Linkedin is the only social media I would reccomend to put yourself out (as in, put your successful projects in) as it's used more as a networking tool to land yourself in better jobs.
Fuck other social media. Anonymity is best.
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Linkedin is the only social media I would reccomend to put yourself out (as in, put your successful projects in) as it's used more as a networking tool to land yourself in better jobs.
Fuck other social media. Anonymity is best.
LinkedIn is getting shittier all the time too. I check it out twice a year or so and every time I look at my feed it reminds me a bit more of Facebook. It's the only social media I haven't deactivated and is likely to stay that way for a while longer at least but it definitely feels like it's getting further and further from that professional vibe it once carried, and not in a good way.
It's like the place where your bosses put lame boomer-styled memes and motivational stuff.
The only reason your boss ever posts something 'motivational' is for their own personal gain of earning more money off you.
He never posts "Try to enjoy life. Maybe take a day off sometime to be with your family on an extended weekend and forget work for a while."
Jesus Christ this thread 🤣
Delusional users believing lemmy and reddit ain't social media.
I thought I was taking crazy pills watching people tell the guy not to join social media, on a social media site!
I think the real question being asked is, should the OP make a social media account that is not anonymous or on one of the mainstream sites. Which I would say go for it if it helps with your IRL social life, just don't post anything you wouldn't say in person in public.
People say this shit all the time. "Reddit is social media too dura hurr."
But anonymous social media sites are an entirely different entity and wildly different experience compared to ones that use your actual name.
Pseudonymous is not even quite the same as anonymous either. It's not just people randomly saying whatever nonsense like 4chan, there's all the reputation-building and ego that other social media has, only less personal, for better or worse.
"anonymous social media" is indeed very different, but still social media. It avoids some problems and runs into other problems.
They're forums though, are forums social media? I don't think services people use anonymously and not for the primary purpose of interacting are social media. The stat has always been 90+% of people are lurkers who just look at memes. Doesn't sound very social. Scrolling lemmy and reading articles doesn't get at that part of the brain. We're not a social group, looking at each others lives.
What stops being social media if we broaden the definition. YouTube is social media if Lemmy is imo.
While I do consider this my social media outlet it's different in a few ways. If I meet someone new in person and they're interested in my online presence
I know how you feel but joining in now might be a mistake. The trend at the moment is people leaving social media, soon people won't care if they can find you or not.
Stay away!
The trend at the moment is people leaving social media
Eeeh... Is it really? I know that's what many people on Lemmy would like to believe because that's what they largely are doing, but lemmings are a minority. I think the vast majority of people don't even know or care about how bad social media is these days and continue using it.
Don't.
Thats the only advice you need.
Social media is so dead. Everyone has one yeah but it's a placeholder. The novelty is gone
Seriously I kind of miss the "Internet playground" era of 10 years ago. It felt like you could easily find not just one but multiple close knit groups for ANYTHING you might enjoy. It was easy to engage with people without huge effort.
Nowadays it's monolithic corporate groups. Soulless without the close interactions. Content is at an all time high yet simultaneously true interactions are dead. Forget about trying to find multiple groups, they all have been cannibalised into a singular Uber corpo group if it exists at all.
You're on social media right now, but personally, I don't care if there's nothing when people look me up: Seems like a bonus, I barely get spam calls anymore.
"The problem I'm having is that I don't exist online when people try to look me up."
That's not a problem, that's a privilege very few people get to enjoy. Fuсk social media and fuсk Facebook in particular.
Yep, that is something I've tried to achieve for years.. I'm jealous for you OP
Don't do it. I have stopped using Facebook and Instagram since November when they give me the choice to either pay a crazy amount or accept targeted ads.
The amount of time that I suddenly have is crazy. I have already read 7 books and Its been 20 years since I last had read a book!
Not to mention all the negativity and toxicity that I no longer get exposed to.
Its people own fault of they judge you by your being online of social media or not. That said, I don't think you'd be any better if they did value you on what you do online.
