Bit of a new years thing I guess.
People who are endlessly ranting. Some expressing another point of view to mine but just ended up pissing me off. – I kept quite a few thoughtful opposing views.
People who someone shared something interesting of theirs, only to find that was the one interesting thing they had to say.
People who never post anything, the lurkers of the twitter world.
From following 450 I now follow 238.
What’s your experience?
I’ve just halved the people on twitter I follow
by 84 Comments
Lengthwise or across the torso ?
Droll v droll
I follow about the same number as you and it’s pretty civilised in the main. It’s how I keep in touch with some people via the DMs. Occasionally I try a joke and even more occasionally more than one person likes it. I don’t understand how “I keep thinking it’s Tuesday” will sometimes get a thousand likes – even if it is Stephen Fry.
I tend to mute word/phrases/topics rather than people, though certain columnists and anti-vax loons are in the bin. I have no interest in Stewart Lee, let alone any patience with wading through all the opinions people were having about his opinions this weekend, so it only took a couple of dozen posts in succession before taking steps to not see any more.
Blimey! I follow 70 people and it probably takes me an hour (spread throughout the day) to keep up (including, of course, plunging down the inevitable rabbit holes I discover along the way).
I’ve just checked, and I follow about 800 but that doesn’t mean I engage with them all in any meaningful way. I tend to keep people I know for FB, and use Twitter for bands, current affairs and funny clips of cats.
No criticism whatsoever but even if you don’t engage you still at least glance at 800? Blimey…
For the record I like Twitter a lot even if most of the people I follow merely reinforce my lefty-liberal views.
I have no idea how many of those are even active and if challenged could probably only name a couple of dozen. It’s a moving stream which I dip in and out of, in much in the same way that I tend to be distracted in conversation come to think of it. Just as there are several hundred Afterworders and you’ll know from a glance that you have nothing to learn or contribute to a discussion on cricket or Richard Thompson or whatever you can move on with no expenditure of attention.
Fair dos
Don’t use Twitter – Facebook and Instagram are all I need.
I have a little corner of about 300 nice, normal people who are very funny and politically (when that comes up) around the centre, with a bit of distribution left and right.
I generally don’t get involved, block and mute contentious people and topics, and mostly arse about. It’s taken me years to whittle it down to a version of Twitter I like, but I like it a lot. I fully accept Twitter is the worst thing in the world, but also accept that I’m a bit of an addict and so have compromised on a happy medium which works for me.
YourRacistUncleBook is of no interest. It’ll die in its current form in less than a generation, though doubtless it’ll mutate into being more Insta/WhatsApp led. Under-30s mainly just laugh when it’s mentioned – it’s about as much a part of their lives as the Antiques Roadshow, as far as I can tell.
Twitter is the only social media I can stand, but only in the very limited form in which I use it, and fully accepting that it’s about as socially responsible as running my house off a 2-stroke generator.
I follow 200 on Twitter. They’re people I admire (including my son, Barack Obama and, er, Junior Wells), and one I don’t: Nigel Farage, so I can insult him and his acolytes on a daily basis. Fair number of FPBE types from when Brexit was the only subject. Lots of stuff that’s caught my fancy – bookish/graphic design/history posts mostly. Some people I’ve been flattered into following because they’ve followed me for some reason – I have a mere 94 followers so I may be a disappointment to them. Nothing I tweet gets very far, anyway. Generally I’m happy with all that.
Facebook, as I’ve said many times before, is the way I keep in touch with old friends/old publishing muckers, who seem to pop out of the woodwork all the time. It doesn’t matter to me that under-30s have abandoned it, though I’m friends with quite a lot of offspring of friends, who are presumably still there to indulge the ancients.
WhatsApp is reserved exclusively for close family.
Cheques in the mail Thep and a six pack of right angle valve connectors.
You do get news quick and from on the ground sources. I follow a lot of journalists and individuals living in African countries which is v illuminating at times.
The concept of journos tweeting as individuals is an interesting concept.
I have never used a filter such as suggested by @Gatz. Thanks for the tip.
I really dislike having suggested tweets popping up. When did this start ?
