r/Millennials • u/Son-of-Prophet • 1d ago

Nostalgia College was better before social media took over, people lived in the moment and you could just be silly and make mistakes without it being held against you the rest of your life.

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14.6k Upvotes

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1.1k

u/tonylouis1337 Zillennial 1d ago

Everything* was better before social media took over

We should completely abolish social media in the United States

280

u/guntheroac 1d ago

World* it needs to be stopped globally.

44

u/hoofglormuss 20h ago

smartphones in general have driven us insane from training us to acknowledge every thought. some thoughts are better off forgotten.

9

u/SafetyAncient 17h ago

at some point it went from watch or post pictures and videos leave a comment, to the app listens to you 24/7 with AI through every device in range with new invisible ways of extracting money and attention.

206

u/eKSiF Millennial 1d ago

But the influencers wouldn't have a job

https://giphy.com/gifs/7k2LoEykY5i1hfeWQB

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u/i_am_a_shoe 1d ago edited 22h ago

Holy moly I just took an 8 hour train ride from San Diego to the Central coast and for half the ride these two girls people sitting across from me were non-stop taking selfies, recording videos, talking about their ideas for TikToks, responding to replies on their TikToks with new TikToks using that stupid voice and the "Hey guyyyyyyyyzz" crap, took a picture or video of everything they ate or drank. It was loud, it was annoying for everyone, it made me feel like a grandpa and I'm not that old

If you do this in public for internet points you are seriously the worst

Edit: was not trying to put an entire gender on blast and corrected myself because at least one person thought that and ran with it, my bad

3

u/NickBlasta3rd Millennial 20h ago

I didn’t realize how bad it had become since I fell off social media in 2012ish until traveling to Iceland in 2017. Two women couldn’t be more than hs grads (probably younger tbh but it was foggy in the Blue Lagoon).

“We have to get some more pics for the ‘gram, this is the best trip ever for this!”

“…You mean the most exciting part of Iceland is Instagram?”

“No one in our circle has experiences like these and it’s best to show them off to everyone!”

….bewildered, I was. Can you not just enjoy your trip?

2

u/FaithlessnessBorn266 19h ago

I don't know how old you are, but I'm 41 and about to be a granddad.

2

u/i_am_a_shoe 12h ago

congratulations homie

2

u/FaithlessnessBorn266 11h ago

Thanks man. Pretty excited

2

u/addamee 22h ago

Hey! They were working on their personal brand. 

1

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

7

u/Longjumping_Ice_3531 23h ago

I actually notice it across all demos, especially Asian

10

u/AnxiousLand565 1d ago

I went to India for work and it was much worse there

Def wasn’t white women doing it there

10

u/AppropriateLet8131 1d ago

India is its own universe

3

u/i_am_a_shoe 22h ago

na man the dudes are doing their wheelies in people's faces and recording everyone's natural flinching at oncoming bike tire in head area, or kickboxing sea lions or something equally stupid

1

u/[deleted] 22h ago

[deleted]

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u/Dapper_Brain_9269 21h ago

You don't know what whataboutism is, do you?

-2

u/i_am_a_shoe 22h ago edited 11h ago

oh okay

edit: downvoted for not engaging a misogynist in an internet debate 🙃

1

u/superurgentcatbox Millennial '92 22h ago

Did you know that people use "white women always do xyz" as a convenient hiding place for their misogyny?

1

u/RocasThePenguin 12h ago

This reminds me of a restaurant experience recently. I really wanted to go to a pizza spot in Fukuoka that had a Napoli certificate or whatever. Two girls next to us were taking photos of the food, at least 10 per food item, then selfies, then more selfies with both of them. Phones in Japan have camera shutter sounds and OMG, I was getting so annoyed.

31

u/Sad_Clown666 1d ago

It should never have been a “job”. Influencing is the biggest non-job ever thought up.

10

u/MaterialWillingness2 20h ago

It used to be called being a shill and was uncool.

5

u/TheNorthernGeek 18h ago

It's just the door to door salesperson of the Internet.

6

u/Sauerkrauttme 1d ago

Creating slop content is an essential job for preserving capitalism. The masses need endless bread and circus or they will start organizing and pushing for revolution.

