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Without social media, I'd have little to no contact with family and friends in other states.
Doesn't mean I don't love the, but it means between time zone changes and distance, having the right time to connect is hard.
Plus long distance relationships don't do it for me.
So, yeah, for the most part if they aren't someone who I could reach by phone/text and local, probably not staying connected at all.
mostly hanging out, i guess by text and phone but that's mostly just to arrange plans and shit. I've got a group text with some old friends who i dont see often but other than a few ride-or-die bros from the past, i don't really keep in contact with people who aren't in my life anymore, or it's just like Happy Birthdays and Merry Christmas kinda shit.
I'm not really staying in touch. I used to make the effort, but now it's just meh. Turns out I prefer to not maintain casual acquaintances that only existed due to circumstances.
I have like, 2 long-distance friends. We text back and forth occasionally.
Something I learned when dropping social media completely for a while: If you go offline and still lose touch, they were actually *digital acquaintances*.
There are few experiences I look forward to more than meeting with a buddy at the local pub to share a pint or go for a run on some trails — and share all the stories that have happened since the last time we saw each other.
Zero, "Oh, I saw you posted about that," and "Oooh, did you see what so and so posted?" Just actual stories about human-to-human interactions.
I think it has something to do with digital conversations lacking that oxytocin that a usual in-person meeting has. A real good vibe time.
I got rid of everything in 2013 (joined Reddit in 2017) and never looked back. Everyone I wanted to and actively do keep up with has my phone number and we call/text as needed. This is a VERY small circle too, and I love it. Leaving social media made me realize how many superficial “friendships” I had with people I never really cared a whole lot for, but for one reason or another felt obligated. It was a HUGE weight lifted off my shoulders and my quality of life immediately improved 1000%.
10/10 would recommend to anyone glued to their screen that constantly feels overwhelmed and anxious. Ditching social media is what enabled me to wean myself off Xanax.
We invite friends over for dinner once a month, We rotate who we have over for dinner. I also have a standing invite for friends to come over and play board games outside of that on a regular basis.
I just don’t keep up with anyone outside of two discord servers, and even then, I may not post or comment for weeks at a time. I just don’t have the time or energy to keep up with acquaintances I met once or twice anymore.
This. I am super active in one discord server where my formerly IRL friend group congregates (we all lived in Southern California and job opportunities and cost of living have spread us to Rhode Island, Washington, Oregon and Nevada with 2 remaining in Southern California for now). Otherwise I am on non-reddit social media because of work.
IRL? I just moved. Just starting out.
I don't use social media so I don't keep in touch. My social circle is pretty small, but it's not like I was actually doing anything with all those people anyway, so I didn't really lose much in like actual human interaction.
It certainly does help me keep in touch with people. I have to be intentional about reaching out to the people I really want to keep in touch with, I like to actually call and chat. Something else to consider: the quality of your social interactions. Maybe you lose touch with some people who are only on social media, but you can then concentrate your social energy into talking on the phone and hanging out with a select few.
Another idea: put serious limits on your social media use. I use an app that enforces the limits for me, way better than what the phone can do. I have to wait like 30 seconds before actually getting into it, and it makes me select a time limit for that session, then it kicks me out once time is out. So no mindless scrolling, I get in and get out. It might be a good in-between if you're not ready to commit to completely getting off of social media.
I use minimalist phone. Be ready to be a little anxious while you detox lol, it's quite the change. It changes your home screen to black and white text only. You really have to know what you're looking for on your phone or you'll find yourself staring blankly at a boring screen. It's quite... effective.
The only grumble i have about it, which it sounds like they're working on, is that you can't block or limit a specific website in the browser. Quite the loophole. But overall it's quite fantastic. Irritating and anxiety inducing if you're literally addicted like me, but fantastic.
