“[For] people who live in the country or in remote areas or minority groups or [who have] small businesses, that is a really good way for them to communicate and reach other people,” she says.
“It’s just not possible to set up an alternative at this point in time. So, to put it bluntly, we’re in a bit of deep shit, to be honest.”
No mention of Pixelfed, but I can understand why. Will it only be seen as an alternative once a critical mass of users move there? And can that happen if they don’t see it as an alternative? Chicken and egg. I’m trying out, but it’s a little vapid when everyone I know is on Instagram.
… just don’t use instagram?
I never have, and I don’t feel like I’m missing out
I asked a younger coworker something similar about Facebook and facebook messenger a few years ago in relation to cyber bullying. I asked her why the younger generation doesn’t just get off social media if they’re being bullied, and her response was that these platforms are how people communicate now. Without them, you don’t find out about parties, trips, events, etc. Without them you get left out. If you abandon them, you’re essentially ostracizing yourself.
After hearing that I understood why just giving them up is difficult.
It’s not just younger people. A lot of my fellow GenXers only communicate via Facebook messenger.
It’s why nobody left Whatsapp when Meta bought it.
i hate it, but we are gonna be slow boiled into having meta read everything we say over there if we aint already
I’m betting you are.
Why wouldn’t they?
As soon as they’re forced to allow interoperability with other apps, I’ll be deleting WhatsApp. Had a Facebook from the beginning but deleted it when the Cambridge Analytica scandal happened. Have never had an Instagram. Fuck Meta and its horrible owner.
The thing is that Whatsapp was a godsend in Europe because we used to communicate through SMS’s and we used to pay for them, where is WhatsApp requires a single yearly payment.
Some tech illiterate people didn’t even know how to download apps but WhatsApp came pre installed on their phones so they used it
I agree up to the point that someone could use Facebook for the parties and stuff, and then not use any of the main page stuff. I have Messenger because that’s the prime option for those I know, but I don’t use it for anything but messaging and don’t have a Facebook.
I’ve had a facebook account since it was first unleashed on the world, but these days I only use it for messenger and marketplace. I’ve changed all my privacy settings to as strict as they can possibly be, and I never browse or post anything.
Facebook is only useful for the ancillary stuff. The main page and status updates have been monetized and engagement hacked to death.
Getting info on events and businesses is so much tougher now that I don’t regularly use Facebook. I missed both holiday garbage pickups because my county waste management company ONLY posts schedules on Facebook.
I’d bitch to the county commissioners about that.
One thing about the town I’m in, they do a fairly good job of keeping the services running, and most of the normal stuff is fairly easy to find on the town’s website. Stuff like “Who do I talk to about installing a detached garage on my property” is an act of open heart dentistry…
Okay and on the topic of garbage I will bitch about one thing: they posted a map of the town with some teal area and some purple area, and it said “Teal is Schedule A, Purple is Schedule B.” And then didn’t say what that meant. I’m sure it was discussed verbally in the meeting that map was presented in.
This stuff was happening even in the early days of Facebook let alone now so I get it.
Rather than tell bullying victims to get off social media, why not tell people to stop bullying people?
I dunno. But you didn’t say it.
“Hey bully, stop being so mean” generally gets laughed at and an aggressive response.
For a while, it was full of pictures. Only pictures. That “lunch” thing was trendy but not at all the main content. Whatever you wanted, it was there. It was no different than any other platform. Some great content, some bullshit. Now it’s shitty “reels”, ads, and fraud. You’d have to sift through a lot of forced garbage to find your subscribed content.
If you are interested in photography there are alternatives.
and just like FB, reddit, xitter, tiktok, et al, you’re not. it’s just another place for the vainest, most vapid, self-absorbed fucktards to post pictures of their lunch (in between selfies)
-post pictures of their lunch
That was Instagram 5-7 years ago.
It’s just american TikTok now
Yep I was thinking the same. I guess it’s a generational thing. Instagram is maybe like water to some young people, can’t be without it or life is sad.
