This may sound preachy or something, but here we go: I stopped using social media aside from reddit and (just to communicate with relatives or old friends) facebook back around 2010. Joined tildes...
This may sound preachy or something, but here we go:
I stopped using social media aside from reddit and (just to communicate with relatives or old friends) facebook back around 2010. Joined tildes during the reddit api crisis. I remember watching my girlfriend in college scroll her facebook feed for hours and hours, and it always made her sad, or at best envious of people she didn't even know. In the years since then it's really gone downhill in every measurable way. I made an instagram once to see what it was about and try to "be hip", but I just couldn't enjoy using it. I made a twitter account because people told me it was useful, but same thing-- even when I tried to stack my feed with content from people I genuinely like (math, science folks, sci-fi nerds, cool art and music), it seemed like the discussions were shallow, the core content (music, art, fiction, scientific results, math) were available elsewhere with less distraction and no vitriolic comment section.
My wife uses tiktok a lot, and I remember when it came out how it changed her daily life and eventually her personality. Plenty of what she sees on there I agree with (news stuff, political discussion, some mental health stuff) but all of it can be found in other places, longer form, with a focus on deeper understanding.
Tildes is probably a skewed sample. Most of us are here, I imagine, because we're put off by other forms of social media, but I absolutely agree with you, OP, that the psychological damage of short form content (even content you enjoy) together with the massive volumes of content you might not enjoy [even if you may 'crave' it] being chucked your way, really make stuff like instagram and tiktok unpleasant. All this is stopping way short of my biggest concern about these apps which is data privacy... but that's another mess all together.
I had a Myspace but only very briefly for the benefit of my highschool girlfriend. I quit Facebook in 2009. I've never even had an account for twitter, instagram, or tiktok. I quit reddit and...
I had a Myspace but only very briefly for the benefit of my highschool girlfriend. I quit Facebook in 2009. I've never even had an account for twitter, instagram, or tiktok. I quit reddit and joined tildes during the api crisis as well. I use youtube via PipePipe where I don't even log in. Tildes is the only form of "social media" I engage in, and quite frankly there simply isn't enough content here for it to be much of a distraction.
We live in an era that everyones personal truths supercede the truth of reality with equal value to each other, even when they are even at direct odds with each other. Now, I am taking this into a...
We live in an era that everyones personal truths supercede the truth of reality with equal value to each other, even when they are even at direct odds with each other.
Now, I am taking this into a political topic, so skip if that's not what you are looking for, but I was reading a passage from Carl Sagans "The Demon Haunted World" recently that found a few studies that suggest that more conservative lending people believe in adding more weight to individual testimony and accounts of events from their defined experts, whereas progressive follow and take into account statistical analysis and research with much more weight and less on individual experiences. Instagram is a perfect example of a deluge of nonstop perceivable experts, working against studies, or taking part in studies for validation of belief, and instead just speak "their truth" or "I don't lnow if anyone else ever does X, but I do! And it's great! Here is how to be as great and as smaaaart as me!:"
I use instagram on a private account to follow artistic and incredibly attractive people purely when I want to feed the monkey brain and give it a quick release of endorphins (I can only take so many pretty fashion people), and I have another account that only follows my top 20 musicians of all time - quick to scroll and find out if they released any new music or tours. Be selective. Don't use reels. Use Social Media as a tool, less for entertainment or motivation (because then you develop a motivation for using social media).
Also, don't use the apps. Apps are appetizers, it's in the name. Use them through your browser, with an ad bocker like uBlock Origin running (Helium and Firefox on Android both let you use extensions, Helium is chrome based and sadly tends to work better for most sites than FF on Android). Iff they don't have a website, then don't use them.
I disagree it’s a conservative vs. liberal/progressive mindset. Ive seen numerous times online as well as through legacy media the idea of “personal truth.” The whole “personal truth” is...
We live in an era that everyone’s personal truths supercede the truth of reality with equal value to each other, even when they are even at direct odds with each other.
Now, I am taking this into a political topic, so skip if that's not what you are looking for, but I was reading a passage from Carl Sagans "The Demon Haunted World" recently that found a few studies that suggest that more conservative lending people believe in adding more weight to individual testimony and accounts of events from their defined experts, whereas progressive follow and take into account statistical analysis and research with much more weight and less on individual experiences.
I disagree it’s a conservative vs. liberal/progressive mindset. Ive seen numerous times online as well as through legacy media the idea of “personal truth.” The whole “personal truth” is definitely a liberal construct that places more weight on a person’s personal experiences rather than statistical data for example.
Painting one side of the political spectrum as more objective and rational than the other is shortsighted and just drives division.
Never said one way or another was superior, it was just how those who defined themselves as more conservative or liberal have a differing ranking sets of informational trust. I will say that...
