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Aside from here obvs. My mate is feeling very despondent about social media. Any suggestions for decent places to go?
I left Facebook this week. Its toxic, and even more so in recent weeks and months.
I've heard there is also some sort of bike forum as well.
Never been.
I always find this a lovely way to reset my mind.
Not really a "nice place" in terms of social though.
It sounds like stepping back FROM the internet might be a good idea?
I’ve heard there is also some sort of bike forum as well.
Is that something to do with the "maggerzeen", or whatever they call it?
Is that something to do with the “maggerzeen”, or whatever they call it?
I wouldn't know. That sort of thing is for perverts.
A bit left field but I can watch This Old Tony on youtube all day long.
Its like Perchy does machining.
Reddit is not just a hive of scum and villany, it also has it's cute bits:
https://www.reddit.com/r/aww/
And its more intelligent bits:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/
And the finest of world sports:
https://www.reddit.com/r/theocho/
B3ta.com
It's where all the good social media images start life 🙂
There's a Bridge Players club chat room run by one of the big papers which was supposedly to be some kind of internet Nirvana when older people chatting asking about each others Grand kids etc. I forget which one.
By and large though the Internet is a shit-show these days, it happened before Brexit but Brexit brought in a sea change which means now any and all debates have players on opposing sides with pre-determined positions based on which camp they fit into it, it's not right v left, or gut feel v science or rich or poor, its harder to quantify but it feels like when people are presented with a problem they're thinking "what should I think" not "what do I think".
There's little Middle Ground at the moment. It's Camp Katie Hopkins / Nigel Farage / Boris Johnson v Camp Jeremy Corbyn / James O'Brien / Owen Jones.
If you don't sing from the hymn sheet if your chosen team your peers will leap on you accusing you of being a puppet for the worse of the other side.
There are two forums I really read - here and Piston Heads (although far less) I know what the comments are going to say before I read them, and the longer a debate goes on the more polarised they become. For a laugh one day I'd like the Merge the Chat section here with the News and Current Affairs section of PH, but I fear the resulting explosion would destroy half the solar system.
Even the small FB groups which really should be pretty harmonious given they're usually about the same thing usually descend into chaos when someone misreads the room.
B3ta.com
It’s where all the good social media images start life 🙂
Whilst I'm a fan I can't say I'd send folks there for nice, that's a bit like sending a veggie to an abattoir to convince them steak is good.
I left Facebook this week. Its toxic, and even more so in recent weeks and months.
It's only as toxic as you make it. Choose 'friends' wisely, it's single most mouldable media source there is, I only get shown those who I choose to befriend, or sites I have clicked on or searched for.
Instagram ditto. Oh, and I love Pinterest.
It's difficult to blame brexit for polarising the entire Internet. 90% of the rest of the world doesn't care about the politics of a rainy little island with a vastly overinflated ego.
Even the small FB groups which really should be pretty harmonious given they’re usually about the same thing usually descend into chaos when someone misreads the room.
I had my first ever Internet flounce a few weeks ago. There's a FB group called the Dull Men's Club which has a great premise, it's a place for comparing different shades of beige paint or discussing the relative merits of Whitworth spanners. Unfortunately it's almost entirely unmoderated and there's a nasty undercurrent of sexism, racism, and any other form of -ism you care to mention. You know, the sort of people who think it's funny to take the piss out of pictures of fat kids and then post "triggered" memes in response to complaints.
It’s only as toxic as you make it. Choose ‘friends’ wisely, it’s single most mouldable media source there is, I only get shown those who I choose to befriend, or sites I have clicked on or searched for.
Instagram ditto. Oh, and I love Pinterest.
Absolutely this, Twitter too (turning off retweet’s is a useful tool here).
Spend time curating what and who you follow, block and mute people who are negative, like and follow stuff you like.
All of my social media is very positive, and as soon as anything goes rogue then it gets removed.
Not social media, but I enjoy the stories on here:
https://www.damninteresting.com/
And the ever-interesting XKCD What Ifs:
https://what-if.xkcd.com/
Ogrish.com
Eightminutesupsidedown on YouTube has been keeping me entertained recently.
Its like Perchy does machining.
Reminds me of my days as a gusseter in a knicker factory.
Until they discovered you.
It’s only as toxic as you make it.
And yes, +2.
It's easy to blame the medium but it's no different from in-person social media. If you went into a pub that was full of junkies and psychopaths then you'd just leave (unless you aligned with one of those demographics I suppose), you wouldn't conclude that all pubs are toxic.*
People posting obnoxious shit will get warned in the first instance and blocked in the second. It took me too long in life to realise that life was too short to spend it in the company of arseholes and the same applies online as off.