Oh the minimalist ui is very appealing and looks quite nice! I’ve been trying to set up the custom focus modes on my iphone so I would stop doomscrolling in bed but I’ve been too lazy to even get around to setting that up lol. Maybe I’ll finally have enough time and energy to do that if I force myself to sleep earlier with this app 😆
Hmm, I might even block browser apps entirely if that’s the case. Thanks for your response!
I'm not outgoing. I'm a super introvert, so I have no social media anymore except reddit, and no one in my family knows my handle. I stopped using facebook because I hated being spammed with either their shitty politics advocating for hurting people, pictures of their children, chain letters or pushing their religion. I stopped using twitter once Musk bought it. I have an instagram, but I rarely use it, and only for space, nature, or hobby interests and pictures. I use discord for gaming and for my few friends I met in online games.
My husband and I only have one phone, and I don't text much. If my family wants to talk to me, they can call. They know where I live. Having to be "on" all the time like with facebook is exhausting. I'm disabled and don't have much energy to begin with, so I just disappeared.
I usually will test the waters on social media like I’ll keep an active account in case I need to connect with someone on there. I just don’t go on it frequently. If there’s someone I’m thinking about, I’ll reach out to them and see if they’re open and then I will suggest maybe exchanging numbers or talking on the phone instead so that we could move off that platform and hopefully into real life more.
Not everyone is open to it, but some people are more willing. Unfortunately, we just don’t really have phone books like we used to and peoples social profiles are often the only way to really connect with them besides outright stalking where they live lol
I quit social media a few years ago. The people I really was friends with, I had their email and phone number. There’s no one on social media I miss, and texting is better because it’s more personal. Not only that, once I got off social media, people reached out more because they want to know what I’m up to and I hadn’t just seen my entire life in Instagram stories, which took away any urgency to reach out.
Yeah, I kind of see it as a necessary “evil” lol
When people don’t have it, it really feels like you’ll never see them again because there’s just no way to contact them unless you happen to know someone who knows then
The boomers in my life have phones. Anyone younger than that has a discord (my father, sister, close friends, etc). Grandma did kinda flip out for a minute when I told her I was deactivating my Facebook tho.
I use discord for group chats with friends. I’m iOS so if I have no cell signal, it’s difficult to reach people with android. I also like the organization of splitting different types of conversations into different tabs. General, event planning, pics/memes, vent, doodles, ect.
Discord, I don’t consider it social media and that is the happy medium I will use because I won’t use social media, hate it.
Then for the ones who leave their house I catch up and we meet up somewhere or texting. I usually can’t find my phone so texting is the way.
Family and friends we all text, international friends it’s discord or snapchat
Yeah, I don’t really consider discord or Reddit to be social media either. I’m assure that there’s words for the distinction, but I just don’t know what they are. To me Reddit and discord remind me of the old message boards and I really think that’s probably as far as social media should’ve gone.
So I am a "only social media" person. There are maybe 2 people outside my immediate family with my phone number.
I have lots of friends who only keep fb messenger for that reason, they just don't use Fb.
To be fair though I really only keep up with 20 or so folks not family online, I really love memes though. I don't have many friends by design. I like it this way, maybe even a bit of a smaller circle.
People complicate things, and relationships require energy. I'm too busy fighting for my life out here to survive, to mess with all that atm. Maybe later I'll have more energy to expend on friends. But I'm real good on that for now.
It’s almost like I have no friends or family anymore!! Definitely don’t talk to old friends anymore…. Family is a little different! All I have now is Reddit! Only real reason is for networking for my business! As well as for research purposes!
I made the choice to walk away from all social media after Myspace fizzled which I am very proud of but also kind of sad as I know I have missed out on a good amount of connections with my family and friends I don't see much. I am still happy with my decision and do have to put in more effort to contact family and friends (as well as remember birthdays lol) but after seeing how much its negatively affecting our society and peoples mental health, I think it was the right call.
Reddit and YouTube are my only social media platforms. Anyone I wanna bullshit with that's not on Reddit I just text. I've dropped family from my life because of them refusing to communicate without social media. Best decision I ever made because they were shit starters anyway.
