1y ago

Are there any fellow teens that have de-Googled and removed all social media?

Hello.

I am part of the younger side of Lemmy, and I wonder if there are any teens or otherwise young people that have de-Googled and/or removed all social media.

I notice, that everybody around me in real life uses Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, what have you… hundreds of notifications and messages from other people… and I cannot really relate. I deleted Instagram for my mental health, as some posts were greatly affecting my self-esteem. If somebody were to ask me for my social media, I’d probably just give them my number.

I don’t really know a lot of people around me that have this interest of online privacy (let alone people my age). So, will the (young) users of Lemmy enlighten me?

34 comments

I hope I’m not out of line here, but I would really like to give some thoughts on this. I’m 32 years old and married. So not that young to you probably.
But everyone around me is also on all social media platforms. The people I work with, family and friends. Except my wife who doesn’t care for social media at all.
Anyway. None of them thinks about that. At all. I tried to convince them to just drop Whatsapp and use Signal instead, but even that was like I was trying to get them in some kind of church.
I just pre ordered the fairphone5 (I just like what they are doing) and plan to flash e\OS.

20, and last year they made a poll in English class asking who have no social media, I was the only one. Also de-googled. They were even more chocked I don’t have a gmail account and they have to send me the link for each Google docs
(No YouTube account, I used newpipe on android, now Yattee on iOS, and piped/invidious/cloudtube/yt-dlp on desktop)
I didn’t felt like missing something (still don’t think, I’m better without social medias)
I used TikTok like two evenings on my brother’s device because I wanted at least to test about the app everyone is addicted and it’s way too addictive, both times I slept way too late, I’m glad I stay away from this
I had instagram but I stopped 5 years ago and don’t miss anything from it. From time to time a friend tells me I’m not in a specific group chart for a party but they tell me information so I don’t care
My class forced me to (re)create a Facebook account because we also have a discord server but they wouldn’t use it (I’m fine with that), but even for things like announcements which I really miss, so I created a new one But my profile is blank and I never go to Facebook, and I only use messenger for their group, not anyone else. I will delete it when I’m done with university
I used text messages to chat with friends, and finally got them (and siblings and parents) into installing signal by lying and telling I would pay for text messages and voice calls abroad (it’s still free in other counties in the European Union) where I lived for several months
Idk if Reddit counts as social media, because my use case was not really social (mostly lurking, and using it for news) but when they killed third party apps I stopped and I don’t really miss it, more free time. There is one specific subreddit I miss, not on lemmy but I can live without it
About degoogling, I did that for four years and it worked great. My phone died (suddenly one day no OS, then I failed reinstalling one. It’s bricked, no OS, no custom recovery, no fastboot only xiaomi recovery I don’t know how to unbrick, everyone tells to use fastboot which doesn’t boot) which made me exhausted of android Android, I wanted to try Apple, but I think my next phone will be a degoogled android, I miss so much apps on android
Conclusion: less convenient, but I don’t feel like I miss a lot, nothing really important*, and I felt better mental health wise after stopping social medias.
*except announcements for this class, this class sucks, but I don’t count using messenger as social media, and I have blank unused Facebook account only for messenger.

Im 28 so prob a bit older than you are looking for, but all my friends are the same way yours are. Addicted to tiktok, snapchat, etx. I only use lemmy and mastodon and i never take pictures with anyone for any reason. I dont even take christmas pictures with family because 2 seconds later they are on facebook. No thanks.

I’m an old fart, bit I did it a few years ago. It was followed by a sharp increase in my wellbeing

Lemmy is social media :)
It's user generated content, and you can talk to other users.
- I’m aware, I just simply meant corporate social media like Instagram/Facebook/TT.

I'm 16 and I dont use any social media exept lemmy and Youtube. I degoogled my phone and quit social media 1.5 years ago and I cant really complain
- YouTube is Google bud
  
  never said that I fully degoogled

Hey, I am 23yo and I have left instagram ~5 years ago because it was such a waste of time. After school, I've gotten more cautious in terms of what happens with my data, but even though I was using DuckDuckGo and FF for everything, I was still hooked on YouTube and my phones stock ROM. YT is my absolute favourite Social Media platform to this date. Only a few months ago, I had a good talk with a friend of mine, who is also into privacy. He told me about how awesome LibreTube is, and showed me, the import feature of it. Since the, I only rely on Gmails servers for K9-Mail, and Google maps. (Any suggestions besides OSM?) Since 2020, my entire friend group, and my close relatives all switched to Signal, and I've never been happier with a messenger app. The only thing that bothers me and my privacy friend, is that we still hang out on Discord, but there's no way, we get our friends to migrate to another service, especially because there are no good alternatives with privacy in focus.
Since 8 months, I am running LineageOS with microG on it. When you're a tinkerer, I can absolutely recommend microG, but I understand, that its not for everyone, especially when you rely on GPay.
- For a Google Maps replacement, everything is going to work off of the base OSM maps, but OSMand is not a great app imo. Organic Maps is good if you want to be COMPLETELY FOSS, but if you want something with good navigation and real time traffic, Magic Earth is what you want. The app itself isn't FOSS afaik, but it's privacy oriented, has very few (if any?) trackers, and can be used completely offline.
  
  Thank you, I'll give Magic earth a try
- I use organic maps on Android
- Tip about osmand app. Use https://gps-coordinates.net to turn addresses into gps coords and use those in osmand. Makes things much easier. Also, consider getting an osm account and adding addresses to places you go.