(* - Wetherspoons aside)
The Howies blog always makes me appreciate the world in which we live.
https://howies.co.uk/blogs/news
@cougar
I don’t bother with the warning.
I use fb, but if anyone posts anything I find offensive they get blocked instantly.
If someone appears as a friend suggestion and I don’t like their profile picture they get blocked instantly.
If I receive a friend request off some random I don’t know, they get blocked instantly.
I never endure any shite on facebook.
TDPRI is a pleasant place for guitar nerds.
No politics or religion.
Many American posters and a great place to discuss cultural differences, especially food. 🙂
https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/
Nice place to hang out if you're into any form of metalworking...
Has a pretty strict zero tolerance policy toward breaches of the rules.
No politics, religion or football...
The internet was a much nicer place before most of the population had the means to access it...
Be selective with Facebook and ruthless with who you befriend and the groups you join.
I belong to a couple of groups where things have turned nasty and people have flounced - I stay because there are resources I need and discussions I want to have in the context of my volunteer role at a sports club. I don't engage with the obstructive and argumentative members in the group directly and stick to the facts. I'm lucky that because I'm doing that with a specific purpose I can apply a work mindset.
I've unfriended and blocked some members of the extended family due to reposts of ill informed and offensive claptrap by them. No compunction at all.
I find some amateur-run academic websites amazing.
That some person, solely on the basis that they like an idea or a time-period or whatever, dedicates so much time to compiling bibliographies and other tidbits am related to the subject, makes me very happy.
Earlier today, I went looking for a reference to a figure from what we now call the Middle East but in Late Antiquity, and found that someone had compiled university notes from a leading scholar in the field. It must have taken them years.
Breathtaking. And really helpful for those of us who have no inclination to do the work for ourselves! 🙂
P
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Personally, I deleted Twitter and Facebook from my phone but kept the accounts. I check faceyB once a week now and Twitter never. Twitter especially was incredibly informative as a direct news media source but also toxic and negative. I agree for looking elsewhere.
My advice would be to read lots of books on a kindle rather than phone time for the something to do side of it.
For the social, I'd prioritise online friendships based around shared interests, like here for example! Also, use it as a way of making (future) friends so as to negate social media anyway.
Get some zoom chats set up!
Most places are alright as long as you avoid the comments section I've found, easier said than done though.
If you do check FB then I recommend you sign up to this group
"What do you see from your window?"
It has restored my faith in the power of the internet to break down barriers/preconceptions and to unite people from all across the world. From the mundane to the spectacular. They are all there and all appreciate by someone. A small glimpse at the wealth of humanity and nature existing all across the planet.
I use pistonheads very occasionally it's the polar opposite to here.... but has some great threads.
And migwelding it's like a safe space on the internet for me
Seems the best approach to social media is only read the posts of the people you have chosen to directly follow and never be tempted to click down into the wormhole.
I've found with any Brexit, Covid, politics, BLM post you're only ever one click away from a union jack account and rantings about grooming gangs.
Once you start clicking any further is a sewer of bile that you can barely believe exists.
When I rule the world I'd lock down social media so there's no anonymity - the real person is always there and exposed to all your friends, family, employers.
If you want to shoot your racist, sexist, homophobic mouth off you have to be prepared to defend it in person.
Adam Savage's Youtube channel.
Social media is a dump, has been for a while, I would even question how good it is for anyone’s mental health. The only usefulness I see are the groups and messenger service.
Pistonheads is a vile place, full of right wing, self entitled, insecure misogynists.
I left Facebook this week. Its toxic, and even more so in recent weeks and months.
This. Binned it recently myself, it does nothing good for my mental health.
Appreciate that some folk as described above can be very disciplined with it. However, as soon as you look at any local news, news, politics etc. stuff on there it's an absolute cesspit.
The contradiction at the core of FBs business model is that people react and engage more with content that riles them up or makes them angry.
Just like it's possible to eat at McDonalds and avoid the really unhealthy stuff, it's possible to use facebook "healthily". But just as McDonald's need salty, sugary and fatty addictive food to make money facebook needs all the hateful crap to drive engagement. Without regulation it won't change.
just don't do that then!! it's really not difficult at all. All my FB "friends" are of the non-bellend variety, I am a member of a couple of local friendly community groups that explicitly ban/delete politics, religion, bad-behaviour etc and the rest is incredibly useful/informative hobby or trade-industry groups that again prohibit anything controversial.Appreciate that some folk as described above can be very disciplined with it. However, as soon as you look at any local news, news, politics etc. stuff on there it’s an absolute cesspit.
Facebook is great
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(this place is pretty good too)
Kurzgesagt on Youtube.
For anyone with even a passing interest in science its absolutely delightful
Appreciate that some folk as described above can be very disciplined with it.
