Quitting social media, what's your alternative suggestions to keep up?

[maximumzero]

After a few weeks of ruminating about it, I've decided to call it quits on social media, which at this point was only Twitter and Reddit, as I quit Facebook a long time ago.

The truth of the matter is that I wasn't really getting anything out of either. I had less than 200 followers on Twitter, most of which were likely bots, as I didn't really get engagement out of very many of those followers anyway. In the end it was very one-sided and basically no better than leaving comments in any given news article.

As far as Reddit, it wasn't something I really participated in at all. I've posted a handful of things in the past and while I even used to comment on posts I haven't really done that in ages either, so in reality it was all a big waste of time.

In general I want to spend less time on my phone. I don't consider myself an "addict" by any stretch of the imagination, but time spent there could have been better spent elsewhere. I've got video games to play, books I want to read, and even films I'd like to see, after all.

Oh and I have a 2-month old daughter as well, and she's infinitely more important than anything I'd see on my phone.

Deactivated my Reddit account Friday night and deleted the app from my phone, and after requesting and downloading an archive of my Twitter account tonight, I've done the same for Twitter.

I'll probably keep my ResetEra account for a bit as my one form of community posting but even that I might give up on in due time.

The big issue is that now I've lost the ability to keep up with a handful of things I relied on Twitter for...primarily Wario64's deal postings and LimitedRunGame's product announcements, amongst other minor news tidbits here and there.

I'm not great with keeping up with e-mail, so what's my other option for this? I assume RSS feeds are largely dead and buried in 2021?

 

[BasilZero]

Why not just have a burner twitter account and use it to send notifications on deals from Wario64.

Alternatively, if you dont want to use Twitter at all - you can keep up with deals info on CheapAssGamer or Slickdeals - that is where I go for info on gaming deals. (IsThereAnyDeal for PC gaming deals).

You can also find deals on other stuff like software and hardware too.

You can also use PSPrices for all platforms or DekuDeals for Switch deals - just wishlist whatever game you want and it will send you a email notification or you can check back every now and then on the site itself.

 

[henhowc]

^

You could still be on social media like twitter without actually using it for anything beyond following news. Just unfollow users you don't want to see.

 

[BringBackSonics]

Just use lists for what you want to see

 

[WhySoDevious]

Keep Twitter. Block any followers you don't know. Parse the accounts you follow. Don't post anything on Twitter. Don't read the comments.

This way you don't stress over likes, views, hate posts, etc., and you get to read up on what you enjoy.

 

[TaySan]

I follow Era for gaming and national/international news. Just about everything gaming-related gets posted here anyways no need for any other sites. You can always just make a burner account on Twitter for Wario64 news and not follow anyone else.

 

[Quinton]

NPR.

 

[Sheepinator]

I've never seen the attraction of social media like FB, Insta, Twitter, etc. I'm not interested in collecting "friends" who are people I never speak to or see IRL, or maybe haven't seen in decades and never will. I don't care what they had for lunch, and I hope they don't care what I had. I don't need their fishing posts looking for likes or attention. I really don't care what product some celeb is hawking for easy money, milking their followers.

I get some politics news here, and I visit news sites regularly. Game sales are easy to keep up with, and sites probably have alerts if you want. It's very easy to keep up without social media.

Believe it or not, once upon a time we didn't even have internet, or smartphones.

 

[Kelsdesu]

Nothing. Be who you are. If you enjoyed doing something. Do it again. No pictures, no videos. Nothing. Also, NPR.

 

[GazRB]

Don't even keep up lol. Not worth it

 

[Soul Skater]

 

[dodo]

if you were primarily using social media to keep up on news and deals and so on, why not just keep doing that?

you don't need a ton of followers or engagement or whatever to do that. i know that social media is geared to make everything feel like a popularity contest, but it isn't. if it's useful to you used minimally and you feel like you'd be losing your ability to stay up to date on the news and things you enjoy it doesn't sound like "quitting social media" is actually all that helpful.

 

[makingmusic476]

Is Reddit all that different from here?

 

[GamerJM]

If you continue using Era, Off-Topic alone will probably give you enough info. I assume you can message irl friends through whatever means to keep up with important stuff (even if you get rid of all messengers you'll always have SMS).

 

[Lumination]

Just lurk. Half the point of unplugging is to not be constantly pinged by notifications. You can miss some deals. It's not a big deal.

