
Teens who refuse to use social media - pmoriarty
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/aug/29/teens-desert-social-media
======
Memosyne
I absolutely abhor the current state of social media and its usage by young
people. As a teenager myself, I have both experienced and observed the
negative influences of these outlets and consider their existence unethical.
Far too often have these apps condoned terrible deeds while encouraging
foolish acts of vanity. As a young person, you feel compelled to participate
in digital fads -- like "challenges" or "pranks" \-- or risk being ostracized.
Regardless of how extreme these things get, social media always manages to
make them popular by appealing to a semi-educated audience -- teens.

Social media is providing young people with an accessible form of
communication, but its current mainstream implementation is seriously flawed.
Every image or text seems to be filtered; kids are evaluating their self worth
based on how close their photos resemble other heavily edited pictures. Trying
to discuss actual topics is almost impossible because flagging dissenting
views has become the primary form of discourse. Virtue signaling seems to be
the only way to not be branded as a menace to society. Oh, and there's the
whole problem of adults abusing their authority and fame to manipulate the
reactions of kids.

There needs to be regulations which prohibit apps from generating content
which incites such stupidity. Sure, freedom of speech is precious but when
kids interact with one another under the impression that there is limited
oversight, they do dumb things. We've all been kids and we can at least attest
to that.

~~~
appleflaxen
Your complaints are totally valid until you get to this part

> There needs to be regulations which prohibit apps from generating content
> which incites such stupidity. Sure, freedom of speech is precious but when
> kids interact with one another under the impression that there is limited
> oversight, they do dumb things. We've all been kids and we can at least
> attest to that.

The appropriate entity to police children's behavior is the parent. Some
parents do a crappy job, but the state tends to do it even worse.

Some people might feel just as strongly as you do about "violent video games"
(defined in some arbitrary way) or "rap music" or "morally objectionable
literature" [1]. You wouldn't want them to regulate your use of these, and
they don't want you to regulate their use of social media.

1\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_panic#Examples](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_panic#Examples)

~~~
coldtea
> _The appropriate entity to police children 's behavior is the parent. Some
> parents do a crappy job, but the state tends to do it even worse._

I'd say the appropriate entity to police children's behavior is the community.

The state is too powerful and over-reaching (and doesn't have skin in the
game), the family unit is too restricted (and not enough people to include a
representative variety of opinion).

~~~
tomp
In the US, the “community” calls the police if a parent let’s the child walk
to school. I’m pretty sure that qualifies for “overreaching”.

~~~
coldtea
In the US the community didn't use to do that at all.

It has been taught to do so, assisted by the government (overzealous social
services, etc), academic "experts" of all kinds, and hysterical media.

This is a very nice piece of writing from the Austin Chronicle that tells the
story of a much freer US and community:

[http://michaelventura.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/This-
Is...](http://michaelventura.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/This-Is-Where-I-
Came-In-August-22-2003.pdf)

------
philip1209
My girlfriend and I recently started "no phone Sundays". We keep our phones
powered off from Saturday night until Monday morning.

We spent this past Sunday navigating around Paris with a paper map, which was
felt romantic in kind of a nostalgic way. I realized on the Metro that I kept
making eye contact with people older than me - because they were the only ones
not on their phones the entire time. I also realised how much not having a
phone stimulates my curiosity - I spent my time looking around, listening to
new things, and paying attention to what was happening around me.

I think phones are powerful tools. But, your brain gets too used to constant
stimulation. I think that it makes you less patient and more anxious as you
get used to these constant hits of dopamine. You can never relax, and it makes
it tough to live in the moment.

~~~
pedroaraujo
Sometimes I really wonder how people use their phones. Is it really necessary
to go the extreme of needing to turn it off just to "fight off" the
"addiction"?

Speaking about myself, I only have notifications for emails and for messages
directly addressed to me. I might check it occasionally on the bus to see what
popped up in the news but other than that, I don't have the need to pull it
from the pocket all the time.

What exactly do people do different than this with their phones? I really feel
that I have been missing something amazing with the smartphone usage when I
read posts like this.

~~~
dwild
> I don't have the need to pull it from the pocket all the time. > What
> exactly do people do different than this with their phones?