Never said one way or another was superior, it was just how those who defined themselves as more conservative or liberal have a differing ranking sets of informational trust.
I will say that personal truths are certainly not a more liberal construct, personal truths have a basis in personal experiences and belief that is more traditionally a conservative (by definition) effect of the ideology paradigm. To have faith, to believe in, to focus on oneself (or spiritually beyond oneself) and pull yourself up, to believe in the ideals of your family over those of society or those that view truth as data to be filtered and sorted through.
In some cases they work both ways, but in a more traditional practice, a 'personal truth' or 'the way I see it' is nominally a value that is placed higher over abstract research over larger sets of experiences than your own, tends to be a more conservative outlook.
I can see how a statement like 'personal truth' could be misconstrued as a core liberal paradigm, but that would be an alternative reading of the statement. Yes, personal truth could be defined as 'being true to oneself, being open about yourself, being open to change, and the internal truth of that', but in this case 'personal truth' is an ideal that I would define as being a 'individualistic truth that is perceived as universal, as it makes sense in my personal view of reality' and when placed into my above comment, would mean 'individualistic truth', or personal experiences, is ranked higher and more trusted than 'statistically-likely truths' for conservative-minded individuals. Personal experience is important on both sides, and when placed in ranking terms of personal preference in belief, conservatives are more likely to prefer a single testimony or a variety of testimonies served individually, than a grouped statistically-likely and research (generalized) scientific research on the same subject.
I am a proud progressive, so you can read that I am talking against conservatism as a block group. But if I were to place emphasis on describing 'personal truth' as a positive, and still agree with it, its that the 'personal truth' of the more traditionally conservative outlook, is a question of how much power 'believing the people' should rank over the power of 'believing in the research'. Believing in the people is powerful as it takes into emotional values and how an individual perceives them (so one can relate and understand it on a deeper more emotional level) whereas placing 'believing in the research' higher on the totem ranking requires a more nuanced understanding of statistical analysis (min/max/averages/means/study sizes/ biases/etc), and removing the emotional, more 'personal' attachment to the people involved.
If they put it on their temporary page, it is really worth knowing about? In my case, it's always been a resounding no, and I haven't touched Stories in a long time.
Sadly, updates are going to fall off to the side as most of these folks use stories which vanish after 24 hours anyway.
If they put it on their temporary page, it is really worth knowing about? In my case, it's always been a resounding no, and I haven't touched Stories in a long time.
I've been wondering if this is something I should do. I've never used social media apps for more than a few days at a time but I'm kind of drawn to Instagram, not because I want to post anything,...
I've been wondering if this is something I should do. I've never used social media apps for more than a few days at a time but I'm kind of drawn to Instagram, not because I want to post anything, but because it is a way to follow both artists and attractive people. Most of the local artists that I'm interested in don't have much of a presence anywhere else.
The two main things stopping me from taking the plunge are the fact that I don't want to see any ads, and I don't want to give my data to Facebook. I've been wondering if maybe there's a self hosted way to achieve what I want to achieve but my self hosted task backlog is so huge I probably won't get to it for a very long time.
I use an app called Instafel which is a repackaged APK of the developmental alpha version of Instagram. It not only removes ads completely, but also gives you minute access to an obscene amount of...
I use an app called Instafel which is a repackaged APK of the developmental alpha version of Instagram.
It not only removes ads completely, but also gives you minute access to an obscene amount of controls including controlling your algorithm and sponsored posts.
I use Instagram a lot more often now because I've been able to over-ride the content algorithm to actually show me things I'm interested in like 3D printing, local businesses, horror movies, and friend's actual posts.
You can also use something like Revanced Manager, it is a community maintained number of patches (tweaks and code changes) to a lot of different apps (Reddit/FB/X/etc), you download the standard...
You can also use something like Revanced Manager, it is a community maintained number of patches (tweaks and code changes) to a lot of different apps (Reddit/FB/X/etc), you download the standard apk, load it in, select your modifications, and it will repackage it for install. This way they bypass legal reqs, since they aren't distributing proprietary modded binaries, but instead just distribute the code injections.
If you've ever used a mod manager in a video game, its basically that for apps.
Yep! I use ReVanced Manager for YouTube on my Android so my YouTube app doesn't have ads and has SponsorBlock, but for some reason ReVanced never worked on Instagram or Facebook to remove ads. It...
Yep!
I use ReVanced Manager for YouTube on my Android so my YouTube app doesn't have ads and has SponsorBlock, but for some reason ReVanced never worked on Instagram or Facebook to remove ads.
I was using Vanced/Revanced for a while but repeatedly had it stop working. Now for ad-free YT I just open YT in Firefox Mobile. I didn't know they had a solve for Instagram though! I can only...