I text or use WhatsApp. Phone calls, too.
It's way healthier.
Up until the mid2000s it was how people communicated and it was great.
Turns out, having more 20 "friends" after high school is a lie.
I find it really hard to maintain friendship as an adult, people are just too busy and having their own priorities and values. I like meeting strangers through meetup events or volunteer activities. Those social interaction is sufficient for me to connect with people
Do any of those have options for smaller specific chats within a single chat group?
What I’m talking about is like discord where you have your server that’s got your group of people and then your different channels for your specific chat streams.
I like that discord is laid out like that, but I really don’t like that it’s not super user-friendly. I mean it’s not difficult to learn, but it’s also not super intuitive either
All of these have options for 1on1 or group chat and all of them use end to end ecnryption. Discord is my least favorite for sure, not just because the ux, but because it's quite invasive (it has access to the list of running software on the pc and similar weird stuff) but we use it when we're playing video games together. When we don't play I'm logged out. I'm always online on the others.
I started a monthly breakfast meetup with friends that are also dads now.
I’m also in an online madden league with a group of friends and it’s a unique way to “hang out” without being together since we’re all so busy.
I facetime with my bestie once a quarter. We also started a book club to keep in touch.
Good old fashioned group chats with the bros.
Magic the gathering hangouts.
Golf trips with random people - coworkers, people from church, old friends, my wife.
I need help being LESS social.
Without Instagram I’d talk to maybe 8-10 people. I soft blocked anyone who I haven’t spoken to in a year or two unless it was a super long time connection and it’s been such a good experience because everything I post and interact with is with/for people I actually give a shit about.
80% of my Insta feed is influencers, ads, and sponsored/suggested posts…all of which are ads. I don’t follow any of them.
How do you make it so you actually see what your friends post?
All of my close friends moved overseas for work, school, or family a decade ago so we mostly chat over discord. I keep FB for the older relatives so I know if something major happens to them, otherwise I ignore that. IG is used for art, food, animals, and memes to send to my bf. Otherwise, I guess texts and phone calls outside of social media but that's with my parents lol.
All of my friends and the family I'm in touch with still live in different cities and states. My friends and I talk daily in Discord (which is, technically, social media). My sister and I text regularly. That does it for me. I don't have any friends where I live.
My job is remote, but my co-workers and I are friends/friendly. Just not in a traditional office "let's go out for drinks after work" sort of way. Unless we're all together at a conference, then we party. I mean... in that "We're all in our 30s and 50s and need to be in bed by 9:30" kind of party not hitting up underground raves. But nonetheless.
I don't use social media outside reddit and texting via Whatsapp or Signal. But I have a few group chats with different groups of friends and we keep up to date through those. We also visit each other often. Whenever I make friends in a new place I try to invite them to mine so when I travel I always have a couch to crash on and a friend to show me around.
I don't. My close circle has a weekly dinner but if you aren't in the dinner group I probably don't keep up with you. I have one friend who I've known for like 30 years, we keep up via text sometimes email if its a weird time of night.
The pandemic broke my need to be social
Yeah I really don't talk to anyone on social media. I text my parents and live with my gf and best friend. So thats basically it. Occasionally text some other friends I don't talk to very often and sometimes comment on random posts like this.
I just use various message apps for my friends. It’s easy because I sort of only have the one. lol.
Other than that, I interact with people at church each Sunday.
I text and facetime my close family weekly or bi weekly, and a couple friends sparingly maybe once a month. Im turning 40 this year. Ive become pretty much a working recluse by choice. I filled the void and need for human interaction by finding sim racing. I help run a decently large sim racing league and race once or twice a week in organized series events within that. We use Discord for chatting during the week but I don’t count that as social media. I dont do phone calls anymore really. My phone log is all work related or food orders.
The people who I'm not close enough to to keep in touch via text or call have fallen by the wayside. And I'm really ok with that. I don't actually need to know which of my friend's kids graduated high school last week, etc.