How do you do, fellow teen?

I'm 15 and I have been trying to degoogle but it's hard. The school insists you use Google services. You need to use a locked down Chromebook and use Google Classroom. Google Slides or whatever. If you want to access your school email you need to use Gmail and the services that are not provided by Google you need Microsoft for such E-learning classes. They don't use any FOSS whatsoever.
- It sucks to be limited this way. My school is all about Microsoft, gotta have a Microsoft account, gotta have Office365, gotta have everything Microsoft. Can’t wait until I graduate and they wipe my *school computer.

Yeah I'm degoogling too, it's freaky seeing everyone staring at tiktok and Snapchat... Although I get distracted by other apps too so I can't really complain lol But yeah it's so jarring when there's not really many people to share your privacy journey/knowledge with

I started caring about privacy at the tail end of high school. I started running LineageOS with microG then. Now that I'm in college, I've quit most mainstream social media, and I run GrapheneOS.

I left social media 7 years ago at the age 19and just this last month have I started to dip my toes back in to forms and such mostly because of not wanting to be a tool for content creators and companies to make money off of and then also the amount of time wasted scrolling swiping was absurd I constantly have to tell people I meet "don't have any social media just text me"

32 here, so definitely not your age, but I just want to let you know that you're not as alone in this as you think. I've also degoogled my life, I don't use any social media outside of kbin and reddit (just to keep up to date on my city via its subreddit), use Signal as my messenger, Proton for email, NewPipe for YouTube, InnerTune instead of Spotify and GrapheneOS with aggressive app permissions instead of Android, all sitting behind Mullvad VPN and a privacy focused web browser.
I've never felt so free of corporate bullshit, and the 'convenience' I've given up hasn't affected my life anywhere near as drastically as I thought it would. I just wish everyone could realize how easy it is to ditch the surveillance machine and still retain an easy, convenient digital life.

Yes I bought a Pixel 7 and installed graphene without the google play services. Only social media I use are Lemmy and YouTube (in a browser)

How do you ‘de-google’ your life? Are you just talking about ceasing Google accounts, services and avoiding the use of Google software, or is it more than that?

Good for you for not having gone cynical yet!
I refused to join social media and blogs back when I was a teen. Why have your own content under control of these companies when there was always ways you could own it yourself (through open chat protocols, self-hosted forums, and regular websites). But everyone followed these companies and soon I had too if I wanted to be in communication with anyone at all. I've given up. People are following whatever is advertised. And advertisers know how effective it is too hook us with promises of community, friendship, social contact, stock-photos of laughing people, etc. And theres always some people claiming they are going "clean". A lot jumps back. Or just find another social-marketed community.
So I've stopped de-anything. I still got a reddit account. I registered at snapshat and instagram. I am available mostly anywhere I can. Turn on email notifications in case someone tries to chat with me. But I only uses what I find fun. And are aware that what I'm giving away is probably used and sold (even here on Lemmy). And ads arent fun. I rarely use reddit anymore because of all the ads on their only available android app, and now also on their website pretending to be regular posts and bypassing my adguard. I've never gotten into tumblr for the same reason, even though the community there seems right up my alley; their only native app has been ad-filled for as long as I've been knowing about it. Mastodon and Lemmy is fun. A bit slow content-wise though. So I try to get people over here. But I dont have much hope for it. It doesnt have an ad company behind it and people forget it.

Haven't degoogled. If I want to degoogle, I need to sort through a lot just to get started. I've never been much of a social media person, though. My only issue is that a lot of people around me get their conversational topics from social media, which is sometimes enlightening but mostly kinda bleh to me.
I used to lurk through Reddit. Now I pop on Lemmy occasionally. When it comes to communication I prefer texting, email, or in-person.
Social media is more of a last resort for me for communication. Hate Snapchat— uninstalled it and never looked back. I want to uninstall Instagram, but it's one of the ways I contact people. I had to install Facebook for Facebook Messenger based on some policy my club has for board members... Hate that. Once I graduate from university I'd love to uninstall both, but I'll probably keep instagram for the sake up keeping up with old friends.
And no to TikTok. So many people have it but I don't want to join in. Overall, it does make me a lil sad that I'm into privacy because I feel like I'm missing out on connecting with people. Other times, I don't think I'm missing out on much at all.

16 years old. nobody really cares and i also don’t care. people can just message me and that’s it.

I tried to used a de-googled smartphone with custom rom installed (LineageOS) year ago. However, some apps, like banking apps insist me to install from Play Store or the app will not run, at all. I was forced to switch back to my old phone with Google on it.
I still have that de-googled phone on hand, it is a Samsung Galaxy Note 3.

18M.
I started replacing big tech stuff last year, and I have bought a Murena Fairphone 4 with degoogled /e/OS.
I guess my primary reason is just my natural interest in tinkering with digital stuff and trying out new technologies. Besides that, I don't like Snapchat, Facebook or Twitter, and I'm trying to get rid of Reddit as well.

I already tried stuff like twitter, Facebook but never felt the need or wish to use them. The longer I did was Instagram for like two years. Oddly I didn't felt anything missing even the few weeks after quiting it.
Maybe my hate for accumulation of notification don't help me to use social media
(I'm 20yo)

34 comments