Do people not curate their online experience?

[VibrantFox]

The questions is pretty self explanatory but I'm curious if people actually take time to shape their online experiences whether thru blocking content/accounts they don't want to see, muting topics, words or phrases, and actively seeking out things related to their own niche interests or related to those to form a more positive online space

To add yes this is related to discussions about social media platforms and the validity of their existence as well as just how things operate on them as a whole but as much complaining as I feel like i see (here especially, no offense) I'm wondering if there's folks who practice what i mentioned and if they're having a better time.

Personally I prune the heck out of my online spaces coz I'm insistent on the importance of protecting your own peace. I know there's many who hold the belief that blocking out certain things is creating an "echo chamber" but I'm surprisingly open to discussion depending on the subject matter. In a more general sense I just think it's better for myself to block things outright or preemptively because it lowers my chances of stumbling onto something that makes me upset or uncomfortable or whatever. Like I have no shame in the length of my blocklists or the fact that I've got a handful of celeb names or topics or other general phrases muted so I haven't got to hear about them every 5 minutes when they become relevant for the umpteenth time

I guess my thing is i find it strange that people who will complain about all kinds of things also don't bother to just block or hide them when in most cases platforms have tools readily available to do so but just refuse for whatever reason

(and this isn't pointing fingers or anything and I genuinely hope it doesn't read as such but like i'm feeling confused and want to understand )

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I think most wise people who understand the pitfalls of social media DO curate their experiences, but for every one of them there's 50 more who are fully entrenched in its addictive machinery and think 'curation' is equivalent to cowardice. As if the myriad opinions of millions of people should all concern you personally and it's somehow morally wrong to choose not to engage with each and every one of them...

For instance:

I know there's many who hold the belief that blocking out certain things is creating an "echo chamber"

This is classic "both sides"-ism-- conveniently ignoring the fact that 'echo chamber' is a qualitative term, whose appropriateness depends on what kind of content is inside the echo chamber.

There's nothing wrong with 'only' eating nutritious food or 'only' wearing clothes that fit you...and there's also nothing wrong with only listening to and engaging with people who value kindness and human dignity. People who try to convince others that ALL discourse and opinions, even those centered on cruelty and spite, have the same value and should all receive the same consideration...are simply arguing in bad faith.

[HGohwell]

Perhaps its to do with my age and the period of the internet I grew up with, but I've always lived by curating my own experience. These days it's Dead Dove Do Not Eat, in the old days it was Don't Like, Don't Read. I don't understand people who go into spaced clearly not meant for them and clearly marked, and then complain. I'm also very liberal with the block button in spaces like twitter. If I'm scrolling through a fandom tag or some other tag I'm interested in, or in the replies to a post, and see people being nasty, I block them, because I don't want to deal with people like that and clearly if we're using the same tags or interested in the same thing there's a chance we'll come up in each others field of vision. And, it's not like petty stuff like "they ship something different" but actually being nasty or something I just don't want to deal with. Just recently I blocked a bunch of people arguing very passionately that "found on google images" is credit enough. Like I'm on these sites to enjoy myself, why would I not make sure it's an enjoyable time by getting rid of things that make me not do so?

I think the problem with echo chambers is a problem with people who're just constantly online or only on social media sites. Like, I have a job, I go outside, I have family, I watch TV, I'm exposed to view points that aren't my own everywhere. I don't need things I don't enjoy in places I come to enjoy myself. I think it'd be like forcing people to have books they don't enjoy on their personal bookshelf because it's a wider view rather than a reading echo chamber, they should have all sorts of views and styles, but I like trashy romance so my shelf is full of trashy romance, Steinbeck is going nowhere near my personal bookshelf but I was exposed to his work in school. My shelf if my shelf, just like my internet space is my internet space, and school is school, like the world outside the internet is the world outside full of other view points and things i don't enjoy.

[Crusoe]

Nice thing is: regardless of what you do, social media these days will curate for you to a certain extend.

