Facebook and Instagram.
10 years ago they were very helpful for keeping up with friends I didn’t see very often. Now, Facebook is full of sponsored posts and politics rather than the personal updates I want; and the Instagram feed has more posts from people I don’t follow than from people I do.
I stepped away from both a year ago. In the main, I don’t miss them. The unfortunate part is that Facebook is the only place local community stuff is posted, so I can’t quit entirely. But I no longer have the app on my phone; I just open it in Firefox when I need to look do a specific thing.
I quit 10 years ago because the bots were insane. The discourse was polarizing and truly showed how uneducated the masses are. Either that or my feeds were mostly bots made for engagement bait. I only miss some of the local pages I belonged to. But even those were filled with rage bait and the ignorant.
It always humored me to argue with someone in my neighborhood online only for them to completely be jovial to me in person. When I’d bring up their idiotic arguments they’d just walk away. Being outed as the village idiot in person still worked. But online, it was celebrated.
About 4-5 years ago, I noticed Reddit was catching up to that point in time when I quit facebook and Instagram. Bots, people who just want to see the world burn and a lack of serious and respectful discussion. Not that Reddit was ever respectful. But I’d find very insightful TIL or AMAs. It’s all disappeared.
Buying anything from Amazon. I canceled my Amazon prime over 20 years ago.
I was a heavy Amazon user. It was $60 for the year and when they changed the pantry from anything that fits into the box with free shipping to not free shipping i decided it’s time to quit.
Also, when I heard that the warehouse inventory is all co-mingled, so even if you buy your skin care and vitamins from the “official” retailer store there’s no guarantee that you’ll get a genuine product. I vowed to never buy anything from amazon that I would consume or put on my body. Even cleaning products, I’ve received fraudulent products. Once you know what to look for, it’s quite easy to spot.
I buy from Amazon maybe once a year. And it’s typically only for something I can’t find elsewhere. Like a specific gift a friend or family sends a link for.
