To be clear: I prefer to pay for things instead of having to see ads but 13€ / month!? For a meta product that has inherently user-hostile design patterns even without ads?
Who does this appeal to?
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Just stop using Instagram. I quit mainstream social media (Facebook, Instagram, Reddit,…) and the experience has been quite cathartic.
I’ve been off of all social media for about a decade, but just yesterday i got a dm from someone from my past so i went and checked it out and then I checked a bunch of other stuff there too and my mental state instantly spiraled into a terrible place. Man that shit is toxic like nuclear waste.
Lemmy is social media too, don’t forget that.
It’s not talking to people that’s damaging. Being able to socialize and discuss via media is healthy.
The damaging component is when an algorithm pushes unhealthy content because it drives engagement.
No one set out to create a rage/depression/anxiety algorithm, but those emotions tend to drive engagement better than more positive experiences. So if engagement is the goal, you get destructive systems.
Removing the algorithm does a lot for helping people engage with their peers and society at large in a more constructive context.
Same same, but different
No it’s not. Social media is where you know who the other person is and/or they know who you are. This is an anonymous forum, not social media.
Most definitions of social media are some form of “sharing content for the purpose of socializing in a public manner”. I wouldn’t think having a real life identity linked to your account would be a requirement for a social network. Why wouldn’t reddit, lemmy, or even an old school forum be considered social media? You’re sharing and discussing content on a community platform. I dunno, just something I’ve been thinking about recently as I’m using lemmy more.
Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of content, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of social media arise due to the variety of stand-alone and built-in social media services currently available, there are some common features:
- Social media are interactive Web 2.0 Internet-based applications.
- User-generated content—such as text posts or comments, digital photos or videos, and data generated through all online interactions—is the lifeblood of social media.
- Users create service-specific profiles for the website or app that are designed and maintained by the social media organization.
- Social media helps the development of online social networks by connecting a user’s profile with those of other individuals or groups.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media
Lemmy fits those criteria very well, and there’s nothing regarding anonymous profiles vs identified profiles. It may not be the only definition of social media, but it’s comprehensive and sensible.
Then email is also social media, Google docs is social media, phpBB is social media, Amazon review sections are social media, even Pornhub comment sections are social media, and so on…
If Lemmy fits the criteria, then so does 95% of the internet. Not a very useful definition, in that case.
Yeah, I guess under that definition any web-based application that allows for a person to create an account/profile and generate and post content is a form of social media. That makes sense when you consider that they’re media that allow for social interaction.
What’s your definition of social media? Genuinely interested because I’m not sure that there even is a single definition that can be agreed upon.
I think the whole public vs anonymous profiles thing doesn’t really stack up, as I can create profiles on Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok etc and provide no identifying information about myself, much as I do on Lemmy. I can also choose to add a profile picture and info about myself to identify myself on Lemmy if I choose, much as people do on other social media.
If your definition only includes those platforms that force you fully identify yourself in order to maintain a profile, that list will be pretty small and exclude a lot of sites that the vast majority would consider to be social media, including the ones I’ve named above.
You might be able to create profiles anonymously, but you can’t use those services anonymously. They only work if you have other people added as friends or whatever, unlike content aggregators like lemmy or reddit, where you can be as anonymous as you want and still interact with all features of the site.
I think that narrows it down enough. If you can use all features of the platform without personally knowing anyone on it, it’s not social media.
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I did too and, while the benefit are higher than the loss, I usually feel really left out from one kind of partecipation to society and it’s a bit sad.
As much as I’d love to, it’s not exactly easy when you rely on it for business :(
How many followers did you have and how many friends of yours were using the app, if you don’t mind sharing?
I had about 150 friends on Facebook when I quit. I’m quite recluse say so I didn’t really interact with them much.
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They don’t want you to pay. They set the price artificially high to discourage you so they continue business as usual while complying to the laws. The price is a PITA charge to make it worth their while and to still profit from the ads they would have shown you.
I’ve never used IG but I feel like it would be a $3.99/month type of service. This price just tells us they are making way more than that serving ads or that your ad data alone is worth a decent bit of cash.
It’s a $0 per month type of service, even without ads.
YouTube premium costs less than that, and that includes a Music streaming service
Thanks for the suggestion, YouTube.
I have seen SO many acounts praising youtube premium its bonkers, I refuse to believe that many people are paying for it. ItS gOt GrEaT mUsIC AnD I cAn SuPpOrT mY fAvOuRiTe CrEaTorS. same script every time.
Fuck the music. I pay for it just so I don’t have to see any ads when I’m trying to see a 2 minute movie trailer or an hour long tutorial. Worth it.
see thats what I don’t get, ublock origin just works, its free. you don’t have to give google money.
I’ve had it for years and one of the biggest features that I find worthwhile is being able to easily download videos to watch on the plane or play like podcasts when I’m driving. When I first got it, I had a really long commute, so being able to download stuff and play it with my phone screen off is helpful.
I self-host a ton of stuff, and have sailed the high seas for decades to grow my personal collection.
BUT
I pay for YT premium, netflix, and steam, so that my nephews can be on my family plans. Their life can be pretty shitty a lot of the time, and good music, games, and simple distractions help.
Oh I use uBlock origin too. But on desktop. I very often consume YouTube on my tv and mobile. Too much work getting ad blocking to work on those.
ya thats true. I’ve been screen mirroring on my laptop for that but I get it if its a convenience thing. I used to pay for a bunch of streaming services until they jacked the price, I dropped almost everything after the last round of price hikes. again, mostly a convenience thing.