Changing your interactions from push to pull makes a big difference.

 

[Booshka]

Spend as much time as possible with your daughter for the time being. First year or so they literally can't have too much contact and love with their parents/caregivers.

just watch Democracy Now on 1.5x and read books, play games, catch up on films.

 

[Ventilaator]

Don't even keep up lol. Not worth it

Click to shrink...

The actual secret is this. The main block to quitting social media is "But how will I keep up with all the stupid bullshit that doesn't matter??"

You just don't, and it's fine.

 

[texhnolyze]

Make a very short list of accounts that you really want to follow, then turn on the notifications for their posts. This way, you will only see their posts on your phone's notifications and you don't need to even open the app if you prefer.

 

[bangai-o]

Just subscribe to the email newsletters and start checking your email regularly.

 

[Tfritz]

just let the google recommended article algorithm tell you of the outside world

 

[Macam]

"Keep up" with what, exactly? You weren't particularly specific so not really sure what to recommend.

I don't really use social media outside of here and Twitter (mostly to follow journalists, tech, and a few other select issues) and it's fine. You don't really need social media for anything in particular — unless you're heavily into meme culture or something — that you can't get via other means (podcasts are great, a few select magazine/newspapers perhaps, category specific sites).

 

[NetMapel]

If there is only some very specific twitter account you want to follow and that's it, you can probably try getting discord, create your own server, then set up a webhook bot to those specific accounts. You can set notifications from just those specific twitter account's tweet without having the twitter app which might make you keep scrolling. The key is to really not see all the other random tweets that twitter is designed to push to you in order to create engagements.

 

[ClivePwned]

I agree with the "keep the accounts but don't post anymore" sentiment. I kept my facebook account open even though I stopped posting a yesar ago. This was not a bad move because when someone found my lost wallet, they found me on facebook to tell me they had it.

No one's posting anything worthwhile social media that won't be reposted somewhere else, like here.

 

[ReginaldXIV]

There's rarely a reason to actually tweet anything. I pretty much use Twitter as an alternate form of an RSS feed.

 

[bigsnack]

The actual secret is this. The main block to quitting social media is "But how will I keep up with all the stupid bullshit that doesn't matter??"

You just don't, and it's fine.

Click to shrink...

This!

 

[broncobuster]

Don't need the Twitter app unless you need notifications. Just bookmark the link and check it every once in a while: https://twitter.com/Wario64

I'd also say cut era out while you're at it, unless you stick to some community threads. Plenty of threads are just reposting something from Twitter or Reddit and you'll end up falling down that hole again. Once think you'll soon realize, after maybe a week of it being awkward, is how much free time you have. And the realization that the rush to read or comment on whatever the flavor of the hour/day is doesn't really matter.

 

[jroc74]

I follow Era for gaming and national/international news. Just about everything gaming-related gets posted here anyways no need for any other sites. You can always just make a burner account on Twitter for Wario64 news and not follow anyone else.

Click to shrink...

Yup. Era is a good site for all news.

 

[StarStorm]

The short answer is you don't. Check the off topic as a bunch of news does end up there.
I'm on the verge of deleting my reddit account as I forgot about it years ago. I don't engage or post anything there anymore.

 

[themoralcenter]

Click to shrink...

this but seriously here is pretty good about things so dont leave

 

[Fritz]

Or you know, dont get updates on gaming deals and cut down on consumerism too.

 

[ClamBuster]

i don't keep up...and my life is wonderful

 

[8bit]

RSS is still around, I use theoldreader for a bunch of things. It's by no means perfect but covers most pop culture bullshit once you dig around. Otherwise, what exactly do you want to keep up with? Social media has changed the Internet for the stupid and it's not worth keeping up with.

 

[julia crawford]

I never post on twitter, my account is set up just to follow others. I don't ever interact with anything or anyone. I think this explains why i like twitter more than most.

 

[PRed]

You can, with some hacks, move to a RSS reader and consolidate your reading -> news, twitter, reddit, blogs, etc.

Yahoo pipes was the goto hack until it shutdown, I'm not sure what's around these days but google is your friend.

For RSS readers, Vienna on mac works well, Feedly for a webapp, Reeder if you use iOS. Set it to update every 12/24 hr or if you're into weekly digests, every 7 days.

The benefit of RSS is that it's passive content consumption, once you're out of content there's nothing more to do.