I went to a national park with my GF to watch the recent Perseid. There was no
phone signals there. Except for the map, I didn't need it so I didn't care. At
multiple times though I reached for my phone to Google questions we were
asking ourselves, on nature and space. I guess in a way it pushed us to think
more about the subject instead of getting an instant answer, so in a ways it's
good, but we never got any actual answers, we just forgot about theses
questions though, which I don't feel is good...

~~~
devb
It's silly, but I do carry around a notepad so I can make a list of things to
look up later.

------
Gustomaximus
> Generation Z – people born after 1995 – half of those surveyed stated they
> had quit or were considering quitting at least one social media platform

That seems incorrectly taken statement. They represent it as though people are
leaving social media. That is a false logic. E.g. Peeps may have swapped
instagram to snapchat...

It would be interesting to know what % dont use social media by age group..
Something here: [http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/03/01/social-media-use-
in-20...](http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/03/01/social-media-use-in-2018/)

~~~
SimplyUnknown
Funny that your link includes WhatsApp as a social medium. I don't see it like
that at all. For me it is just a free alternative to SMS. Besides, they say it
is big in Latin Amercia but in my country, Holland, I would guess that by now
it is present on >95% of all smartphones. (latest source I could find was from
2016, which states that 92% of all smartphones in the Netherlands have
WhatsApp installed, [https://tweakers.net/nieuws/109689/whatsapp-staat-
op-11-komm...](https://tweakers.net/nieuws/109689/whatsapp-staat-
op-11-komma-2-miljoen-nederlandse-smartphones.html)).

I would consider reddit, missing in the article, more of a social network than
WhatsApp.

~~~
Freak_NL
WhatsApp's group chat feature sees the same issues as any other social media
platform; spread of disinformation, digital witch hunts, bullying, etc. How is
it not a social medium?

~~~
SimplyUnknown
My bike has the same problems as my convertible car: It gets flat tires, I get
wet when it rains and it costs more energy to go uphill. Is my bike now a
convertible car?

The definition of a social network is not in its problems but in its features.

And I'd say one of the defining features of a social network is discovery
(e.g. new people, groups that share a common interest, etc.). This is
completely lacking in WhatsApp - as you already need to be able to "have
access" to the people you want to talk with before you can contact them - but
is the integral experience with facebook or instagram.

------
theLotusGambit
This article has no substance. Its primary idea is that teens are moving away
from social media, but lets look at how it actually backs that idea:

So there's 5 anecdotes from 5 teenagers, all describing their dislike/disuse
of social media. I don't know about you, but I think I could get 5 teenagers
to back basically any claim I wanted with stories if I asked enough of them.
I'm not saying that gathering opinions of the target audience is a bad thing,
but just that 5 hand-selected samples out of an incredibly diverse group of
people may not be entirely representative or meaningful.

The only qualitative information presented here are the statistics, which I'll
rattle off:

63% of British Schoolchildren in 2017 would be happy if social media was never
invented according to a survey

A survey of 9000 internet users found that in 2016, 66% said social media was
important to them, but only 57% in 2018

58% of US teenagers had taken a break from one social media platform

Facebook users aged 18-24 in Britain expected to fall 1.8% this year

41% of gen z teens said social media made them sad, anxious, or depressed

I think it's entirely possible that there is a large trend among Gen Z of
moving away from social media, but I don't think these statistics or anecdotes
do a good job backing the claim up.

~~~
jonny_eh
> The only qualitative information presented here are the statistics

Do you mean quantitative?

------
mbo
Every time something like this gets posted, everyone on HN comes out of the
woodwork and explains how they barely use social media.

Snapchat makes it really easy for me to share what I'm doing, my location, and
to quickly meet up with people. Messenger is great for group chats that I talk
about garbage with mates all day. Instagram is good for sharing and talking
about art and design. And Facebook is filled to the brim of fantastic memes,
general shitposting and lovely private groups for specific interests. I'm
constantly seeing events that my friends are attending on Facebook, and it
makes it really easy to organise groups to attend them.

What's not to love? Honestly, I read these threads and just think y'all just
using social media wrong; no wonder why you're all having such a miserable
time.

