'm not sure. If I wanted to meet someone, I'd use a specific website like TMF .

Not thinking of using social anytime soon.

One thing I know for sure is that the founders of these platforms don't spend their time there.
 
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Choate

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I deleted my social media years ago. However, this month I made a new Facebook and LinkedIn. Facebook for ads and pages. But I'm already reconsidering LinkedIn. It's self-aggrandizing, bloated, and has never actually been meaningful to me. You make connections, but so what? It's no different than Facebook except the content is curated to be more professional.

Speaking of Facebook, it's really strange. Like, I full on deleted my old one from their system. Despite that, my new Facebook is recommending "People You May Know" - distant cousins that live in another state, girls I went on 1-2 dates with years ago, far off acquaintances from college, and my really close friend group from high school that I no longer keep in touch with. All this despite registering under a new phone number (with none of these contacts in there). It's almost as if Facebook never really deletes your data.

What I need to stay away from is Reddit.
 

Juan Pimentel

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I quit all social media. No snap no instagram and no Facebook. Lets be honest we really don’t need this shit. If we want to talk to friends or family members we can text them or call them. If they live outside the country then we use WhatsApp.
For me Social media has become a bragging rights platform. “Look at my life is better than yours” Why do we need to show the world our lives? Why not just enjoy it and keep things to ourselves .
The majority of people in this platforms are scripted fools who follow trends.
 

MattR82

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I thought about it a few times but it would be such a shame for me to lose such easy contact with people I met traveling.

Instead I changed how I used it. Facebook now is almost purely for groups that I learn from and has seriously improved my life in that way.

Instagram I use for fun, follow a lot of comedians etc. Any friends of mine that post lame shallow bikini travel pics or show off shit with no point I just unfollow. I really like the people I follow and engage with now so it's more of a positive experience for me.
 

James90

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It's not making me feel bad and I'm not addicted, so I don't have a problem with it.

Maybe you should rather question why it's making you feel bad. Maybe just deleting it will lead to some other behavior.


Agree.

I believe there are different sides to social media and the perspective YOU choose to perceive it as.

Ex. Instagram.
People posting themselves driving an exotic car.

That could trigger multiple emotions across different groups...

Some may feel jealous... inspired...curious....resentment...

I suppose it depends on how you utilize it for your own good....whether it be superficial or genuine reasons.
 
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Andy Black

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Quit instagram for a year and a month so far. I need to get back on to make cash but social media does my mental health no good
Make it a red flag whenever you use the word “need”. Do you *really* need to?
 

Fox

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It's not making me feel bad and I'm not addicted, so I don't have a problem with it.

Maybe you should rather question why it's making you feel bad. Maybe just deleting it will lead to some other behavior.

Good point. It is hard to know how much is something you should be able to "work on" and how much is just the inbuilt addictive nature of these apps.

I have been listening to "digital minimalism" by Carl Newport this morning and it seems there is a lot of effort got into making these apps as addictive as possible. I will finish the book and report on here with my plan.

Definitely agree with how one addiction can quickly become another without getting to the root cause.
 

Zimbizee

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I truly believe that social media addiction amongst the youth of today is the main reason for the rampant rise in mental health decline of said folks. The constant comparison against their peers which for the most part is exaggerated, fake with the fomo.

When i was a child of the 70's/80's we were happy go lucky youths enjoying life. Everywhere i look now there's scores of folks with mental health problems. I think the age of the smartphone/apps/social media etc has a lot to answer for. Don't get me wrong it's an age like no other but i sometimes wish for the days before all this tech
 
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ShamanKing

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I use IG as a picture journal. Time to time ill scroll through my feed and reflect on different times in my life.
 

MJ DeMarco

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I am an unwilling participant in social media ... I'm only there because my readers are.

Otherwise I wish I could join the rest of ya and dump it entirely.

Unfortunately as entrepreneurs, it is a necessary part of business. You have to go where your audience is, otherwise opportunities are lost and you're not maximizing your reach.
 

GoodluckChuck

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Social media like FB is really helpful when I need to ask questions or search groups for info I need.

Something I noticed a year or two ago is that Everytime I go to FB for something, I immediately get distracted and start scrolling. After a few seconds I have forgotten why I was there in the first place.

Once I noticed this happening I just stopped. I go to FB once or twice a week to message someone or look something up. I don't scroll anymore.

It's not that it's not a dopamine rush. It is. But I also noticed that the more I look at what other people are doing, the more I compare myself, and obviously that's useless in most cases, especially on social where everyone is overinflating the awesomeness of their life.

I lump browsing FB in with video games and Netflix binging. There's some useful bits but overall it's just a waste of time.
 

