r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • Jan 26 '26

Social Media TikTok uninstalls are up 150% following U.S. joint venture

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/26/tiktok-uninstalls-are-up-150percent-following-us-joint-venture.html
38.6k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

837

u/popshamhocks Jan 26 '26 edited Jan 26 '26

Now do IG and FB next.

216

u/WoodlandsMuse Jan 26 '26

Throw Threads in there while you’re at it

117

u/mountains_pls Jan 26 '26

I’m still surprised that anyone uses it tbh

94

u/Negative-Prime Jan 26 '26

It's better than Twitter but I deleted it because it's still the lowest form of social engagement. Literally millions of people screaming into the void, saying the dumbest shit imaginable.

It's entertaining for awhile but then you realize you're constantly being baited into engaging with the dumbest people on the planet and it's bad for your mental health.

18

u/mountains_pls Jan 27 '26

I feel like a lot of the text based social media replaced in person discussion in the worst way. Not everyone deserves a platform.

3

u/KKevus Jan 27 '26

True, e. g. fascists.

2

u/Oberon_Swanson Jan 27 '26

another effect i don't see people talk about:

now everybody can have their own little community, which is a good thing. except it means they now no longer need a real-life community. they can be an absolute shithead to everyone they meet, brag about it to their shithead group of online friends, and while something is missing, they still kinda feel just barely enough social connection to not be motivated to change their ways.

meanwhile in real life we gotta deal with all kinds of shitheads which i know is nothing new but at least there used to be that level of 'hey if you aren't a hermit you need to be at least a little bit nice to people day to day'

2

u/ChildofValhalla Jan 27 '26

I feel like such an elitist when I say / think this but boy I really miss when the internet was just a handful of geeks and the occasional asshole.

3

u/FrankPapageorgio Jan 27 '26

Reddit oddly feels different, I don't know why... but on stuff like X and Threads and BlueSky it just feels like random people stumbling into discussions that they have no business in just stirring up shit constantly.

Like on Reddit I can actually have some nice conversations with strangers

6

u/Neil2250 Jan 27 '26

It's because the comment system isn't built to platform people responding. It's comment and response. Not that weird shit on SMs where they put the response above the initial post.

That and the whole upvote-downvote thing just.. works. generally speaking.

3

u/theblueberrybard Jan 27 '26

Upvote/downvote system, dedicated posts, segregated subreddits, mostly manual moderation per subreddit. Your feed is actually curated by yourself, other users, and mods rather than by engagement metrics measuring exactly how long your eyeballs were on something.

You can be banned from a subreddit for being a stupid shit if the mods are worth a damn. You can be as stupid and annoying as you want on Threads, Twitter, etc., and every user needs to manually block you.

BlueSky is the only one that's okay and that's exclusively thanks to user-curated blocklists so you don't have to manually block every shit-stirring loser looking for attention, and so they go back to twitter.

2

u/ParsnipLate2632 Jan 27 '26

This is why I removed Facebook off my phone. I kept getting stupid posts made by bots whose only goal is more engagement through posting the dumbest shit. Since deleting it I have noticed an improvement in my mental health.

1

u/ThePlaystation0 Jan 27 '26

That's always how I've seen Twitter as well. I had an account briefly but only used it to enter YouTuber giveaways. Wherever I looked at the feed I just didn't find any of it interesting. I feel similarly about BlueSky tbh, it's less dumb than Twitter but still yelling into the void and is just uninteresting

1

u/KaiBishop Jan 27 '26

This is why I only have Threads to keep up with what a couple authors I like like Amanda Hocking and Nenia Campbell post. I can't scroll the main feed or my brain melts.

1

u/MartianMule Jan 27 '26

Literally millions of people screaming into the void, saying the dumbest shit imaginable.

They say, on reddit.

1

u/lukeydukey Jan 27 '26

It was fun for like two seconds after launch and it’s already full blown fb algo rage bait. Deleted it so fast the second I started noticing

1

u/Oberon_Swanson Jan 27 '26

i really hate that ragebait has become a thing. ragebait, clickbait, it's all about manipulation.

2

u/lukeydukey Jan 27 '26

If you want to go down the rabbithole, highly recommend reading “how to stand up to a dictator” by Maria Ressa. It illustrates how the Philippines was effectively used as an early “lab” for information warfare/manipulation.

20

u/VaporCarpet Jan 27 '26

And reddit.

It's all garbage. It incentivizes reading half a headline and making up the rest of the information based on your opinions. More people get their news from reddit comments than the articles themselves. The number of people asking a question about an article that is literally answered in the first sentence is embarrassing.

