Shameless plug for the thing I built: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46672734">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46672734</a> - meepr, basically not algo driven (except the hashtags are curated), no recommendations etc, if you wanna "grow" on it, you need to tell your friends like the good old days. It's just run by me, not planning on having it run by anyone else, if people like it I'll add a subscription to cover the server cost. (check out the retro theme!! :))
I just don't do Facebook, any more. It's been <i>ages</i> since I logged in.<p>I never really did Twitter/Twatter, or anything else.<p>The closest thing I have to social media, is HN comments.
My mental health improved in meaningful ways when I dropped all social media close to a decade ago. Now I can feel the impact when someone insists I look at some shared item they sent me on Instagram or whatever. I´d rather not return to algorithm-driven services if I can avoid them.
As much as others seem to hate Snapchat, I seem to avoid all the fake news because its just friends on snapchat.<p>Strava is pretty great too. No fake news on there.<p>4Chan? Well, I doubt any company wants to get caught astroturfing on 4chan, but I do think there are government psych-ops on it.<p>Facebook/IG/Reddit/HN? Dangerous stuff if you are trying to avoid fake news. I'll continue to consume. But I come in highly skeptical.
When I left Twitter and Reddit there felt like a loss of what those sites used to be. The sites I replaced them with are off-ramps, I'm not letting myself get as engaged with them. If they go bad too, they won't feel like a loss.
TLDR: "I manage my alcoholism by only having two drinks a day."