Sadly, approximately 99.5%* of Facebook users aren't.
* probably.
Give me Wikipedia and Google Earth and you can turn off the rest of the internet.
Google earth is great. Go to places youve been before, sometimes very long ago and it all comes flooding back.
Good memory exercise.
Sometimes its crazy to look at one of the bigger cities in the larger countries and you start to zoom out and you see how tiny that city of millions really is. Gives a sense of perspective, especially understanding the size of other planets in relation to us.
We are smaller than our bacteria in comparison to the gas giants, and even the earth itself is too small to see if placed beside each other.
just don’t do that then!! it’s really not difficult at all.
It really is quite difficult. Facebook employ behavioural psychologists with nothing else to do all day than work out how to push your buttons and get you scrolling. They need people to spend as much time on there as possible to get the data to sell to companies to sell stuff to people who are on there as much as possible.
Amongst my FB friends I have four dead people, a blacksmith, a poet, a murderer (reformed), a redneck farmer, a number of stonemasons and a few academics. So, there's a diversity of feeds and you have to be a bit tolerant. Despite all the dreadful memes it can be quite useful and entertaining and it's one way to get to understand how some people's heads are shaped and serviced.
I also used to really like 'Humans of New York'. It really showed the beauty of humanity in all its wonderful diversity.
When I rule the world I’d lock down social media so there’s no anonymity – the real person is always there and exposed to all your friends, family, employers.
If you want to shoot your racist, sexist, homophobic mouth off you have to be prepared to defend it in person.
Not sure that would actually fix much, there are plenty of unrepentant arseholes about.
Just be selective about what you like / friend - very easy to tune it to what you want to see.
Want to see cute pictures of baby hedgehogs?
@tomd right, but we're not talking about spending less time on there, we're talking about not seeing toxic/nasty crap. I actually [I]do[/I] spend a fair bit of time on there (or at least, check it pretty regularly) so probably whatever these behaviourists are doing is working. But I almost never see any shitty stuff popping up in my feed (and when I do, that person will be rounded on VERY swiftly by other people which is actually very heartening to see). That is 100% down to the user - the algorithm feeds you more stuff that you WANT, not stuff you don't want.It really is quite difficult. Facebook employ behavioural psychologists with nothing else to do all day than work out how to push your buttons and get you scrolling. They need people to spend as much time on there as possible
Most places are alright as long as you avoid the comments section I’ve found, easier said than done though.
Rule 1. Never read the bottom half of the Internet.
just don’t do that then!! it’s really not difficult at all. All my FB “friends” are of the non-bellend variety, I am a member of a couple of local friendly community groups that explicitly ban/delete politics, religion, bad-behaviour etc and the rest is incredibly useful/informative hobby or trade-industry groups that again prohibit anything controversial.
This. It's not Facebook, it's just people. if you choose to hang out with nobbers then you can't complain that people are nobbers.
Facebook employ behavioural psychologists
[citation needed]
[citation needed]
Knock yourself out, look like some good jobs in there to be fair.
The internet was a much nicer place before most of the population had the means to access it
I guess the person who said this wasn't around in the very early days of the internet. eg. alt.images.pedophilia etc. The sick bastards were there at the start, I can assure you.
You don't have to spend all you time on the internet, if it's "toxic", take up drawing, watch telly (and get sick of the we are your pandemic hero bank adverts etc), Why don't you switch off your computer.. etc.
I only spend time here, Bandcamp and other music sites. My Facebook and Twitter were mainly just music and MTB, but all the musicians have been posting crap from the protests etc... so I mostly avoid them.
Knock yourself out, look like some good jobs in there to be fair.
Not seeing a single mention of "psychologist." Care to try again?
I only spend time here, Bandcamp
Do you have a flute?
Bandcamp is an American online music company founded in 2008 by Oddpost[2] co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker;[3][4][5][6] the company is headquartered in Oakland, California
Artists and labels upload music to Bandcamp and control how they sell it, setting their own prices, offering fans the option to pay more[8] and selling merchandise.
During the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, Bandcamp announced that they would be waiving their share of revenue and donating all sales to artists for 24 hours on March 20.[14] Afterwards, they announced that they would be repeating the initiative on the first Friday of the month between May and July.
In response to the protests that took place following the death of George Floyd as well as multiple other African Americans who have lost their lives to police violence, Bandcamp announced for 24 hours on June 19, they will donate 100% of profits to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
I think that makes it one of the "Nice places on the internet"
take up drawing, watch telly
Watch Bob Ross - 2 birds with one stone
Not seeing a single mention of “psychologist.” Care to try again?
Read the job descriptions. If you're of more an academic you could turn your hand at
Not to mention the legacy issues with Facebook, Cambridge Analytica and Patrick Fagan.