I was using Vanced/Revanced for a while but repeatedly had it stop working. Now for ad-free YT I just open YT in Firefox Mobile.
I didn't know they had a solve for Instagram though! I can only stand insta for a couple minutes at a time cause of how much of my feed is NOT things that I actually follow.
This sounds like a really useful project. I'm a bit of a luddite compared to lots of tildes, but I'll report back if I remember on whether I'm able to make meaningful use of revanced.
This sounds like a really useful project.
I'm a bit of a luddite compared to lots of tildes, but I'll report back if I remember on whether I'm able to make meaningful use of revanced.
Without jailbreaking, yes unfortunately. Not to be one of those people, but I had an iPhone for the longest time and switched over to Android to get a Samsung Fold phone, and frankly it's been...
Without jailbreaking, yes unfortunately.
Not to be one of those people, but I had an iPhone for the longest time and switched over to Android to get a Samsung Fold phone, and frankly it's been great.
I know Android users always say this, but I far prefer having more control over my OS, it's been great in so many ways I took for granted when on iPhone.
Forgive the ignorance, but does using Instafel still support Meta financially if it removes the adds completely? I'm hoping not to support them so this would be a big win if not.
Instafel
Forgive the ignorance, but does using Instafel still support Meta financially if it removes the adds completely? I'm hoping not to support them so this would be a big win if not.
The profile they build on you based on your behaviour, follows etc and sell to advertisers linked to your personal info still makes them money. The best way to give zuck zilch is to delete your...
The profile they build on you based on your behaviour, follows etc and sell to advertisers linked to your personal info still makes them money. The best way to give zuck zilch is to delete your meta accounts.
I honestly don't exactly know how it works. I'm not sure if it just hides the ads but they still show up as "seen" on facebook's end, or if they're not even loading. I mean it's a step in the...
I honestly don't exactly know how it works. I'm not sure if it just hides the ads but they still show up as "seen" on facebook's end, or if they're not even loading.
I mean it's a step in the right direction as far as I'm concerned.
Instafel exposes tons of internal options, a lot of them concerning data analytics and whatnot, so I'm not sure, you'd have to ask the Instafel community or play around with the options.
Also since it's technically an Alpha build I'm not sure if they even use Alpha data due to testing.
Yeah my grampa begged me to put TikTok on his phone and my 2 minute validation of ‘is this app working correctly’ is my only experience with it. Its loud, cluttered, and confusing. Reminds me of a...
Yeah my grampa begged me to put TikTok on his phone and my 2 minute validation of ‘is this app working correctly’ is my only experience with it.
Its loud, cluttered, and confusing. Reminds me of a casino.
I like that analogy; most modern social media definitely reminds me of a casino in the "clamoring for your attention" and "don't want you to know what time it is" and "here to destroy your soul"...
I like that analogy; most modern social media definitely reminds me of a casino in the "clamoring for your attention" and "don't want you to know what time it is" and "here to destroy your soul" senses. I'm as sickened by one as I am the other.
I agree with all the sentiment here, but I also worry that I'm being naive or elitist or somehow missing a bigger picture. I watch youtube videos often, I use tildes and reddit, and I play video...
I agree with all the sentiment here, but I also worry that I'm being naive or elitist or somehow missing a bigger picture.
I watch youtube videos often, I use tildes and reddit, and I play video games like minecraft, kcd, obsidian rpgs, bgs single player stuff.
It's my opinion that these forms of digital media are healthier or at least less unhealthy than the kind I condemn. I feel pretty strongly like that's true. But it's really hard for me to know whether that's actually true or if it's just that natural thing of "my interests good, other interests bad".
Sure lots of folks agree with my intuition, but is that just our tribe VS the others?
You hire a professional, with credentials, to give you advice derived from a body of scientific consensus. The problem is people have decided to ignore professionals in most fields, and denigrate...
When you get 10 different types of advice, how are you to know what to prioritize, what actually works.
You hire a professional, with credentials, to give you advice derived from a body of scientific consensus.
The problem is people have decided to ignore professionals in most fields, and denigrate education, choosing to seek internet ass-pulls and LLM fortune telling instead.
I was in a public bathroom recently, and someone was talking to ChatGPT and listening to its responses (never mind the lack of the common decency of using earbuds), asking it for nutritional...
I was in a public bathroom recently, and someone was talking to ChatGPT and listening to its responses (never mind the lack of the common decency of using earbuds), asking it for nutritional advice. They were seemingly oblivious to the responses to each of their questions contradicting each other while affirming whatever they asked.
