I just signed up!
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Really, not for me!!! Haha. IG Reels can suck you in so fast. Two hours and 600 pet videos later your eyeballs are popping out of your head.
It’s that mindless scrolling that you have to be careful of. I will say, people are awful funny and pretty clever in some cases.
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Thank you again for the invite
Yeah. I’m signed up for their email. I’m just really bad about checking my email.
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This topic hits so cloose to home. I get it, I hear you.
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I might sound like a yoyo boomer but I wish we could go back to a time where social media never existed. I’ve thought a few times about jumping off instagram, it’s the only social media I really use. I actually tried to delete my account last year and it wouldn’t let me. I guess it was a common issue going on at the time. All this internet stuff is addicting at times. It’s actually another reason I like yoyoing so much, it cuts into time I’d probably be staring at a screen otherwise.
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Honestly I’ll catch a lot of hate for this. But I really believe the world was better pre social media or even internet.
I’m probably the last generation to have lived in both worlds. There are some really great things, like this community and a lot of us probably wouldn’t have found yo-yo without it.
But the negatives have become too much for me. I spend way too much time on it, interact with people less, but way too many things I don’t need, and just feel mentally worse the more I spend on the apps.
It’s a little stressful deleting it. But hopefully it’s for the best
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Pre algorithms and censoring was fun for a while.
Ads and the platforms controlling what you see and can post has really fed into the divides.
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I hear you man. I’ve never been one for any social media. I remember when MySpace was a thing and all the drama it could cause.
I’ve been yoyoing since 2004, and this is the only forum I’ve really posted on. I remember lurking on the old forums sometimes, but never posting. It also took me forever to get over my nerves and start making videos of my tricks.
My only social media accounts are YYE and Youtube. I’ve probably missed a ton of cool stuff since my only source for any yoyo related information is here. But that’s the way it is I guess.
One thing I really miss is a website dedicated just to yoyo videos. I used to browse the old yoyoing.com video site for hours and found a lot of really cool stuff on there. Youtube is increasingly becoming worse and worse because it keeps flooding me with non-yoyo related crap and stupid reaction videos - stuff I never watch. I only use Youtube for yoyo and music, but the algorithm is screwed up beyond belief.
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I’ve been social media free for awhile now. I have reddit but strictly only for a couple subs that are work related. Also have Facebook but haven’t posted anything since 2012. Only have that so my old army buddies can find me.
Just good old YouTube and this website for tricks and yoyo news. I subscribe to g2, one drop, and monkey finger email alerts. Those really are the only three I buy from anymore.
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Yea that’s a giant reason I’m done. I’m tired of getting force fed things I don’t want to see
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Ive been on FB for years. For the most part, I’ve only friended rl friends and family. I follow companies that I have an interest in and I use it to find things to do in my area. I get very little polical crap. I assume it’s because I almost never read it or respond to it. Same goes for Instagram, where I’m even more secluded. These platforms definitely have a downside, but for me they are too valuable for keeping in touch with certain people and keeping abreast of events in my area.
I also use Reddit, which can get annoying and Discord, which can be a little overwhelming. That’s it, unless you’re counting YouTube and here.
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The one thing I like about instagram in terms of yoyoing is being able to talk to some of my favorite players. I’ve had a few send me video tutorials they made for me. I actually even talked to Evan Nagao today.
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I have to be honest guys, I do not know if this can be a generation gap we can have each other but for me social media has been a total bless.
Thanks to social media I have been able to travel so many countries, know so many people and go out from the “bubble” I was born and evolve myself as a human as well.
I am born in a very little city called Cagliari in the island of Sardinia (in Italy), where I am born there is basically nothing if not a life on the beach, farm animals and a “”““normal””“”" job.
From when I was a kid I always wondered what happen outside the island and internet and the social media opened my mind incredibly much from my early years, I learnt how to accept different people and understand them, understand different lifestyle, see what happen all over the world and feel less “lost and alone” in that island (even if I always had many friends I wanted to see more), helped me to find my hobbies and had so many friends that found some hobbies with me (from breakdance, aggressive inline to bmx to diabolo to yoyo, name it we probably tried it, all stuff I/we found online).
I never get people that complaint about social, is not the social itself but is how you use it, if you stay stuck scrolling for an hour and waste your evening is your fault not the social media one.
I use pretty much all of them but I learnt how to use them wisely and so I do not have any issue or stress related to them, I usually scroll some stuff that I am interested in bed 20 minutes in the night when I am relaxing, same to answer DM’s and similar stuff, I do it if I am in the toilet for example or when I chill and in general I always use them in “dead times” for sure I will not stop yoyoing to scroll some outfit reels or take my phone out while I have a beer with my friends.
I think that more than the classic “it was better when all of this didn’t existed” it will be nicer to educate people (of all ages) on the correct use of both social media and internet as well, use it to expand your horizons and connect more with what you like and people that like it, still nowadays I am so impressed that some people all over the world know me and I know them even without ever seen them in real life.
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There certainly is the amazing ability to connect us all!!! Well said!
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These platforms are deliberately designed to overwhelm people’s attempts to exercise self control over what they see and how often. Immense resources are applied to this effort.
It’s true that if you can prevail and maintain your own limits, the downsides are minimized. But given the state of social media and the culture around it, that is a very big “if”.
I can drink alcohol wisely. Some people simply can not for a variety of reasons. The best education for them is to recognize the problem and avoid alcohol completely.
The internet was basically non existent for the average person until after I left university. I also remember a time when most people lived approximately as rich and varied lives without it.
I have also been working on internet based technology for 25 years, so I’m not a technophobe at all.
The toxic behaviors have been present from the start. They may not be worse now, but they are harder to avoid - literally everywhere, rather than in places you had to go out of your way to visit.
But the cynical and manipulative SM companies and search algorithms are newer, and IMO require a different perspective. These platforms are driving people towards unhealthy behaviors using billion dollar advanced technology.
It’s worth pondering how with LLMs trained on a generation worth of internet chatter, they can barely introduce a new bot before it starts spewing toxic nonsense
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Its just how much society has changed for the worse in my opinion because of social media and cell phones. Causing all types of division. Places like restaurants where time used to be spent now you see people on phones. People pull out their phones and record everything just to post on social media. It’s a different world now. Beyond them things that are beyond my control it’s easy to say just limit my use but its not that easy, it’s addicting. My 3 year old nephew is already addicted to his iPad.
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100%
All my kids do is ask for my phone. It’s concerning how much they can’t just exist without it so to speak.
We don’t allow them social media and probably won’t until they are much older. It’s really so designed to provide that dopamine and get you using it again and again.
Its always concerning when I look at something and suddenly am overwhelmed with it trying to get its hooks into me.
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I have a step kid full on addicted to the Internet. Won’t even eat without a tablet. Yeah my kids aren’t getting social media while under my roof.
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They got close to that. Honestly when you take it away from them and there’s a full on meltdown every single time. You know it’s not doing something great to their brain lol
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