MJ DeMarco

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MattR82

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jaypi

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I haven't used FB in 4-5 years and IG in several months religiously. It was because of this realization that I was just being an attention whore posting for likes.

The big problem I had with the absence of social media was that I substituted my time I earned with YouTube. Instead of posting for likes, I find myself binge watching mindless internet humor clips.

The experience is lonely though. Most of my friends are posting their life on FB/IG via text and/or pictures while I'm elsewhere on a different platform. Refraining from those apps has distant myself from them.

However, I'm used to it. As my friends and I got older our priorities have shifted; my good friends are either married and/or have kids, or screwing around and enjoying life while they're still young. Losing contact with them helped me shift where my focus needed to be so I could head towards where I want to be in life.

After all, people come in go, even some of your closest friends.

At the end of it all, it's how you compensate your time you earned when you step away from social media. If you used that extra time building yourself, business, craft, etc. then obviously that's a step towards the right direction. Leaving social media could be a personal sacrifice, though, if used to 'keep in contact with your social circle.'
 

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Legacyy

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Didn´t quit it completely, but been experimenting with an app that puts a timer on the social media apps and blocks it when I hit my daily timer. It made me shockingly aware of the amount of time that I´ve spent...
 
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PureA

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I truly believe that ridding yourself of social media is one of the biggest business advantages you can give yourself.

I have a lot to say on this subject, it is something I feel strongly about, but il (try) keep it short.

SM is literally 'distraction training' - the opposite of meditation. Mcds for the brain. You are plugged in, you are an addict. Billions of $$$ is spent making your brain as engaged as possible.

Imagine if smartphones and SM were a white powder instead of a physical object...

The zombie like effects, the compulsive use, the skyrocketing anxiety, depression, suicide numbers since 2011...

What does constant SM use take?

- Ability to focus
- Motivation (dopa spike, dopa spike, dopa spike. Brain: "why would I work on anything meaningful, like business when I get heightened rewards for a simple swipe")
- Time (HOURS A DAY)
- Deep work/play (You ability for depth is decreased, you checking your phone every 0-30mins keeps you working at an inefficient surface level)
- Energy (notice how you feel after SM use)
- Perspective (everyone under 20 has lambos and mansions!)
- It can take the reins of your life. (You do things just to 'get the picture'.)

The brain is great at tricking itself too...

"Aaaah, I would quit but I needed to connect with grandma/old friends"
"Everyone has it. I dont use it that much"

^Pretty poor examples, but just know your brain is great at generating rationalisations when trying to remove a constant and daily source of instant gratification and dopamine.

What's the good news?

99% of people being compulsive users gives you a huge advantage if you can manage yourself...

I'm sure people crush and use social 24/7/365 sure, and every truth is but a half truth...

BUT

People crush biz whilst being 300lbs..
People crush biz being coke addicts..
etc etc

Do you want to make your success harder than it needs to be?

If there was a pill that mimicked the brain effects of taking you from:

social media using you -> non social media using you.. It would be on the frontpage of every newspaper and people would be paying $$$$$$$$$ for it.

Try dropping it for 30 days... Log the changes... You'll never go back.
 

Katherine

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FOMO - Fear of missing out

In Jan, I've decided I will limit to weekends for social media catchup. I am mostly active with FB and Instagram. So I took the step to not go on FB and IG and will only go FB for your inner group and other work-related group. After 1 month of tracking, I find myself doing so much more and removing a big chunk of distractions out of my way. This is a huge plus and I will continue this way :)

On weekends, I realise I may not have missed out much. Even if I did, that's ok! I find myself happier and more focused on real things. It wasn't as bad as I think if you asked me. No more mindless scrolling and getting myself tired !
 

MattR82

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This is definitely making me rethink things...

So hard as social media is a huge part of my work and I can't just switch to a flip phone. But I've definitely failed at keeping it to just work.
 
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FeaRxUnLeAsHeD

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I'm only on Facebook and Linkedin - and I have a chrome extension called newsfeed eradicator so I don't see anything in my feed.

I use them to stay connected to people and keep things up to date, including an occasional post, rather than endless scrolling and wondering what everyone else is doing
 

James Klymus

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I usually have my facebook deactivated and my instagram deleted off my phone. I realized one day that basically every second of free time I had, I would pick up the phone and just start browsing around.

That freaked me out, so I deleted the apps off my phone. Then when I had a moment of free time, I didn't know what to do, and I had the urge to go browse still. I would browse through my email and even check my weather app. It was really strange.

But after a while I found that I got used to it, and I stopped getting the urge to scroll facebook every 5 minutes.

Like I said earlier, it freaked me out because this was probably the only real negative addiction I've had in my life. I didn't want to be on social media, but I still went on it. Even when I was on the apps, I would think, "This is stupid, I don't care about what my friends from high school are doing."

