Social media presence as in having accounts in your name with you being visible in the profile picture in mainstream sites (Anything Meta, Twitter, Snapchat, Tiktok…). I don’t consider anynounmous accounts on Lemmy, Reddit, Kbin relevant to the scope of this question.
One anecdotal chime in: I dropped the Zuck for a year and gradually realised that my city runs all its cultural events through Facebook - unless you know or someone invites you, that was pretty much it.
I think I did miss out on meeting new people or seeing old friends by chance, simply because I didn’t know to turn up somewhere for a gig or whatever - and the old addage has some truth imo; often you just need to be in the right place at the right time for things to happen.
I think this is more common than some people realize. I haven’t used FB for well over a decade, but I know that despite people claiming that it’s dead amongst millenials and the younger generation, a ton of people still occasionally use it to stay in touch with some people and a ton of clubs, towns, businesses, etc still use it as the main hub for communication and FB marketplace is huge in some regions. Hell buying a used motorcycle was a little tricky without it, but luckily Craigslist is still going strong where I am.
I personally don’t care, but it would be foolish for me to say that I’m not missing local events and news by not using FB.
I’ve experienced the same thing. Facebook Marketplace has also largely displaced Craigslist in my area. Though on the whole I’m still glad I deleted my Facebook account.
I host some decent sized gatherings for my extended friend group (20-50 people). The invites are all on Facebook.
I personally don’t have any except for a LinkedIn and I never feel like I’m missing out. People don’t care, I never ask to follow people. If I care, I’ll get their phone number.
But usually, I don’t care.
Not really. In fact, I did a little dumphone detox a few weeks ago and literally nothing changed other than not having access to apps like telegram until I could access my laptop. Oh, and no video calling. I think now that I’m in my late 20s, married, with my little circle of close friends, and work peers I don’t really find a need for social media. Now when I was in high school and witnessed the birth of Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram, it was a big deal to have an account and I didn’t start purging those accounts until a few years ago…
As an introvert who never wanted my business to be out in the open with my real name attached, no. Was always told never use your real name online and how many times people these days had themselves bitten for doing the opposite it should be obvious by now. Not really the masses fault but the standard from Facebook years ago.
It hasn’t for me.
Same for me. Keeping in touch with friends is easy enough with my phone and discord. Hasn’t affected my dating life in anyway or hindered my ability to meet new people in general either. I’m 34 for reference. I had Facebook when I was much younger but haven’t used it in years
Wait. So you’re using social media to tell us how happy you are that you don’t use social media? 🤔
Did you actually read the OP? OP is talking about specific kinds of social media that exclude Lemmy among others.
I was just playing. I thought it was funny.
Guess you thought wrong!
🤷🏻♂️
Aren’t Lemmy, kbin, Reddit etc. just web forums?
Social media is a very specific type of product that (at least partially) tries to base itself on your ‘real’ social life.
This is anonymous and has no effect on my social life. I have no social media presence under my real name.
Socially it sucked until my friends figured out how to organize things the way we did in the 90s and before again. Otherwise my mental health improved immensely. It was great not having to see all these people I cared about treat all these other people I cared about so horribly in such concrete and evident ways.
Don’t think so. I’m pretty happy with my social life and haven’t touched any of that stuff in 10+ years.
As a teenager or young adult, maybe. But as you grow older less so. Adding someone on social media has never really been brought up in my current social circles. Sure the occasional linkedin invite if it’s in a professional setting, but my current group of acquaintances hasn’t really thought about adding each other on every social media platform or exchanged contacts other than phone numbers.
Depends on a person and their social circle. I hardly have any social life apart from the on-line interactions and infrequent in-person meetings with on-line friends. And it is not like I stopped having friends when the internet appeared, on the contrary.
Social media getting shittier and shittier directly affects my social life. I hope something good for this purpose appears soon and at least some of my friends and acquaintances move there, like they moved to Facebook years ago.
no
My profession generally encourages a LinkedIn presence. You don’t need to participate, but it helps in people knowing who you are.
I always feel like folks who are using LinkedIn as actual social media where they post are doing it wrong. It’s useful for one specific thing and as soon as you start posting your daily thoughts or whatever then the whole thing falls apart.
Yeah. It is good for posting accomplishments you do at work and maybe some industry thoughts.
The only thing that Social Media has given me I have a hard time living without us FB Marketplace
And that’s just because people have mostly moved to selling stuff there. I miss Craigslist
This is niche, but in dating / not-quite-dating apps, it’s not terribly uncommon for people to want to see a social media profile, both as a way to get to know you more and to verify that you’re a real person.
Many of my friends organize events and have group conversations on Facebook, and I miss out on a fair bit of it. I still have an account, I just don’t use it except to check once a week or so if there’s something happening. I hate it.
Looking for work would be tougher. Even when I finally retire I will keep my linkedin just for folks that need a reference or such. Myabe 5 years down the line could dump it.