I prefer to hang out in person. I get together with friends on the weekends, and I meet new people at Meetup.com groups for things I’m interested in. I don’t really use social media outside of Reddit, but I do text/use Discord for long distance relationships. I like to maintain a little connection with people I like so we can plan to meet in person eventually.
I mostly hang around Discord servers talking to folks. My friends I either also talk to on Discord or I vaguely pay attention to the group chat where they occasionally talk, and basically never contribute. With my in person friends I feel like I only really connect when they're actually, you know, in person. I never got the hang of calling or texting folks socially.
Edit: but no, the answer is also that I am genuinely just not a very socially active person and I can go weeks or months not talking with specific friends.
Just text or a similar messaging app. Imo, the "jump the shark" moment for social media was when the proto-influencers were saying they had a million friends on MySpace. Nobody has a million friends.
If your "friends" need social media to stay connected, then they aren't your real friends. All my real friends know how to reach me. I don't have this weird FOMO moment when friends naturally start pruning off, and I actually think its a good thing.
I have one friend that comes over occasionally. And I have work acquaintances that I sometimes hang out with. I don’t have Facebook anymore and I never had instagram or twitter. I have snap chat but I don’t use it at all. My wife is my best friend and my life is full with my family and children. I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything. I’m perfectly content being by myself if I go out and do something.
I have kids that are in lots of activities. I coach many of those activities. My neighborhood is filled with tons of kids. My neighbors and school/baseball/gymnastics/football parents are my social life.
But what about like your actual friends? I mean, the people who will still be there when your kids grow up and aren’t in kids sports anymore? Like the friends you’ve had for years or maybe people who don’t live in your town? How do you keep up with them?
I was typically the one to initiate contact with friends.
Once I stopped, so did they.
I'm slowly gutting my professional social media too.
No point anymore.
In fact, the only engagement I had was negative or folks ignoring major wins for my spouse and I. So yeah no more social media.
My connections on professional side are also pointless. Managers that didn't promote people that worked hard, coworkers that held cliques and said they overcame their demons being rained with congratulations forgetting the fact they systematically tortured folks like me in the process.
Yeah, no more social media.
Just reddit. And soon, that too will be no more. It's just arguing with idiots about the truth of what happened overseas or at home. People don't care, they just want to hear what they want.
I have a handful of friends from different periods of my life - childhood, college, grad school, different jobs - that I stay in touch with a couple times a year via call or text. Sometimes I reach out to them first, sometimes they reach out to me, and and it works out to at least a few conversations a year. These + social media basically keep me in touch with people I care about or at least want the best for
What do you mean “connection on social media”? Like I have a friend group that for whatever reason chats exclusively on Facebook Messenger but none of them post content to their profiles.
Just like that. I know lots of people that only chat on social media platforms. They don’t like to text via regular means and they don’t live close enough that we can just get together. They exclusively communicate via social media posts and comments, and sometimes Messenger.
They’re not like influencers or anything. They’ve just moved literally all of their communication to the Meta platforms.
Phone calls - either scheduled or letting them know that I won’t be annoyed or weird if they can’t pick up a random call (for example calling people when I have 20 minutes left of driving), or even if they don’t call back.
Basically don’t keep score unless like 4 months go by and you can’t connect with them, or if it doesn’t feel the same vibe when you actually do connect.
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Without social media, I'd have little to no contact with family and friends in other states. Doesn't mean I don't love the, but it means between time zone changes and distance, having the right time to connect is hard. Plus long distance relationships don't do it for me. So, yeah, for the most part if they aren't someone who I could reach by phone/text and local, probably not staying connected at all.
mostly hanging out, i guess by text and phone but that's mostly just to arrange plans and shit. I've got a group text with some old friends who i dont see often but other than a few ride-or-die bros from the past, i don't really keep in contact with people who aren't in my life anymore, or it's just like Happy Birthdays and Merry Christmas kinda shit.