~~~
Kagerjay
I've learned to accept that social media is just a mixed bag. The easiest way
to not get addicted to social media is to just pretend there is no such things
as a quantifiable like button. Just pretend it doesn't exist. Just be
yourself, do whatever you want, but at the same time still share cool things
that happen regardless. For me, this is the following:

\- Facebook/messenger is just for messenging convenience and facebook specific
groups. I'll make a commitment to using it once a every 1-3 months to keep up
with people, looking at friends profiles etc, liking every post when I use it
to support other people, then waiting for the next cycle. I post once every 3
months at least to tell people I'm still in good health

\- Instagram → dumping cool things I find or cool events I take part of, or
things of general interest to me, photos with friends, etc.I'll scroll through
every now and then when I'm bored

\- Snapchat → don't care, I only message people that only use this

\- Linkedin → don't care, once a week / month I'll look at it. Rather build
meaningful conversations with people I care about.

\- twitter → I just shitpost all my random ideas and things I learn, and cool
youtube videos I like / companies I support

Really just know what value your getting out of social media. Steel yourself
and don't let ego and envy get to you, just be happy for the other person.

Also, when you learn to accept there's no such thing as privacy, it removes a
big cognitive burden. I don't care that instagram is scraping all my photos on
my phone, I don't care what google is gathering data from me, things are so
much easier when you just accept it for what it is.

I don't care how many people are looking at my profile or how many followers I
have, how many likes, its shallow metrics. I care about qualitative things,
not quantative.

~~~
closetCS
This.

The amount of social anxiety and peer pressure from constant liking causes so
many people on insta and fb to conform to popular opinion or get into harsh
arguments with hateful language instead of having meaningful conversations. I
think we need to encourage major social media platforms to remove quantitative
features from social media such as likes and follower counts. It is just an
emotionally destructive feature

------
thosakwe
(Disclaimer: I am Gen Z)

Honestly, all of these "I refuse to use social media!" type articles just
remind me of people who spam "all the music of this generation sucks; I'm 14
and I was born in the wrong generation" on YouTube videos.

Going against the mainstream often is a package deal that comes bundled with a
superiority complex against people who choose to engage in the activity that
you choose not to engage in.

I saw a comment in this very HN thread that goes so far as to say that youth
who use social media display "intellectual vulnerability," and that _not_
using social media is an asset warranting immediate hire.

Social media exists as a way to facilitate communication online over a long-
distance, i.e. old friends who now live in different places. Problems that we
think are "unique" to social media, like the loudest, wrongest voices getting
the most attention, exist in human society outside of social media as well.
It's not an exclusive phenomenon.

Of course, not everybody has to use social media.

But you're not a special snowflake just because you don't have an app
installed on your phone...

~~~
phil21
I'm Gen X, and unless you count message boards and HN-like places I've never
used social media.

Not because I thought "the music of this generation sucks" but because it was
easy to see the horrific way the Internet was going to go with walled gardens
and centralization. I predicted 10 years ago if you uploaded and tagged photos
on facebook you were giving up 100% of your privacy forever, as now every
single photo of you ever taken (private or in public) will eventually be
tracked to a name. I think generations coming up today really missed out on
seeing the potential of the Internet, and what's it's become is nothing
resembling the dreams of the 90's.

There are far more reasons to be wary and not participate in social media than
"I'm just better than everyone".

And yes - it's a huge hit to your ability to continue an active social life.
But things like SMS, Instant Messenger phones, e-mail, etc. still exist. The
other downside is you tend to collect friends willing to deal with that, so it
can kind of put you into a bubble if you don't reach outside your comfort
zone.

I've found dating someone with an already established social media presence
(e.g. too late to opt out, why bother) is a decent compromise :)

~~~
ryandrake
> And yes - it's a huge hit to your ability to continue an active social life.

Also Gen X, also don’t touch social media, and I don’t agree with this at all,
despite how much it gets repeated here. Staying away from Facebook has had
zero effect on my social life or ability to catch up with friends and family.
In fact, I’m busier than ever outside of work and home. I assure you all,
there are plenty of ways to keep in touch and maintain an active social life
without scrolling through a company moderated ‘feed’ on your phone. The old-
school ways still work fine and, as a bonus, don’t require you to be glued to
your phone.