I don’t subscribe to any social media accounts – Twitter, Facebook, et al. The more I read about them, the less likely I am to join in. Sometimes I think I should join Facebook to get up to date info about local gigs…haven’t done it yet…
Me, too. Except I have no intention of signing up any time in the foreseeable.
That’s what drew me in, my local music scene runs on it. Also I have distant family I would otherwise never hear from, and I discover my long lost cousin in Alabama is a fun bloke, for example. I have a very small group though, actual family, friends as in go to their houses and they come to mine etc. Everything locked down so no one can see stuff who shouldn’t. FB don’t make this easy as they occasionally change security and open things up which you have to keep an eye on. And it’s not all old racists as suggested above, at least my friends / family aren’t.
I joined 7 years ago as I wanted a better connection to some of the bands I like, and stay in touch with a few friends and family. I’ve found the music and media side worthwhile – there’s a lot of interesting content being shared. I also follow some political pages – I just stay away from the comments as that’s where the pond life lurk. Friends and family activity levels have diminished which is a shame. I have an Instagram account but all I seem to see is stuff already posted on Facebook, usually with badly laid out text and yards of hashtags. I’m puzzled by the people that have abandoned FB because they don’t like them / their security, and now hang out on FB owned Insta.
If you spend a little time setting your account up, you can lock access down, limit the data that’s shared etc. For example, I opened an email account just for FB, that I’ve never looked at since the day I opened the account, and turned on two step verification to limit the risk of getting hacked. I never log in to any other site using my FB credentials. They will still punt ads and a small amount of content at you – it’s the price of admission, but I don’t find that too intrusive, and if you use browser extensions like Fluff Buster, you can make most of that go away too. It’s part of the AW zeitgeist that social media is a terrible thing but my experience is otherwise.
Spot on Fortune, FB haters also use What’s App which is also from the FB lot (sorry….Meta).
A few people I know use Signal as an alternative which allegedly has better security and is nothing to do with FB. So I’m using it too but WA has such a grip on the market most people don’t want to use two messenger apps (don’t get me started on FB Messenger).
Anybody use Telegram? Seems to be the app of choice for people who have been banned from FB and WA. I wonder what you have to do to be banned from Telegram?
Not end each line with STOP, perhaps (one for the kids there)
Facebook, mainly to get band/musician news and a few friends overseas. I don’t really get Twitter although I’ve noticed a couple of radio presenters use it on their shows and not FB. I should cull a few FB groups really and don’t get me started on LinkedIn which seems to be the same few people doing creepy likes to younger women, shameless self promoters with no relevance to me and anti vaxxers.
I don’t use any form of social media anymore. First to go was Facebook, a deviant and insidious cartel if ever there was one (way to go Roger Waters for telling the Vitamin D deficient android geek where to go) and Twitter is the cesspit beneath the opinion asylum. Bedlam meets Billingsgate. Purely tribal and the more spittle on the screen the better as nuance and tolerance has no room here, buster. Even at that table in the corner where the endless discussions about the same old classic rock goes on and on an angry snarl can break through the snoring. There’s a library section upstairs of potential interest but it’s not really worth the bother as anything you dust off to read for your own edification and distraction reveals a correctional slip of paper inside containing the required unsolicited political and moral addendum aimed at stray free thinking deviants. Even a discussion about antique tweezer collections will inevitabley lead to someone lighting the fire brands and fashioning a noose. Dogs and cats have social media down pat. They invented it after all. Sniffing a piss trail communique or your companion’s arse is far more trustworthy and has all the required etiquette that the truly tolerant and perceptive head requires.
I don’t follow Twitter, and the more I hear what people say about it the more I don’t regret it! I’m on there (unless my account has been deleted?) but haven’t logged on for years.
@hedgepig, I’m curious – what’s “your racist uncle book”?? Is that some comedy Twitter account?
No I was just making a joke about Facebook, which is largely populated now by older people and is a massive vector of horrible opinions
Ah gotcha. Sorry, went over my head and I assumed it was a reference I was missing (as usual)!
The only social media I use these days is Whatsapp, with a side order of LinkedIn. The latter can be helpful and is a good way to maintain your network/profile, but it also exposes you to the utterly barking mad professional narcissists who are seemingly leaking across from Instagram.
“I don’t know who needs to hear this, but just in case anyone needs a shot of PURE LIQUID INSPIRATION as we all return to work on this drab January day….
