The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

[abarbarian]

Quote

Most people you meet in everyday life — at work, in the neighborhood — are decent and normal. Even nice. But hit Twitter or watch the news, and you'd think we were all nuts and nasty. 

 

I am not a number bird. So I never have tweeted. Closest I ever got was trying to do bird calls in the woods.

 

Did  you get the reference ? They are rerunning the series on UK tv at the moment.

Edited March 28, 2022 by abarbarian

[ebrke]

Years ago when Twitter first burst on the scene, my reaction was "only twits tweet". While that isn't necessarily true these days, I've never felt the urge.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Never had a Facebook or Twitter account... never will.

[crp]

On 3/31/2022 at 9:23 AM, V.T. Eric Layton said:

Never had a Facebook or Twitter account... never will.

never had facebook or twitter either. can't see why i would get facebook'ed but i can see myself getting a twitter account if they close the browser loophole for viewing.

[Bookmem]

On 3/31/2022 at 11:23 AM, V.T. Eric Layton said:

Never had a Facebook or Twitter account... never will.

I have a Twitter account, but never post on it.  I have it merely because some news articles link to videos you can only view on Twitter.  Likewise, I have a Facebook account, but use it only to check on my Karaoke venues.  That is the problem.  Even if you detest their policies, sometimes you are forced to use them because they are defacto monopolies.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

12 minutes ago, Bookmem said:

That is the problem.  Even if you detest their policies, sometimes you are forced to use them because they are defacto monopolies.

 

WARNING: OPINION FOLLOWS - It may not be the same as your opinion. That's how it works.

 

I have to disagree with this statement. There is NOTHING on the Internet that people are "forced" to use. You always have a choice. If there's a vid that's only available on FaceBook or a news story that only available on Twitter, and so on, I pass right on by.

 

In my home, electricity and water/sewage/garbage pickup are the MUST have things. I could live without the phone/Internet. This last has been PUSHED to the world as a critical household need; the same was done for television last century. The "push" to make this happen was the actual business plan for those making the $$$ off these things.

 

And in reality, nothing is "necessary" or must-have except food/water on a daily basis. If you (rhetorically speaking) have the $$$ and want all the gadgets and creature comforts, go for it! I'd probably live a bit differently if I had $$$ to burn.

[Bookmem]

"Depends upon what the definition of 'is' is."  Symantics.  I stand by what I said.

[sunrat]

10 hours ago, Bookmem said:

"Depends upon what the definition of 'is' is."  Symantics.  I stand by what I said.

 

s/Symantics/semantics/

 

I agree with Eric. No FB or Tweeter for me. If I become aware of something on those platforms I would ask a friend who has an account. So far it has happened once in my lifetime.

These social medias are responsible for some truly horrific degradation in society. Fomenting civil unrest, spreading countless lies and conspiracies, causing previously unheard of anxieties and other psychological problems in users trying to live up to fantasies created by "perfect" role models etc.

 

I get it though. The easy connection with real or imaginary friends is convenient. The trade-offs of submitting oneself to loss of privacy and barrages of lies and scams is too much for me though.

[Bookmem]

16 hours ago, sunrat said:

 

s/Symantics/semantics/

 

I agree with Eric. No FB or Tweeter for me. If I become aware of something on those platforms I would ask a friend who has an account. So far it has happened once in my lifetime.

These social medias are responsible for some truly horrific degradation in society. Fomenting civil unrest, spreading countless lies and conspiracies, causing previously unheard of anxieties and other psychological problems in users trying to live up to fantasies created by "perfect" role models etc.

 

I get it though. The easy connection with real or imaginary friends is convenient. The trade-offs of submitting oneself to loss of privacy and barrages of lies and scams is too much for me though.

I ran into an example of what I'm talking about just today.  I wanted to contact a local grocery chain about one of their policies.  The only way to do it was through FB, Twitter or Instagram.  No phone or email contacts listed.  Sure, I could have just not made contact, but then I wouldn't get the info I wanted.  And that info is important to me.  And, to me, asking a friend or making contact yourself, you are still using the service.

Edited April 6, 2022 by Bookmem

[Guest Mauser]

The problem is the dishonesty, censorship, and the terenchle flow of illogic is what is happened in society. Lying and hypocrisy is made paramount. This doesn't just affect social media but everything. Manners and human decency has become non-existence. Education has also been corrupted to the point that spelling is not taught and rather brainwashing is used to turn people into blithering idiots with no sense of logic what so ever and with no scientifical  facts. As you can see that I can't spell which is one of the proofs of this and yet no one is concerned about this as they feel it's more important to come out with another terminal application or another social media Spyware platform instead of a badly needed spelling checker that works. Then you have businesses and governmental agencies requiring you to use social media that is infested with Spyware and people wonder why their identity gets stolen or wonder how someone is using your credit card illegally. I could go on with this indefinitely and nothing will improve. It's bad already and it's going to get much worse. Use what you want and don't be surprised on what happens.