~~~
mywittyname
If you were in the dating pool, you would likely agree with that statement.

~~~
andrepd
Unless I'm missing something, just give your phone number and text.

~~~
always_good
While that never died, social media is the modern rolodex. And on top of that,
someone can jog their memory of you and warm the iron back up a little bit.

Swapping social media details has been more effective for me because often I
don't pounce on a number immediately. And I would hate to lose contact with
someone just because I didn't.

Social media keeps someone on the fringe of your vision. Bit easier to spark
something from that than cold-texting "hey, it's Jeremy from that one party
two months ago. remember me?"

Besides, at age 30 and having been dating for a long time, I can't tell you
how many times social media has given me serendipities like someone asking
what to do while visiting the city I live in and I can PM them with "hey, I'll
show you around."

~~~
sizzle
I rather meet prospective dates in person not via tinder /coffee meets bagel
type appsm I understand that you are exposed to far more people online, dating
pool wise, but in University I was surrounded by 50,000 students and I thrived
by physically going to organized clubs and events I was genuinely interested
in and chatting it up and exchanging info. Now outside of University, these
apps and even online dating get more locked in when you are exposed to less
people on the regular.

------
saagarjha
I'm not going to kid myself into thinking that I don't spend time on social
media (hello, Hacker News), but as someone who fits the age range described in
the article and doesn't have much of a public account on the platforms listed,
the only largest issue I've had is the increasing tendency towards
disseminating information only through these channels. Usually I grab someone
who _does_ have an account and get them to relay the information, but I'm
probably missing things that I don't realize.

~~~
moreira
What makes Hacker News social media? It's just a forum, essentially, like the
forums of old. There are threads, and people can reply to them.

There are no friendships or any kind of social graph associated with it, which
is what makes a social media platform, for me.

~~~
voltooid
Hacker news is definitely more a forum than social media platform. But the
temptation to collect "likes" and the resulting dopamine high is a thing on HN
too.

~~~
blackbrokkoli
It is also usable as an endless stream of infotainment if your concern is
plummeting productivity

~~~
rland
And it has the convenient sleight of being somewhat related to work, so it can
ocassionally bypass the “this is unproductive B.S.” procrastination filter.

------
scarygliders
My son was born in 2001 and only uses Facebook due to most communication
routed through there from the Air Cadets he is a member of.

Otherwise he doesn't particularly like social media and usually turns off all
notifications/largely ignores the "wittering on" occurring on those platforms.

He also does use Snapchat as there is a group of Air Cadets on that platform.

He also plays the odd video game so has a Discord account.

But he doesn't obsess over social media like perhaps a generation before his
does. IMO that's a good thing.

In my late 40's, I too have a Facebook account, but largely ignore it bar
having to use it to read the Air Cadet's parent group for important
information I should know about. If it weren't for that, I'd be deleting my
account there - have done so before.

Unfortunately I reconnected with quite a few friends and acquaintances, and
have grown weary of the utter crap and banality a lot of them post on there -
as time has worn on I find I have a lot less in common with a lot of these
people than I thought I did, and the posting of twee political virtue
signalling and rubbish or out of context memes only they get and find funny,
has taken its toll. I need to go through the contacts list and perform a
thorough 'cleansing', now that I think about it.

~~~
majewsky
> My son was born in 2001.

> But he doesn't obsess over social media like perhaps a generation before his
> does.

Back in my days, "a generation" was roughly 20-25 years. :)

Generation X did not have social media when they grew up.

~~~
phit_
I have noticed there is quite the difference between born 2000+ and 1993+, due
to the older of these groups still remembering a time where not everyone had a
computer in their pockets. By the time someone born in 2000 made it to school
almost everyone had a phone/smartphone.

~~~
scarygliders
Yes this exactly, I know what a "generation" in the usual sense means. But
what you posted, is why I count my son born in 2001 to be a different
generation than those born in 1993+. Their attitudes and behaviour seem very
different in that I see _way_ less political correctness, amongst other things
associated with the generation being talked about, in him and his peer group
(of course this is anecdotal evidence and should be treated as such).

------
Jaruzel
Adding another anecdotal comment to the pile...