Three years ago, I was an underachiever.
Demotivated, not in control of my own destiny, pitiful.
Then, one morning, I woke up and decided to spend the rest of my life being the best I could be.
Within a week, I had TRIPLED my sales figures. Within a month, I’d earned my first million.
A few weeks later, I started a side hustle offering coaching services to help others share in my success. That business now has an eight figure turnover, a staff of 100 and has won an online award for being very businessy indeed.
Yesterday I bought my fifth lambo, and I’m typing this from a lilo, atop a swimming pool full of Bitcoin. In my house. That I own. Also: a girlfriend.
All this, because I took the radical step of deciding to stop being a loser. Up at 5am every day, staying on my grind, shooting for the stars and hustling hard. It’s that simple.
Hopefully, others can take a similar step in 2022 and join me astride the business world.”
See also, “It’s time to end my journey at…”*
* I’ve been fired
LinkedIn is a horrible place. It might be less obviously toxic than some of the other platforms, but it pushes a hustle culture, and endless self-optimisation, and pushing through whatever mental anguish your employers inflict on you, instead of realising that it’s all their fault. I hate it. Hate it.
I found that you can hibernate your account, which removes it from view, leaving you to be able to turn it back on if you ever need anything. It’s a sad fact of life that so much of the life of work seems to be run through this place, you sort of need to be there in some way.
All other social media, I stopped years ago, after realising that knowing other people’s opinions, whereabouts and seeing what they are eating for breakfast was not necessary in my life. Facebook in particular has broken up my family. I think we can sort-of know that relatives are not quite aligned with your own worldview, without being made explicitly aware of it. It’s better to live and let live sometimes.
Couldn’t agree more. Enjoy.
https://memes.com/blog/utterly-bizarre-posts-on-linkedin-that-prove-hustle-culture-is-unhinged
I was hoping “blockchain enthusiast” would be in there somewhere, and sure enough it is! Alongside the ‘cartoonised blue shirt’ profile picture.
If you are hearing about breakfast menus you have been following the wrong people.
See: the porridge thread on here.
I suspect the fault lines in your family were there long before Facebook brought them to the surface.
Yes indeed, but we can put them aside to some extent if we aren’t all expressing whatever comes into our heads. People you only see occasionally don’t need to share everything, it’s easier to maintain a distant but polite relationship than to be in the trenches of a political divide.
Last year, idly looking for new work, I got a lot of interest from agents who would ring me up uninvited to ask if I was interested in the contract/FTC/permie role they were touting for, on the basis of having found my details on Linkedin. Fair enough to phone me, as I’d made my contact details available on the site, and made it clear that I was open to offers of interesting professional work.
However, what’s completely NOT fair, irrespective of my response to their ‘offer’ – which was 98% a polite ‘No, thank you’ – is to promptly follow up by sending me a request to ‘connect’ with my Linkedin account. Obviously they were expecting to help themselves to the information that can easily be gleaned from the networking associated with a Linkedin account to other individuals who might also be looking for work, and who are, demonstrably, already contactable online.
Bugger off, that information is not for sale you cheeky sods, did you think I came down with the last shower of rain? You’re looking to make a commission out of placing one of the professionals who are registered there, but you’re not inside that particular professional tent, you’re outside, and you’re jolly well not going to piss in, old chum. Take your commission and good luck to you, now move along.
It’s gone steadily downhill over the last ten years from being a useful networking tool to being just another grubby information marketplace overloaded with chancers and self-advertising Apprentice candidates who give me the creeps.
Oh yeah, some of these people are bottom feeders. I think there are a few good recruiters left, but they generally don’t operate this way.
IT Agencies have been doing that since the late eighties. I looked at LinkedIn quite a while back and swerved it very rapidly for the reasons you cite above.
I’ve not done this but I understand that you can lock your contacts down so that people you link with can only see the details of people they are already connected to.
I joined around 20 years ago on the advice of an outplacement coach – never even had a sniff of a job from it. For some years I accepted almost any request to link provided they seemed vaguely relevant to my line of business. It means I’m connected to a number of people who I have almost no idea who they are but other than occasionally being prompted to wish them well on a job anniversary, it’s not been an issue; you can mute any that are frequent flyers.