It wasn't as bad as the now-famous case of someone swapping table salt for sodium bromide, from asking questions without understanding the context of what they're asking, but still disturbing.
don’t go back, but if you do, use https://www.instagram.com/?variant=following to only get your own follows. i only started using instagram again after around a decade away. i made a new account,...
don’t go back, but if you do, use https://www.instagram.com/?variant=following to only get your own follows. i only started using instagram again after around a decade away. i made a new account, no followers, and only follow f1, men’s fashion, and the lakers. i only check it once a week or so, but using that variant is key.
yeah, its way better. I guess people who use it on the regular are conditioned to the ads and other crap.. but I find it extremely frustrating. I ditched my main account because it decided that I...
yeah, its way better. I guess people who use it on the regular are conditioned to the ads and other crap.. but I find it extremely frustrating. I ditched my main account because it decided that I only wanted to see half naked twenty-somethings. I only follow people I know in real life there. I don't like it.
so, I was thinking that there's got to be something like xcancel but for instagram. imginn.com seems like a good alternative for viewing individual profiles -- e.g....
so, I was thinking that there's got to be something like xcancel but for instagram.
imginn.com seems like a good alternative for viewing individual profiles -- e.g. https://imginn.com/john_a_hillcoat (director of the upcoming Blood Meridian film.) That seems pretty good. It doesn't do reels, but it does everything else. not too bad.
I have an old, dusty instagram from way back when that I have recently begun reusing to check out the work from artists that I like. I'm starting to get into linocut printmaking and it's just hard...
I have an old, dusty instagram from way back when that I have recently begun reusing to check out the work from artists that I like. I'm starting to get into linocut printmaking and it's just hard to get examples of work outside of things like Instagram and Etsy. Etsy is great for searching particular topics, but on Instagram artists will show parts of the process. I'm doing a weekly art class, but supplementing with the instagram stuff has been really helpful. Buuuuut, I don't want to support Meta.
Does anyone know a way of finding this kind of content without instagram or any sneaky ways to see the posts from the artists I like without supporting Meta financially?
Start an instagram account that is dedicated to only it, be intentional with your usage of the account and follow who you would like, use an adblocker, and only use it on desktop (or a browser on...
or any sneaky ways to see the posts from the artists I like without supporting Meta financially?
Start an instagram account that is dedicated to only it, be intentional with your usage of the account and follow who you would like, use an adblocker, and only use it on desktop (or a browser on mobile with an adblocker). I wish there was a practical way of using RSS feeds, and I am sure there is, but nothing simple.
This makes me really want an RSS adapter for Facebook and Instagram. Plug in an account, get only posts from people you follow. Filter out all reposts and shares. Only trouble is, I suspect that...
This makes me really want an RSS adapter for Facebook and Instagram. Plug in an account, get only posts from people you follow. Filter out all reposts and shares.
Only trouble is, I suspect that most normal people post very little these days. And just by interacting and having an account you're helping ensnare people in the Meta honeypot.
Yeah, that's pretty much what I do. On my desktop, adblock plus, just following those artists. Do we know if ad block actually stops facebook from collecting on ads?
Yeah, that's pretty much what I do. On my desktop, adblock plus, just following those artists.
Do we know if ad block actually stops facebook from collecting on ads?
Additionally, FB makes enough money that your individual value is rather minimal, and they can extrapolate all of your beliefs and interests to a 99% certainty just from the people you see (or the...
Additionally, FB makes enough money that your individual value is rather minimal, and they can extrapolate all of your beliefs and interests to a 99% certainty just from the people you see (or the people around you using it....) and follow within the first twenty minutes.
The real reason, and an argument that was a core part of the adblock conversation back 15 years ago, was not to limit the money that any platform makes, because one of the core ideological tenets on why people use adblock is to not be controlled, subjugated, inspired, coerced, or influenced by advertisements, to not be subliminally inspired to think about them, act on them, feel left out, feel ostracized, to even have a minute amount of your psyche be influenced by a damn marketing agency at the lamest level, and counter-forces (such as governments, politics, etc) affect your thinking even in the slightest at the highest level.
If you use FB, or Instagram, or any platform, you shouldn't think of using adblock as stopping the profit generation, because they aren't in the business of making money, they are in the business of influence of the masses, and since we have to use them in many cases, may as well limit their influence as much as possible - and a primary part of that is by blocking their sponsored posts and advertisements.
I still use IG and even FB (ew), and it's definitely not perfect. I have heavily curated my experiences by being very selective about who I follow AND whose posts I allow to appear. For FB, it's...
I still use IG and even FB (ew), and it's definitely not perfect. I have heavily curated my experiences by being very selective about who I follow AND whose posts I allow to appear.
For FB, it's the way I still maintain a connection to some internet friends from earlier days, as well as the majority of family I still talk to at all. It's also hard to find anything to replace its usefulness for me as a way to share something with this group of people all at once, asynchronously, and in a way they can consume/comment/interact with on their own. I post photos sometimes, music sometimes, coffee/tea/music stuff, questions, etc. I also use an FB group as an integral way of looking up info (in terms of their politics, behavior, etc) on bands that might not be available elsewhere, as that is important to me.
