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I feel like my generation didn't explain this to the next generation. All kinds of "don't do this online" is now the common thing to see people doing online. Posting personal photos, giving out their real name or other identifying info, believing everything they read/see on it because it's seen as an infallible knowledge machine, etc.
40 somethings with kids: What the fuck?
I'm 32 and I am constantly baffled by how inevitable we assume social media is. There are constantly articles and videos and blogs and vlogs and insta stories about how instagram and such make us either unhappy by constant comparison, by sucking up our time, by reducing our attention span, or by altering our brain chemistry. And all of this is presented in a way that doesn't even question whether we... need an instagram account?
When facebook etc started to come around I quite immediately realized that if I started to engage in this, in trying to present myself online or look at others' presentations of themselves, that would be the end of me. It would suck me in. I stayed away from the beginning and I still have no instagram, facebook, tiktok, etc. I have no account on a platform where I would ever even be able to post pictures or stories of myself. And I am by far not a social outcast, introvert or alternative person. By most accounts I am very average and mainstream and I do just fine without social media (unless you count lemmy or watching some youtube video as social media). I manage to make new friends and even know what is trending without following vlogs and blogs and whatnot.
Like, there is a life - a livable life, a life not on the outskirts of society - where social media just doesn't play a role. Where you don't need to consider whether this picture of you is providing too much personal information.
I also don't have any social media unless you count this account. I had a similar thought years ago that it was just going to make me unhappy.
People at work the other day were talking about how they stress about which photos to post. I'm like why. That's such a self inflicted wound.
I used to have a FB account because people used it for events, but I never posted, and I used adblock to hide the main feed.
Now when I do parties and stuff, I just send out Google calendar invites. (I should de-Google but that's a long road I haven't started down)
It's been interesting this last week watching liberal people complain about age verification laws that don't even exist yet, as if it isn't an eminently good thing to keep social media out of the hands of kids.