I find social media pointless.

Most people post to brag. They want to impress their peers or people superior to them. These people are never happy or impressed with whatever the poster is posting. They either think they are inferior or they are jealous and angry at the poster. So it leaves the people who are impressed with someone's social media. The people who are impressed are usually lower in social status than the poster and the poster does not want to impress them.

A weird grouping of exhibitionists and voyeurs. Who cares?

I have a friend who over posts on social media, she says she treats it like an open diary. She wants her kids to be able to look back on her entire life in pictures and dates. Two problems, she has been hacked more than once and had identify theft problems - she posts lots of personal info for the world to see. The second problem is that a lot of it isn't real, her life looks perfect on social, but those who know her IRL know there is an ugly underbelly. So it's not a diary, it's fiction.

I used to be quite into using social media as sort of a marketing tool (in grad school, promoting my Zumba classes, then sort of flaunting an overseas volunteer year) -- and then in my late 20s I got really exhausted by it. I felt too much pressure this way and that. I'd started a steady career and met the man I wanted to marry and kind of felt like all the self-promotion wasn't that helpful anymore. This was around the time of Trump's inauguration and like OP, also realized there's often a disconnect in how people act on social media and IRL. unfortunately this including family members whom I love, who were just reprehensible online (but not in person). So one reason for removing myself was to try to maintain the view of/relationship with these people close to me.
I think it was about year later that my now-DH also deleted all his social media. We had our first baby then and it was like, "Who has time to update everyone constantly like all these other people??"

I also became increasingly aware that in order to be cool on Facebook you have to (act to) be really passionate/involved and it is just so tiring. Just live your life and stop broadcasting everything.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mom posts her Wordle, Nerdle, Octordle, and other turdles EVERY DAY for weeks now. My therapist recommended that I mute her FB page, but then mom will ask me if I saw something she posted (other than turdles). I'm just taking a breath when I see incessant posts and scroll on by.

Be her cheerleader like she was yours in pre-K. None of those art projects were good.

I cheerlead plenty, and I'll happily draw the cheerleading line at daily wordles. Thanks anyway.

Anonymous wrote:Am I alone?

I rarely post, but I do use social media for having an immersive experience around my hobbies - cooking, design, etc.

I post once in a while (probably about once every 30-60 days).

I enjoy seeing friends post once in a while too, but I find myself become very turned off by people who post very frequently, especially if the posts are essentially all selfies or braggy posts. What sucks is that sometimes these are people I like IRL and their social media behavior makes me want to avoid them.

I know the “solution” to this is just to unfollow people or snooze them or whatever, and I do.

But I also want to know a) why am I so repelled by this behavior when so many other people seem to eat it up and reinforce it?

A good question to ask yourself why you are repelled by certain behavior of people you generally like?

I'm not perfect, so I wouldn't expect my friends to be. Otherwise, I wouldn't have any.

The worst is when people post about their daily meals--I don't need to see a picture of the meatloaf you made. And this new Wordle thing is ridiculous but will hopefully die soon.

Also, pets. I know that some people feel the same way about posting pictures of my kids, and that's fine. But your cat looks the same in every picture. At least my kid looks a little different year to year. And he's human.

Anonymous wrote:My mom posts her Wordle, Nerdle, Octordle, and other turdles EVERY DAY for weeks now. My therapist recommended that I mute her FB page, but then mom will ask me if I saw something she posted (other than turdles). I'm just taking a breath when I see incessant posts and scroll on by.

Be her cheerleader like she was yours in pre-K. None of those art projects were good.

Anonymous wrote:I use instagram like a photo journal. I usually post 1-4x per month usually birthdays, vacations, first days of school, Halloween, etc. sorry if this bothers you.

I have unfollowed and started disliking people who post a lot on Facebook sharing their political opinions.

I personally like to see family and kid photos, even if they are doing something boring like a hike or yoga or raking leaves. I also like to see new places I have not been and may get ideas to eat somewhere new or go somewhere I have not been.

What do you mean a photo journal? And why? I like the idea of photo journals, but my photo app on my iPhone serves that. I also print photos for my physical photo album - so that is a real ‘photo journal’. Using Instagram as a photo journal, which all your friends can see, doesn’t seem like a true photo journal — it seems like a format for you to shape your public identity. You want people to know who it is you *feel* you are. Yes?

My mom posts her Wordle, Nerdle, Octordle, and other turdles EVERY DAY for weeks now. My therapist recommended that I mute her FB page, but then mom will ask me if I saw something she posted (other than turdles). I'm just taking a breath when I see incessant posts and scroll on by.

If you are annoyed by someone’s posts crowding your feed, unfollow them. This way you aren’t offending by unfriending and can still look at their posts if you have time or feel interested.