to think there is nothing positive about social media

I don’t think it’s just young people. One of my mum’s friends (late 50’s) was posting all the pictures over Christmas - the decorations, the matching pjs, the food. She lives her life through social media. There are people in every age group that are too dependent on social media for their validation and that is a huge problem. But it doesn’t stop social media being a means to connect with other people who are experiencing a similar thing to you e.g. a specific illness or parents of SEN children.

The answer isn’t no social media but stricter regulations on social media.

I'm using it currently to make people in my neighbourhood aware that my cat is missing(and people are actively looking for her too). I can't wait to get off it and go back to not posting though.

I think there are positives to social media. There's certainly a lot of well-documented negatives which I won't list here because we all know too well what they are. But there are a lot of good things:

For me above all its the ability to stay in touch with people who would otherwise have completely drifted out of your life. People may argue that its facile and "friendship lite" to have friends on FB but the beauty of it is that you can keep in contact with people in a low-pressure way. Pre social media you would have to call people up and have excruciating conversations about "what have you been doing" etc. Facebook and Insta take the pain out of that. I think that's a great thing.

I also think social media provides communities for marginalised groups who would otherwise find it very hard to find like-minded people. There is almost literally something for everyone on the internet. A lot of people who would have had a really dreadful lonely time in the past can now connect with people like them at the click of a keyboard.

Of course there are many positives! More than negatives actually. If you don't find any yourself, don't use them or follow different people / accounts.

One positive for so many MNetters is the opportunity to find material to bitch about people they are jealous of😂

I've always enjoyed forums and have frequented several over the years. I use X and reddit for specific interests which are well-represented there, but I don't browse them generally or look at trending so I miss most of the crap.

Lost interest in FB and Instagram and deleted. I never tried the other popular ones. So a mixed bag really.

I think they're quite addictive and divisive and it's far too easy to end up in an echo-chamber, which can be dangerous.

Otoh, I usually head to a forum as a starting point when looking for information or advice and work out from there.

YABU in that there are positives but YANBU that overall it's a bad thing for most users. Same as with alcohol or heroin for that matter, some people get positives but most develop unhealthy habits.

Positives:
Youtube has a huge archive of programming that would not otherwise be available. (On the flipside, some of it is of questionable legality copyright-wise, but much of it isn't available to legally purchase anywhere and much of it is there with the copyright holder's knowledge if not outright approval - they can get things taken down quickly if they choose.)

It gives consumers a chance to air their grievances with a company in public. If you have a problem with a service provided you are more likely to get a positive timely response if there is a risk of damage to the company's reputation.

It helps get the word spread about niche causes and campaigns. Songs like "Boris Johnson is STILL a Fucking Cunt" wouldn't have reached the top 5 in the music charts without social media. Approve of that or not, it gives people a voice when mainstream media is silent.

Social media is brilliant.

It allows the sharing of knowledge, opens up ideas and experiences that people may not necessarily experience and help those socially isolated.

Social media has changed the lives of many and the technology and platforms that allow that is amazing.

The fact that some people misuse the technology is a different thing though

There are some positives.

Facebooks groups I belong to are lovely.

I am in one for old school friends.

One for old work colleagues.

One for the place I grew up in.

Different dog breed groups.

Crochet groups.

Political groups.

Miscellaneous groups of interest to me.

I love the school one as we are spread out all over the world and it's a great way to all keep in touch.

Well, I'm a writer and it sure helps with promotion of books!

I've lived abroad all my adult life - facebook (locked down to friends and family) is how I keep in touch with all the little day to day things my friends and family are up to, and they with me.

It's allowed me to find groups of people with interests in common and learn so much from those people

It’s useful for me to keep in contact with people overseas and I use it a lot for finding new hairdressers, restaurants, beauticians.

But you have to pick your sites carefully. It can be toxic and the misogyny and racism is off the charts.

I think there are positives to social media but I don’t think they outweigh the negatives. I use FB for local events and specific groups that I’m part of. I use insta for similar. I rarely use Pinterest anymore and never had Twitter/X. I probably use MN most but obviously this is anonymous.

Positives - I’ve learnt about a lot of local events through FB and insta. I’ve found some products I really like either through people recommending them on socials or through targeted advertising. For my grandma, she connected with a number of school friends through a FB group as she was increasingly becoming more and more isolated and going out less.

But I’ve had a relatives death be shared on FB before we’d even managed to catch a breath and it wreaked absolute chaos. Anything posted on social media travels faster than any other form of communication and some people are so self-indulged they can’t think of anyone but themselves and their own social media profile.

I’m finding FB/insta mostly unusable now. I get a lot of shit that isn’t from my friends or pages I follow. It’s like wading through a maze of junk mail but I use the search function to search those groups and look for information that I might have missed. Although the algorithm obviously still doesn’t show me all the posts I am actually interested in seeing. I don’t really know what the answer is because I specifically look for that information and don’t find it outside of SM.

I enjoy seeing pictures etc from genuine friends, and I use messenger which is a great way of keeping in touch, but I'm inclined to agree.

Before Elon Musk took over and it became full of the far right, twitter as a platform was useful for some things. An example I can give (I'm a mental health nurse) is some advocacy movements. There were a lot of patient led movements on twitter, such as Recovery in the bin, who brought attention to things going on in the mental health world, such as SIM, which was around the criminalisation of 'frequent users' of emergency and crisis services. This programme actually got stopped, in large due to pushback from social media.

So yeah, I think at times it's helped minority groups find community and campaign for things

Personally, I love rats lol, and they have an insta account, and in turn I love seeing other people's pet rats! It's just a bit of fun!

I don't think these things outweigh the negatives and the impact on young people though.

Exactly. It's not black and white. Everything has pros n cons. Social media included.

I like FB but I dint take it too seriously . I love all the interactions with my friends and family.

I can't be arsed with a lot of it really. Don't have the clock app, but I have re-opened my old Instagram as I make and sell realistic historical costumes as a hobby. I don't mind it in parts, but mostly it's tosh. The algorithm mainly sends me quite interesting stuff to do with history or literature these days so that's not bad. When I had a personal account, I kept getting influencer types which annoyed me as it wasn't remotely akin to anything I was posting or interested in. I still can't spend much time on there though or it starts going whacky and winds me up.

Have FB still, though it's locked down and mainly used for photos. My family (and DH's who I love very much) and friends are scattered and don't all know each other, so FB is a nice way of seeing what's going on/posting special events, etc. I have a BlueSky account literally to follow two comedians I find interesting. Don't post and don't look at anything else.

Broadly speaking, I think people use it too much. I know a few in my village who live through Instagram and tik-tok and the lives they put out are ridiculous in comparison to what's really happening. So curated. It really depends how obsessive or odd people get with it, I suppose.

Yes, it's essentially SM.

I'm an artist, and Instagram is a great place for artists to keep in touch, look at each other's work, and find other artists, local and non-local. It can have it's negatives (spending too much time looking at and being unduly influenced by other's work), but overall it's a positive for me. It's an account purely for my artwork though. I don't use Facebook or any other social media.

I know everyone on my FB friends list in real life.

I have a heavy filtering system set up with keyword blocking and I am only in a few active groups.

I miss all the drama so have no problems with it.

I'm not on Twitter/Instagram etc

Are you writing an article OP?

I am selective in what/who I follow, and find it useful for information, often local information. I ignore all the 💩.