Something like twitter but easier on my blood pressure

October 3, 2022 7:41 AM

I would like to replace my addiction to twitter with an addiction to something that will just show me interesting but harmless boring stuff instead of piquing my flight/fight response. Does an app like that exist for iPhone?

Here's why I'm asking for *this* specifically (not games, podcasts, tv shows, etc). I've tried a lot of other ways to quit that haven't worked. I can't list them all but suffice it to say if you saw it on a listicle about internet addiction I did too.

Given that "actively piques flight or fight response" IS the entire business model I don't expect something like this to be well known or free.

posted by bleep to Computers & Internet (23 answers total)

I know this is going to be surprising, but for me this is Reddit in the Apollo app, with an extremely carefully-selected set of subreddits that I know will be the kind of thing I want to see.
posted by primethyme at 7:42 AM on October 3, 2022 [20 favorites]

You can make a left turn with your Twitter use using Tweetdeck and one or more Twitter lists, if you think you can spare the energy and willpower to build the lists.

Tweetdeck doesn't show ads and it doesn't mess with timelines algorithmically. So if you just want to follow the likes of Cat Cosplay and thereisnocat (just as examples), you can: add them to a list, make that list a Tweetdeck column, done.
posted by humbug at 7:47 AM on October 3, 2022 [3 favorites]

Flipboard with judicious muting of sources and/or topics?
Bored panda has a lot of (is mostly?) listicles curated from Reddit posts, but I frequently find good stuff there.
posted by emkelley at 7:49 AM on October 3, 2022

Tumblr? Does take some curation but following reasonable people gets you reasonable results. No algorithm, lots of absurd humour.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 7:52 AM on October 3, 2022 [5 favorites]

Depending on what it is about Twitter that is triggering this response (and your OS), you may find Tweetbot to be a good answer. It allows me to use Twitter the way I want to: no ads, no “your friends liked” tweets, no trending topics, just tweets written or retweeted by the people I follow, presented in chronological order. It’s not free, but it’s only $6 a year and worth it for making Twitter work the way it did when I signed up.

I also agree with the rec to check out Tumblr. It’s definitely its own vibe, and maybe if you haven't been swimming in it for a decade it’s not for you, but it is also of the “no algorithm, just posts from who you follow, in order” school of social media.
posted by CtrlAltDelete at 8:02 AM on October 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Are there any that don't depend on me curating it?
posted by bleep at 8:12 AM on October 3, 2022

I've never gotten into twitter (no judgment, just somehow avoided that particular platform) but the rest of my socials isn't overly toxic. Maybe instagram? Follow a hashtag or two and the algorithm will give you more than you ever wanted of related content. I aggressively block everything to do with certain topics, and now mostly have a feed of cute puppies and travel destinations. Same with Tiktok, but this one is a little more risky; if that algorithm decides you belong in, say, hairdressor-tok (and karen-client skits are your trigger) then it's hard to escape from!
posted by cgg at 8:12 AM on October 3, 2022

How do you use Twitter? Do you have a list of accounts you follow, or do you just sort of browse around, search for things, and follow tweets from account to account?

I agree there is a lot of activating stuff on Twitter, but there is also a lot of cute pictures of cats, fun science stuff, and other categories that wouldn't be upsetting to most people. For wondrous science tweets I love Massimo. Geology Tweets has lots of pretty rocks. There's daily inspiration, cut animals, etc. I could go on. The point, though, is to be very careful with who you follow, and don't just browse around.

Twitter will show you ads and recommendations, but when it does you can give it feedback. You can block specific advertisers. It should be possible to train it away from the kinds of stuff you don't like.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 8:17 AM on October 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: My issue with twitter is that I use it to find out what's going on & that's often upsetting. So I want to limit that activity to when I can handle it & not seek it compulsively.
posted by bleep at 8:29 AM on October 3, 2022 [2 favorites]

Best answer: How interesting do the things need to be? Because if you just need to engage your dopamine system with new content, there's binky. It's a joke app, but it might actually work for what you need. It just gives you a stream of pictures and concepts that you can react to (your reactions don't matter). Here's what the app makers say:

Look, all we want from our apps is to see new stuff scroll up from the bottom of the screen. It doesn't matter what the stuff is, so how come other apps keep showing you stuff you don't want to see? When your other feeds are full of that guy you're sick of thinking about, Binky will show you pictures of birds.