Speaking of high school friends on social media, Another reason I wanted to get off is because a ton of people are starting to get married, buy houses, buy new cars, take lavish trips, have kids, work corporate jobs etc. and I found my self questioning my own entrepreneurial path.

Like it's been said before, we're looking at peoples highlight reels on social media, and I don't think it's good for my mind to be looking at slam dunks constantly while I'm over here missing 3's and fumbling the ball.

If you find your self focusing more on other people's lives than your own, I think it's time to get off social media and worry about your own life. It is VERY addictive, and it is designed to be that way. FB, Insta, and especially tiktok now are made to keep you scrolling. It's a distraction at best and an extreme addiction at worst, And I don't like either of those outcomes.

Lastly, I don't know if there is even a responsible use of social media. Why the hell would any one care what restaurant I'm at, or that I got new shoes? I certainly don't care about what other people are doing, yet I would keep scrolling.

I think the most responsible way to use it is only by using it on the computer, downloading an extension to block your feed so that you can't get sucked in and scroll, and using the ads platform, and/or keeping in touch with your customers within a group you create. Beyond that, I don't see a practical use, for entrepreneurs especially.
 

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I quit all social media in summer of 2018.

I simply got sick of it all - the superficiality, pretentiousness etc. (mainly talking about IG here). Instagram is essentially a facade, and a competition to see who can fake their lives the best.

It's definitely been better without it - less time scrolling and a better mental health too (although I'm generally positive anyway, but social has a subconscious affect on our mental health). I think we humans have a natural tendency to compare ourselves to others and social media just amplifies and exacerbates that tendency to new levels.

The main downside of quitting social media has been dating. This may not be relevant to people in relationships, but as a 24-year-old single male, it's pretty important. In my experience, girls simply think you're weird or that you're hiding something if you're not on social media - it's a major red flag for a girl. At the very least, they can't simply fathom why someone wouldn't use social media and they begin to jump to conclusions - is he a loser who has no following? It's all the more strange when I am very comfortable and capable in real life social interactions. But that doesn't seem to matter to them, in their head its, no social media = loser/weirdo. Again this is my experience.

I've thought about re-starting IG, but decided against it for all the negative reasons stated above and the pure waste of time in building back up my following, so I just carry on . . .
 
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eliquid

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I never got into social media personally.

I just didn't get it.

I didn't care what other people did, and I for sure in the hell didn't want them knowing my business.

The only thing to ever suck me into anything was Youtube. I don't consider that social media though.

I see my kids and wife sucked into social media and their cell phones. I still don't get it, but I know how harmful it can be.
 

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Social media , Main stream media is absolute trash . Avoid it . Just to give an example I just checked newspaper and twitter(I do not have an account) . Whole day I did not check anything .News trending there :

- Some lunatic burnt a girl because she refused to marry him. That lunatic is already married with a 6 month old daughter.
- A particular community member had to leave their homes because they were threatened .
- Same crappy political mudslinging .
Not 1 uplifting news :(

A fine day ruined lol. I was much better before reading this trash . Its better to spend time on FL Forum or read blog from Cal Newport,Seth Godin,Mark cuban or listen to an Audiobook .
 

Swift

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I have been tracking myself a lot this year I can spot a clear trend... the more time I spend during the day on social media = the worse I feel.

I get lazy, distracted, and sometimes slightly depressed. And I am very much a positive, focused person.

I shouldn't be surprised cause I know a lot of you have been talking about the dangers of social media for years.

At this stage, I am thinking about quitting Instagram and Facebook forever.
I can make a new Fb account just to run my students group and shut down everything else.

Do those people with some long term experience (quit social media for over one year etc) want to chime in?

What has been your experience?
Deleted snapchat, instagram, removed everyone but business/mentor groups on facebook, twitter with under 150 people followed, and Linkedin is just for business outreach. Social media is a great tool to get your product or service out there if you use it right and allocate only some time each day to work on it but otherwise, it'll consume you with distractions.
 
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BellaPippin

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I wish there was something that weren't so... overwhelming and difficult to follow, spammy, drama-encouraging, highlight-reel shallow, blah blah... Most I'll tolerate now is Instagram and that's only because I have it for my art progress, so as I only follow a few artists' accounts, my feed is nearly empty.

Honestly idk what I wish for. MySpace Electric Boogaloo?

 

David Fitz

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I would love to but I need fb ads and insta for my store.

On Facebook I unfollowed everyone and removed myself from groups I have no interest in.

On Instagram I follow very few friends and only follow accounts like Andy Frisella.

I don't have Snapchat.

My main killer is YouTube where sometimes I can spend hours watching stuff.

I don't have cable TV. 1 hour of TV a week and I try read instead.
 

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