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> If your friends and family are on Facebook, your work contacts across the country are on Twitter, the only forums left alive on the web are on Reddit, how can

by JackFr 4y ago

> If your friends and family are on Facebook, your work contacts across the country are on Twitter, the only forums left alive on the web are on Reddit, how can you not need them? You can absolutely step away from them and it’s not even hard. Call, text or email your friends and family. It’s far more intimate and frankly more satisfying. You lose the ability to broadcast a curated persona, but honestly in the grand scheme of things that’s better for both you and the rest of humanity.

emn13 4y ago
I did this for years. I regret it. It's overly simplistic to think this works well. The devil is in the details; and being a decent human being also means adapting to other's wishes, needs and habits. Being a small-scale dictator about modes of communication isn't great. You _will_ miss out of valuable personal communication if you choose to go this route. It's not just about an online curated persona.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
  I've been doing this since forever, and I don't feel I miss out on anything meaningful. Granted, I've never had that many friends to begin with, but the ones I do have haven't given me any trouble about not being on social media or whatever. In my experience these online platforms cater to shallow communications of dubious value.
- Forgeties79 4y ago
  > Being a small-scale dictator about modes of communication isn't great. Oh come now, isn’t this a little dramatic? If I was forcing them to use one app I want in order to stay in touch you’d have a point, but isn’t that also functionally what you’re saying we should have to deal with? Meeting someone all the way, only on ONE mode of communication they demand? This also doesn’t address how niche this situation is. There can’t be that many people who can only talk to their family on Facebook messenger. This can’t possibly be a major issue.
  - emn13 4y ago
    It's not just about family; it's about friends too, and perhaps the periphery of extended family. Losing contact is a price. Is it worth paying? That'll vary from person to person, but my personal experience with this was that this was a mistake I now regret. I incidentally also avoided whatsapp and other facebook-owned apps, which certainly didn't help. And some people are probably naturally great at collecting other contact details and keeping in touch via phone and email; I'm not. I stand behind the principle, mind you; I just think I should have placed day-to-day human beings I needlessly lost contact with above that principle. I still encourage contacts to avoid facebook, but that's it. But to each their own, for sure. I'm simply saying this because in a forum such as this one that likes to focus on the abstract and principled it's easy to overlook the plain and quotidian daily existence we all have too; we shouldn't.

by JackFr 4y ago

emn13 4y ago

I did this for years. I regret it. It's overly simplistic to think this works well. The devil is in the details; and being a decent human being also means adapting to other's wishes, needs and habits. Being a small-scale dictator about modes of communication isn't great. You _will_ miss out of valuable personal communication if you choose to go this route. It's not just about an online curated persona.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
I've been doing this since forever, and I don't feel I miss out on anything meaningful. Granted, I've never had that many friends to begin with, but the ones I do have haven't given me any trouble about not being on social media or whatever. In my experience these online platforms cater to shallow communications of dubious value.
Forgeties79 4y ago
> Being a small-scale dictator about modes of communication isn't great. Oh come now, isn’t this a little dramatic? If I was forcing them to use one app I want in order to stay in touch you’d have a point, but isn’t that also functionally what you’re saying we should have to deal with? Meeting someone all the way, only on ONE mode of communication they demand? This also doesn’t address how niche this situation is. There can’t be that many people who can only talk to their family on Facebook messenger. This can’t possibly be a major issue.
- emn13 4y ago
  It's not just about family; it's about friends too, and perhaps the periphery of extended family. Losing contact is a price. Is it worth paying? That'll vary from person to person, but my personal experience with this was that this was a mistake I now regret. I incidentally also avoided whatsapp and other facebook-owned apps, which certainly didn't help. And some people are probably naturally great at collecting other contact details and keeping in touch via phone and email; I'm not. I stand behind the principle, mind you; I just think I should have placed day-to-day human beings I needlessly lost contact with above that principle. I still encourage contacts to avoid facebook, but that's it. But to each their own, for sure. I'm simply saying this because in a forum such as this one that likes to focus on the abstract and principled it's easy to overlook the plain and quotidian daily existence we all have too; we shouldn't.