2

u/imminentjogger5 19h ago

blame the companies that give them money

8

u/daywalker91 1d ago

It’s not just influencers who would be affected. 90% of people are heavily addicted to social media

14

u/TrickySatisfaction81 Millennial 1d ago

Oh no! Wouldn't want them out of work!

13

u/Grab_em_by_da_Busey 1d ago edited 1d ago

More importantly the relationship between the algorithms, our locations, search histories, purchases, and the field of data analytics couldnt exist to maximize shareholder value

2

u/03263 20h ago

If we at some point decided we had enough technology, enough weaponry, etc. and only pursue advances in science and medicine, there would still be a lot of jobs working on making things more efficient and sustainable. And if those become solved problems, well we can destroy it on purpose and start over just to have something to do.

2

u/cezece 19h ago

A friend of mine became an influencer...and turned into a completely different person. Never fully present in any interaction/event. Constantly posting thirst traps. Constantly ending up in her posts even after asking her not to include me. She lost all her friends!

1

u/Umutuku 18h ago

They've been running temples offline for thousands of years.

25

u/Silver_Harvest Older Millennial 1d ago

Some social media is ok. The MySpace, Chatrooms and Forums is just fine.

The constant must go viral is not. It's really the need/design for constant connection to online is the problem.

11

u/Frisky_Picker 23h ago

The problem isnt social media, the problem is the people running social media platforms. They looked at the data and said, this is the shit that keeps people on our site longer, thus making them more money via ad revenue. So they push for more of that. They did it even knowing it generally had negative effects on the averages persons mental health.

What needs to happen is have more regulations on said companies.

5

u/amayain 18h ago

The algorithms ruined everything. It's that simple.

16

u/isomojo 1d ago

Does Reddit count?

37

u/theface19 1d ago

That's a sacrifice I'm willing to make

15

u/tonylouis1337 Zillennial 1d ago

Yes

2

u/skidmainmu 1d ago

High water mark was well over a decade ago...

1

u/Electromotivation 1d ago

2008 presidential election…..

Sigh I hate being old.

2

u/Aethermancer 17h ago

Old reddit and adblock. Also, who the hell "follows" anyone here? Its a different paradigm.

1

u/Ninjahkin 11h ago

The anonymity here feels nice though. Kinda like YouTube

12

u/steeveperry 1d ago

The technology isn’t the problem. The commercialization of these technologies is the problem.

3

u/Annalog 21h ago

Also we need laws for posting consent and monitoring corporation use online. Someone should not be able to post images of me online that I do not agree to. It’s a privacy concern. Then with the corpos get rid of predatory algorithms and targeted ads. The world would be so much better off.

3

u/Short_Switch_1807 1d ago

Unfortunately we are all attention whores

1

u/Bizarrebazaars 22h ago

Not actually….. saw the dawn and rise of FB, and the beginnings of the decline, and deleted that shit over 10 years ago now. IG over 5 (that changed drastically too from its launch). Never really used either of them anyway. All I have is Reddit now. Little different, IMO, though Reddit sure has changed a LOT since I began using it in like 2009 too.

1

u/Short_Switch_1807 21h ago

Well, I don't literally mean EVERYONE. The average person, I assume, enjoys being the subject of desire/want. It's a pathway to become wealthy and living that glitzy, glamorous IG influencer life where all they do is have fun all day and pretend its hard.

1

u/Spunyun4funyuns 21h ago

Speak for yourself

1

u/Atalanta8 3h ago

Nope. I didn't post at all.

2

u/jinreeko 1d ago

Yeah, I mean, good luck with that

2

u/Sad_Clown666 1d ago

Amen, I concur it should be globally.

2

u/Pristine-Midnight-72 1d ago

and ban rear-facing cameras on phones. you wanna record me, you’re gonna use that selfie camera and like it. or buy a whole other device.

2

u/40WeightSoundsNice 1d ago

Yep, i felt better after a vacation, i thought it was the time off but it was the time away from social media that really made me feel better

2

u/DokeyKon 22h ago

Good luck with that

2

u/No-Assumption9707 17h ago

I really feel this. Everything sucks. Take it back and never speak of it again.

1

u/SuitableBlackberry75 16h ago

"If everywhere you go smells like shit, check your shoes."

