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I have a very different experience with Instagram in particular. I have a very tightly controlled machinist and woodworker account that has taught me innumerabl
by wcunning 5y ago
I have a very different experience with Instagram in particular. I have a very tightly controlled machinist and woodworker account that has taught me innumerable little things, connected me with people who have helped on all kinds of problems and only given me positive reinforcement. There are other communities I've dipped a toe in that are far more toxic, but I have made the choice to stop engaging in those communities as a result.
On the other end of the spectrum, Facebook used to be a cesspool for me, since I didn't like the amount of politics and high school classmates I didn't like in high school in my feed. Then, I unfollowed everyone that posted any politics of any kind, unfriended people I intended to never see again, and now my feed is only a handful of groups that are incredibly friendly and helpful communities around overly obsessive coffee culture. Otherwise, I now use Marketplace pretty heavily since it seems to have largely replaced Craigslist in my area with better targeting that actually regularly gets my interests right. Now that I have made the choices to use the tool well, it's really really helpful. You have to take some responsibility for the bad experience you have on these platforms -- they only push you content you engage with, so you can choose to stop seeing that crap if you want to.
- bronco21016 5y agoI tried unfollowing everyone who posted politics back in 2016. I ended up with an empty news feed. I simply had unfollowed every active person in my friends list. Eventually that was the catalyst for me deleting my Facebook account. I do see value in things like marketplace but my experience when I left was so negative that I find it difficult to go back.