Join Me for No Socials November

The author is taking a break from social media for No Socials November and invites readers to try it too by logging out and deleting apps. It’s framed as a low-commitment experiment with no pressure to stay off afterward. As an alternative, they suggest blogging via Pika (with a discount code) and welcome emails and blog links.

Key Points

• The author is committing to a month off social media for No Socials November as part of a broader move away from social platforms.
• They’ve already logged out of personal accounts and disabled algorithmic recommendations (e.g., YouTube) and suggest readers do the same by logging out and deleting apps.
• This is a low-pressure experiment: after November, people can return to social media as before, modify their usage, or stay off.
• Blogging is suggested as an alternative, with a recommendation to use Pika and a NOSOCIALSNOVEMBER coupon for 15% off the first year.
• Readers are invited to email thoughts and share their blogs so the author can follow their writing.

Sentiment

The community is overwhelmingly sympathetic to the premise that mainstream social media is harmful and that stepping back is worthwhile. However, much of the discussion centers on nuance: defining what counts as social media, debating whether HN itself is part of the problem, and sharing technical or behavioral strategies for managing consumption rather than quitting entirely. There is very little outright opposition to the idea of reducing social media use; the disagreements are mainly about methods (temporary breaks vs. permanent systems) and scope (which platforms count).

In Agreement

• Social media creates a distorted simulacrum of reality that no longer corresponds to the tangible world, functioning as a dangerously inaccurate model of the world.
• The internet has shifted from something you deliberately 'log on' to into an always-on default state, inverting the relationship between online and offline life in ways nobody consented to.
• Algorithm-driven, engagement-optimized platforms are fundamentally more harmful than older forms of online interaction like forums and blogs, because everyone is susceptible to algorithmic manipulation.
• Quitting mainstream social media leads to measurably improved wellbeing -- multiple commenters report feeling better after leaving Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram years ago.
• Social media triggers envy, FOMO, and unhealthy comparison through lifestyle porn and curated presentations of others' lives.
• The decline of forums, blogs, and niche community platforms in favor of a few corporate social media giants has contributed to increased loneliness and degraded discourse quality.
• A 30-day break is a low-stakes way to form new habits and discover whether you actually enjoy these platforms or are just trapped by their addictive design.
• Online outrage culture has seeped so deeply into real-world interactions that even disconnecting cannot fully repair the damage -- people carry internet-derived talking points and memes into offline conversations worldwide.

Opposed

• Rather than temporary month-long breaks, people should build permanent, intentional systems for managing social media consumption -- routing notifications to email, using browser extensions, and batch-processing updates.
• The Fediverse and non-corporate social media platforms offer a healthier alternative that preserves the benefits of online connection without the algorithmic toxicity, making a full break unnecessary.
• Individual users can still maintain healthy boundaries with the internet by treating it as something you deliberately sit down to do, keeping phone usage minimal, and not letting online activity affect real life.
• Developers specifically have the power to build their own technical solutions (userscripts, extensions, feed blockers) to neutralize the harmful aspects of social media while retaining its value.
• Some social media platforms serve genuinely useful purposes -- coordinating social events, keeping up with friends, professional networking -- that cannot easily be replaced by going fully offline.
• The framing of 'No Socials November' is incomplete because it doesn't address platforms like YouTube and HN, and the approach of merely disabling recommendations rather than fully disconnecting suggests less than total commitment.