IG is also good for being able to view how bands act on their social media, and without an account it is difficult. I also use IG to follow online friends, record labels, artists, coffee/tea people, tattoo artists, etc. and heavily curate that experience too.
That said, FB and IG's algorithm, no matter how much you try to guide them- will always throw tons of stuff in your face you NEVER want to see, and often, and plenty of times the exact opposite of things you're interested in. So, it's been a struggle. They're also really effective at pushing the kind of content that will make anyone doomscroll so that you engage longer. Not good for my mental health. So I'm trying to keep them, while remaining at a distance, but have considered leaving them before and in fact, left IG for a while and then went back. For IG I go into settings on mobile and "snooze suggested posts for 30 days" every 30 days. I block tons of pages and groups on FB.
But at the end of the day, Meta sucks and I hate being on those platforms, but in certain ways, I and many I am connected to are basically held hostage by there being no where else for us all to connect in that same way, or as a way for me to semi-publicly share things and get interactions based on those from accounts and people I like to interact with.
At the end of the day maybe I overvalue the sharing of my music, photos, etc and getting a response from others on it, and at some point maybe it's better to just abandon the platforms anyway and take the hit. I don't know. I truly don't.
I don't post on Instagram, but I use it a tonne, and it's ... pretty good? You can downvote content that you don't want to see, and select which ads you're interested in, so I only ever get:...
I don't post on Instagram, but I use it a tonne, and it's ... pretty good? You can downvote content that you don't want to see, and select which ads you're interested in, so I only ever get:
Pictures and videos of dogs/wolves/birds/wildlife/etc.
Environmental activists
Museums & science orgs doing outreach
Then my ads are all alt-fashion (or rustic things), and local events (often promoted by my local municipality).
I get the impression that most people who go to Instagram are looking for humans living aspirational lives, though, which is what winds up driving all the resentment ...
Ah, fair enough! Sorry, I think I was moreso responding to the general vibe of this thread rather than you personally. Mmhm, that definitely doesn't help: if I accidentally even click on some...
Ah, fair enough! Sorry, I think I was moreso responding to the general vibe of this thread rather than you personally.
I was looking at various things people posted so the algorithm was showing me too much of a variety of stuff.
Mmhm, that definitely doesn't help: if I accidentally even click on some content by accident (e.g. a reel with a dog on it winds up being ragebait), the algorithm starts recommending more of that very rapidly. Repeatedly slapping the "Do not recommend" and "Not interested" buttons seems to help a lot, in those cases! But they're very well hidden, so it's understandable that they're often missed.
This may sound preachy or something, but here we go:
I stopped using social media aside from reddit and (just to communicate with relatives or old friends) facebook back around 2010. Joined tildes during the reddit api crisis. I remember watching my girlfriend in college scroll her facebook feed for hours and hours, and it always made her sad, or at best envious of people she didn't even know. In the years since then it's really gone downhill in every measurable way. I made an instagram once to see what it was about and try to "be hip", but I just couldn't enjoy using it. I made a twitter account because people told me it was useful, but same thing-- even when I tried to stack my feed with content from people I genuinely like (math, science folks, sci-fi nerds, cool art and music), it seemed like the discussions were shallow, the core content (music, art, fiction, scientific results, math) were available elsewhere with less distraction and no vitriolic comment section.
My wife uses tiktok a lot, and I remember when it came out how it changed her daily life and eventually her personality. Plenty of what she sees on there I agree with (news stuff, political discussion, some mental health stuff) but all of it can be found in other places, longer form, with a focus on deeper understanding.
Tildes is probably a skewed sample. Most of us are here, I imagine, because we're put off by other forms of social media, but I absolutely agree with you, OP, that the psychological damage of short form content (even content you enjoy) together with the massive volumes of content you might not enjoy [even if you may 'crave' it] being chucked your way, really make stuff like instagram and tiktok unpleasant. All this is stopping way short of my biggest concern about these apps which is data privacy... but that's another mess all together.
I had a Myspace but only very briefly for the benefit of my highschool girlfriend. I quit Facebook in 2009. I've never even had an account for twitter, instagram, or tiktok. I quit reddit and joined tildes during the api crisis as well. I use youtube via PipePipe where I don't even log in. Tildes is the only form of "social media" I engage in, and quite frankly there simply isn't enough content here for it to be much of a distraction.
We live in an era that everyones personal truths supercede the truth of reality with equal value to each other, even when they are even at direct odds with each other.