As for me personally, although I actively seek out communities that I enjoy to participate in, I don't actually curate that much in terms of blocking (unless people are actively making me uncomfortable). The internet has already ruined my brain forever and there's very little that surprises me anymore. Besides, as depressing as it is, I do want to stay up to date with what other people believe as both a warning to myself that such people exist and in an academic sense: just blocking people doesn't mean these people will stop existing and will stop having an impact on the world.

[DasIstWunderblyat]

I blocked/muted people on Twitter solely because they're drawing a fanart of a franchise that's oversaturating the social media, or that I don't follow them but keep showing on my timeline via retweet. I curate my social media to only interact with people I know. I even set a rule that I shouldn't interact with a stranger's post unless I have an intention to follow them. I follow no blue checkmarks (and none of people I know happen to be one). I only retweet art from people I know. Probably most Twitter/IG artist would hate me because I don't support small artist and such. Twitter/IG activists would also hate me because I seemingly don't care about their causes as I never like or retweet such thing.

It's not necessarily about "protecting myself from negativity," it's rather focusing on people I know. Seeing and caring for too many people makes my head hurts. I also don't use social media to get my "news."

Then I somewhat quitted and like it more in a small-knit communities like discord.

[VibrantFox]

the thing with this is i agree in that i've seen some things on the net, i'm aware there's some weird, crazy, freaky stuff out there, but even if i know its out there i'd still rather just not bother entertaining it and axe it from my feeds. that's like i'm more than aware of mindsets that exist both on and off social media via my day job, everyday life in general, the news and so on (i've had plenty of firsthand experiences with certain brands of human beings so i'm more than accustomed to the kind of perspectives, viewpoints and opinions people will tout in in person discussions )

my focus is less about avoiding types of folks irl or in general but managing an online experience to be more bearable than whining about it when there's multiple avenues for avoiding it

[Crusoe]

That's definitely fair! My approach is also not to whine about the things I encounter either, I just choose not to curate my own feed too much because I'm genuinely interested both from a personal and scientific viewpoint.

I can only encourage people curating their own experience as long as they don't get their worldview from one source so they don't get a very lobsided view of the world. There's more information and more extremist information out there than ever, which can be exhausting, it's totally okay to guard yourself from that, life's already tough enough as is.

[GamerPrincessXI]

Ppl block friends on social media instead of talking to them about what was going on. I've experienced this

[VibrantFox]

I have as well but I think I've also gotten to a point that if a person doesn't feel inclined to speaking with me about a certain issue then it's not worth stressing and even though drifting from folks who I may have at a time cared about can hurt I'd rather just take a breath, process the pain and move on

[TheLemmaLlama]

For me at least, this is probably the only place I'm on frequently and I'd love to know how to block keywords, but I couldn't find such an option (afaik you can only block people and mute categories ) So I guess it's possible someone even more technically inept than me might have trouble figuring out how to curate their experience? :'D

Another factor contributing to reluctance to block might be 'seeing the block button as condemnation'; like 'If you block me, it means you hate me' or 'If you block this content, it means you're morally opposed to this content even existing'. So using the block button makes you feel judgmental.

I think it'll do us all good to internalize the notion that blocking is not necessarily judgment; it's just a boundary, nothing more, nothing less. You can have boundaries for whatever reason, even silly ones; you don't need a serious, moral reason to enforce a boundary.

---

EDIT: Had a bit of a think about echo chambers - I* think that's more to do with people blocking out the other side's opinions while simultaneously not blocking out equally vitriolic opinions from one's own side. I have respect for blocking out the other side; and heck, I understand the need to vent as well** - but I don't think it's healthy to be immersed in an environment where everyone's constantly outraged and egging each other on to be outraged, even if they're all outraged about the same thing.

