[Misc] Reels, Shorts, Tiktok etc...

[TWOCHOICEStom]

Anyone else found themselves slowly being reeled (sorry) in by these awful short, endless streams of shit? I don't feel I'm addicted to social media per se and I thought I was above it. But my screentime has steadily increased over the previous year to a pretty bad level.

I don't want to delete my accounts or uninstall these apps. I enjoying using facebook, instagram, twitter and youtube for what they were originally intended. I have tik tok so I can prove I am very young and also hip and cool. But I need to limit it. And the UX patterns are absolutely incredible and dragging you into to that never ending stream and keeping you locked in.

In a worst case I might set up some app limits on my phone. But it's a depressing thought having to have a hard limit on it. In the meantime I'm going to try to read more longform and lob my phone across the room if I notice I've started DOOM SCROLLING.

Anybody else in the same boat?

 

[Barnet Seagull]

TLDR

 

[pb21]

Anyone else found themselves slowly being reeled (sorry) in by these awful short, endless streams of shit? I don't feel I'm addicted to social media per se and I thought I was above it. But my screentime has steadily increased over the previous year to a pretty bad level.

I don't want to delete my accounts or uninstall these apps. I enjoying using facebook, instagram, twitter and youtube for what they were originally intended. I have tik tok so I can prove I am very young and also hip and cool. But I need to limit it. And the UX patterns are absolutely incredible and dragging you into to that never ending stream and keeping you locked in.

In a worst case I might set up some app limits on my phone. But it's a depressing thought having to have a hard limit on it. In the meantime I'm going to try to read more longform and lob my phone across the room if I notice I've started DOOM SCROLLING.

Anybody else in the same boat?

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

Anyone else found themselves slowly being reeled (sorry) in by these awful short, endless streams of shit? I don't feel I'm addicted to social media per se and I thought I was above it. But my screentime has steadily increased over the previous year to a pretty bad level.

It sounds as if you are addicted. Maybe take some time away completely and see how that feels

 

[Curious Orange]

Unfortunately, this is problematic - I've noticed Junior Orange can barely even get through one of these without scrolling to the next. He has the attention span of a fish, thank goodness he plays football and cricket!

 

[AmexRuislip]

I have tik tok so I can prove I am very young and also hip and cool.

If so, WTF are you doing on this Saga sponsored football forum

 

[Bozza]

No.

I spend (far) too much time on devices, but this has escaped me, and it's not through any effort or resistance on my part...

1. I don't have TikTok - just never got round to it.
2. I view Instagram a few times a day but but it never seems to throw these things at me, and I don't seek them out.
3. I use FB for NSC, but not on a personal level and, again, they're just never presented to me.

My son, though, just can't f***ing stop so I'm aware of how ridiculously addictive this stuff is.

 

[brighton_tom]

For all the same reasons I deleted my twitter and facebook accounts long ago. I hate the endless scrolling I find myself doing when bored. I still have an instagram account, but am close to deleting that too. To battle the urge to open the app when bored I set screen time limits on my phone (but they're pretty useless as you just get that 'do you want to ignore the limit?' option pop up). I also occasionally just delete the app entirely (not the account) from my phone, out of sight out of mind, to give myself extended breaks from using it. The only thing stopping me from deleting the instagram account now is because it contains lot of memorable photos, some of which I dont have backups for. Once ive got the photos organised in another app that doesnt also have a function for scrolling through reels then I think it'll be time to delete instagram entirely, I just keep putting off organising the photos.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Anyone else found themselves slowly being reeled (sorry) in by these awful short, endless streams of shit? I don't feel I'm addicted to social media per se and I thought I was above it. But my screentime has steadily increased over the previous year to a pretty bad level.

I don't want to delete my accounts or uninstall these apps. I enjoying using facebook, instagram, twitter and youtube for what they were originally intended. I have tik tok so I can prove I am very young and also hip and cool. But I need to limit it. And the UX patterns are absolutely incredible and dragging you into to that never ending stream and keeping you locked in.

In a worst case I might set up some app limits on my phone. But it's a depressing thought having to have a hard limit on it. In the meantime I'm going to try to read more longform and lob my phone across the room if I notice I've started DOOM SCROLLING.

Anybody else in the same boat?

Both FB and Instagram, present these to me in my feeds - but all they ever are, are short clips from Family Guy, Modern Family or Three and a half Men. I have never once in my entire life, watched any of these three shows.

How very strange.