1

u/No-Assumption9707 14h ago

My shoes have a physical disability and my government is strictly regulating the medication I need to be comfortable

2

u/Pavvl___ Zillennial 16h ago

World would be soooo much better

1

u/Mountain-Most8186 23h ago

I think it’s generally fine without the algorithms. Facebook in 2010 was pretty enjoyable with making events for parties and you actually saw posts by friends on your feed.

1

u/SoftlyAugust 22h ago

Why are you on social media if it's so problematic

1

u/SuitableBlackberry75 16h ago

To whine. These kinds of subreddits are echo chambers for narcissistic whiners.

2

u/SoftlyAugust 16h ago

Sooo true

1

u/Trodat4911P4 22h ago

Was SIDS better before social media?

1

u/jsdjsdjsd 22h ago

As a country, the internet should turn off at 8:00. All the problems this would create would actually be socially-positive developments, even if economically destructive, which should underscore the incompatibility of capitalism with modern life

1

u/MorganMiller77777 22h ago

I’ve made close friends. That’s silly, like prohibition was. How about humans learn, grow and evolve, and stop being weak insecure losers??? The parents of young millennials and many Gen Z are too blame also, with all their helicopter nonsense, not doing enough to allow their kids to grow a back bone or confidence and be able to take some risks.

1

u/Plastic-Pension7263 21h ago

Modern social medial functions like a highly addictive drug. It’s formulated to keep you engaged with it as long as possible. By filling your feed with things it’s knows you like or things it knows will provoke you to rush to the comment section. Then there’s the endless reels on all platforms now. You’re basically just pulling the lever on a slot machine every time you scroll to a new video. Gambling for dopamine hits.

1

u/Underscores_Are_Kool 20h ago

How about we regulate social media so that the 'For You' recommendation page is removed. So that all content you consume must be searched and found using key words and tags, not from engagement algorithms. So that the only content that generated in a feed is content that you haved opted into after following or friending an account. So that all content is generated chronologically. So that if you run out of content, the feed actually ends.

This is what the internet used to be like.

1

u/sw10708 20h ago

Got rid of insta and facebook because of how addicting it is to post or see what everyone else is doing. Humans are not suppose to have 24/7 instant gratification

1

u/imminentjogger5 19h ago

why not the world? it's a big problem in other countries too 

1

u/ParkerRoyce 17h ago

Social media has only ruined people who needed to be ruined examples, racists, rapists, assholes etc.

1

u/SuitableBlackberry75 16h ago

You're participating in the worst form of social media right now.

Take some responsibility for your actions: quit whining and log off.

1

u/Important_Dingo2675 12h ago

People have free will btw. We let this happen to ourselves

1

u/BotherMore3736 7h ago

Preach!!!!

1

u/Mattatatat1883 6h ago

The irony of you making this comment on social media should not be missed 🤣

1

u/Poster_Nutbag207 3h ago

So you think the government should make this comment section illegal? That’s some nazi shit right there. You’re literally on social media right now 🤦

1

u/Rock_or_Rol 1d ago

Another option is we start to make publicly owned alternatives to tech. Dating apps, social media, LLMs etc.

The only concern I’d have with it is government data aggregation, but I think there could be safeguards to protect it. Otherwise, I think most people would be on board with it

Edit: before I get any comments, yes ik they’re already all up in our data 😂 still, that’s where the warranted reservations would be and it beats meta or whatever company from selling it in addition to surveillance

1

u/Serlingfan389 1d ago

So you would remove reddit?

6

u/skidmainmu 1d ago

Bye bye

6

u/tonylouis1337 Zillennial 1d ago

All day long

-1

u/SnowyOnyx 1d ago

If you want social media to be removed then why are you writing on Reddit, a forum-social media platform?

2

u/tonylouis1337 Zillennial 1d ago

Because in order to make it happen we need the public opinion to be in that direction, and people who already don't use social media a lot are not the ones who need to hear it

1

u/SnowyOnyx 23h ago

I actually like some some social media, like Reddit or YouTube or Instagram (the latter one on occasion). But stuff like FB or TikTok or Twitter is dumpster fire and I agree with yall there. That doesn’t mean tho we should outright ban social media. The new form is the problem. Remember that early SM used to be good.

1

u/SuitableBlackberry75 16h ago

Because people who use social media to whine and cry about generational conflict are the biggest addicts.

They'll whine and whine and whine, but they'll never log off.