I'm not really staying in touch. I used to make the effort, but now it's just meh. Turns out I prefer to not maintain casual acquaintances that only existed due to circumstances. I have like, 2 long-distance friends. We text back and forth occasionally.
Something I learned when dropping social media completely for a while: If you go offline and still lose touch, they were actually *digital acquaintances*. There are few experiences I look forward to more than meeting with a buddy at the local pub to share a pint or go for a run on some trails — and share all the stories that have happened since the last time we saw each other. Zero, "Oh, I saw you posted about that," and "Oooh, did you see what so and so posted?" Just actual stories about human-to-human interactions. I think it has something to do with digital conversations lacking that oxytocin that a usual in-person meeting has. A real good vibe time. 
Oof. That hurts to think that so many may only be digital acquaintances. But I know in my heart you’re right.
I got rid of everything in 2013 (joined Reddit in 2017) and never looked back. Everyone I wanted to and actively do keep up with has my phone number and we call/text as needed. This is a VERY small circle too, and I love it. Leaving social media made me realize how many superficial “friendships” I had with people I never really cared a whole lot for, but for one reason or another felt obligated. It was a HUGE weight lifted off my shoulders and my quality of life immediately improved 1000%. 10/10 would recommend to anyone glued to their screen that constantly feels overwhelmed and anxious. Ditching social media is what enabled me to wean myself off Xanax.
We invite friends over for dinner once a month, We rotate who we have over for dinner. I also have a standing invite for friends to come over and play board games outside of that on a regular basis.
I just don’t keep up with anyone outside of two discord servers, and even then, I may not post or comment for weeks at a time. I just don’t have the time or energy to keep up with acquaintances I met once or twice anymore.
This. I am super active in one discord server where my formerly IRL friend group congregates (we all lived in Southern California and job opportunities and cost of living have spread us to Rhode Island, Washington, Oregon and Nevada with 2 remaining in Southern California for now). Otherwise I am on non-reddit social media because of work. IRL? I just moved. Just starting out.
Most of my friends and I just message each other (texting, whatsapp, discord, etc)
I don't use social media so I don't keep in touch. My social circle is pretty small, but it's not like I was actually doing anything with all those people anyway, so I didn't really lose much in like actual human interaction.
It certainly does help me keep in touch with people. I have to be intentional about reaching out to the people I really want to keep in touch with, I like to actually call and chat. Something else to consider: the quality of your social interactions. Maybe you lose touch with some people who are only on social media, but you can then concentrate your social energy into talking on the phone and hanging out with a select few. Another idea: put serious limits on your social media use. I use an app that enforces the limits for me, way better than what the phone can do. I have to wait like 30 seconds before actually getting into it, and it makes me select a time limit for that session, then it kicks me out once time is out. So no mindless scrolling, I get in and get out. It might be a good in-between if you're not ready to commit to completely getting off of social media.
Mind sharing the name of the app? I feel like that’s exactly what I need right now.
I use minimalist phone. Be ready to be a little anxious while you detox lol, it's quite the change. It changes your home screen to black and white text only. You really have to know what you're looking for on your phone or you'll find yourself staring blankly at a boring screen. It's quite... effective. The only grumble i have about it, which it sounds like they're working on, is that you can't block or limit a specific website in the browser. Quite the loophole. But overall it's quite fantastic. Irritating and anxiety inducing if you're literally addicted like me, but fantastic.
Oh the minimalist ui is very appealing and looks quite nice! I’ve been trying to set up the custom focus modes on my iphone so I would stop doomscrolling in bed but I’ve been too lazy to even get around to setting that up lol. Maybe I’ll finally have enough time and energy to do that if I force myself to sleep earlier with this app 😆 Hmm, I might even block browser apps entirely if that’s the case. Thanks for your response!
voice notes!
