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Social media. Am I missing out?

#81
I rarely rarely go out except to play. Just not into it any more, particulalry with at about $8.00 a pint. But on occasion if friends post a note about a gig at my local pub I occasionally drop in as it is about a 10-minute walk. Also, I'm in three groups so we post about our upcoming gigs and as the last two shows we did with our Cajun-influenced band were both well photographed and video recorded, we sometimes post those up on Facebook. We've been building a small following over the past 18 months since we formed and have been told by people in attendance that they saw our posting on FB and that's why they showed up.

I'm also an about-to-be published author with a major publisher so I have announced the upcoming book on Facebook to good reaction and post occasionally to keep interest up until publicaion date when I will make a major announcement to all the Facebook sub-groups I belong to. I don't do Instagram or TikTok.
 
#83
I find FB is not great via Messenger because they can easily ignore them.
Its better when they put a post out that you respond to but I find there is no substitite for F2F or phone if trying to get gigs.
 
#84
Dang, lots of haters here. I agree with those who say it is (largely) what you make of it. I habe had lots of positives in my life from FB, butI have a great feed of curated friends and groups. (Pts of cool music stuff!) I don't interact with the negativity. It was way better before it got overrun with ads, but I don't necessarily hate then either.

I have definitely spent too much time mindlessly scrolling at times. If I keep it off my phone and just do short check ins it is better.

I think social media can be very good for promoting and networking. There are quite a few people I really enjoy following that I would have lost all connection with if it wasn't for FB. I do get people to come out to shows because of it.

There is a lot of good advice here, though, and with good reason. Social media is not a substitute for real life interactions, and it can be addictive and distracting.

I personally like having some idea what is up in the modern trends. Being empowered and informed goes a long way, whether you are utilizing social media or not.
 
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#87
bass12 said:
I have a Facebook account but I try to stay away from it as much as possible (I still use it for Messenger). If you do sign up I would recommend not accepting friend requests and thereby not having a newsfeed to suck you in and depress you.
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And as bad as Facebook can be, X (Twitter) is exponentially worse. A cesspool of hate and disinformation.
 
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#89
bass12 said:
I have no doubt. I've never heard anything about Twitter/X that has tempted me to take part.
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I used to like it for sports and some news. Fastest place to find the latest news almost as it happened. Even before Elon took over it was turning into mainly a negative space. Everything is so divided and not worth the time to try and explain the nuance of your position to a bunch of bots and/or troglodytes. Now with Elon it is barely useable. And I was a fan of Elon until he trashed Twitter.
 
#90
Been following this thread, though late to the party posting; I can address Facebook from my experience, which is you get out of Facebook what you put in.

I've been part of the local music scene in one form or another for decades, and Facebook has been a part of that for almost the past 20.

Saying Facebook is full of crackpots is like saying society is full of crackpots.

IOW, it's a true statement; So what?

Where's there a rule that says I should or would have any control over that? I'm not that special.

Sure, I've unfriended and unfollowed some for whom it's not spiritually healthy for me to engage or follow daily, generally people who spew hate.

Otherwise, acceptance has been the key. I'm grateful that my job description doesn't include being the arbiter of other people's BS. 'Got enough of my own to work through to stick my nose where it doesn't belong.

Meanwhile, I gig almost every Fri/Sat and couldn't imagine doing that without Facebook's help.
 
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#91
I’ve just left Facebook and Instagram, or rather I’ve taken the apps off my phone and started hanging around on Talkbass and getting to more projects around my house.

I skipped reading the thread but I’m sure I’ll be joining a chorus of “don’t do it”

The platforms are never ending gravitational wells of scrolling. And they even now divert to never ending sidebar scrolls of time wasting short videos called reels.

I’m glad to not be reeling and doomscrolling any longer. I much prefer to chat with you all.
 
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#92
Standalone said:
I’ve just left Facebook and Instagram, or rather I’ve taken the apps off my phone and started hanging around on Talkbass and getting to more projects around my house.

I skipped reading the thread but I’m sure I’ll be joining a chorus of “don’t do it”

The platforms are never ending gravitational wells of scrolling. And they even now divert to never ending sidebar scrolls of time wasting short videos called reels.

I’m glad to not be reeling and doomscrolling any longer. I much prefer to chat with you all.
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I joined with the sole purpose of communicating with a luthier who uses FB as his website. Went to a pizza place down the road, my iPhone tracking is OFF. As i sat there, I received friend requests from former employees and a fellow sitting right next to me. I showed him my screen, and the guy was apoplectic. FB et al are the personification of evil intent.
 