posted by Ragged Richard at 8:29 AM on October 3, 2022 [17 favorites]

I use the Google app on iPhone, and it has a junk news feed. You have to be careful what you click, look at 1 celeb news item and you'll get inundated with more. Interesting and much of it is local, except that Google can't differentiate Portland, Maine from that west coast knockoff.
posted by theora55 at 9:18 AM on October 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

For me that thing is tiktok, but its algorithm works for me--I get gardening and cooking content and cute babies--and I know it doesn't always work right. But I didn't have to manually curate anything.
posted by quaking fajita at 9:22 AM on October 3, 2022 [4 favorites]

Maybe jettison Twitter completely and take a look at micro.blog? Smaller universe of people posting pictures, books they're reading, comments, blog-post-previews, and other stuff (disclosure, I'm a paying customer and use their blog-hosting service).

Mastodon might also scratch this itch, though some of the servers are frantically busy. Others not so much, it depends. I have found it to be generally younger and friendlier than Twitter ever was. There's no incentive to engage fight-or-flight because nobody actually owns it.
posted by jquinby at 10:56 AM on October 3, 2022

By "curate", I mean mute topics or block sources of content you don't want to see, if you come across any. It takes about three seconds, if that. There's also streams for specific topics on Flipboard, I don't personally use those so I don't know as much about them but they seem more "curated".
posted by emkelley at 11:01 AM on October 3, 2022

I use an RSS reader to look at the internet now. You do have to curate what sites you want to subscribe to. Here's a how-to post I made for some people who wanted to know how to do it.

I don't use social media at all (other than a latent Mastodon account), so this is how I get my "something to scroll through on my phone" fix once a day or so.
posted by nosila at 11:22 AM on October 3, 2022 [2 favorites]

I think TikTok is a good solution for this. At least the parts that I've seen are really just folks having fun with videos. There are so many different areas. If you need one account to start with, check out Jon Graz and his sweet elderly pug as they determine if it's a bones day or a no-bones day. There's a lot of sweet, wholesome stuff on there.
posted by hydra77 at 11:29 AM on October 3, 2022 [2 favorites]

I came in to suggest an RSS reader. I use InoReader on both my laptop and phone. I think they can help you when you first set up the free account select a few feeds you would like. You'll only get posts from those feeds, and any website that has an RSS feed (and many that don't) can be setup to send you an update in the reader when they post something new. A great feed I like is from Reasons to Be Cheerful.
posted by chiefthe at 11:37 AM on October 3, 2022

Tiktok will (terrifyingly) curate this for you without you noticing. If you spend a day or two liking and commenting things you enjoy, maybe searching for a couple of innocuous things you will get on "xyz" tiktok. This may have nothing to do with your interests, and of course you can end up on "agressive political tiktok", so don't give it the ammo. I am, for unknown reasons, on native tiktok, and for very well known reasons on back-pain tiktok, also lesbian tiktok, etc. It just scrolls happily along and I throw an occasional heart at things I want to see more of.
posted by Iteki at 12:07 PM on October 3, 2022 [4 favorites]

I use Feedly (deeper dives, no hot takes, no dialog) and an Instagram feed of 95% artists and 5% a few IRL friends. (I am sometimes sucked back into Twitter until parasocial misery and doomscrolling finally get bad enough that I leave again).
posted by latkes at 12:09 PM on October 3, 2022

Response by poster: I was hoping there were more things like Binky that weren't social media based but I guess it's a niche request... I'm just sick of the general public & what they have to say right now. Loving Binky so far!
posted by bleep at 12:57 PM on October 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

Metafilter: I'm just sick of the general public.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 4:17 PM on October 3, 2022 [5 favorites]

Could you have a friend create and curate a social media account for you that’s based very strictly on benign interests, and then pass along the username and password so you can access it?
posted by delight at 6:45 PM on October 3, 2022

Best answer: This is slightly different but I’ve been curing (or at least treating) my mainstream news addiction with OnlyGoodNewsDaily and similar sites. There’s no way to avoid bad and frightening news these days, so if I’m going to actively try to keep my brain full of current affairs content I might as well choose nice stuff.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 9:14 PM on October 3, 2022 [1 favorite]