My Daughter is 21. Depending on where you read, she's either tail-end
Millennial, or early Gen-Z. Her usage of social media is very minimal - She
posts rarely on Facebook, never on Instagram or Twitter. She does however have
very active Snapchat groups and uses Messenger. Both are simply for
conversations with her social group.

Are closed chat groups 'social media'? If we were to say yes to this, then SMS
texts and IRC and Forums are also social media. I'm not sure where the line
gets drawn.

As an old fogey in his 40s, I do not use Facebook or Instagram. I post to
Twitter when I need to reach out to an organisation or a person, and it's
_their_ preferred way for contact. I also delete anything I tweet after a few
days. I used to use Facebook heavily, but it just became a pointless waste of
time, all people care about on Facebook are the likes and shares, and not the
actual content.

All social media is based on the emotional feedback loop of 'Share/Post -> Get
Likes -> Feel Validated -> Repeat'. 'Likes' create an endorphin hit that many
people get addicted to. In this manner it's no different from a class-A drug.

Sharing stuff online is fine, but creators of these platforms insist on
gameifying it with likes, ThumbsUps, Votes and Shares, and it's this part of
the social media eco-system that's toxic.

~~~
athenot
> I also delete anything I tweet after a few days.

Interesting. An automated way to enforce my own retention policy on these
platforms would surely be a good thing. More so for facebook than for twitter
I feel (but that's just a personal preference).

~~~
Jaruzel
[https://www.tweetdelete.net/](https://www.tweetdelete.net/) can do this. If
you are happy with them having access to your twitter account. I used them to
purge everything a while back, and now I just manually delete as I go.

------
yagodragon
I'm 20 years old, so i dont know if i'm within the gen Z range. I have a
facebook and an instagram account. The problem is i think i don't know how
this game works. I see some of my friends post mediocre photos or posts and
get hundred of likes, others get a couple but they don't care. At first, my
posts didn't get much traction and i was always shy to upload many photos.
Nowadays, when i want to post something that i find interesting and talk about
in the comments, i always think "what if no one cares?" "what if i don't get
any likes". That has completely discouraged me for participating in the social
media game and impacted my confidence. Now i only consume other peoples
content. I see my friends talking about when to upload a photo so they can
maximize their likes and i feel so out. It's like we have one more thing to
compare one another. I'm not saying my friends value me for my likes, but i
feel like it subconsciously creates a difference between us. Maybe i'm just
very insecure or jealous but that social media thing just magnifies it.

------
black_puppydog
\- among the 45-plus age bracket, the proportion who value social media has
increased from 23% to 28% in the past year

why is social media uncool? because all the parents are there now :D

well, and all the other reasons...

~~~
majewsky
This argument ignores that social media is not socialmedia.com, but several
different networks. If you're on Snapchat, it doesn't matter if your parents
are on Facebook.

~~~
spuz
Yes and no... teenagers are pretty smart. If they think it's lame when their
mum spends all weekend scrolling through her Facebook feed, they are going to
recognise the same bad habits in themselves scrolling through their Snapchat
feed. From talking to teens, it seems they are pretty aware of the harms of
social media in general it's not just a matter of doing what their parents
don't.

------
makach
I'm pretty sure they are communicating somehow, through creating their own ad-
hoc social media - possibly also without them knowing it themselves, or
thinking that this is social media.

I am guessing that they are creating their own communities, which we haven't
been discovered yet! A golden opportunity for the entrepreneur to monetize
once the pattern becomes obvious!