Now, I am taking this into a political topic, so skip if that's not what you are looking for, but I was reading a passage from Carl Sagans "The Demon Haunted World" recently that found a few studies that suggest that more conservative lending people believe in adding more weight to individual testimony and accounts of events from their defined experts, whereas progressive follow and take into account statistical analysis and research with much more weight and less on individual experiences. Instagram is a perfect example of a deluge of nonstop perceivable experts, working against studies, or taking part in studies for validation of belief, and instead just speak "their truth" or "I don't lnow if anyone else ever does X, but I do! And it's great! Here is how to be as great and as smaaaart as me!:"
I use instagram on a private account to follow artistic and incredibly attractive people purely when I want to feed the monkey brain and give it a quick release of endorphins (I can only take so many pretty fashion people), and I have another account that only follows my top 20 musicians of all time - quick to scroll and find out if they released any new music or tours. Be selective. Don't use reels. Use Social Media as a tool, less for entertainment or motivation (because then you develop a motivation for using social media).
Also, don't use the apps. Apps are appetizers, it's in the name. Use them through your browser, with an ad bocker like uBlock Origin running (Helium and Firefox on Android both let you use extensions, Helium is chrome based and sadly tends to work better for most sites than FF on Android). Iff they don't have a website, then don't use them.
I disagree it’s a conservative vs. liberal/progressive mindset. Ive seen numerous times online as well as through legacy media the idea of “personal truth.” The whole “personal truth” is definitely a liberal construct that places more weight on a person’s personal experiences rather than statistical data for example.
Painting one side of the political spectrum as more objective and rational than the other is shortsighted and just drives division.
Never said one way or another was superior, it was just how those who defined themselves as more conservative or liberal have a differing ranking sets of informational trust.
I will say that personal truths are certainly not a more liberal construct, personal truths have a basis in personal experiences and belief that is more traditionally a conservative (by definition) effect of the ideology paradigm. To have faith, to believe in, to focus on oneself (or spiritually beyond oneself) and pull yourself up, to believe in the ideals of your family over those of society or those that view truth as data to be filtered and sorted through.
In some cases they work both ways, but in a more traditional practice, a 'personal truth' or 'the way I see it' is nominally a value that is placed higher over abstract research over larger sets of experiences than your own, tends to be a more conservative outlook.
I can see how a statement like 'personal truth' could be misconstrued as a core liberal paradigm, but that would be an alternative reading of the statement. Yes, personal truth could be defined as 'being true to oneself, being open about yourself, being open to change, and the internal truth of that', but in this case 'personal truth' is an ideal that I would define as being a 'individualistic truth that is perceived as universal, as it makes sense in my personal view of reality' and when placed into my above comment, would mean 'individualistic truth', or personal experiences, is ranked higher and more trusted than 'statistically-likely truths' for conservative-minded individuals. Personal experience is important on both sides, and when placed in ranking terms of personal preference in belief, conservatives are more likely to prefer a single testimony or a variety of testimonies served individually, than a grouped statistically-likely and research (generalized) scientific research on the same subject.
I am a proud progressive, so you can read that I am talking against conservatism as a block group. But if I were to place emphasis on describing 'personal truth' as a positive, and still agree with it, its that the 'personal truth' of the more traditionally conservative outlook, is a question of how much power 'believing the people' should rank over the power of 'believing in the research'. Believing in the people is powerful as it takes into emotional values and how an individual perceives them (so one can relate and understand it on a deeper more emotional level) whereas placing 'believing in the research' higher on the totem ranking requires a more nuanced understanding of statistical analysis (min/max/averages/means/study sizes/ biases/etc), and removing the emotional, more 'personal' attachment to the people involved.
Edit: Added a lot more thoughts.
If they put it on their temporary page, it is really worth knowing about? In my case, it's always been a resounding no, and I haven't touched Stories in a long time.
I've been wondering if this is something I should do. I've never used social media apps for more than a few days at a time but I'm kind of drawn to Instagram, not because I want to post anything, but because it is a way to follow both artists and attractive people. Most of the local artists that I'm interested in don't have much of a presence anywhere else.
The two main things stopping me from taking the plunge are the fact that I don't want to see any ads, and I don't want to give my data to Facebook. I've been wondering if maybe there's a self hosted way to achieve what I want to achieve but my self hosted task backlog is so huge I probably won't get to it for a very long time.
I use an app called Instafel which is a repackaged APK of the developmental alpha version of Instagram.
It not only removes ads completely, but also gives you minute access to an obscene amount of controls including controlling your algorithm and sponsored posts.
I use Instagram a lot more often now because I've been able to over-ride the content algorithm to actually show me things I'm interested in like 3D printing, local businesses, horror movies, and friend's actual posts.
You can also use something like Revanced Manager, it is a community maintained number of patches (tweaks and code changes) to a lot of different apps (Reddit/FB/X/etc), you download the standard apk, load it in, select your modifications, and it will repackage it for install. This way they bypass legal reqs, since they aren't distributing proprietary modded binaries, but instead just distribute the code injections.