Maybe you can create a website with your basic information a few pictures and a short descriptive text. It's kind of a business card style website that will show up when people search your name on Google
You owe the internet NOTHING. You do not owe it posts at a certain interval, you do not owe it media, nothing. Only post what you want to post, when and how you want to post it.
Social Media should serve you. It should make you happy, it should make it easier to communicate with people you care about or share interests in. If it doesn't serve you or makes you unhappy, you should not feel any shame or regret in just walking away.
If you don't know whether or not you want to use "insert platform here", go ahead and sign up for a free account to reserve your name then just leave it until you find a need for it. If you end up not needing it, you can delete the account or just abandon it in place.
I would also say something like 'don't be afraid to ask questions', but you've already got that one down.
Have fun! :)
You're already using social media, the only difference is that you're in the fediverse, not the metaverse.
I know you've probably heard this about a dozen times by now, but..
Don't join Facebook.
They track everything they can about you, down to how long you spend looking at something on your screen. I'm fairly certain they listen to what's going on around you if you put the app on your phone. An ad for something I've mentioned in passing has popped up on my feed shortly later too many times to be a coincidence.
They follow you around on your browser, too. They know what you shop for. It's all specially tailored to sell you their ads.
I keep an account to stay in touch with my family, and it's appalling how much more information they get from you than any other app. Not to mention the heavy prevalence of MAGA hats and I'll-kill-you-before-I-consider-your-opinion conservatives.
Instagram isn't much better, but at least the people there are nicer.
I'd say if you aren't on them and don't need them, there's no reason to dip your toe in.
It's okay to be a little weird and save tons of time and not have to read worthless comments.
I was part of the main ones, but got rid of everything, LinkedIn Facebook, all of it. They are useless or detrimental personally, and I don't need them for my job.
This is the extent of my social media now.
My advice is to cancel joining.
I think that if you don't want to have social media, you shouldn't make it. If someone is giving you shit about it, then tell them to fuck off. You do you, Booboo.
If you insist on it, LinkedIn is barely social media since there's limited interaction. It's more of an unstated competition on who has the best resume/CV. Facebook is a bunch of people sharing updates and opinions no one cares for. Instagram is people sharing pictures no one would have asked to see.
lol. I'm on some bullshit today. Anyway, if you're going to make a profile, set a limit to how much time you are going to spend on it. That stuff is designed to keep you hooked, so it might suck you in. Keep yourself to your own boundaries.
Don't join LinkedIn unless you need to look for a corporate job. Be a trailblazer and join Mastodon or something if you need an online presence... Frankly I don't have a single social media account that I appreciate having. It's occasionally useful to find people on Facebook, but there's nothing really it gives me that getting someone's phone number doesn't.
I have never had a social media account under my real name, apart from Linkedin, which is just there to show me for possible employers.
When I google myself, I only get results about my address and my Linkedin profile, so I do atleast exist.
As for advice about joning something like Facebook....
Please don't.
OP understands the risks, and they're asking for tips on how to mitigate them if they have to make an account.
A lot of the comments here either missed or intentionally ignored the post body... Or the downvotes on the comment with a personal account saying how single women can feel safer if they can learn about a new person before meeting them.
People have different circumstances and perspectives :)
My advice for the original post:
I think it can help to have some presence, even if it is to control what information comes up when someone looks you up.
if you have no desire to 'participate' on a social media platform, but want people to still be able to 'google' you, perhaps a personal web page on your own domain. with a brief bio, your cv, and perhaps some interesting tidbits from hobbies or work projects.
If anyone seriously judged me for not being on a particular website I'd have to consider their competency at managing life.
For the most part, stick to the fediverse.
The only standard social media account I'd recommend is linkedin, literally only because it's meant to network for jobs. Don't get me wrong, it's full of desperate corporate worship and therefore miserable to use. However, the real point is networking for career advancement and job listings
Weird how no one recommended Mastodon yet.
You can switch your profile to public and follow some nice people and hashtags, if anyone wants to check your vibe. All with you real name. It has become the good version of twitter for me and at least in europe many people are starting to use it.