I'm not outgoing. I'm a super introvert, so I have no social media anymore except reddit, and no one in my family knows my handle. I stopped using facebook because I hated being spammed with either their shitty politics advocating for hurting people, pictures of their children, chain letters or pushing their religion. I stopped using twitter once Musk bought it. I have an instagram, but I rarely use it, and only for space, nature, or hobby interests and pictures. I use discord for gaming and for my few friends I met in online games. My husband and I only have one phone, and I don't text much. If my family wants to talk to me, they can call. They know where I live. Having to be "on" all the time like with facebook is exhausting. I'm disabled and don't have much energy to begin with, so I just disappeared.
I usually will test the waters on social media like I’ll keep an active account in case I need to connect with someone on there. I just don’t go on it frequently. If there’s someone I’m thinking about, I’ll reach out to them and see if they’re open and then I will suggest maybe exchanging numbers or talking on the phone instead so that we could move off that platform and hopefully into real life more. Not everyone is open to it, but some people are more willing. Unfortunately, we just don’t really have phone books like we used to and peoples social profiles are often the only way to really connect with them besides outright stalking where they live lol
I like this idea! People change cell numbers frequently so social media really is like a phone book!
I quit social media a few years ago. The people I really was friends with, I had their email and phone number. There’s no one on social media I miss, and texting is better because it’s more personal. Not only that, once I got off social media, people reached out more because they want to know what I’m up to and I hadn’t just seen my entire life in Instagram stories, which took away any urgency to reach out.
Yeah, I kind of see it as a necessary “evil” lol When people don’t have it, it really feels like you’ll never see them again because there’s just no way to contact them unless you happen to know someone who knows then
The boomers in my life have phones. Anyone younger than that has a discord (my father, sister, close friends, etc). Grandma did kinda flip out for a minute when I told her I was deactivating my Facebook tho.
As a person of disability, friendship and communication outside of social media is hard
I use discord for group chats with friends. I’m iOS so if I have no cell signal, it’s difficult to reach people with android. I also like the organization of splitting different types of conversations into different tabs. General, event planning, pics/memes, vent, doodles, ect.
Discord, I don’t consider it social media and that is the happy medium I will use because I won’t use social media, hate it. Then for the ones who leave their house I catch up and we meet up somewhere or texting. I usually can’t find my phone so texting is the way. Family and friends we all text, international friends it’s discord or snapchat
Yeah, I don’t really consider discord or Reddit to be social media either. I’m assure that there’s words for the distinction, but I just don’t know what they are. To me Reddit and discord remind me of the old message boards and I really think that’s probably as far as social media should’ve gone.
text and facebook messenger.
Either texting, hanging out in person, or not keeping in touch
So I am a "only social media" person. There are maybe 2 people outside my immediate family with my phone number. I have lots of friends who only keep fb messenger for that reason, they just don't use Fb. To be fair though I really only keep up with 20 or so folks not family online, I really love memes though. I don't have many friends by design. I like it this way, maybe even a bit of a smaller circle. People complicate things, and relationships require energy. I'm too busy fighting for my life out here to survive, to mess with all that atm. Maybe later I'll have more energy to expend on friends. But I'm real good on that for now.
It’s almost like I have no friends or family anymore!! Definitely don’t talk to old friends anymore…. Family is a little different! All I have now is Reddit! Only real reason is for networking for my business! As well as for research purposes!
I made the choice to walk away from all social media after Myspace fizzled which I am very proud of but also kind of sad as I know I have missed out on a good amount of connections with my family and friends I don't see much. I am still happy with my decision and do have to put in more effort to contact family and friends (as well as remember birthdays lol) but after seeing how much its negatively affecting our society and peoples mental health, I think it was the right call.
Reddit and YouTube are my only social media platforms. Anyone I wanna bullshit with that's not on Reddit I just text. I've dropped family from my life because of them refusing to communicate without social media. Best decision I ever made because they were shit starters anyway.
I text or use WhatsApp. Phone calls, too. It's way healthier. Up until the mid2000s it was how people communicated and it was great. Turns out, having more 20 "friends" after high school is a lie.
