The effect of deactivating Facebook and Instagram on users' emotional state

I'm distinctly happier since I ditched Facebook and Twitter. It's not a radical change, because the world kinda sucks in general. And I'm a little sad that a few of my older family members are effectively invisible since they only communicate on Facebook, but, honestly, I didn't talk to my mother's first cousins pre-Facebook anyway so, net, I haven't actually lost very much.

I was never on Instagram or TikTok, but neither seems to be "social" media as much as a communal fire hose anyway.

I was on Bluesky for a minute, but it was 99.9% people trying to one-up each other with witty or ironic one-liners for clout, with most of the rest being ex-Twitter people trying to keep Twitter combat alive in an arena (blessedly) free of the people who have made Twitter unbearable. I got tired of witnessing a neverending improv open mic while being randomly assaulted by people I agreed with.

So now I'm just living my life, aware of the challenges of the world, but not bathing in them.

Just speaking for myself. Facebook was fun when it was the underdog to MySpace. But I closed me account just a few years later and haven't looked back. Was never engaged on twitter, but have an account just so I can verify "yes, they actually posted that"

Aside from Reddit, my only social media is Instagram. On my Instagram, I only follow people I personally know or national-park/state-park/non-profit conservation accounts. I only like posts of people I personally know and nothing else, and I never comment on anything. I only post pretty pictures of nature with no people visible in a recognizable way. My feed is almost exclusively nature and animals (lots of seals and sea lions) with a lot of scuba diving mixed in. I also get a lot of xennial humor posts too, which I send to my wife and a buddy.

It's a very limited level of engagement, and I'm very happy with it. I don't need anything more.

Can I just tell you? I rejoined Reddit a couple of years ago, and (I cannot believe I'm about to type this) it is, generally speaking, a positive experience filled with people who are generally not terribly toxic, and the toxic people are pretty easy to avoid. There are some hotbeds of awful, mainly fandoms, and many of the tech subs are just tech-grumpy, but overall it's been an amazingly nice experience.

Regarding Reddit, I completely agree. I recognize that it is technically "social media", but I consider it to be a different animal from the majority of social media (Facebook, Twitter, Insta, etc...). Glad you're largely enjoying it! If you're still relatively knew to Reddit, there are some Reddit Classics with which you should be familiar -- namely, the infamous Poop Knife. https://www.reddit.com/r/poopknife/comments/1d5f1sq/original...

I'm old enough in Internet years to have ample experience with many of the Reddit-originating cultural touchpoints like poop knife. God help me, my Internet culture goes back beyond, uh, citrus parties. I joined Reddit (again) to get help with NixOS, and I've found this weird comfortable place in communities about my cameras, some strange linguistics interests, and whatnot. I can't think of anyone I "know" on Reddit--thus you're right that it's questionable whether it's "social" media--but somehow it's kept a very strong sense of culture without devolving into ... you know ... <waves hands>

Edit: wait, that could be interpreted as referring to HN, which it isn't. More everything else digital in the world.