Social media today has many issues, maybe kids opposing it is the big
autocorrect which is needed to improve it and get them back on board.

~~~
satori99
> A golden opportunity for the entrepreneur to monetize once the pattern
> becomes obvious!

...which leads to inevitable over-commercialization. Then the cool kids
abandon it to start new secret communities. A golden opportunity for the
entrepreneur to monetize once the pattern becomes obvious! ...

------
graposaymaname
I have no idea how legit the article is, but I strongly believe that social
media should be controlled.It's never the case of quitting social media all
together, but redesigning it according to human values, respecting it, might
be the way forward.

Personal Experience: I tried quitting WhatsApp for 3 days, months ago and I
still remember the amount of shock my friends had.Upon checking it after 3
days, Most of the messages were like "Hey man are you dead or what??".But
then, only one had called me.In no way does this show that others are not
compassionate or something like that.It's because everyone is so used to using
it that they can't imagine a world without it.

Then I did something more exotic I quit WhatsApp for 2 months.Huu man. It was
difficult.The fax machine problem is inevitable, I didn't miss out much
important stuff because it was during summer break, when classes reopened I
had to take it again(Or I would miss assignments :/ ).But at times I feel that
the shit I skipped over was really worth it.

PS: Go through [http://humanetech.com/](http://humanetech.com/) I really wish
every one adopted these as standards.Tristan Harris really seems to be talking
sense guys.

------
woogiewonka
Slack (don't know if you'd qualify it as social media) has been raining havoc
on my attention. For the life of me I can't seem to disable notifications and
get constant emails and crap. Every new group you join you gotta go to
settings and mess with settings forever. Why can't they just have 1 single
button right in the channel that mutes EVERYTHING. Let me check the damn
thing.

~~~
wmeredith
But their UX is so sticky! Gotta keep that engagement up!

I am a UX director who hates Slack.

------
faissaloo
Gen-Z here: Facebook was invaded by moms, Instagram locked me out and their
customer support is non-existent, Fedi was better than Twitter for sharing my
thoughts and getting genuine conversations going. Mainstream social media is
dying imo, there's just nothing really there that's worth the effort.

------
sigi45
I thought that Facebook as an family and friends image sharing will be great
but now as it isn't used for that at all (in my circle) and people do care
about memories but totally happy with only using Whatsapp, I also don't care
for fun at all.

Only for contacts I have on FB through messenger.

No wonder that kids don't care.

~~~
mrweasel
Recently I've started asking people around be about the Facebook usages, and
pretty much everyone falls into the same pattern: Messenger / Messenger group
chats. As for Facebook it self, very few people post anything, and they've all
noticed that their friends are posting next to nothing. It's all people who
share bargains from the local supermarket, chances to win some prize and the
occasional funny video.

It's different for difference circles of people of cause, but for many
Facebook have been reduced to a stream of localized advertising and nonsense.

Thing that Facebooks does seem to do well is small communities and crowd
sourced local news.

------
phonz
I was in high school when Facebook came out. I rejected social media and never
engaged with it. I’ve never had a Snapchat or a Facebook or an Instagram.

When Facebook came out it just seemed obvious to me that it was a bad idea. It
was basically a brutal platform that hugely magnified the ugly, quantitative
aspect of socializing. Who’s the most popular? Who’s the smartest and
funniest? Friend count and likes and so on basically streamline the process of
judging others and self evaluation. It’s brutal and anxiety inducing and it
never made any sense. Of course the root of the problem is the people who use
it who are viscious and mean. Affluent American teenagers are some of the
worst human beings on the planet.

------
typetehcodez
I think a healthy level of social media use is to share photos, and ask for
advice and recommendations. Anything else is social engineering that you are a
deliberate manipulator of or unbeknownst participator. Flame bait, click bait,
emotionally charged posts of the troll-or-be-trolled should be avoided. Also,
comparison is the thief of joy. Don't do it. If you find yourself feeling
inadequate compared to others, just keep in mind that most people feel that
way, consciously or not. Keep in mind that you should only ever compare
yourself to your past self, not to other people.

------
coffeeandjunk
> _As young people increasingly reject social media, older generations
> increasingly embrace it._

This is like Tesla (and other startups generally) do it. Sell it to the rich
people to garner attention, and then slowly when you've got enough
growth/money/experience, sell it to others.

Teens were the lead users. Old people are just the laggards in social media.

Also, Facebook (in its infancy) used to be the place where cool teens hung
out. Now if it's the place where your grand dad hangs out, it isn't so hip
anymore. No surprise that teens would prefer dropping off.

------
Chazprime
This is a promising sign.

Some children begin to exhibit behaviors resembling that of addiction when
separated from their social media accounts, and in my experience, many parents
don’t take it seriously.

------
stephengillie
Similar topic:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17856499](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17856499)

Is today the "Submarine Ad" day for "Kids aren't using social media"? If so,
who makes money from us knowing that young people don't use social media? What
are they trying to sell to us?