I find it really hard to maintain friendship as an adult, people are just too busy and having their own priorities and values. I like meeting strangers through meetup events or volunteer activities. Those social interaction is sufficient for me to connect with people
Oh, are we supposed to stay connected to people? L'enfer c'est les autres, n'est-ce pas?
Instant messaging software (Viber, Telegram, WhatsApp, Slack, Discord) or email.
Do any of those have options for smaller specific chats within a single chat group? What I’m talking about is like discord where you have your server that’s got your group of people and then your different channels for your specific chat streams. I like that discord is laid out like that, but I really don’t like that it’s not super user-friendly. I mean it’s not difficult to learn, but it’s also not super intuitive either
All of these have options for 1on1 or group chat and all of them use end to end ecnryption. Discord is my least favorite for sure, not just because the ux, but because it's quite invasive (it has access to the list of running software on the pc and similar weird stuff) but we use it when we're playing video games together. When we don't play I'm logged out. I'm always online on the others.
Thanks for this. I’m just getting my feet wet learning about options.
You're most welcome. Hope one of these will help with your situation too :)
I started a monthly breakfast meetup with friends that are also dads now. I’m also in an online madden league with a group of friends and it’s a unique way to “hang out” without being together since we’re all so busy.
I facetime with my bestie once a quarter. We also started a book club to keep in touch. Good old fashioned group chats with the bros. Magic the gathering hangouts. Golf trips with random people - coworkers, people from church, old friends, my wife. I need help being LESS social.
Without Instagram I’d talk to maybe 8-10 people. I soft blocked anyone who I haven’t spoken to in a year or two unless it was a super long time connection and it’s been such a good experience because everything I post and interact with is with/for people I actually give a shit about.
80% of my Insta feed is influencers, ads, and sponsored/suggested posts…all of which are ads. I don’t follow any of them. How do you make it so you actually see what your friends post?
In the top left where it says Instagram you can actually click it and set to “following” meaning it only shows people you follow
For real?! I never knew that. Gonna check it out. Edit: I looked and I don’t have that option. Is it only on a laptop?
https://preview.redd.it/v57ug14yfb9d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c1e74b513d21a922529c0db4e4b0eb70a0948454 No I don’t use IG on desktop
Hmmmm - I don’t have the drop down arrow at all. Wait. Do you use Android? I use Apple. Maybe that’s the difference.
Nope I don’t
So that image above is from the Insta app on your iPhone? It’s looks so different from mine.
Strange, try updating
All of my close friends moved overseas for work, school, or family a decade ago so we mostly chat over discord. I keep FB for the older relatives so I know if something major happens to them, otherwise I ignore that. IG is used for art, food, animals, and memes to send to my bf. Otherwise, I guess texts and phone calls outside of social media but that's with my parents lol.
All of my friends and the family I'm in touch with still live in different cities and states. My friends and I talk daily in Discord (which is, technically, social media). My sister and I text regularly. That does it for me. I don't have any friends where I live. My job is remote, but my co-workers and I are friends/friendly. Just not in a traditional office "let's go out for drinks after work" sort of way. Unless we're all together at a conference, then we party. I mean... in that "We're all in our 30s and 50s and need to be in bed by 9:30" kind of party not hitting up underground raves. But nonetheless.
I don't use social media outside reddit and texting via Whatsapp or Signal. But I have a few group chats with different groups of friends and we keep up to date through those. We also visit each other often. Whenever I make friends in a new place I try to invite them to mine so when I travel I always have a couch to crash on and a friend to show me around.
I don't. My close circle has a weekly dinner but if you aren't in the dinner group I probably don't keep up with you. I have one friend who I've known for like 30 years, we keep up via text sometimes email if its a weird time of night. The pandemic broke my need to be social
Yeah I really don't talk to anyone on social media. I text my parents and live with my gf and best friend. So thats basically it. Occasionally text some other friends I don't talk to very often and sometimes comment on random posts like this.
I just use various message apps for my friends. It’s easy because I sort of only have the one. lol. Other than that, I interact with people at church each Sunday.