I don't think anyone can give you good advice without knowing the reasons you'd rather not get in to.
I can think of various scenarios where some sort of minimal internet presence under your real name would be useful for social or employment reasons, but exactly what it is you're trying to accomplish makes a big difference in terms of what tools (including corporate platforms, federated microblogging like Mastodon, a blog, or a static website) will get you the results you want.
What's popular where you live or in your professional field matters too. For some people, not using Facebook or Linkedin specifically is unusual, but we don't have enough information to know if that's true for you.
I have the same situation as you, i have zero to no online social media presence. I still relish in it, and if it's dating that you have a problem with, just own it. Don't let anyone make you think having your picture up there is gonna change a damn thing.
I used to have Facebook. Dabbled with Instagram and Twitter. Don't use any of them now. Feel 10x better.
When it comes to Facebook, Instagram, and other mainstream social media, just stay away, it's not worth it. I had Facebook, and it was just full of trash. I haven't had Instagram, but it's not very appealing either.
A LinkedIn account, however, for professional reasons is very much advised. Or Glassdoor.
Although over the recent years I saw some decline in quality on LinkedIn, as it's getting full of shit posts, but you can completely disregard what's on the feed. What you need LinkedIn for, is to build a professional profile, have your former and current coworkers in your network, and find and apply for jobs. Or even just let opportunities come to your inbox once you have an impressive profile.
The most amazing workplace I've ever had was possible thanks to LinkedIn, with almost no effort on my part. I have to say, this isn't typical though. It's only likely happening in countries where there's a labour shortage. But a recruiter (among tons of others) found me from a well known company, their opening looked good to me, so I gave it a try. After just one interview I was hired, and I didn't even have to apply for the job.
My most recent job was with a relocation to a different country. I can't even imagine how this would've been possible without LinkedIn or Glassdoor. But I achieved one of my big life goals.
A career advice I got about ten years ago: create a LinkedIn profile and always keep updating it. If you do so, you'll see it's kinda awkward to go back in time and retrospectively edit things and connect with former coworkers. But since you haven't had an account yet, I don't see any other choice for you.
As for Glassdoor, it's maybe a bit less popular than LinkedIn, but nowadays you can find opportunities there too. The best strength of Glassdoor is that you can find reviews of companies, sometimes they're also reporting their salaries so you know what to expect. In some cases, individual reviews may be misleading as they're forced by the company (which is btw against the terms of use), it can be a good indicator if you find thousands of good reviews or thousands of bad reviews.
Regarding the fediverse (Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, PeerTube, etc.), they're much better than their corporate equivalents in terms of quality, but they're not immune to misinformation either. And also not immune to the user's own stupidity. Obviously, don't share what doesn't belong there.
Edit: added notes for Glassdoor
Why are people looking you up?
It would be better to host a site.
My guess is it's because potential matches ask.
As a woman, I don't find it weird, but I do find it unfortunate. It's an easy, quick way to get a better understanding on if you're who you say you are. Sure, it can be faked, but... that's more rare, and mostly easily sussed out.
I like seeing Instagram personally. Not to follow, just as a good check. But if you don't want insta, I'd suggest pixelfed. It's not a part of meta and it functions as an instagram.
I keep my Linkedin updated, but Linkedin is BS. I hate it. Facebook I only keep for shitposting and because it's the way my husband's family keeps in touch (my husband deleted his FB years ago). Facebook is not great. Would not recommend. Honestly, most social media websites are shit and I could not recommend. Lemmy is kind of social media, and this is okay. I liked reddit too, back when I used it.
Don't. I don't care if this is just how the world works now, don't do it. Keep yourself.
LinkedIn is pretty good, for finding work. I've gotten a lot of offers there. Ultimately never took any of them, ironically, but worth the time to set up a good profile.
If you're thinking of joining Facebook... Don't. It's not worth it. Tell people you have something else and give them that info. Like your phone number or your email or your WhatsApp/telegram/whatever.
I hate how I have Facebook and am so dependent on it. I wish I could tell people I don't have it.