~~~
bobmarley1
Yeah totally, the Snap and Facebook short sellers are astroturfing anti social
media bias duuuude.

------
iamkp
I don't have a Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter or Instagram account now. But to me
it seems like this is the new cool factor rather than choice, where quitting
Facebook seems to make someone cool or distinct than using it.

------
cirgue
I'm 29 years old, and I feel like the rest of generation got eaten by the
internet. It's good to see some indication that people are starting to realize
that social media is generally shit.

------
ratsimihah
Nice one, save us Generation Z!

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tobyhinloopen
I hate the "Gen X/Y/Z" terms, why do these even exist?

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dumitrupetrov
More like "choose" not "refuse". It's a choice.

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TBastiani
I love that the teen on the top photo is reading brave new world. :-P

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lowow01
Well spotted

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Rainymood
Ironically, I came across this article first on facebook, of course.

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booleandilemma
There’s hope after all.

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triviatise
For those of you who claim to not use social media. HN is social media..

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m1573rp34130dy
I would hire these kids almost sight unseen

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thecatspaw
how does not using social media make people valuable as an employee?

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ddebernardy
Not the OP, but all things being equal, the lack of incessant notifications
makes a _huge_ difference to one's ability to stay focused and thus to one's
productivity.

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thecatspaw
Agreed, its the notifications which are the productivity killer. Not the
social media platforms. With all of them you can disable notifications.

Funnily enough my biggest productivity killer at work is slack.

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ddebernardy
Oh yeah, Slack (or equivalent) is a monster too. But it's unfortunately there
to stay, at least for remote teams. A good way to ignore it, btw, is to
disable notifications (including the one on the icon) and to spend most of the
day in Do Not Disturb mode. It ensures you only read it on your schedule while
leaving some leeway for when something urgent comes up.

Another big productivity killer IMO is email. But that one's easier to manage
if you stick to doing it once or twice per day only and have rules that get
corporate email noise out of your way.

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m1573rp34130dy
...the demand for a response is wired in to most undamaged wetware...
...willing compliance is a phenomenal leverage point... being social creatures
the whole tribe is in chaos if we dont comply or come to consensus of group
action, thus blind faith in authorities of all types exist as a conditioned
response

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joaomacp
Social media addiction will start to decrease just as tobacco addiction is
decreasing on younger demographics. The youth have always been good at
realizing how stupid some adult's habits are, and refusing to adopt them.

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sam-mueller
This is exactly why we set out to build Blink (YC SS ‘18), where you talk to
friends face-to-face with video messaging, and share your plans to gather IRL
for genuine, in-person connections. We think gen z will set a trend that
bounces back from the social excess of the last decade, in favor of something
more balanced and natural. This won’t necessarily mean ditching technology,
but rather the technology evolving to facilitate healthy and more rewarding
relationships.

The most popular social apps out there optimize video for broadcasting your
life _at_ your friends (and followers), but not so much for actual
conversation _with_ your friends. Their Stories format only amplifies this
concept: show off what you’re doing now to everyone who’s watching. Who should
be surprised that it feels like a popularity contest competing for who has the
most perfect life?

What makes Blink different is a new video format we’re introducing that brings
your words to life. Through a symbiosis of speech-to-text, NLP/NLU and kinetic
typography, Blink captures your emotion _and_ your words, resulting in video
conversations that get the message across, sound or not! This is our
foundation: Talk more, broadcast less. Message face-to-face, not with a text.

If you’d like to see a preview of what we’ve been cooking up (and you have an
iPhone), you’re welcome to check us out in the App Store:
[https://blink.cm](https://blink.cm)

We’d love to hear your feedback!

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jumbopapa
Is there nothing about the app itself on the website? I'm interested in
reading more about it, but I'm not ready to install it yet. Seems like a
glaring oversight to not provide more information on the website.

~~~
sam-mueller
You can read (and see) more in the the App Store description without
installing. We are pre-launch, so the focus has been on the app and platform
rather than website & marketing material:

[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blink-video-
messenger/id1199...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blink-video-
messenger/id1199289898?mt=8)