I text and facetime my close family weekly or bi weekly, and a couple friends sparingly maybe once a month. Im turning 40 this year. Ive become pretty much a working recluse by choice. I filled the void and need for human interaction by finding sim racing. I help run a decently large sim racing league and race once or twice a week in organized series events within that. We use Discord for chatting during the week but I don’t count that as social media. I dont do phone calls anymore really. My phone log is all work related or food orders.
The people who I'm not close enough to to keep in touch via text or call have fallen by the wayside. And I'm really ok with that. I don't actually need to know which of my friend's kids graduated high school last week, etc.
I prefer to hang out in person. I get together with friends on the weekends, and I meet new people at Meetup.com groups for things I’m interested in. I don’t really use social media outside of Reddit, but I do text/use Discord for long distance relationships. I like to maintain a little connection with people I like so we can plan to meet in person eventually.
I mostly hang around Discord servers talking to folks. My friends I either also talk to on Discord or I vaguely pay attention to the group chat where they occasionally talk, and basically never contribute. With my in person friends I feel like I only really connect when they're actually, you know, in person. I never got the hang of calling or texting folks socially. Edit: but no, the answer is also that I am genuinely just not a very socially active person and I can go weeks or months not talking with specific friends.
Just text or a similar messaging app. Imo, the "jump the shark" moment for social media was when the proto-influencers were saying they had a million friends on MySpace. Nobody has a million friends. If your "friends" need social media to stay connected, then they aren't your real friends. All my real friends know how to reach me. I don't have this weird FOMO moment when friends naturally start pruning off, and I actually think its a good thing.
I have one friend that comes over occasionally. And I have work acquaintances that I sometimes hang out with. I don’t have Facebook anymore and I never had instagram or twitter. I have snap chat but I don’t use it at all. My wife is my best friend and my life is full with my family and children. I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything. I’m perfectly content being by myself if I go out and do something.
I have kids that are in lots of activities. I coach many of those activities. My neighborhood is filled with tons of kids. My neighbors and school/baseball/gymnastics/football parents are my social life.
But what about like your actual friends? I mean, the people who will still be there when your kids grow up and aren’t in kids sports anymore? Like the friends you’ve had for years or maybe people who don’t live in your town? How do you keep up with them?
I am the not staying connected person. Always have been though.
I was typically the one to initiate contact with friends. Once I stopped, so did they. I'm slowly gutting my professional social media too. No point anymore. In fact, the only engagement I had was negative or folks ignoring major wins for my spouse and I. So yeah no more social media. My connections on professional side are also pointless. Managers that didn't promote people that worked hard, coworkers that held cliques and said they overcame their demons being rained with congratulations forgetting the fact they systematically tortured folks like me in the process. Yeah, no more social media. Just reddit. And soon, that too will be no more. It's just arguing with idiots about the truth of what happened overseas or at home. People don't care, they just want to hear what they want.
I have a handful of friends from different periods of my life - childhood, college, grad school, different jobs - that I stay in touch with a couple times a year via call or text. Sometimes I reach out to them first, sometimes they reach out to me, and and it works out to at least a few conversations a year. These + social media basically keep me in touch with people I care about or at least want the best for
What do you mean “connection on social media”? Like I have a friend group that for whatever reason chats exclusively on Facebook Messenger but none of them post content to their profiles.
Just like that. I know lots of people that only chat on social media platforms. They don’t like to text via regular means and they don’t live close enough that we can just get together. They exclusively communicate via social media posts and comments, and sometimes Messenger. They’re not like influencers or anything. They’ve just moved literally all of their communication to the Meta platforms.
Phone calls - either scheduled or letting them know that I won’t be annoyed or weird if they can’t pick up a random call (for example calling people when I have 20 minutes left of driving), or even if they don’t call back. Basically don’t keep score unless like 4 months go by and you can’t connect with them, or if it doesn’t feel the same vibe when you actually do connect.