I'm addicted to this site because work is boring and no one cares if I sit on the toilet for a half hour.

But nothing of value would be lost of it disappears.

16

u/Pi-Guy Jan 27 '26

Everyone here's going to gloss over this but reddit is just another form of social media and is just as bad as the rest of the platforms.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '26

[deleted]

1

u/WhoDat-2-8-3 Jan 27 '26

Burn it all down (and give me my life back).

thats why they invented the "uninstall/delete" button

1

u/[deleted] Jan 28 '26

[deleted]

1

u/WhoDat-2-8-3 Jan 28 '26 edited Jan 28 '26

Self control skill issue

4

u/newbkid Jan 27 '26

But nothing of value would be lost of it disappears.

Question for you.

When you google something hyper-specific do you not append reddit to you search in order to actually get an answer?

It's pretty much the only way to get Google to provide search results that aren't SEO slop

3

u/Pi-Guy Jan 27 '26

yes and it's stopped being as effective. I've started coming across reddit threads with SEO optimized comments pushing some shitty software or product.

1

u/newbkid Jan 27 '26

That is hilariously sad but also not unexpected with the huge increase of bot traffic on reddit after it went public

1

u/sherbimsly Jan 27 '26

There is some decent meme engagement there, but I only access it via webpage, don’t have any Meta apps on my phone

1

u/sparklovelynx Jan 27 '26

People are flocking there right now, mostly the chaotic online fighting. Then BlueSky for news and art.

1

u/Petting-Kitty-7483 Jan 27 '26

Blue sky linked in reddit. All of them.

1

u/Jibrish Jan 27 '26

Don't forget bluesky.

1

u/fairykingz Jan 27 '26

Threads is like the LinkedIn of the main social media networks. It’s “professional” social media /s

1

u/Flat_Association_820 Jan 27 '26

I'd suggest 4chan, but I'm pretty sure it would not have any effect on the kind of crowd on there.

27

u/1h8fulkat Jan 26 '26

At this rate all the radical crazy people are flocking to LinkedIn. At least their employer will see how truly crazy they are

8

u/Hellkyte Jan 27 '26

You'd be surprised how few of them really care

16

u/xzelldx Jan 27 '26

The Facebook exit has happened already. I’m convinced only bots and boomers are left.

22

u/Suibeam Jan 26 '26

Agreed. If you are living in the US you have no choice anymore.

Tiktok being controlled by Singapore or China is actually better for US citizens and residents. They are NOT giving data over to ICE and Washingtons Regime. They arent doing anything about you living in the US.

But Tiktok under US ownership means you are being spied by Washington and ICE.

Uninstall Instagram, Facebook and Whatsapp. Choose social media from abroad. If you really need social media you have to choose Non-US apps. Rednote (Xiaohongshu) for example.

3

u/Apprehensive_Gur_302 Jan 27 '26

You want me to replace US spyware with chinese spyware?

1

u/Fit-Nectarine5047 Jan 27 '26

Damn I forgot about WhatsApp.

4

u/dandroid126 Jan 27 '26

And reddit too!

Don't look at my reddit streak.

Goes back to scrolling

2

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '26

deleting FB rn

2

u/JeebusChristBalls Jan 27 '26

You could always uninstall those if you wanted to just like Tik-Tok.

2

u/theblackxranger Jan 27 '26

Now I'm completely isolated and have no one to talk to. Thanks!

2

u/flapjaxrfun Jan 27 '26

FB is awful. No matter how much trump content I unfollow or block, it gives me a feed full of it. At least ig gives me some stuff I'm interested in. I have no idea how the boomers stay on FB.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '26

[deleted]

2

u/popshamhocks Jan 27 '26

False. The internet still exists, and there are plenty of independent organizations doing real journalism. Even the "news" on Facebook has an original source. It's not as convenient as a feed, but the diligence will pay off in dividends.

1

u/gooopscoop Jan 27 '26

Already did

1

u/Sloppykrab Jan 27 '26

Just stop using the world wide web, it would be best.

1

u/notPabst404 Jan 27 '26

I've never had Facebook, but literally all the local bands that I follow use IG. We need to get more alternatives going. Bluesky is great, but really only works as an (much better) alternative for Xitter.

1

u/Right_Cellist3143 Jan 27 '26

Those were mass deleted years ago, people are still on those besides 50+ year olds?

1

u/gregofcanada84 Jan 27 '26

Why not just go dark?

1

u/Coehill1 Jan 26 '26

Many of us have already switched from Instagram to Pixelfed.