No, it’s not because life without Instagram is sad. Read the other reply for a real reason. People stay on platforms to keep in touch with others and those others do the same.
It’s only “generational” because half the world didn’t grow up with the Internet as their primary form of communication. But I’m against that label because it’s true for anyone who uses a service a lot.
I would LOVE to stop using Discord but there’s no way I’m convincing all my friends to run two chat programs (Matrix for me, Discord for their other friends)
Can’t you set up a Discord bridge on Matrix, so you can still participate at least in text convos? I did that years ago and it worked pretty well.
If that works, you can convince them one at a time since the switching cost would be lower.
Sure, but then I’m still using discord’s servers. And it’s very unlikely I’d be convincing anyone until Discord screws up bad on something that affects them
Surely you could convince a couple. Find some cool rooms on Matrix and maybe you’ll get a couple more to join.
How else am i supposed to get in touch with the sexy babes?
Just turn off your ad blocker, they’re already trying to get in touch with you
They’re in the area!
when it’s your main place to see friends photos, and where all your friends already are its difficult to just not use it.
you don’t use it and never have, so naturally you won’t feel left out. but those that use it frequently absolutely will.
the old curmudgeon “These dern kids and thur instagrams!” isn’t really all that helpful, I feel.
i was addicted to facebook. i started getting away by just not looking at it for longer periods of time: 1 day, 1 week, month, etc. it stayed like that for a long time. then i went through and deleted everything i ever posted, replied, commented-- yes it took forever, but it ended up as just a blank profile with my name on it. finally i deactivated the account, then deleted it
time wasted on facebook: way too fucking much
time spent regretting deleting it: absolute zeroi’ve seen enough vacation/cat/baby photos to last 10 lifetimes, and if my friends can’t talk to me through texting, then i guess they must not have anything important to say
fuck facebook
i’m just glad i immediately found insta, twitter, tiktok, all the other bullshits boring and pointless right off the bat, so never dealt with thoseYeah, I also thought leaving Facebook would be a big deal, but honestly, it wasn’t. My family and friends send eachother texts and emails now, no big deal.
“what’s your alternative?” the answer is always lemmy am i right guys 😎
Always has been
Will it only be seen as an alternative once a critical mass of users move there?
I mean, yeah? That’s how social media works.
Flickr, Tumblr and Hipstamatic
What virtue signal. These don’t have fact-checking either lmao
Talk to people?
They don‘t talk back. Too busy browsing their phone.
Take their phone away. Power move.
Pixelfed is a federated image-sharing network.
Gotta hop on that pixelfed!
Facebook/meta should never have been allowed to buy Instagram.
I love Pixelfed and the federated versions of it.
“But all the other lemmings are there! I can’t leave or I’ll be left at the top of the cliff by myself!” 🙄 Guess what, there’s more of us up here who aren’t jumping than you realize.
Sorry to be harsh, but that’s how I feel about it when people say they have no choice but to enrich these social media oligarchs by participating in their exploitation machines. By contributing their “content” to be collected, sold, used for training their generative AIs, by viewing their ads, and by making themselves targets to be manipulated by propaganda of all kinds.
They already exploit us enough in ways we can’t control, without us willingly participating in their schemes.
Amen
Instagram is like 15 different things at once.
Its a messaging service with a TikTok like video service and a pixelfed like photo sharing service.
the fact that people are so obsessed with social media that they cant even realize the simple option of just stopping all together really says how toxic and addictive social media is.
Yup, not everything needs to be replaced like for like. Some options:
- spend time on a hobby (video games, exercise, etc)
- in person relationships
- learn something new
Tons of options.
The Guardian cannot spell “Mastodon”, it seems from this “article”.
It is nicknamed The Grauniad for a reason.
I use Instagram only to follow my friends, does pixelfed have private accounts ?
Yes it does! Check out pixelfed! It’s a lovely supportive community, in my experience.
Life?
