comment: >
  
  Seems your statement is far to absolutist to be true. I use discord, a form of social media, to connect with people so I can play D&D online. How does this make my life worse or make me a shitty person?
context: You seem to be conflating causation with correlation. Unless you do a controlled experiment where some people are randomly assigned to use social media and others are assigned not to. So we can't say that social media makes you a shitty person as people who use social media may be inherently different. >
  
  Right, your influences shape your personality and how you see the world. If you are given a lense by an algorithm that has a specific agenda where you act as a pawn, perhaps that is not shaping you into a good person, but maybe, a good consumer. >
  
  
  There have been countless studies proving that the more time you spend on social media, the lower your self-esteem
  
  Causality might go the other way: the worse someone's self esteem is, the more they spend time on social media.
  
  You are also bombarded with ads that try to convince you that your life will suck without \~this\~ product, advertised by the highest standard of beauty in a human specimen.
  
  That's true, but I'm not gullible enough to believe those ads. 
  
  you need to make pointed effort in order to discover and experience anything of real value and knowledge
  
  A funny meme makes me laugh. That brings happiness into my life. Happiness has real value.
  As for knowledge, Facebook has math and science discussion groups. University students also make study groups.
  
  you need to make pointed effort in order to discover and experience anything of real value and knowledge
  
  What do you mean by "highest selves"? >
  
  Good points, but you can't deny that you're actively improving your life in any way unless you're doing something directly educational or therepudic when using social media.  Highest self, is the best version of you. Surly when you envision the best version of you, they're not spending the amount of time the average person does scrolling on their phone. >
  
  
  unless you're doing something directly educational or therepudic when using social media.
  
  So you admit then that social media use on its own doesn't make you a shitty person, and that it can be used to make you a better person? >
  
  Social media use in any way, shape, or form, has harmful effects on a person's psyche, nomatter what the intent may be. You are exposing yourself to all of the aspects of the platform, even if you are trying to accomplish a specific goal in mind. Even if there may be positive aspects of social media, you are still not avoiding the negativity that surrounds that experience. If you are working to better yourself, you shouldn't be spending any time on social media platforms at all. Instead you should be interacting with people in the real world, reading a book, seeing a specialist, browsing content specific websites, or gaining hands-on experience off of the internet. >
  
  
  Social media use in any way, shape, or form, has harmful effects on a person’s psyche, nomatter what the intent may be.
  
  You’re contradicting your previous statement.
  
  You are exposing yourself to all of the aspects of the platform
  
  Not true.  With adblockers in place and careful selection of what you subscribe to, you can easily isolate yourself from harmful aspects of social media.
  
  Even if there may be positive aspects of social media, you are still not avoiding the negativity that surrounds that experience.
  
  Again, not true due to my statement above.
  
  If you are working to better yourself, you shouldn’t be spending any time on social media platforms at all.
  
  Like it or not, believe it or not, social media is an effective way to stay in touch with family.  Anyone who is working to better themselves must necessarily avoid a useful and easy way to maintain connection with family?  Sounds like bad advice.
  
  Instead you should be interacting with people in the real world, reading a book, seeing a specialist, browsing content specific websites, or gaining hands-on experience off of the internet.
  
  You can do all of those things and still use social media to keep up to date with your friends and family.
  It sounds to me like social media addiction is what you really have a problem with.  Social media, when used in moderation, can be beneficial or at least can be used without harm.  It’s just like how someone can have a few alcoholic drinks or some THC to help relax and enjoy an evening without causing health problems or getting into trouble. >
  
  I'm going to use some anecdotal evidence for my point, but please bear with me.
  r/Random_Acts_Of_Pizza
  I should be used to this sub by now, yet there's a key point that constantly amazes me. Posts flaired "offer." That a random stranger has the ability to provide a pizza and decides to gift to a stranger they probably have NO chance of ever interacting with past this exchange. The faith of "you need pizza, no questions asked, I trust you enough that you're true to your story." I strive for the day I am financially secure enough to post under the offer flair on that sub. Not to toot my own horn, not to feel better than others. Simply to know I am finally in a safer and more secure point in my life where I have the abundance to pass a bit of that security on to someone else.
  Buy Nothing Oceanside Community on Facebook. Now, there are numerous Buy Nothing communities but this was the first one I was ever in and it's shaped my whole mindset around the project. I was attempting to get to my parents for Christmas, but I'm fighting to gain proper employment and money is scary tight. In my province you need either snow tires or snow chains during winter months or it's a MASSIVE fine. So, in a desperate attempt to keep safe and avoid ticket, I reach out to my local group and ask to borrow a set of chains sized for my car. I had four different individuals offer me a set. To keep. No strings attached or questions asked.
  FuckYeahTransJoy which has carried over from Tumblr to Twitter to TikTok (say that five times fast?) This calling card of others hyping up an individual. When I first stumbled across it, back in my early days of transition, you were never the one to tag your own content with it. It wasn't so much a rule that people would attack you over to enforce. It was more a community culture thing where 99.999% of Trans folks are the least likely to give themselves a moment of hype. So when one felt brave enough to share the tiniest sliver of "hey, being trans and finally being allowed to be myself is actually kind of cool" there would be a bombarding of those in community commenting and hyping FuckYeahTransJoy. Because in a world that seems to quite often want us depressed and dead, being a happy trans individual is worth all the celebration.
  The capitalism OF social media is a goddamn plague, I'll agree on that. That's the root of the ad bombarding and the algorithm focus of some core strains of content. But it is a facet of an incredibly large community connection experiment we've all signed up for. And for the most part... I am blown away by how we're constantly working to manipulate that experiment for good. >
  
  Our definition of what being a “shitty person” entails might differ. I’d consider a “shitty person” to be along the lines of someone who like gleefully murders kittens or preys on the helpless. What you describe sounds more “sad” than “shitty”.
  I’d also argue that your arguments are more of an indictment against the insecurities of humanity as a whole than social media in particular. No family hangs a framed photo of a wife being actively beaten by her husband while their children recoil in terror on their mantle. Ads preying on human insecurities weren’t invented in tandem with Facebook—they were present in TV before that, and before that on radio, and before that in newspapers, etc. “Shouting into the void” is not a new phenomenon.
  The way you describe how people should be their “highest self” seems overly narrow and outside the bounds of practical reality. If social media disappeared tomorrow I don’t think most folks are going to be like “shit, I’m free, now I can read Leviathan!”. Barring the existence of social media they’re more likely to engage in a similar manner of relaxation and escapism. And who are you or I to ultimately pass judgment on what some stranger does in their leisure time?