stroking their ego fantasies about having lots of friends who care about them
I would bet that if anyone left X, not one single friend would contact them outside of that space
I worked in substance misuse for nearly 20 years and this reminds me of a dilemma that drug dealers have to go through before they become clean.
I have had hundreds of drugs dealers tell the same story:
My home used to be full of friends every night of the week when I was dealing. As soon as I stopped dealing not one person knocked at my door.
One of the toughest lessons to learn when giving up drugs.
same as facebook et al.
I see many people who are trapped in the cycle of believing they have close friends on social media sites. They do not!
Some of my friends get overwhelmed with the constant notifications.
I explain to them that none of the group members are actually messaging them, but messaging the group, hoping to get some sort of response to the meaningless shitty photo of their last meal.
I get them to do a little experiment to confirm if this is true.
If they are members of a group chat, I get them to leave the group, but tell all members of the group that they are available for direct messages.
whatsapp, facebook, X, insta, it doesnt matter, the outcome is the same.
They can always rejoin the group if the experiment fails.
As you can well imagine, none of my friends recieved any direct messages from anyone in the group chat.
So they left all the social media sites and now use signal or email to speak to real friends. And no more poxy intrusive notifications. Ive deleted them using adb.
We only have enough psychological space to manage 5-10 friends with love and care.
Only human
FinnLobsien · 1d ago
It's funny that you say that. I deleted my Facebook and Instagram accounts 2 years ago and have never missed it.
Of course, you do "lose" some people whose number you don't have and thus can no longer contact. And maybe you miss out on seeing someone's Instagram story close to you and hanging out.
But whether a few hours a few times a year is worth multiple hours of scrolling every DAY? I doubt it.
incomingpain · 2d ago
I just checked to see if @TheAtlantic published this on X. They didnt; but they are active on X. Here's a recent post from them.
>Imagine if your favorite neighborhood bar turned into a Nazi hangout.
There's really only 1 demographic who is prominent anti-jew or anti-israel on X. I dont really interact with them much these days. Yesterday @JJ_mccullough did a poll of his audience about israel.
16% fierce supporter of israel, 26% support but have doubts, 37% they're very indefensible, 11% oppose israel's existence.
If X was such a nazi hangout, I'd expect that poll to go much more differently.
They say over 50,000 people should up for 'israel walk' or really to support the jews in this unprecedented time of antisemitism. In my circle of followers there was a ton of support for jews; certainly no nazis.
>The week prior, Ye (formerly Kanye West) released a single called “Heil Hitler” on the platform.
1 guy making a controversial video to try to stay relevant? Probably having a mental health issue? I went to look for this. His account isnt available in search.
Caution: This profile may include potentially sensitive content
On his whole account. Then each post is censored as well with the same warning.
Not exactly a nazi hangout when the 1 example is rather difficult to find.
throw310822 · 2d ago
On this subject, I think it's wrong to use "nazi" as a synonym of "antisemitic". Yes, Nazism was ferociously so, but it was primarily a suprematist nationalistic ideology, based on the cult of superior strength and hell-bent on conquering the lands of "inferior peoples" because it was in their "historical destiny" to settle them. In this, there is a strong resemblance between nazism and zionism, and I am not surprised that the staunchest supporters of Israel are to be found in the hard right. Frankly, I'm not sure why a nazi today would oppose Israel rather than look at it as an example to imitate.
FinnLobsien · 1d ago
Agreed, I think the word "nazi" does the article a disservice. Whether or not it's specifically nazi ideology or alt-right or something else, it's undeniable that the X/Twitter home page now is filled with explicit racism and otherwise disturbing content or, at its mildest, the most extreme opinions on mundane topics.
Whatever ideology, I find the X feed extremely inflammatory.
I would bet that if anyone left X, not one single friend would contact them outside of that space
I worked in substance misuse for nearly 20 years and this reminds me of a dilemma that drug dealers have to go through before they become clean.
I have had hundreds of drugs dealers tell the same story:
My home used to be full of friends every night of the week when I was dealing. As soon as I stopped dealing not one person knocked at my door.
One of the toughest lessons to learn when giving up drugs.
same as facebook et al.
I see many people who are trapped in the cycle of believing they have close friends on social media sites. They do not!
Some of my friends get overwhelmed with the constant notifications.
I explain to them that none of the group members are actually messaging them, but messaging the group, hoping to get some sort of response to the meaningless shitty photo of their last meal.
I get them to do a little experiment to confirm if this is true.
If they are members of a group chat, I get them to leave the group, but tell all members of the group that they are available for direct messages.
whatsapp, facebook, X, insta, it doesnt matter, the outcome is the same.
They can always rejoin the group if the experiment fails.
As you can well imagine, none of my friends recieved any direct messages from anyone in the group chat.
So they left all the social media sites and now use signal or email to speak to real friends. And no more poxy intrusive notifications. Ive deleted them using adb.
We only have enough psychological space to manage 5-10 friends with love and care.
Only human
Of course, you do "lose" some people whose number you don't have and thus can no longer contact. And maybe you miss out on seeing someone's Instagram story close to you and hanging out.
But whether a few hours a few times a year is worth multiple hours of scrolling every DAY? I doubt it.
https://x.com/TheAtlantic/status/1926899872432574835
>Imagine if your favorite neighborhood bar turned into a Nazi hangout.
There's really only 1 demographic who is prominent anti-jew or anti-israel on X. I dont really interact with them much these days. Yesterday @JJ_mccullough did a poll of his audience about israel.
16% fierce supporter of israel, 26% support but have doubts, 37% they're very indefensible, 11% oppose israel's existence.
If X was such a nazi hangout, I'd expect that poll to go much more differently.
Here's something that happened in Toronto
https://x.com/Awesome_Jew_/status/1926761520530166009
They say over 50,000 people should up for 'israel walk' or really to support the jews in this unprecedented time of antisemitism. In my circle of followers there was a ton of support for jews; certainly no nazis.
>The week prior, Ye (formerly Kanye West) released a single called “Heil Hitler” on the platform.
1 guy making a controversial video to try to stay relevant? Probably having a mental health issue? I went to look for this. His account isnt available in search.
Caution: This profile may include potentially sensitive content
On his whole account. Then each post is censored as well with the same warning.
Not exactly a nazi hangout when the 1 example is rather difficult to find.
Whatever ideology, I find the X feed extremely inflammatory.