Social Media Usage

[ExFlyBoy5]

I have been reading the updated "Millionaire Next Door" book and there are some statistics that are somewhat interesting.

One of them was the amount of time that people spend using social media. I don't recall the specific # used in the book, but some sources show about 2 hours and 20 minutes a day on them. Also, the book mentioned that the average married couple spends about 2.5 hours a day together.

I find this somewhat astonishing. I dislike most of the social media that is out there (Facebook/Twitter specifically) because there is simply way, WAY too much noise and shouting for my taste. Everyone has a very strong opinion on whatever, and they are not open to listening to anyone saying otherwise. I have a couple of FB friends that will post no less than 20 things a day (starting bright and early in the AM and going into the wee hours of the night) that seem to indicate that the world will end soon. Both of them are retired and I just can't envision myself being so freaking miserable! Well, I think I would be miserable if I was posting incessantly to FB/Twitter about stuff I really have no control over.

The other thing is that I was surprised at the lack of time that spouses spend together. DW w*rks from home (about 4 hours a day). Other than that (and bathroom breaks...) we are together most of the time. We have yet to grow tired of one another and quite frankly, I think I would be miserable if I could only spend 2.5 hours a day with her.

Anyway, as to social media usage...I will jump on there once every 3 or 4 days and don't spend more than 20 minutes "catching up." I used to get on Twitter every couple of days, but I haven't looked at that train wreck in at least a month...and my life is better for it.

 

[gwraigty]

Aren't we on a form of social media right now?

Seriously, I've found a way to tune out the Facebook annoyances (politics, doom and gloomers, over sharers). I've classified my friends using the defaults, Close Friends and Acquaintances. Go through your list at your leisure. Classify as Close Friends the people whose posts you want to see. Let everyone else stay as Acquaintances. Forget the News Feed! Go to Facebook. Click Friend Lists on the left side. Click Close Friends. Then you will only see their posts, yet you'll still be able to maintain all your connections.

Or do what my husband does. He uses the News Feed, but Unfollows people on their profile page. The one downside to that is that you still see the ads in the feed.

 

[Nemo2]

I attempt to antagonize everyone, so I can reclassify as antisocial media.

 

[easysurfer]

2.5 hours a day seems awfully low.

Think I need to cut down as I probably spend at least double that .

Unless, reading news or searching doesn't count. But FB, and this counts. Either way, I'm sitting and my eye is glued to the the screen.

 

[W2R]

Yeah, I am not entirely sure, but I thought message boards were considered to be social media too.

I look at twitter as little as possible, and don't tweet; I have two facebook friends, my DD and DSIL. But message boards? all the time! I'm an old usenet convert.

 

[gwraigty]

Yeah, I am not entirely sure, but I thought message boards were considered to be social media too.

I look at twitter as little as possible, and don't tweet; I have two facebook friends, my DD and DSIL. But message boards? all the time! I'm an old usenet convert.

Usenet! That was my first experience with the Internet. On dialup! I used to have to plug in a telephone extension cord and run it along the floor from one bedroom to the computer in the other bedroom. Then listen to the ringing, waiting to get a connection via Case Western. I'd get an hour before I got disconnected. Then I'd immediately try to connect again. It usually worked well during the day.

How wonderfully spoiled we are now!

 

[easysurfer]

I would count message boards as social media. Those in today's world, a message board like this is much more informative than many of the click bait news pages.

 

[RunningBum]

Not sure what the point is here. You can't control how much other people are on social media. You can easily control your own time. Control what you can, don't worry about what you can't. And just because you would find that miserable doesn't mean that others do. That's pretty selfish to think that the world shares your views on that.

 

[CDRE]

This reminds me of a thread that highlighted a very interesting video (Stare into the lights my pretties) on the topic.

 

[Aerides]

I check FB only briefly every few days but hardly, if ever, post anymore. Never used it as a primary news or info source as so many folks seem to these days.

I do keep a browser tab open on twitter - that's my main source of everything. The beauty of twitter (unlike FB) is you can mute or drop the shouters without hurt feelings. You can say... "I want to follow what PersonA has to say, but not see what they retweet" - the curation is a lot better.

But I don't sit there scrolling thru Insta either. And yes, message boards and forums are considered SM.

As far as 2.5 hours a day together being "average" considering that most are working, that's about right. Would naturally be more for most RE couples, unless they have a lot of different interests. I like a lot of alone time and leave the house far more than DH, so 2.5 hours sounds like a perfect amount.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Not sure what the point is here. You can't control how much other people are on social media. You can easily control your own time. Control what you can, don't worry about what you can't. And just because you would find that miserable doesn't mean that others do. That's pretty selfish to think that the world shares your views on that.

Well, excuse me for living.

My point was....well, discussion. On a discussion board. Who'd a thunk it?

My ignored list is getting longer.

 

[target2019]

I was posting too much. So I put myself on ignore. Problem solved!

 

[steelyman]

Apple’s Screen Time feature can show some interesting data broken down by categories. e-r.org is the only thing I use that I think of as social media/networking (no Facebook, Twitter, etc).

Right now, Screen Time reports my top usage is “Productivity” and up next is “Social Networking” with the e-r mobile app accounting for use. I never bother to log off the app but it’s in the background a lot.

 

[RunningBum]

Well, excuse me for living.

My point was....well, discussion. On a discussion board. Who'd a thunk it?

My ignored list is getting longer.

I'll apologize for the "selfish" label but you've still made a pretty harsh judgement of others based upon your own values. IMO that's wrong.

btw Facebook has the option to hide posts from friends that you don't want to unfriend but don't want to listen to. But I guess you're not going to see this tip. Oh well.