It’s now the world center for humblebragging and I’m always slightly taken aback at some of the keyboard warriors there who don’t seem to see any issue with openly abusing others. There are a handful of people I follow who post useful stuff and it’s handy for staying in touch with ex colleagues. It’s also proved a revelation for seeing how people who were fired for things like substance abuse or having their hand in the till have managed to revise their job history so that there’s no reference to companies they were previously on LinkedIn as representing.
Anybody who hasn’t been on LinkedIn…⬆️that is exactly what it’s like. And the endlessly depressing arbeit-macht-frei posts are often hilariously undermined by people thoughtlessly using the same profile picture they use on Facebook, eg. one of them getting pissed, or pouting stupidly in a hotel bathroom with the seat up behind them.
I’m not a person who believes that social media tells us the awful truth about what people are really like. Even I’m not cynical enough to believe that there are this many eejits in the world.
That’s just what a likely lad would say.
^massive
0. I don’t want to spend all my time online
Being a hack I have legitimate work reasons to use Twitter, following various people in tech to get ideas for stories, but also follow various comedy types and friends. As a result I often log on to check for work leads and get distracted by all types of other stuff. I know, bad habit.
To be fair and more serious for a moment, I do find TW useful on the odd occassion for getting an alternative to the usual MSM bias eg certain independent journalists who I respect. A truth peek behind the curtain of bullshit so to speak.
I don’t actively tweet at all or even have a profile, personally speaking.
I like to think my podcast account requires my presence on Twitter but honestly, its rare that I get much reaction to my finely (pah!) wrought (ha!) epistles announcing a new episode of albumtoalbum. My crashingly hilarious comments and observations on non-Bowie topics barely cause a ripple. Most of the time when I am on the Twit, I just sadly look at other people being way funnier and pithier than I could ever hope to be, or feel inadequate against other beat-pop podcasts with their triple-digit ‘likes’ and long threads of comments.
Sometimes on Twitter I look at people being way less funny and pithy than me who have somehow managed to amass tens of thousands of followers, and I go huh.
Perhaps it all started with Steve Wright in the afternoon 40 years ago. He had a “posse” which shared their opinions on tomatoes, when bin day is, why some doors marked PUSH actually mean PULL and when waiting for a late bus TWO turn up at once! Result? Eight million listeners who love the show.
I still don’t understand who listens to that and I don’t think I ever will.
They have it piped at my dentist, which seems to potentially make a ‘not very nice’ experience border on torture.
Bad time for a chinnywag.
Just take some solace in the fact it’s really not real life. I think people who appear witty and pithy on social media platforms don’t really live up to that in actuality, and the reverse is true.
Take me, for example. On here I’m quite a quiet, dour chap who doesn’t say that much and doesn’t really crack jokes. But in the real world I am the life and soul of the party, I promise you. I can command a room and I can throw out witticisms that make Oscar Wilde look like Stu Francis. Sinatra called me “a helluva funny guy”. I was once booked to open for Billy Connolly, but then he cancelled it as he thought I would be too hard an act to follow. I’ve dined out on my legendary anecdotes. And I was excellent in Twin Peaks.
Whereas I am even more dull in person than I admit to being on the AW.
I tend to greet rude jokes with a wrinkled brow and a muttered “Well, really“
Both Facebook and Twitter (and other social media platforms) are exactly what the user wants them to be. On both it’s the user who decides what to view, what others can view, who to interact with etc. Dissing Facebook or Twitter is really just dissing the choices you made while using it.
That’s certainly one in the eye for all those teenage girls being lead down an eating disorder rabbit hole by Instagram.
There are teenage girls being lead down an eating disorder rabbit hole by Instagram? Someone should do something!
Luckily I’ve never used Instagram.
They are; regulators on both sides of the Atlantic are finally taking a proper look at how to address the enormous social harm being done by these platforms.
Thankfully, “it’s the user’s choice” is no longer cutting it.
Although it remains a valid response to all the critcism of Facebook and Twitter on this thread, I would imagine.
All responses are valid, some just happen to be without value.
If a bat is not found, then the sauce is made as sacrifice.