If you've ever used a mod manager in a video game, its basically that for apps.
Yep!
I use ReVanced Manager for YouTube on my Android so my YouTube app doesn't have ads and has SponsorBlock, but for some reason ReVanced never worked on Instagram or Facebook to remove ads.
It kind of works half the time on TikTok.
I was using Vanced/Revanced for a while but repeatedly had it stop working. Now for ad-free YT I just open YT in Firefox Mobile.
I didn't know they had a solve for Instagram though! I can only stand insta for a couple minutes at a time cause of how much of my feed is NOT things that I actually follow.
This sounds like a really useful project.
I'm a bit of a luddite compared to lots of tildes, but I'll report back if I remember on whether I'm able to make meaningful use of revanced.
Hm. What does the website tell me « suspected phishing » for the revanced app?
Not sure, but the project is solid. Here is a link to the github: https://github.com/ReVanced/revanced-manager
I'll update my comment.
I would love to use something like this, but I have an iPhone. Am I doomed?
I'm no expert but I believe the answer is, unfortunately, yes.
Without jailbreaking, yes unfortunately.
Not to be one of those people, but I had an iPhone for the longest time and switched over to Android to get a Samsung Fold phone, and frankly it's been great.
I know Android users always say this, but I far prefer having more control over my OS, it's been great in so many ways I took for granted when on iPhone.
Forgive the ignorance, but does using Instafel still support Meta financially if it removes the adds completely? I'm hoping not to support them so this would be a big win if not.
The profile they build on you based on your behaviour, follows etc and sell to advertisers linked to your personal info still makes them money. The best way to give zuck zilch is to delete your meta accounts.
I know, I'm just not sure how else to check out the artists in question's work. They don't post anywhere else.
I honestly don't exactly know how it works. I'm not sure if it just hides the ads but they still show up as "seen" on facebook's end, or if they're not even loading.
I mean it's a step in the right direction as far as I'm concerned.
Instafel exposes tons of internal options, a lot of them concerning data analytics and whatnot, so I'm not sure, you'd have to ask the Instafel community or play around with the options.
Also since it's technically an Alpha build I'm not sure if they even use Alpha data due to testing.
Yeah my grampa begged me to put TikTok on his phone and my 2 minute validation of ‘is this app working correctly’ is my only experience with it.
Its loud, cluttered, and confusing. Reminds me of a casino.
I like that analogy; most modern social media definitely reminds me of a casino in the "clamoring for your attention" and "don't want you to know what time it is" and "here to destroy your soul" senses. I'm as sickened by one as I am the other.
I agree with all the sentiment here, but I also worry that I'm being naive or elitist or somehow missing a bigger picture.
I watch youtube videos often, I use tildes and reddit, and I play video games like minecraft, kcd, obsidian rpgs, bgs single player stuff.
It's my opinion that these forms of digital media are healthier or at least less unhealthy than the kind I condemn. I feel pretty strongly like that's true. But it's really hard for me to know whether that's actually true or if it's just that natural thing of "my interests good, other interests bad".
Sure lots of folks agree with my intuition, but is that just our tribe VS the others?
Idk. I hope we're right, but I worry sometimes.
You hire a professional, with credentials, to give you advice derived from a body of scientific consensus.
The problem is people have decided to ignore professionals in most fields, and denigrate education, choosing to seek internet ass-pulls and LLM fortune telling instead.
I was in a public bathroom recently, and someone was talking to ChatGPT and listening to its responses (never mind the lack of the common decency of using earbuds), asking it for nutritional advice. They were seemingly oblivious to the responses to each of their questions contradicting each other while affirming whatever they asked.
It wasn't as bad as the now-famous case of someone swapping table salt for sodium bromide, from asking questions without understanding the context of what they're asking, but still disturbing.
don’t go back, but if you do, use https://www.instagram.com/?variant=following to only get your own follows. i only started using instagram again after around a decade away. i made a new account, no followers, and only follow f1, men’s fashion, and the lakers. i only check it once a week or so, but using that variant is key.
yeah, its way better. I guess people who use it on the regular are conditioned to the ads and other crap.. but I find it extremely frustrating. I ditched my main account because it decided that I only wanted to see half naked twenty-somethings. I only follow people I know in real life there. I don't like it.
so, I was thinking that there's got to be something like xcancel but for instagram.
imginn.com seems like a good alternative for viewing individual profiles -- e.g. https://imginn.com/john_a_hillcoat (director of the upcoming Blood Meridian film.) That seems pretty good. It doesn't do reels, but it does everything else. not too bad.