 

[marko]

I have a crazy Twitter habit: I tweet, usually a flame out on something and then, feeling better, I go back 5 minutes later and delete my tweet.

Just recently I completely purged my Twitter account and now limit it to only local news, no politics/politicians (even local) and a few fun (Darwin Award, Car Crash TV) posters.

 

[JoeWras]

I have a Twitter account but don't use it. Too much noise.

I have a Facebook account, used it a lot, but have pretty much gone to one post per quarter. I unfriend anyone who posts politics. That got me down from 300 to 80 friends. Wow, it is amazing what people will post, versus what they will say to you in person. FB is pretty much dead to me. I'd delete it except for the fact a few organizations I follow (non profits) pretty much live there.

My real social media is here. Somewhat anonymous. Moderated. And always useful and enlightening. Amazing what people can discuss when politics hot buttons are thrown out.

If you include this site, then, yeah, I'm at 2 to 3 hours per day. DW and I don't do social media during meals so we have more time together without SM involved.

 

[Jeffman52]

Way too much!!! Not sure how many hours. I have started just leaving my phone at home or in the car when DW and I go out. Otherwise it just becomes a distraction. I need to start doing that at home after W***. Just go in, put the phone on charge and forget its there until the AM.

 

[braumeister]

I've actually been using Facebook more lately. I think I'm up to a total of around 15 minutes a month. I don't post but check out some friends once in a while. I doubt I'll ever get more active than that.

 

[skipro33]

This and one other site are only 'social media' that I use that I do not also meet the other users face-to-face. I belong to a motorcycle forum, kayak fishing forum and an RV forum. With all 3 of them, we set up trips and meetings regularly. The other is a weather data gathering forum. Mostly meteorologists and hydrographers like me. I also use facebook. I have 12 friends, all family. It's the easiest way to stay in touch with all of them in one place with messaging and photos.

The rest of my internet time is used for browsing and shopping.

On Saturday my LG front load washer threw a code. Took me 16 hours total; on line and hands-on the machine to fix it. From decoding the error to receiving the parts and having them installed took me from 3pm on Saturday to 10am on Sunday. Parts were available on Amazon next day. Youtube videos and other media showed me how to troubleshoot, what to order and how to replace the defective part. I also learned how to hack the washer so it works and cleans better. The part cost me $17 delivered. An appliance repair company quoted me $200 plus parts and that parts would not arrive for a week. I did call him back and let him know he could get his parts like I did; off Amazon and overnight for half the price he quoted me. He was not ammused.

 

[rodi]

<mod hat on>

Lets try to keep this free of name calling and taking offense at names called. No need to get judgmental over whether someone uses social media or not.

<mod hat off>

 

[rodi]

Now - mod hat firmly off... My contribution to this thread...

1) this is a form of social media. I have a few forums/groups that I participate in. One that is similar to this (although a different topic) migrated from it's own domain to a private facebook group. It's still interacting with a specific group of people on the internet... so social media, no matter the platform or domain.

2) I spend far too much time with my various internet communities.

3) I spend a lot of time with the hubster... although some of it is like right now - I'm on my computer, we're watching a netflix show together, and he's on his phone. We pause the show randomly to interact with each other. It works for us. Since we're retired - we spend a lot of time together.

4) I have found how to make twitter and facebook work for me. I follow a couple local news reporters/channels to keep up on local news. I have some friends I follow but they are not excessive. On facebook I 'unfollow' friends who post too much noise or politics... So it's mostly fun stuff (pics of sunsets, cats, kids.)

5) I have started being conscious of what I post on FB, tweet, insta... all happy/benign stuff.. Why give the Russian bots or anyone else an insight into my deeper thoughts.

6) nextdoor I have to use in moderation... I like the sharing of cool stuff (library sale, free concert in the park, group forming to do morning walks etc.) I avoid the judgmental, nimby, name calling, threads... which seem to happen a lot in my neighborhood.

 

[imoldernu]

List of Social Media:

https://makeawebsitehub.com/social-media-sites/

Other than Linked In and Pinterest, neither of which I have posted to, only discussion groups ala ER...

I go to 8 or 9 websites where I keep myself busy depending on my interests at the time. A few of the sites... City-Data, AARP, ERE, Senior Forums, and Capitol Hiil Blue.

 

[RockyMtn]

FaceTwitSnapAgram is not among my daily habits and I intend to keep it that way.

 

[target2019]

1) Twitter is where you hear news before it breaks to traditional media.
2) Facebook is not my bag, but I was able to contribute school supplies to a Niece who posted there
3) Amazon integrates with other media pretty well. For example, I bought supplies mentioned by Niece on Facebook, and they were shipped directly to her address of choice. That's social interaction between us that was enabled by social media.

 

[ivinsfan]

<mod hat on>

Lets try to keep this free of name calling and taking offense at names called. No need to get judgmental over whether someone uses social media or not.

<mod hat off>

IMHO some of social media has made people ruder and take offense easier. People can skim through a person's comment and make a snap judgement and presto chango, put down a snappy reply which then leads to another snappy reply. It's like there is no pause between skimming, judging, replying and starting all over again. I'm at a loss at how to correct it. maybe a built in function on the board where you read a post and then your keyboard locks you out for 2 minutes? I bet that would go a long way toward regaining some civility..

I'm guilty too won't pretend I'm not, sometimes I'm actually typing a pithy replay while still reading the comment I'm replying to...