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#93
Gorilla Monsoon said:
I joined with the sole purpose of communicating with a luthier who uses FB as his website. Went to a pizza place down the road, my iPhone tracking is OFF. As i sat there, I received friend requests from former employees and a fellow sitting right next to me. I showed him my screen, and the guy was apoplectic. FB et al are the personification of evil intent.
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Big data is almost unfathomably powerful. Even those who wield it hardly know where all this is headed.

Always nice to see a word like apoplectic in correct usage. Kinda makes me feel the opposite of apoplectic…
 
#94
I am a very minimal social media user - don’t consider Talkbass social media. Can easily go days or weeks without it. I’m just too busy doing real life things. That being said, I have band members that work it relentlessly and it’s been a huge key to our success. And, the other successful bands in our area do the same. They’re always telling me “Go like this, or go share that.” While it’s not naturally my thing, I do appreciate showing up to standing room only gigs, the bar owners love us, we get first pick of dates for the upcoming year, and we get paid a premium over the other bands bc of our following, our fans are die-hard and bring us gift’s to shows, and we spin-off a bunch of high-paying private gigs. So, there’s that.
 
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#95
tshapiro said:
I am a very minimal social media user - don’t consider Talkbass social media.
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I'm curious, why don't you consider TB to be social media? I would say it is. It's certainly a medium - information gets transmitted through it. And it's social; there are members, all members are able to post here, we can react to each other's posts with likes and replies, we can message each other. That's how social media works.

I would say, though, that TB is a certain KIND of social media; an interest-based private forum. It differs from the big social media platforms in that it doesn't aspire to be ubiquitous for everyone on the planet, but only for the community of bass players, and as a result - critically - it doesn't have an algorithm to generate more "engagement." Also, since it's private and interest-based, it's much easier to establish moderation rules and enforce them; that allows us to keep the discourse here civil and on-topic.
 
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#96
hrodbert696 said:
I'm curious, why don't you consider TB to be social media? I would say it is. It's certainly a medium - information gets transmitted through it. And it's social; there are members, all members are able to post here, we can react to each other's posts with likes and replies, we can message each other. That's how social media works.

I would say, thought, that TB is a certain KIND of social media; an interest-based private forum. It differs from the big social media platforms in that it doesn't aspire to be ubiquitous for everyone on the planet, but only for the community of bass players, and as a result - critically - it doesn't have an algorithm to generate more "engagement." Also, since it's private and interest-based, it's much easier to establish moderation rules and enforce them; that allows us to keep the discourse here civil and on-topic.
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TB lacks the divisive elements which helped me leave traditional social media;
The hate algorithm
Politics (which is a subset of the hate algorithm).
My favorite cousin asked me to re-join FB about 5 years ago. I never saw her posts! Instead, FB fed me "random" posts which went against the grain of my political/religious/socioeconomic bent.
I unfollowed my band leaders wife.
I unfollowed my SISTER!

Talkbass isn't perfect, but it's fairly well moderated. I have a few people on ignore. The female members are respectful and don't cruise...can't say that for FB!
TB does way better than the algorithm folk.
I'm old, I'm married. I need to stay that way to raise my kids.
TB is a great innocuous time spender.
 
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#98
TB is indeed social media. When people say "social media" they are usually thinking of the "social networking" subcategory of social media. I try not to be too pedantic about it. Except, um, now, apparently ... :D
 
#99
Instagram is fine, its like Facebook without anoying ads and political garbage.

Twitter is for adult X rated content.

TikTok is full of people with bad jokes and awful dance moves. Yuck.
 
#100
Heiwa said:
Instagram is fine, its like Facebook without anoying ads and political garbage.

Twitter is for adult X rated content.

TikTok is full of people with bad jokes and awful dance moves. Yuck.
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LOL and here I thought it was Twitter/X that was for political garbage!

I have an Instagram account, but don't use it much. I'm not much to look at and don't take many pictures, and FB is more text-friendly (without the absurd character limit of Twitter), so that's where I usually post. Apart from here, of course.

It's interesting that it seems like we've gotten to the point where the toxic features of social media can predominate in people's minds, so much so that they ARE "social media" to them, and a forum that doesn't have that toxicity doesn't count as part of the category.
 
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