In the past several years I was able to leverage Facebook groups to meet people and find activities when I moved abroad, furnish an apartment when I moved back, discover a niche retro gaming community that I adore, share photos and memories with old friends when a high school friend passed away, collect stories and remembrances that were shared for an uncle who died and share those with his elderly, non-tech parents, to name just a few experiences that would be difficult to replicate without Facebook.
I don't like Facebook, but I can't deny the value it has added to my life.
In contrast, I have done none of those things, but because I have no idea if anyone else I might have otherwise connected with or known has done them, either, I've lost nothing. It's not like I have no one to tell stories to or no communities I'm a part of. I just didn't find them on Facebook. People still tell me when family or close friends die. I didn't become unreachable.
I don't really "tell stories" on social media, I'm not much of a sharer on these platforms, rather I was giving examples of when it was a useful resource, and specifically instances where the resource doesn't have an obvious replacement. I'm not sure I relate to the idea of "lost nothing". By that logic I'd have "lost nothing" if I neve flew on a plane, or sat quietly in a room for 10 years. But in terms of pursuing things I do want to do, Facebook has been a helpful resource on a number of occasions.
As for people dying, that for me has been far and away my most valuable use of Facebook in recent years.
This is always the response. But I would say ask yourself, do you truly need these things? Or are the fleeting superficial connections that you maintain through social media simply distracting you from seeking truly meaningful interactions, and substituting an artificial (although comforting) facade in its' place?
If you truly care about someone, you will call and talk to them. Or orient your life in a way that facilitates that relationship. Otherwise what you are doing is tantamount to slacktivism.
Beautifully put. I have a cousin who always updates me on what his extended family is doing as though he's talking with them weekly. Turns out he's just regurgitating Facebook status updates to me. He may as well have been talking about Lionel Messi or Kylie Jenner
Did I truly need to gather the sentiments of my dead uncle's friends and coworkers to print out and share with his grieving parents? I'm going to say yes, I did. Of course, none of what I referenced precludes using a different platform for the same experience. I wish I had been able to gather those posts from WT.Social or some other platform I don't think is ravaging our culture. But that's not where the people are.
As for this:
"Or are the fleeting superficial connections that you maintain through social media simply distracting you from seeking truly meaningful interactions"
I have more than enough meaningful interactions in my life, and having less intimate interactions with a broader range of people doesn't distract or detract from those more significant connections. Sometimes, those less personal connections are what have eventually led to some of my most important connections.
I drove from Mexico to Panama. The Pan-American highway group and several of the expat groups were indispensable sources of information.
I was able to get out of Nicaragua during the big protests in 2018 because someone on the Nicaragua expat group told me they were letting foreign-plated vehicles through the roadblocks. I never would have had the nerve otherwise to walk up and say, "Hey, I'm an American, that makes me special, please let me through."
Several hiking groups here in LA have also been invaluable for me.
Same here. It's been glorious getting all of that wasted time back. (To say nothing of the weird, latent background depression that suddenly vanished when I deleted said accounts.)
I did not even notice the recent Facebook outage in my daily life, and wouldn’t have even been aware of it without HN.