Donāt say āthere are no alternativesā when what you really mean is āI canāt be bothered to use the alternatives.ā
@aral I mean, yes and no. As an example, I hate Facebook as much as the next socially conscious person, but a lot of local stuff is only available on Facebook. Which has frustrated me for years at this point. The biggest issue is that a lot of social media needs to reach proper mainstream before it becomes useful for certain use cases.
@aral @SarahXcellence this is such a good point. FB for me has become family who donāt know any better, plus a bunch of local things like sports teams and marketplace. Lots of inertia.
@SarahXcellence @aral the key to FB is to NOT use the app (browser only); reject every suggestion it makes for you; unfollow everything/everyone that you can simply look up when you want instead of when it feeds you; and generall turn off every function that works in FB's data-collecting favor. This way I only get the special interest pages bthat I want to see.
@AvvieLanche @aral True! Iāve been using Facebook/Messenger/Instagram exclusively from a browser for months now. The only FB related app I still have is WhatsAppā¦
@SarahXcellence @aral This is on point. FB is one of the main ways I and many others look for job opps in my industry. Folks have made attempts at using other platforms, but they rarely stick. So I remain. š¤·
FB has also become so embedded into other tech that it's more and more frequently the *only* way to login/interact with certain sites, which presents its own level of frustration.
Don't think of alternatives as the same thing by someone else, think of it as an alternative way to spend time online.
After all these years I've not found an alternative to Tumblr, yet I don't use it anymore either.
I'm still wondering whether I miss events now I'm off Facebook, yet I'm still as busy as I used to be.
@aral this so much (and not just in #technology! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_is_no_alternative)
@aral how about this one: there are no alternatives to after effects for motion graphics
@aral also let's remember "cant be bothered to use something" is often code for "this software has serious usability issues". there's still a culture in FOSS that says good interface is superfluous and too bougie for some reason...
@aral don't say "don't say there are no alternatives" when what you really mean is "my opinion of what is a viable alternative is the only correct one"