I have an old, dusty instagram from way back when that I have recently begun reusing to check out the work from artists that I like. I'm starting to get into linocut printmaking and it's just hard to get examples of work outside of things like Instagram and Etsy. Etsy is great for searching particular topics, but on Instagram artists will show parts of the process. I'm doing a weekly art class, but supplementing with the instagram stuff has been really helpful. Buuuuut, I don't want to support Meta.
Does anyone know a way of finding this kind of content without instagram or any sneaky ways to see the posts from the artists I like without supporting Meta financially?
Start an instagram account that is dedicated to only it, be intentional with your usage of the account and follow who you would like, use an adblocker, and only use it on desktop (or a browser on mobile with an adblocker). I wish there was a practical way of using RSS feeds, and I am sure there is, but nothing simple.
This makes me really want an RSS adapter for Facebook and Instagram. Plug in an account, get only posts from people you follow. Filter out all reposts and shares.
Only trouble is, I suspect that most normal people post very little these days. And just by interacting and having an account you're helping ensnare people in the Meta honeypot.
Yeah, that's pretty much what I do. On my desktop, adblock plus, just following those artists.
Do we know if ad block actually stops facebook from collecting on ads?
Additionally, FB makes enough money that your individual value is rather minimal, and they can extrapolate all of your beliefs and interests to a 99% certainty just from the people you see (or the people around you using it....) and follow within the first twenty minutes.
The real reason, and an argument that was a core part of the adblock conversation back 15 years ago, was not to limit the money that any platform makes, because one of the core ideological tenets on why people use adblock is to not be controlled, subjugated, inspired, coerced, or influenced by advertisements, to not be subliminally inspired to think about them, act on them, feel left out, feel ostracized, to even have a minute amount of your psyche be influenced by a damn marketing agency at the lamest level, and counter-forces (such as governments, politics, etc) affect your thinking even in the slightest at the highest level.
If you use FB, or Instagram, or any platform, you shouldn't think of using adblock as stopping the profit generation, because they aren't in the business of making money, they are in the business of influence of the masses, and since we have to use them in many cases, may as well limit their influence as much as possible - and a primary part of that is by blocking their sponsored posts and advertisements.
I still use IG and even FB (ew), and it's definitely not perfect. I have heavily curated my experiences by being very selective about who I follow AND whose posts I allow to appear.
For FB, it's the way I still maintain a connection to some internet friends from earlier days, as well as the majority of family I still talk to at all. It's also hard to find anything to replace its usefulness for me as a way to share something with this group of people all at once, asynchronously, and in a way they can consume/comment/interact with on their own. I post photos sometimes, music sometimes, coffee/tea/music stuff, questions, etc. I also use an FB group as an integral way of looking up info (in terms of their politics, behavior, etc) on bands that might not be available elsewhere, as that is important to me.
IG is also good for being able to view how bands act on their social media, and without an account it is difficult. I also use IG to follow online friends, record labels, artists, coffee/tea people, tattoo artists, etc. and heavily curate that experience too.
That said, FB and IG's algorithm, no matter how much you try to guide them- will always throw tons of stuff in your face you NEVER want to see, and often, and plenty of times the exact opposite of things you're interested in. So, it's been a struggle. They're also really effective at pushing the kind of content that will make anyone doomscroll so that you engage longer. Not good for my mental health. So I'm trying to keep them, while remaining at a distance, but have considered leaving them before and in fact, left IG for a while and then went back. For IG I go into settings on mobile and "snooze suggested posts for 30 days" every 30 days. I block tons of pages and groups on FB.
But at the end of the day, Meta sucks and I hate being on those platforms, but in certain ways, I and many I am connected to are basically held hostage by there being no where else for us all to connect in that same way, or as a way for me to semi-publicly share things and get interactions based on those from accounts and people I like to interact with.
At the end of the day maybe I overvalue the sharing of my music, photos, etc and getting a response from others on it, and at some point maybe it's better to just abandon the platforms anyway and take the hit. I don't know. I truly don't.
I don't post on Instagram, but I use it a tonne, and it's ... pretty good? You can downvote content that you don't want to see, and select which ads you're interested in, so I only ever get:
Then my ads are all alt-fashion (or rustic things), and local events (often promoted by my local municipality).
I get the impression that most people who go to Instagram are looking for humans living aspirational lives, though, which is what winds up driving all the resentment ...
Ah, fair enough! Sorry, I think I was moreso responding to the general vibe of this thread rather than you personally.
Mmhm, that definitely doesn't help: if I accidentally even click on some content by accident (e.g. a reel with a dog on it winds up being ragebait), the algorithm starts recommending more of that very rapidly. Repeatedly slapping the "Do not recommend" and "Not interested" buttons seems to help a lot, in those cases! But they're very well hidden, so it's understandable that they're often missed.