Who needs a social network? HN is almost too much. How much hubris is enough to say "people should hear my smallest thoughts and acknowledge them with appreciation or by repeating them".
Find people with non-small thoughts, or at least positive-if-small-value small thoughts, same as any other avenue of connection with other human beings.
Social networks are a tech/tool. Like most other tech/tools, they're more magnifiers of existing facts of the human condition than they are things that fundamentally change them.
If what you dislike is the thoughts of other people, fortunately there have always been choices that can increase isolation.
I don't "need" one, but i appreciate their ability for community. Ie i'm in the mood for a semi-niche Computer Graphics community. There's something about Microblogging that i find.. interesting. Something like a Forum, say Reddit or an actual Forum is so.. purposeful. Does my WIP post warrant an actual forum post? Likely not. Something about Microblogging seems more fit for WIP posts of artwork/etc, tech thoughts, etc. Likewise i enjoy subscribing to other peoples content in the same nature.
The barrier for forums seems to be large enough that the posts that get submitted are often finished works only.. at least in my experience. To me that's less interesting.
Not sure i follow. I said i didn't need one because, well, i don't believe i do. Good evidence of this is that i have not, and do not currently, have one. Nor have i ever used Twitter, Facebook or any social platform beyond link aggregators. And even with link aggregators i've rotated accounts and/or deleted history frequently as a way to undermine "identity", which to me is vital to social networks.
With that said, lately i've been in the process for searching for one because of the reasons i stated above. I'm looking for a like-minded community on Art stuffs. A forum will do, but microblogging seems to be more inlined with my desired, as i described above.
I guess to reword my previous post; "social networks" can have different applications in my view. In the case of microblogging, i like the idea more as a Forum flipped on it's head to reduce friction on content posting.
Not sure what that has to do with my use case. I'm not interested in what Joey from school did, you are correct. That's why i'm not on Facebook.
If Joey started creating Art in the category i'm interested in then i would be. Because i'm interested in the content, specifically. Mastodon feels a good platform to push and pull said content, when compared to Forums at least.
You seem to be arguing something entirely outside of what i'm describing. As if my use case is somehow a misguided drug addiction that i don't even have yet. Remember, i've not and never have been on FB/Twitter. How can you equate me to a cigarette smoker when i don't yet smoke?
We're probably not going to agree, and I trust you understand your own needs and wants better than I do. Have a good weekend, I apologize for mischaracterizing you with a generalization.
Oh no worries, though i'm happy to better understand your thoughts on this subject. I don't think you generalized me either, we're still exchanging information/facts in this discussion. Apologies if i came off harsh.
I just think it's safe to say that i'm definitely not addicted to traditional social media.. by the fact that i'm not on any of them. I'd be willing to accept the argument that i am addicted to HN, though i do think i take reasonable steps to mitigate that.
BUT, i'm not sure if you'd classify HN as Social Media in the same way that FB/Twitter is.
