How to stay connected to the social media without "Suggested/Sponsored"

[La Colibri]

Hi

Could you share your strategy on staying connected and sane on social media/internet?  I want to stay connected but when I try to open my FB or Youtube to check for my subscriptions, there are too many catchy posts/titles. 

I often clicked on those clickbaits, 99% of the time the content are misleading and report things out of proportion and perspectives.  They are worst when my anxiety fares up and it feeds my negative belief like an echo chamber.  (e.g. when I was dealing with layout formalities, it keeps flashing layoffs news which affects my mental state).

I have a subscription/reading list that I want to *ONLY READ* on FB, blog and youtube.

I have already switched off discover feed on chrome and safari.

Are there apps or ways to help me to just stay on my 'subscriptions'?

Thank you!

Edited Title: Too many suggested and sponsored of very low quality

[Rural]

There's a chrome plug-in called FB purity that blocks pretty much all of the random shit on facebook, but it only works on a computer, not phone.

[J.P. MoreGains]

This is a very important topic.

I have found that if I get interested in even one topic or channel I can't even keep up with the content from a single channel since they put out so much new information and content now.

When I was a kid I would read the newspaper every day and that was about all you could do. It really is information overload and everyone competing to get you to watch and pay attention.

I found probably the best thing has been being on a 5gb data plan since I just don't have enough data to constantly be watching videos or listening to podcasts or whatever.

Maybe that could be a strategy for you.

[Bartlebooth]

You have to dodge the algorithm.

I set up a list of RSS feeds in a feed reader and that is my main source of updates.  There is no algorithm.  I simply read the ~100 new daily articles as I have time to.  I have 423 feeds which have pulled in 110,000 news items over the past 7 years.  I have "read" 60,000 of them.  Many are just clicked to mark as read after seeing the title/headline.  All are free except I pay for Ars Technica because it is highly relevant to my interests, I like most of their content, and it gets me the full article in the RSS feed.

For time-wasting (sometimes you just need to zone out) I got tired of Facebook for reasons others have mentioned.  Could have done a plugin I guess.  Instead I got on Mastodon and found some interesting people to follow.  Again, no algorithm there, just a time-sorted list of what people have written.  I probably only get 10 minutes worth of scrolling daily there since I don't follow that many people.

I watch about an hour of YouTube daily.  Just don't click on the clickbait.  By now after 5 years of watching this much YouTube I can pretty much tell what the video is going to be about, regardless of clickbait headlines.  I feel kind of done with YouTube in some ways, but there is so much good stuff that I'm still there.

[reeshau]

This is kind of like asking what liquor is good for an alcoholic, in moderation?

Firstly, realize that billions of people get by without Facebook, each day.

Yes, billions of people will be shocked by that.  But the first thing to do is to find a completely different alternative.  Then, build that up.

Otherwise, you are holding back the flood, and could be just one algorithm change or update away from it coming back.

[GuitarStv]

I check a couple internet forums on a semi-regular basis . . . but other than that, am social media free.  There's no real loss to my life in living this way.  For news, I tend to skim the top stories on BBC and CBC websites every other day.  Not sure why you would need more news than that.

[J.P. MoreGains]

I also accidentally lost my earbuds for my phone and haven't bought new ones... that has cut back on my podcasts a lot.

[Tasse]

All the advice I could give is contained within Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport.

[AuspiciousEight]

All the advice I could give is contained within Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport.

+1

Honestly this book should basically be required reading in the modern age. It's far too easy to get addicted to the news and social media.

[Loren Ver]

One thing I do is I don't scroll.  If I want to know or see something I go to a site and interact with the person or information I want then leave.  I don't scroll through the mess.  So if I want to see what and old friend is up to on Facebook, go to their page and check them out.  See what they have posted interact with them like you were meeting up for a meal.  I do have facebook purity as an add-on, which is nice.  I spend very little time on facebook, mostly just to catch the big things of life for far away friend or messenger.  I don't have it on my phone only computer. 


Same with youtube, I want to watch a video about something, watch said video then leave (I don't have an account with youtube so no login to track me by).  I don's scroll around or rabbit hole.  See something specific then go.

This is the forum I am willing to scroll around on because the information is actually worthwhile and I learn things that I didn't know I should know and sometimes I contribute.

Loren

[La Colibri]

Thank you all

I have reserved the Digital Minimalism in the library :)

I used to find the Suggested feed interesting but lately they are very low quality and I am already on too many channels.

Here are my digital clean-up to do for now

1. Disable discover feed in browsers [Done]

2. Do not use YouTube home, use https://www.youtube.com/feed/subscriptions [Done]

3. RSS Feed reader [Done]

4. Set favourites on Browser for Youtube subscriptions and FB pages.  These are pages that are not on other channel and no RSS feeds. [Done]

5. Segregate my emails by using different email addresses for [In progress]
- important stuff : gov/bank etc
- subscriptions (usually related to work/career/personal finance)
- linkedIn / Looking for job
- social meetup?
- burner account for shopping and any other ready to dump
- cleanup emails

6. FB desktop purify plugin [To do]

7. Looking for suggestions
should I read 5 minutes world in digest or does it matter?  I felt so powerless and wanted to disconnect but I also want to know what's happening.  might be on a weekly basis?

[reeshau]

I admit that the Amazon Kindle daily deals used to be by gazingus pin.  But lately, even they have been invaded with advertising, with 2 or 3 or more books showing up on each page.  Totally ruined the browse for me.  Thanks, Amazon, for helping me quit by bad habit!