Technology

A lot of people don't seem to get that social media services are almost entirely about their userbases, not their companies. Facebook and Meta are unbelievably terrible, but that is where most of the people you know can be found. Switching to something else is easy, but pointless, if your reason for being there is the people.

I have slowly convinced friends and family to begin using MeWe, but only a small number. And most of them still primarily use Facebook. At least recent events are pushing a few more away from it.

Yeah, but...

Having experienced and overcome actual addiction, metaphorical quasi-addictions like social media have never been a challenge. Yeah, there's a sort of stimulus/reward feedback look, and the sites are structured to encourage compulsive use, but I've never spent a week in bed feeling like I'm going to die when stopping. And some substances I was fortunate enough not to get hooked on, such as benzos and alcohol, are even more deadly: they can literally kill you if you try quitting without medical support and supervision. You won't die of seizures when quitting Xitter. At worst, you might try finding something else to waste your time doing.

I was on reddit for several years. One day I started getting hit with bans for nothing because one of the mods had it in for me. There's no way to win in such a situation. So I replaced the text of every post and comment in every alt with lorem ipsum, then walked away. Nothing of value was lost and I don't miss it. Lenny is fine, and in the instance I'm in, the mods aren't power-mad zero-tolerance assholes.

Quitting Facebook was similar. Again, I replaced all the content I'd ever posted on the site with gibberish before leaving. I've kept my account, but don't use it. The elderly relatives I used to keep in touch with on FB have mostly died, and I told everyone else who mattered how they can find me. That part didn't take long. It was, however, interesting how much dark-pattern bullshit Meta throws in your path when you attempt to disengage.

And if Lemmy and other less toxic social media weren't there, I'd just do other things. Nobody needs social media, anymore than anyone needs cigarettes.

I've had some luck getting some of my people to switch over by asking them to switch as a favor to me specifically (if they want to of course... And they can always just not use it if they end up not liking it).

Asking them in a more direct way like this seems to work, even if there's some reluctance at first. I tell them that it helps me out because I can also send stuff to them on my computer, which is true. Then there's the fact that I just really like all of the extra features it has (it's just a really good chat app in general), emoji replies, reply quotes, and read receipts to name a few.

If they need any other reasons, the last things I tend to get into are the privacy/security aspects.

Boom, all of a sudden they're using something better, and even though they're probably still using those other (shit) apps, at least I don't have to. You have to start somewhere, right?

Their life would be easier if you didn't use Signal, simple as.

I don't agree with it, but that's the reason.

There's an xkcd about this: https://xkcd.com/1810/

Same here. About 25% have picked up Signal, the others haven't. Even though, like you say, they don't have to drop WhatsApp to get Signal. They aren't mutually exclusive.

And there's no rhyme or reason for who starts using Signal. Some of my most tech-illiterate friends jumped on it, because they were sick of Facebook and Meta. As I've if them said: it's not at all difficult to start using it. So it's all about motivation.

It didn't help that there are several other similar spots or there, like Viber. So some people who have multiple already installed don't want to get yet another. I get that. But Signal is such a solid and unobtrusive app

For the case of your job or school you either use what is required or you need to find another job or school. That might not be popular but it's the reality. Other relationships don't have that kind of pull. Maybe RCS could fix some of it but given what happened with XMPP I'm doubtful.

There's an easy solution for that.

F em.

I did that back in 2015 when I moved to discord for my primary social platform. "I am am leaving Skype and Facebook, anyone who wants to reach me can do so at discordname"

Did all my friends move? No, did I lose anything of value doing so anyway? Also no. The people who still wanted to message me either reached out to my family or myself for a phone number, or added me on discord.

You don't need all your friends to follow, what you need is enough people to leave the platform anyway that more people use that than other platforms in your friend group. That's why Skype died as fast as it did, a combination of instability and enough people deciding they didn't care who they left behind and just went to discord anyway.

It was a lot easier before signal ditched sms.

If their job or uni asks them to use a piece of software they'll try it no bother but if a friend asks it's impossible.

normie and/or bootlicker mind set.

Daddy asked me to do this, so obviously it is right and proper

My friend asked me to use Signal due to "privacy", I think he roof is starting to leak again, give him lip service and continue using whatapps as the "smart" move.

That is a critical mass thing. Reddit 15 years ago didn't have a thriving pokemon community either. Things grow naturally over time. I think Lemmy is in a good place :)

But, for example, on Reddit there is r/hockey and a sub for each team. On Lemmy those team subs are graveyards, but if you post on c/hockey you might get enough traction to have a conversation. Find the larger community and help grow that first before fracturing to smaller ones.

Shitposting and memes...yeah, we got that in spades.

We got Linux, don't forget Linux mate

The only one that is difficult to replace is Facebook. It's still the best way to keep up with family and friends from all over. I also like Facebook Marketplace and haven't found a substitute that is as good.

Your life must be hard now, right? At every corner of every street, at every TV station, in the faces of others you must see the guy that you hate and you can't do anything about it.