Getting off META et al and how to do it

OK, some thoughts on the dystopian Internet and how to manage one's interactions with it.

First: The idea of a universal public Internet open to everyone - I don't think that works. I don't think that has ever worked. I look back at how soc.motss was named that way because of anti-queer trolls, I look at what happened to alt.transgendered, i look at the way one of the first spammers was someone DARVO-ing the Armenian Genocide and the immense amount of time and effort it took to disconnect him from an open, decentralized network...

I also see Internet communication as a sort of floating crap game. This week it's Discord or Bsky or whatever, next week that's been taken over or shut down and it's something else. Twitter differs from Gab in that people had to _join_ Gab. They just have to _not leave_ Twitter. You see people talking about "bringing back Web 1.5" or something and God, we didn't ever leave it, did we? I left Facebook in 2017, cut out all public social media then (this message board contains my sole contributions to the public Internet since then), and I lost contact with most of my friend group when I did that. We'd been friends since the Usenet days, more than 20 years, and I've barely talked to any of them since. It is difficult to leave somewhere you've known... I mean God I was on Usenet until _2006_. I didn't even _post_ here until 2011, because I didn't want to get involved in those newfangled "message boards".

The thing I always liked about Usenet, what really was amazing about it, was that it brought together niche communities of weirdos. We're kind of a niche community of weirdos, if for no other reason than that we're using an Internet message board in 2025. If I have any use for the Internet in 2025, it's niche communities of weirdos.

So I guess that's the thing. If corporate social media has a use for you, what is that use? What is the cost of doing without? What are the benefits?

Because social media is designed to be addictive. The more one uses it, the more miserable one is, and the more one wants to use it. There is withdrawal. There is loss. I think knowing that is important. And I think finding other ways to get one's social needs met is important.

ugh, nextdoor

for better or worse, my small city has an active subreddit and I peek in there once a week. it's fine, just the same people asking about things like that or making the same running jokes

clicking "not interested" or even blocking etc is getting too time consuming (on top of not working).

Do any sites have a functional “not interested” button? YouTube and Instagram definitely no, Apple Music/Spotify no. I can’t tell that thumbs up or down on a streaming service has ever done anything.

Maybe Apple News is really good on this? Or is it the most universal form of enshittification.

huh? YT definitely has not interested options next to the suggestions it serves. Or do you mean you think it doesn’t work?

It doesn’t do anything. “Do not recommend channel” works for hiding the channel but it will even repopulate your recommendations with videos that you already hid as not interested.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/20/23356434/youtube-dislike-not-interested-buttons-bad-recommendations-mozilla-report

the Facebook Reels one doesn't work at all. I kept clicking See Less but they never go away. I just hid the whole section with FB Purity eventually

just had FB straight up delete a post of mine with no explanation, it was to this link:

https://www.punchinguppress.com/post/disengage-from-the-internet

I've also only seen two notifications, but there are over a dozen comments on the post itself

the fix is in, I mean it always was to a degree but just like everything else they are turning it up to 11

xp to CP aw yeah I love hiding Reels and IG links with FBP

that being said, this latest madness is prob enough for me to step away

i just shared this picture on Facebook. i believe in uplift culture.

https://scontent-bos5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/474626537_122133814070494369_5668551629370239008_n.jpg?_nc_cat=111&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=epHran8CR4cQ7kNvgFKk27j&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-bos5-1.xx&_nc_gid=ANvjtYGvAkA7VznWmufvDhj&oh=00_AYCQCAgcN40i0njE38PcxdPbSlPOVL1nDJhUqVSU9hGA7A&oe=679A0B4C

Hmm
https://media.gettyimages.com/id/599352366/photo/drummer-don-henley-of-the-eagles.jpg?s=1024x1024&w=gi&k=20&c=IwQqSz2oWbljuYtcr71RKNwxQpoqTtGwH2j7p1wb7_8=

Wall Street Banks Prepare to Sell Billions of Dollars of X Loans
The banks are hoping to sell the debt at around 90 to 95 cents on the dollar. Owner Elon Musk has told staff the platform is “barely breaking even.”

Sell... to whom?

I've been reluctant to give up FB, for one it's still a good way to keep track of people I actually do care about, I honestly do enjoy for example seeing the updates from my cousin's bakery in Akron. I've always thought well, it's fine if you curate your feed, right? nah. their algorithm is showing me shit I don't wanna see constantly. not at all what it was like a few years ago. and the niche groups I'm in have been getting invaded by AI bots. like I'm in groups with names like "Krautrock Fantasy" where people just post pictures of their Cosmic Jokers LPs and it's now getting invaded by bots saying KLAUS SCHULZE HAS DIED! TANGERINE DREAM DEAD AT 67! THE ROCK WORLD IS MOURNING THE LOSS! Surely Krautrock Fantasy is a sacred space!!!

only reason for mine existing is because my spouse posts pics of our kids there THAT SHE DOESN'T SHARE ON THE FAMILY ALBUM and it's beyond maddening.