[Cluttermagnet]

On 4/6/2022 at 3:54 PM, Mauser said:

The problem is the dishonesty, censorship, and the terenchle flow of illogic is what is happened in society. Lying and hypocrisy is made paramount. This doesn't just affect social media but everything. Manners and human decency has become non-existence. Education has also been corrupted to the point that spelling is not taught and rather brainwashing is used to turn people into blithering idiots with no sense of logic what so ever and with no scientifical  facts. As you can see that I can't spell which is one of the proofs of this and yet no one is concerned about this as they feel it's more important to come out with another terminal application or another social media Spyware platform instead of a badly needed spelling checker that works. Then you have businesses and governmental agencies requiring you to use social media that is infested with Spyware and people wonder why their identity gets stolen or wonder how someone is using your credit card illegally. I could go on with this indefinitely and nothing will improve. It's bad already and it's going to get much worse. Use what you want and don't be surprised on what happens.

 

Must agree. But we have volition. The past 2 to 10 years or so have seen me get

really motivated to find alternative venues that were more acceptable for me-

both in the demeanor of the folks who inhabit them, and from a privacy/security

point of view. And I did find them. Scot's Forums is but one good example.

There are good reasons why a bunch of us stuck around here, going forward

from 2003...

 

There actually is hope for improvement. No, really. But realistically, dark times

will be with us for a while. The challenge is to maintain one's sanity and ethics

and sense of wonder at it all. How it all turns out is just the composite of how

we all think and behave going forward. And folks are beginning to wake up...

 

Clutter

 

P.S. Did you know that saute is only one letter removed from salute? Think it

over and get back to me...

[ebrke]

I have never had a Facebook or Twitter account, and fortunately I stopped working just before LinkedIn became mandatory for a job search. I've always been extremely private, and Facebook always kind of horrified me when I saw how others laid their life open to anyone and everyone. It's fine if you want to do it, but I'll give it a miss.

[Cluttermagnet]

Twitter: saute or salute. You decide... 'cause there isn't going to be any 'me-decide'...

And ultimately, that's what going on social media pretty much is: privacy suicide. Heh!

 

[Corrine]

I use both Twitter and Facebook -- although who knows what will happen with Twitter after the purchase.  I'm only interested in tech-related information on Twitter.  Using the TweetDeck app, have lists created.  That way, I can place tech writers in one list, Microsoft people in another list, and also follow a Microsoft-created list.  As to Facebook, I definitely have my privacy settings locked down and use a 3rd party app that blocks the extra garbage on Facebook.  With family and real-life friends living in other parts of the country, it is a way of staying in touch.  No, I absolutely do not share the everyday happenings in my life in either venue. 

[abarbarian]

On 4/6/2022 at 1:00 AM, sunrat said:

I get it though. The easy connection with real or imaginary friends is convenient. The trade-offs of submitting oneself to loss of privacy and barrages of lies and scams is too much for me though.

 

I do not really get the easyt connect with folks thing at all.

 

I have a phone with an answering machine. I have an e-mail address. I now have a mobile phone that I can message on I have a door knocker, ok so I am old fashioned but door bells are such a pain and cost way way more than a knocker and do not last as long.

 

P.S an fo those that want to know, I wear black or grey or light brownish socks with shoes and mostly in summer I just wear sandles with naked feet.

[Guest Mauser]

On 4/27/2022 at 1:55 AM, Corrine said:

I use both Twitter and Facebook -- although who knows what will happen with Twitter after the purchase.  I'm only interested in tech-related information on Twitter.  Using the TweetDeck app, have lists created.  That way, I can place tech writers in one list, Microsoft people in another list, and also follow a Microsoft-created list.  As to Facebook, I definitely have my privacy settings locked down and use a 3rd party app that blocks the extra garbage on Facebook.  With family and real-life friends living in other parts of the country, it is a way of staying in touch.  No, I absolutely do not share the everyday happenings in my life in either venue. 

I haven't used Twitter in years since they wanted me to remove what I posted and wanted my phone number. Twitter can go to hell with there gross violations of the the first amendment. I don't use Fakebook and never will since their privacy settings are FAKE! People posting everything about themselves giving up all their privacy. My younger brother found out the hard way on how fake Fakebook is when my older brother was able to see everything in his Fakebook account even though my younger brother has everything set to private. Also with the numerous reports of security and privacy violations it shows a pandemic of the sheep disease has infected so many people. At least my younger brother was able to get the sheep disease cured since he doesn't use  Fakebook anymore, but my older brother is still infected. To each is own.

[crp]

I just signed up for twitter using a "burner email account". similar to Connie there is just one subject i want to get resources for and there are now times when a direct message to a vendor is the best way to go to get quick response. Not happy about it, but oh well. At least I don't have to make twits.