 

[Dick Swiveller]

All I really use is YouTube and mainly watch that instead of TV. But now my TV app shows shorts at the top when I go to subscriptions. If I had the attention span of a gnat, I would look at shorts. But I want to watch people travelling or fixing old computers or cars or whatever other sad crap I normally watch. Stop forcing banal gibberish on me.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

When I was young we used to waste our idle time kicking a football around in the park. Rush goalies if there were only a few of us.

Now, the younger generation feel the need to be all over social media to be hip, cool, whatever, to waste their idle time away.

Thank the lord I'm no longer young!!

I don't play footie anymore but I've NEVER been suckered in to Facebook, Tictok, Twitter X, Instagram, Face Time, Reels? Shorts? whatever, etc.

Happy to be called old, uncool, unhip, rather than waste precious time (life is short) on this poncy shit.

And dont get me started on online "influencers" ....

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I've never used Tik Tok,
I got hacked on Instagram so only view links from others (ie Albion players),
I still view Twitter,
I use Bluesky,
I do use Facebook because I belong to several Naval related groups, and old friends home and abroad
Nsc is my weakness, and I have to read it every day.

 

[Guinness Boy]

No.

I spend (far) too much time on devices, but this has escaped me, and it's not through any effort or resistance on my part...

1. I don't have TikTok - just never got round to it.
2. I view Instagram a few times a day but but it never seems to throw these things at me, and I don't seek them out.
3. I use FB for NSC, but not on a personal level and, again, they're just never presented to me.

My son, though, just can't f***ing stop so I'm aware of how ridiculously addictive this stuff is.

Most of this is me too. I stopped using Facebook in lockdown, have never been back and don't miss it. Binned off Twitter when Musk overran it with fascist bots. Don't have Tik Tok and don't want it. The only thing I'd follow on Insta is @jackalbion 's away day stories and kebab reviews but my lad tells me the the best bits of these so I've never really logged in to it. Created a Bluesky account, followed a load of Albion people, never looked at it again.

My son is actually pretty good with this sort of thing. If he's addicted to anything it's gaming but he's currently revising for his A levels and is actually doing the work. My daughter on the other hand. My word. From one Tik Tok to the next like it's the most important thing in the world.

 

[Algernon]

A couple of years ago I worked with 3 other blokes.
I'd get into the small office at 06:45 ready for an 07:00 start.
Two of the others (early 50s) would be there head down "doom scrolling" through TikTok. The other (mid 60s) would be on his phone, online gambling.
Each break in work would be the same. Work based questions often had to be repeated and asked with a raised voice.
There was a lot of downtime when nothing required attention so plenty of time for idle hands.

It's not just infected the youngsters.

 

[GT49er]

I don't have a FB account (not any more) or Twitter. I only look at them if there's a link to something that might be slightly interesting (like from the Ukraine thread on here).
The shorts on YouTube are annoying though; I've realised now that they're inevitably disappointing, so I've pretty much weaned myself off being tempted to look at them! Phew!

 

[Greg Bobkin]

I've gone the other way recently. I've cut right back on time on Instagram, but still look at it once or twice a day to keep up with things/people, very rarely look at Twitter (once or twice a week, maybe?), check Bluesky once or twice a day and rarely use FB. My screen time on my phone is still about three hours a day (trying hard to reduce it further, but that includes Android Auto/Maps/Spotify when driving, I think. And it's not just on SM stuff, either.

To be honest, I probably spend more time on NSC in a week than the rest of the social media apps put together!

 

[The Clamp]

I got into watching FB reels. I have banned myself from it. It’s addictive.

Watching Karen’s meltdown and instant karma stuff mainly. Very bad for me. I binned it all off years ago.

Never been on TikTok, Twitter etc

 

[Bozza]

I don't have a FB account (not any more) or Twitter. I only look at them if there's a link to something that might be slightly interesting (like from the Ukraine thread on here).
The shorts on YouTube are annoying though; I've realised now that they're inevitably disappointing, so I've pretty much weaned myself off being tempted to look at them! Phew!

I watch a lot of YouTube, or often have it on in the background anyway, but always on the TV and never on my phone.

To get to shorts on the TV app, I need to go out of my way to navigate to them, which I never do, so I never see them.

 

[GT49er]

I watch a lot of YouTube, or often have it on in the background anyway, but always on the TV and never on my phone.

To get to shorts on the TV app, I need to go out of my way to navigate to them, which I never do, so I never see them.

Probably depends on how you get to YouTube on TV. Usually I get there having found something interesting on my laptop, and casting it to TV - the shorts are there, second row down, every time.