You’re on shaky etymological ground there, Bingo. In this instance, on this subject, I think a better reply might be just to state the truth; both Facebook and Twitter are what’s left over after a coprophagic lesser Demon has lunched on Satan’s stools.
Hey, it doesn’t have to be an either/or 😉
And the winner of this week’s Magick Pakora is….
(tabla roll)…
Sri Vulpesji!
Here all week.
I’ve taken a few bumps and bruises on Twitter but learned which things to get involved in and which not. Unfollowing P**** M***** was very cathartic. I follow a crazy amount of people and I do need to trim it down but music, Cricket, Football, news and some celebrity stuff all brings me something worthwhile. I do need to reduce but I’ve got 10 – 15 accounts who’s timeline I’ll check most days and Twitter works for me now. Don’t really bother anywhere else but here and very specific Facebook pages. All as my online persona. I don’t exist anywhere as “me” which helps too..
10 to 15 accounts ………riiiight !
Sorry, 10 – 15 Twitter users who’s timeline ill check. Nasser Hussain, Mike Atherton, Pete Paphides, Nick Heyward, Justin Currie, Memorial Device etc… I don’t personally have 10-15 accounts. Just me…
That makes more sense.
I had a big purge a few years ago and keep it mainly to news feeds and commentators plus a few people I’m actually friends with. I also block any dickheads I bump into in threads though it’s a limitless flow, sadly.
I find Twitter fine for the tweets from folk that interest, it’s the threads that follow in their wake that I generally find not in the slightest bit worth the bother of reading.
Exactly!
And indeed precisely. It’s only when someone I follow likes/retweets/responds to something that wouldn’t otherwise turn up on my timeline that the curtain is twitched aside and the not-worth-reading (and sometimes the full horror) appears. But if you set off down those particular rabbit-holes you’ve only got yourself to blame.
You can mute retweets from people without muting them personally. Serial crap retweeters get this muted pretty swiftly.
Yes I know…but somehow I never seem to find time in my busy schedule to do that.
Did you get those excellent quality Lands End plaid lumberjack shirts that were on offer a few or so Christmases ago, Twang? I’m pretty sure it was you, in one of my distant past twitter incarnations.
Oh I have no recollection of that so probably not!
Facebook and WhatsApp for family and friends. That works for me. Twitter for work, which is politics, so that’s a complete shitstorm to wake up to every morning. Everyone’s so angry and so sure they’re right. No one listens to opinions they’re afraid might change their own.
I also have Twitter accounts for my theatre productions, and everyone there is absolutely fabulously happy and blessed, and then completely broken and needy, often within the space of an hour or two. Theatricals really only have two speeds, I’ve found, Joy mode and Despair Mode. Both (if you’re a horrible cynic, like me) could be construed as designed to provoke maximum love. That’s why they’re called Lovies.
That’s probably why I don’t use it personally – I have an account, but post about once a year and that’s mostly in response to ex-Worders like Bob, Archie and Lenny Law.
The Afterword and Facebook (via Social Fixer) are the extent of my online socialising.
I gave up on Twitter several years ago from boredom and I’ve never bothered with Instagram, WhatsApp etc.
I am basically antisocial, so my online presence reflects that.
In “The Prisoner”, Number 6 was accused of being Unmutual.
That’s me, Unmutual.
Be not seeing you.
Don’t do Facebook but do do Twitter. 179 following, 73 followers. Including a former NME journalist of the early 80s, a band with a former member of Faust and an actor who played the Curious Orange.
I mean where else would I read about someone dropping ketamine then having to be the sole waiter for the President of Ireland?
I can’t really be bothered with Twitter. As my wife said in so many words, I’m an old git, so Facebook is the place for me. With my Sal Warpe account, I’m anonymous enough to post puns, permaculture and politics within a pleasant cascade of private bubbles, loosely connected with The Archers, I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, and various other groups. Probably doing terrible things to my data in the meta matrix, but the dopamine rush from shagging and creating silly memes and wordplay is irresistible.
What’s an attention span?
What’s shagging?
Some sort of dance, apparently
(me old git too – have I had me tea yet?)
It’s what happens when your fingers slide over a slippery surface and the wrong gerund gets inserted. I meant sharing.
Too much dopamine, not enough attention. And certainly no shagging.