I did this for a few years, and then stopped using rss altogether when my feeds shrunk to a dozen. Now I just keep a few bookmarks. For example, my watched threads on Era is a bookmark.

 

[Motorcycle Dork]

I never post on twitter, my account is set up just to follow others. I don't ever interact with anything or anyone. I think this explains why i like twitter more than most.

Click to shrink...

I solely created a account to access that darn tierlist maker (trash reason I know). That aside, I am content to not engage with anyone there as that platform can be such a cesspool.

 

[Bucéfalo]

Subscribe to a monthly videogame magazine available in your country so you can check the last month news without needing to visit internet. You'll miss some news, but probably nothing specially relevant.

 

[Dan Thunder]

Couldn't you just use an app that limits your access to certain apps to either certain times of the day or for a certain length of time? That way you wouldn't have to get rid of anything but can still drastically reduce the time you spend on them.

 

[Fat4all]

local newspaper

 

[Fritz]

Subscribe to a monthly videogame magazine available in your country so you can check the last month news without needing to visit internet. You'll miss some news, but probably nothing specially relevant.

Click to shrink...

I love that idea

 

[Tangyn]

+1 for the burner twitter account - I've never actually used twitter myself other than following a few select people.

I haven't had fb / reddit / insta any of that shit for years but i am old so yea. I do have a guardian subscription so i get news etc there

 

[St. Elmo's Fire]

Just google a few things here and there. Use your local newspaper and stay far away from social media.

 

[Judau]

I'll quit FB as soon as they can email me a new password. I forgot mine, and for some reason, the email never goes through when I request a new password. Also, they don't let me pick text or call as an option to send the password. Also also, it's how I keep in touch with my crush, but I can easily just give her my number and see if she texts me there.

OP, is texting an option you'll consider? I think you should at least keep in touch with a handful of close friends.

 

[Red Liquorice]

You could just keep those info/deals twitter accounts linked and get rid of everything else, so the only tweets you see are relevant and information-based.

I don't use any social media, there's nothing on it I'd need to keep up with. I read the news daily and what else is there to read? I certainly wouldn't get news from social media.

 

[Tobor]

People use Twitter for stuff other than Wario64?

 

[Deleted member 81188]

I would have a period of not even trying to find substitutes. I quit all social media and it's quite easy to find yourself slipping into old habits using alternatives.

You mention being up to date with some deal sites - maybe try just not even worrying about deals for a while and see if you genuinely miss them, or if they were part of the cycle.

For me, I'd often use socials as a way to find more stuff to buy or whatever and after deleting them, don't really miss them. I tried having a burner insta accounts but quickly got back into the cycle of it just making me want stuff.

Now I just use WhatsApp to keep in touch with friends.

 

[SwampBastard]

I've never seen the attraction of social media like FB, Insta, Twitter, etc. I'm not interested in collecting "friends" who are people I never speak to or see IRL, or maybe haven't seen in decades and never will. I don't care what they had for lunch, and I hope they don't care what I had. I don't need their fishing posts looking for likes or attention. I really don't care what product some celeb is hawking for easy money, milking their followers.

Click to shrink...

Social media is what you make of it. I have quit FB (the only one of those platforms I use) a few times, but I always end up coming back after 6-8 months. If you pare your friends list down to just people you actually want to interact with, avoid news pages or other pages where shithead randos leave shithead comments, and don't spend too much time on there, it's a useful and beneficial service.

 

[Deleted member 46493]

I couldn't quit Instagram. Forget about friends, I mute most of them. But I find out about events, sales/new items at vintage shops or indie stores, independent film events, bookstore news, etc. Way too useful. On top of that, I can say it has benefited by social life as well.

 

[Diddy Kong]

I stopped using Twitter and TikTok and it's been a game changer. Most of the stuff I saw on Twitter always gets shared to Reddit anyway.

 

[StarStorm]

Deactivated my reddit account. No regrets and I should have done it sooner. Also deleted Whatsapp when moving over to Signal when the one person I was using it for also moved over.

 

[maximumzero]

Don't even keep up lol. Not worth it

Click to shrink...

The actual secret is this. The main block to quitting social media is "But how will I keep up with all the stupid bullshit that doesn't matter??"

You just don't, and it's fine.

Click to shrink...

The more I think about it the more I realize this is probably the right answer.