Spot on.
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Christ I sound like someone’s grandparent yelling about how things were different back in my day. I don’t think all of it is bad or a waste but I do think some things have been lost, I definitely wouldn’t want to be a 15 yr old in 2021.
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I thought it was just me! There has been so many times I’ve checked my pocket due to random leg jitters. I put it down to old age.
A huge wake up for me and a precursor of how much smartphones changed everyone and everything.
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That is extremely interesting, thank you.
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Chucked Facebook about 10 years ago and never looked back. Never had IG and use WhatsApp for a family group only. And that’s because my parents are ancient and live quite far away. I signed up to Twitter for the first time about a year ago and use it exclusively for football as I’m involved with a supporters group.
I did find my general use of my phone was really affecting my attention span. Deleted some apps and turned off all notifications apart from Telegram, which I use for close friends and my kids. If I’m with people, watching tv, reading or listening to music, my phone goes away.
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i take comfort in knowing that today’s youth have their own “underground” and that by definition i haven’t got a clue where it is or how it works. i think more of them are more “switched-off” from social media and it’s alleged “influencers” than we might give them credit for.
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Agreed. If you want to kick back against something and be truly alternative these days you do it by being off grid and not having a phone.
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I think Test Pressing needs a 2 hour video of Apiento dancing while playing his favourite Sade records. That’s what’s been lacking all these years.
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lol. Not on your nelly.
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Needs to go to a poll… 
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This is a really interesting thread. I ditched Facebook in 2015 and the next day I didn’t miss it at all. Some of that will be due to me living in a smallish city and seeing people regularly I would interact with anyway, and replacing it with Whatsapp groupchats to arrange beers and football etc. Instagram is where I keep up with and share interests such as music/socks/shoes/IPA’s and twitter for fast news about football and politics. Twitter is an echo chamber though, confirmation bias at its most finessed. @J_C post is essential reading…still taking it in!
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We were all on FB at uni circa 2004-5 and it was a beautiful thing for a while. Going back and seeing some of those old party pictures and other things - bittersweet for sure. In its infancy it was a great way to run intel on people you’d meet and make connections. In a way I still miss the thrill of those days - circles were much smaller, political posts were few, and it felt genuinely useful.
I had deactivated it a few months ago thanks to reading Lanier’s book discovered/recommended on this forum but was horribly sick with the flu last week and realized my Doordash account was tied to my FB and had to reactivate in order to get pho soup delivered. Really insidious how FB essentially became the de facto digital passport for everything from your news subscription to scooter rental/food delivery.
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TP Forum surely is where the kids are finding their music 
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We are now so wed to it that as a society it will be hard to decouple. It irritates me that it’s the default communication method for local services. So if I want updates from my council about bin collections or road works etc I have to give my personal data to Mark fucking Zuckerberg in a country I don’t even live in.
I signed off a few years ago, first by removing the app from my phone and then about 3 months later deleting the account. I miss a few bits of the interaction and specifically the klf and ALFOS groups but that’s it. My decision wasn’t about the toxicity as personally in my feed I never experienced that but it was an anti Zuckerberg stance.
I used to work for the uk centre tasked with investigating internet paedophiles. We partnered with everyone from Microsoft to the football association who all donated time and resource to help. Facebook wouldn’t even come to the table, no problem here they would say, we already have our own processes and don’t need to work with law enforcement. The man is an incompetent c***t who is way out of his depth. A system that started as a way to rate girls on campus is now an all powerful behemoth and he is incapable of saying “I can’t control this, help me” I think he is still in the Trump camp of “I alone can fix this”.
Have you checked the privacy details of the Facebook app in the iOS App Store, the data they take is incredible. Thank goodness for places like this where I can find out about new tunes, books and tv in a lovely environment without giving my data to the man ( unless of course Apiento you are the man )
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Apiento knows what size boxer shorts you wear
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Yeah it’s extraordinary. I feel like the pendulum always swings - it had gone the other way for some time and now with 2016 and publications like Shoshana Zuboff’s groundbreaking Age of Surveillance Capitalism in tandem with the weakening of these systems as people move on and want to create something they don’t hate, we’re finally beginning to see cracks/correction. I feel that the zeitgeist/smart money is on the FB going the way of the dodo or continuing to exist in a much weakened form…but to be replaced with what ?
This is so accurate it stings.
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Not sure how I feel about all of this tbh. Should I be more worried? Certainly don’t feel the stress that some have outlined here.
I’ve got a Twitter, Facebook, Instagram account but I reckon over about 10 years I’ve posted less than 50 things across all of them. I’ve never interacted with anything social to the extent I have with the TP Forum and I see this as being a really healthy space. I’ve surprised myself by how much I’ve got involved actually.
Maybe I’m not freaked out about the other platforms because I see them for what they are and don’t feel the need to use them for self validation. They can all be very useful if used in the right way and I get lots of tips about music, film, events, clothes etc from Instagram mainly. A really good friend of mine died recently and the tribute group on Facebook was cathartic and provided a space for friends from across the world with a space to share memories. Of course you could do that by calling people up or sending them a letter but realistically that’s never going to happen.
So I suppose what I’m saying is use them in moderation and for a purpose and they can be useful and enjoyable tools. Just don’t believe the bullshit.
And make sure you’ve got what you need in real life to balance it out.
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That’s Piers.
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