
Teens 'rebelling against social media', say headteachers - k-mcgrady
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41509402
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pgeorgep
At some point, the general population has to realize that the relationship
with social media is pretty one-sided. It's an egregiously impersonal
landscape with zero regards for personal well being. Plain and simple, social
media companies exist to cash in on your personal data.

It's about time that a generation takes a stand.

~~~
oceanghost
It's not just the companies behind it that are a problem.

The concept of civil debate and discourse is, in large part a thing of the
past. Issue any opinion, politely, well reasoned on facebook and you most
likely be savaged.

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
In my experience there is plenty of civil debate and discourse going on, just
that _Facebook_ isn't where it's happening, except may be some closed groups.

Even in the small city I live in, population ~87,000, there are two regular
philosophy meet ups and a skeptics group. The local state university hosts
regular guest speakers. There is a tonne of podcasts and books produced from
around the world with vastly differing opinions.

~~~
pmoriarty
What % of your city's population attends philosophy meetups or skeptics
groups? Would you say it's more than 0.1% ?

As for university talks, at least at my university they were attended by a
tiny minority of students. Most students went only to the lectures they had to
for class and did something else in their free time than go to more lectures.
Outside of students and the occasional professor, it was rare for these talks
to be attended by anyone else, unless someone really famous was talking --
even then, only a small minority of the people in the surrounding area would
even hear of these events, much less bother to go.

The sad fact is that most people, in the US at least, aren't very interested
in intellectual pursuits like this. They'd much rather go to a ballgame,
party, watch TV, or hang out at the bar.

~~~
mattmanser
87 people. Probably far too high. But maybe over a year 87 different people
fade in and out of a group.

But those 87 people know and talk to 100 other people each,that's 10% of the
city.

Go two degrees of separation and it's the whole town.

Students in a town generally only know other students. Students are actually
pretty secluded. But normal people? They know their families, they know their
friends, they know their colleagues, the people they do their hobbies with,
their local shop owners, the people in their local Baby groups, the other
parents in their schools, the people who the volunteer with, etc.

It's about how ideas spread, not about how many people are in one group.

~~~
pmoriarty
_" But those 87 people know and talk to 100 other people each,that's 10% of
the city. Go two degrees of separation and it's the whole town."_

While it's true that each of the people at these tiny gatherings probably know
and talk to at least 10 people each, and those people talk to another 10
people each, that doesn't mean that they're talking about philosophy or
skepticism. Most people just don't want to hear about either of those
subjects, or anything else intellectual.

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3452354326
As a teenager (probably a bit younger than the average HN reader) there's
definitely been a change in how we approach social media. Most kids now take
advantage of privacy settings to moderate who can see what messages, often
creating private or "fake" accounts that only a few friends can see that
contrast with their "public" accounts. Ironically the "fake" accounts are more
"real" due to the more honest and realistic posts that they only allow their
friends to see. Even in public settings, people are moving away from only
showing "perfect" images instead favoring a more realistic image.

~~~
hbosch
> often creating private or "fake" accounts that only a few friends can see
> that contrast with their "public" accounts

The younger sister of a family friend called this a "sin-stagram", but some
people also call them by the more family-friendly "fun-stagrams" or "funstas".
Kind of a hilarious concept, creating multiple social media accounts for
multiple sides of your personality.

Coincidentally I was reading an article today about a YouTuber who was doing
this same sort of thing _. A famous, promoted, well-followed channel with his
regular content (music reviews), and secondary accounts for alt-right meme
commentary (which was shut down recently).

I guess it makes sense... but for some weird reason I find it weirdly
_grotesque*. It's like containerization for your life: stream my optimism to
my family, stream my partying to my friends, stream my depression to
strangers... keep them all separated and you have can maintain (and in the
above YouTuber's case, monetize?) multiple digital lives.

Another interesting tidbit was a friend of mine who just graduated med school
and started their residency. This person changed the names/handles on all
their social media accounts, because patients have a habit of trying to search
for their doctors on Facebook and Instagram. Apparently this causes issues
from time to time in the doctor/patient relationship, so it's common practice
among many in the medical field.

———

0\. [https://www.thefader.com/2017/10/03/needle-drop-deleted-
yout...](https://www.thefader.com/2017/10/03/needle-drop-deleted-youtube-
channel-this-is-the-plan)

~~~
nradov
Another common term is "finsta", as in "fake Instagram". In principle I don't
see anything wrong with compartmentalization and maintaining different online
identities, although it can be misused to hide some really ugly behavior.

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temp-dude-87844
The captive social environment of school interacts with the captive social
environment of social networks to extend the active hours during which Fear-
of-Missing-Out and interpersonal conflicts can occur.

I'm sure teens would happily detox from school as well, if they were given the
chance. Of course, social networks are always on your phone, even in the
middle of the night. But chances are, if for some reason, someone were to have
an entirely different stock of people on their Instagram than their school
peers, the amount of social pressure experienced would be lessened. In fact,
I'd posit that this can be seen with social networks like Tumblr, Twitch, and
YouTube, where one is far more likely to cultivate interest-based friends than
a mere combination of schoolmates and a few choice super-popular accounts.

------
michaelmarion
Took the plunge and deactivated my Facebook and Twitter accounts over a month
ago.

I haven't missed them.

~~~
danjoc
Welcome to the club. I did this years ago.

That was sincere. I found it is hard to talk about it without being treated
like a smug asshole. It's like everyone who hears you talk about it, even
other people doing it, interpret you as a zealot extremist or something. For
instance, if I didn't include this paragraph, I would be flag killed.

~~~
heroprotagonist
Try asking other people not to put your photo on Facebook. More people are
becoming understanding about that, but there's still a range of responses like
incredulity, contempt, or the inevitable person who wants to turn it into some
kind of debate of abstract principles.

~~~
dmihal
Can you explain why you don't want your photo on Facebook?

It's one thing to chose to abstain from social media, but it feels more
invasive to ask others to change what they post.

~~~
GuiA
Because Facebook will still run its face detection algorithms etc., thus
allowing them to build a database of information to resell to advertisers even
if you don’t have an explicitly created Facebook page.

I don’t see how asking friends to not post pictures of you online is invasive.
However, posting pictures of someone online if they’ve asked you not to is
extremely rude.

------
searine
Because twitter and Facebook are full of their parents and other angry adults
throwing fits about politics that are carved in digital stone.

That's not cool.

In an age where digital permanence is common, being ephemeral and mysterious
is unique and luxurious.

Now, cool is having FB be a highlight reel, while you conduct actual
socializing in private, protected spaces.

~~~
ferdbold
That's pretty much how I'm approaching social media as well in my twenties.

I'm barely posting anything anymore on Facebook, but the Messenger groups I
share with 10 or so of my closest friends are alive and well. I guess I just
don't like the feeling of someone "butting in" into conversations meant for
other people on Facebook posts. For the same reason I barely comment anything
anymore on other people's posts, it just feels like walking on glass most of
the time.

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jedberg
Not surprising. My 18 year old cousin only seems to use Snapchat. He only got
FB right before going to college so he could participate in the groups.

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DeepYogurt
I feel like this is more about teens not wanting their social circles to
include their parents/teachers/etc... than it is about any business
motivation.

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ninju
A little off-topic but wonder why there is, what appears to be, a camera
attached to the girl in the last photo in the article?

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ionised
Hmm, a slight replenishment of my faith in humanity. That was unexpected.

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misterHN
Facebook and Twitter are evil, period. Good kids.