Whew

I never really thought I’d delete my FB account, but it’s done.

Deleted mine in 2020. Didn't delete Instagram but removed the app from my phone and will log in via web to check my inbox a few times a year.

Yes, you will take a hit to your reach and connections. But it will encourage those who you truly value to keep in touch more directly and intimately.

I've been using Signal for nearly a decade now and that is much harder to get people to use, especially those on iPhones. Would love to see more people move from WhatsApp and iMessages to it, but those on Apple platforms aren't incentivized to do so at all and Signal lags behind WhatsApp in features. It really needs to decouple from having a phone # to use it. I can have an iMessages account without a phone number but not Signal? Oy.

My friends and I switched to Signal last week.

a friend was suspended from FB for posting something about people donating to nonprofits and contacting congress regarding all the recent bullshit.

maybe Christopher Walken can teach us a thing or two:

“I don’t have technology. I only have a satellite dish on my house. So I’ve seen ‘Severance’ on DVDs that they’re good enough to send me,” Walken said. “I don’t have a cell phone. I’ve never emailed or, what do you call it, Twittered.”

I thought Signal was an op and the kids are on Telegram? I have both, I think as long as Signal mgs are set to disappear it's relatively safe?

Signal is open source E2E and you can actually build the app yourself with the source. No message data is stored unencrypted outside of the sender and recipient's screens when read. It's about as secure as a messenger can get. Never used Telegram but my understanding is it's a bit shadier (started in Russia, currently based in Dubai) and has non-encrypted chats set by default and profits off of user data as a for profit entity.

As long as you don't have a zero day exploit on your phone (which can see everything your eyes see, thus getting around any encryption), even if you don't delete messages, they're safely encrypted on your devices with modern encryption algorithms. Short of something like quantum computing or encryption breaking algorithms the public and academia aren't aware of, your data is safe. There's a reason most politicians worldwide, including those in the Trump admin, use it.

The org is also a non-profit, which takes donations for its revenue, similar to Wikipedia.

The consistent updating and device pairing stuff makes Signal kinda annoying, but I definitely prefer it to fb messaging. I’ve been using it for work stuff for about 7 years now. One of the developers is a friend of a friend.

I love Signal, the people i message with there are the ones i really trust

https://networkcultures.org/geert/2025/01/30/join-global-switch-day-on-february-1st-2025/

today is Global Switch Day, which mostly seems to exist as a hashtag on mastodon, but the above summarises the alternatives.

Just saw elsewhere: two other places described as "sandwich pile and azure atmosphere."

I admit the first one took me a bit.

sandwich pile and azure atmosphere

i.e. the cologne in my cabinet

i tried to sign up for pixelfed.art, didn't hear back. now when i try again it says the email address is in use.

i found a 're-send confirmation email' link. i clicked it, got an email, clicked the link which opened a page, clicked the 'confirm email' link on the page, got redirected to a help screen.

pixelfed and associated projects (there's a video version and a whatsap clone called 'sup) is all one guy

yikes. six years old! written in php :(

Is Pixelfed to Instagram what Bluesky is to Twitter?

Or do I have to pick a server and all of that mess.

yes you do - https://pixelfed.org/servers

I'm not getting involved in anything that makes me pick a server because that's automatically going to limit the amount of people participating.

While looking into that, I read that Bluesky has an Instagram alternative called Flashes that is supposed to come out soon. If it doesn't totally suck, that will be when I ditch Facebook/Instagram.

Hard agree, unfortunately. I know it's sort of driven by an opposing impulse but it's strangely similar to one of the supposed benefits of capitalism, choice. Choice of laundry detergent! Choice of smartphone provider! Choice of healthcare insurance! I don't want choice, I just want something that works.

I remember trying to post something to Instagram once and it was such a pain in the ass. I'm not great with computers and it was probably my fault that it was so difficult, but I seem to remember having to figure out how to resize a photo in a different app and that's when I gave up.

I took IG off my phone, and check once a week via the web app for messages. Other than that, I don’t look at it at all, and I am infinitely more happy and grounded.

pixelfed registration came through finally. I can't say I'm at all immune from IG clickbait but I do mostly use it for posting drawings/paintings and keeping in touch with like minded people, most of whom I know IRL, so I don't think pixelfed can replace that.

ig is just broken on web browsers. shokingly bad.