I have been practicing "write-only" social media for about the last 5 years. It became a compromise between wanting to stay in touch with friends and extended family while not wasting too much of my own extremely valuable free time inside some corporation's walled sandbox.
The reality of it that 99% of social media is politics (arguing), hot-takes, and memes. And all of it has negative intellectual value.
In write-only social media, I will post occasional updates and photos, but as an absolute rule I do not scroll the newsfeed. I have all notifications turned off, so if someone replies or "likes" my posts, I don't know about it unless I remember to go back to check on it, which I usually don't.
This doesn't have to mean turning your social media presence into a one way street: if I'm thinking of someone, I will often to to their profile and see what they've been up to lately. But I certainly don't need daily updates of their cat or favorite political memes to get through my day.
I know there are those who are going to say that using social media like this is pretty selfish. It might be. And if it is, I'm more than okay with that. I would much rather be selfish than waste my all of my free time as a scrolling zombie.
While reading through the comments here, I've been thinking about doing this exact thing, in particular with Instagram. It's the main platform for me to stay in touch with (mostly overseas) friends, but I have the tendency to get stuck in the suggested posts and waste too much time there.
Ideally, I'd like to have an app for Instagram which has ONLY posts from people I follow (and messaging). No suggested posts, no ads, no reels. I don't think even things like Instagram++ can do this though, unfortunately.
The reality of it that 99% of social media is politics (arguing), hot-takes, and memes. And all of it has negative intellectual value.
In write-only social media, I will post occasional updates and photos, but as an absolute rule I do not scroll the newsfeed. I have all notifications turned off, so if someone replies or "likes" my posts, I don't know about it unless I remember to go back to check on it, which I usually don't.
This doesn't have to mean turning your social media presence into a one way street: if I'm thinking of someone, I will often to to their profile and see what they've been up to lately. But I certainly don't need daily updates of their cat or favorite political memes to get through my day.
I know there are those who are going to say that using social media like this is pretty selfish. It might be. And if it is, I'm more than okay with that. I would much rather be selfish than waste my all of my free time as a scrolling zombie.