That's what an echo chamber is; where your anger is constantly echoing off the walls and bouncing back to you, where displaying your anger more and more intensely becomes an almost 'fun' activity of ingroup solidarity. It's not merely an environment where the opposing views are absent; if the vitriol from both sides are absent, it's just a nice, quiet chamber

*

personally, at least; I know there are lots of people who use the echochamber thing to guilt-trip people for not wanting to interact with random internet strangers' opinions

**

So how to vent without landing yourself in an echo chamber? So far I guess my best idea is to limit your venting time; interact with the echo chamber briefly to confirm you're not alone in your frustrations and then walk away, telling yourself 'okay, I've confirmed with my own eyes that other people care about this as well, now it's time for me to move on to nicer things'. But that's easier said than done, of course :'D ... I wonder if you can block content so that it doesn't appear on your feed, but you can still interact with it when you want to but still keep it blocked

[UrMom]

I imagine the person is either too young to think about it, too lazy, or one of those people who likes to be the victim or be miserable and make others miserable. I've met people like the latter, they'll dive into stuff that will upset them just to complain about it or cause a scene. -coughkarenscough- Kids/teens are highly emotional due to developing hormones and don't run on logic most of the time, so it's common for them not to think about blocking people/topics that upset them. (Some also might see it as being told what to do, so they don't curate their social media to be defiant... even when their actions could cause harm to actual people. I.E: Not blocking and/or actively engaging with 18+ accounts.) I wish it was a more common practice to utilize the block and mute features on social media, it would certainly weed out a lot of headache inducing melodrama.

Personally I think I've only ever blocked 2-3 people in my life, don't remember the reasons. I'm not much for curating my experience because I want to be exposed to everything, even the worst humanity has to offer. Some of it I do so it doesn't become an "out of sight, out of mind" situation, others that's just what I prefer, I like to see every perspective. Even the bad ones. That being said I'm not the type to normally cause a scene, sometimes I'll complain or be confrontational, but I typically know when it's time to leave.

[Azifri]

I cannot imagine having the time and energy to bother about curating my social media. If I see something I don't like I just scroll past it, it's not such a big deal.

[GumshoeComix]

my brains to fucked up to not curate my social media
It took me a long time to realize "Woah blocking and muting things doesn't mean I'm a coward!"
Cause you're literally not surrounded by that much negativity irl as you are online.
But that was the mindset of most of my friends at the time "Get thicker skin" lmao that shit affected me a lot cause i'd surround myself with negative shit which made me negative.
Now I try to do the opposite and surround myself with positive and just in general, be offline more.

[NickRowler]

I am already stressed out in real life, I don’t really need the added stress of social media drama. I would prefer to use social media in a positive way, like looking at nice fanart and funny memes.

I don’t understand why people acting like be at each other’s throats or stalking hashtags to attack people on a daily basis is not abnormal or even unhealthy. I don’t think the human brain was even built to deal with that amount of input at once. Sorry to sound boomer but I think logging off and reading a book would help people to chill out.

I quit Twitter because I stopped getting much positive enjoyment out of it and I would rather spend my free time on something more worthwhile.

[Caro]

I used to care about curation a lot more (probably because of the tumblr-era) but I have found that, for me personally, the more time I have to work on curating directly correlates to how much time I end up wasting online. I know that I can end up just scrolling into nothingness for HOURS if I’m not careful and that’s time better spent figuring out what thing I drew that month that might be able to pop off the best on socials and from that planning what my posts will be and working on projects.

The way I use social media now is basically post what I came to post and disappear until I have to do it again. I’ll also check my mentions and DMs in case anything important pops up but then I’m OUT.

[VibrantFox]

literally this and it why one of my fave posts semi-recently was like "touch grass but not in a mean way. touch grass like go outside, feel the earth, breathe in fresh air and let the sun hit you" (not the exact words but that was the gist) and honestly its so true

i cant or rather wont quit social media because it has been another source of income outside any day jobs i have at a given time but i definitely try to make sure i disconnect where i can

@Caro literally my go to whenever online stuff gets overwhelming or it feels time wasted is just working on whatever illustrations ive got in the queue and its way better in terms of feeling productive

[system]

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.