I’m close to dropping all streaming services thanks to IPTV.
If on Android, revanced works wonderfully. On iOS you can just use adguard and safari instead of the app. At least that’s what I use and I only get ads when I use the default yt app in my oldish Hisense TV instead of casting or just my PC.
Yeah, quite frankly I watch so much that it’s just worth it. I don’t use other streaming services, so it’s fine for me.
13 euros a month… hahahahahaaaa
A number thought up by some yank that doesn’t realise that’s what our whole fuckin internet connection costs each month 😂
Wait you guys get internet for €13/month? cries in Canadian
Indian here. I pay approximately ₹2000 = 23 Euros for 200 Mbps… WiFi.
I get half and pay double, and thought that was quite reasonable
What are your cellular plans like?
I get half and pay double
I see…
What are your cellular plans like?
I have two SIMs, both have a plan for ₹666 = 7.5 Euros, 1.5GB per day, for 84 days…
There’s also a ₹1699 = 20 Euros plan for a year, 2.5GB per day.
€20 per year? That’s crazy. My girlfriend and I share a plan and combined pay almost $150 (about €100) per month (so $75 = €50 per month each)
At least in Germany you can’t. I feel your pain, my canadian friend.
At least home wifi isn’t as insane as cellular here I guess. We get American ads on the break room TV at work, their cellular plans are pennies compared to what we have to pay north of the border
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How much are you paying, Canadian?
About $40/mo. for 100mbps for wifi. Cellular, I share with my girlfriend who gets a discount through work, we share 200GB for about $150/mo.
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You would have to pay me 13 Euro a month to even consider using this platform
It’s disappointing that they only exclude the information use regarding ads.
So they will still track everything users do and profile them, just like any other free user. And they can sell to everyone else who pays for user data (e.g. AI learning, market research etc.). With that wording, they could even sell to ad companies, if they e.g. use the data for some algorithm optimisation in their tech department. So they leave the door open to keep selling the data to 3rd parties, while already charging the user ‘starting at’ 12.99€.
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Lol people actually pay for shit like this ?
Not to mention $13? Looool
13 bucks to allow meta to use your the photos you upload (that creates all the content on the site) to however the fuck they want as well as collect all your data to sell things back to you better and sell your profile to other sites.
Megacorps need to die.
People are dumb. Get rid of these dumb mofos and megacorps will die overnight.
I have absolutely zero faith in Instagram’s ability to manage this. They can’t even handle account access right. I use IG for business (I’m a performer) and have been locked out for a month with full access to my Facebook, email, authenticator app, phone, other accounts - you name it. Their shit is just straight up broken and throws error messages when trying to log in.
Meta is absolute shit when it comes to supporting their users. I “deleted” my original Facebook account that I started in 2005 (you can’t actually delete an account, only deactivate it, which is bullshit) around 2008 or 2009, and created a new one. Somehow someone started posting diet ads from that account about 13 years later (about 6 months back).
I emailed support and said someone had hacked my old account and was posting diet ads as me, but I no longer had access to the account because it was supposed to be removed over a decade ago. The profile pictures of both accounts were clearly the same person (me), the email addresses were the same, and so were the displayed account names. Support said they couldn’t do anything about it because they couldn’t verify that I owned the account that was posting ads! 🤦♂️🤬
I sent them a response that pretty much said “are you fucking joking right now?!” and didnt get a response back, but the ads apparently stopped.
No ads on Mastodon
No friends there either.
Well to be fair I’m still enjoying Mastodon a lot and Pixelfed too (which is the better Instagram replacement) but pretty much everyone I follow is somebody I don’t know in real life. Instagram is great to see what your extended circle of friends is doing.
That’s how it is during the first few years of social media. When left Twitter I had 75K followers but only knew about 20.
FB the same. Fine, I don’t want to pay for your dumb content (even when you successfully trained my brain to enjoy that content) so show me ads…
But then they “forced” me to accept tracking cookies which makes me angry… Still I’m not ready to leave, but I’m a big step nearer than before.
Also, isn’t that against EU laws?
Also, isn’t that against EU laws?
Very likely, but the final verdict is still out on that one, as far as I know. There are several other services and sites that offer similar opt-out of tracking and ads for money schemes (albeit not as ludicrously expensive).
I believe that’s both against the spirit and any reasonable interpretation of the law, but I don’t think it has been fully tested in court.
But they are not even offering to stop tracking me. They only offer add free experience and force targeted ads. I’d be ok with regular ads but not the targeted ads
So that’s how much my data is worth to Meta?
I doubt it. But I believe that they have figured out exactly what ammount people will be less willing to pay .
Besides that, they won’t stop tracking and storing your data. They simply won’t use it show targeted ads.
Products!? I thought they were services…
Anyway I don’t see myself ever paying for social media LMAO, and even less now that I know about the Fediverse… Seems like a VIP lounge for us if you ask me, and I’m okay with that.
It’s Meta’s nonsense reply to being forced by the European data protection authorities (EDPB) to get consent before processing users data, which they should have from the beginning: https://edpb.europa.eu/news/news/2023/edpb-urgent-binding-decision-processing-personal-data-behavioural-advertising-meta_en
I’ve just taken the app off my phone and use adblock when I’m on the desktop browser version. I still need social media to post my work out there (I get clients that way), but I don’t need to look at it 100 times a day.
It’s honestly been a big quality of life improvement to take all my social media off my phone. Been a month or two now and I really miss it a lot less than I thought I would and who knows how much time I’m saving.
