Quitting Image Boards

Bascially, I don't use social media, and haven't used YouTube in over 3 years, except for instructional videos, no account. Also basically, I'm getting tired of using image boards. I've been told too often by the more normal people in my life that image boards are too "toxic," and "hostile," and will only make my depression worse because of these facts, and I care to believe it. They've also been a waste of time for me, and are starting to get boring. I wish to be gone forever, and become more involved in my life, because I'm a hikkineet. It was so easy to quit YouTube, and I never had a social media addiction ever in my life, but there is just something drawing me back repeatedly to these sites. I feel like even if I were to block them on my computer or my modem, I will still have the urge to scroll on my cellphone using data or tor. I normally scroll on my cellphone because my depression is usually so bad that I can't even build up the energy to get out of bed most days, and sit at my computer. Has anyone tried even a break from image boards, and succeeded in that break? Is it just will-power, and I'm too lazy and retarded to actually do it? How has using the Internet for only productive things improved your life?

>>68513 >I've been told too often by the more normal people in my life that image boards are too "toxic," and "hostile," Do you find Lainchan hostile and toxic? I don't come here that often, but I always found it friendly and nice. >I normally scroll on my cellphone because my depression is usually so bad that I can't even build up the energy to get out of bed most days, and sit at my computer. I personally think that greatest help for such addictions is actually having better things to do. If you are depressed hikkimori without anything to do whole day, it is difficult to avoid such timesinks. >Has anyone tried even a break from image boards, and succeeded in that break? I try to limit my usage of 4chan and certain other sites, and I have blocked them on my main PC and access them only from secondary PC i turn on only on weekends. This prevents me from mindless scrolling, and when I do access those websites, it gives me certain distance from the things that happen there - Because it is not my main community, but merely place I visit now and then. But I still visit there, so I am not sure it an answer to your question. > Is it just will-power, and I'm too lazy and retarded to actually do it? If you don't have willpower to force yourself to quit, you need to work around it. Consider situations where you end up browsing image boards and try to avoid them. If it is boredom, find better things to do. If you crave company, speak with someone you know, preferably in real life. If you crave some entertainment, read a book, or at least watch good movie. >How has using the Internet for only productive things improved your life? I have tried using internet only for productive things, and failed miserably. I think humans need some such distractions. The important thing is to limit the overindulging. Sure, go on image board for hour, but then get up and do something else.

I'm with you, imageboards don't really have much to offer and are very hostile. I too keep getting back to these places, even though I don't benefit from it much. I've tried to get away from them, but I always end up coming back. Whenever I stop using them things go well for me, usually. However, I do need something to keep my mind entertained in dead times, and I am so used to imageboards that the resistance to use them wears down eventually. If you have crippling depression then no amount of "advice" I can give you will be of any use, it'll probably even be irritating: "just get up bro Present Day, Present Time! AHAHAHAHAHA!". All I can do is tell you that, yes, imageboards are hostile, they are filled with spiteful and conceited people, angry, rude, it's a fuarrrking cesspool of mind vomit. There's a few good things to be found amidst the pile of garbage, which is probably why our dopamine receptors respond well to this crap. I will probably stop using them eventually, if the starts align. Imageboards are a big waste of time and, yes, they are pretty boring. If you count the time you spend in the and the ratio of tikes you actually get something useful or good from using them, you'll probably find it's very low. These places really are filled with mind poison, and just like eating junk food or watching porn, it is unhealthy for you in the long run.

>>68513 I have a love/hate relationship with imageboards. I still think there's a value to an anonymous image shearing website and not all of them are cancer, lainchan is pretty good. Sure, places like 4chan are full of hostile and aggressive boards, but Twitter and Facebook can be just as negative. When it comes to social media, we blame the bad behavior of users on individuals or specific communities, but when it comes to imageboards we blame bad behavior on the entire site even if it was just one rotten board. Are people advising you to cut imageboards out of your life because they genuinely are more ''toxic'' than mainstream social media, or is it simple normal person moralism where people soykaf all over these communities because they are strange and different? >Has anyone tried even a break from image boards, and succeeded in that break? I quit imageboards, specifically 4chan around 2016ish. I can't remember the exact date, but it was when the Don Trump soykaf was going down and the politics just became completely unbearable. I started using 4chan again about 5 months ago and I use it pretty frequently. What makes it hard to quit is that there are still some niche boards there that are really fun. Imageboards are like candy or alcohol: fine when used in moderate amounts. If you use these sites carefully, pick the right sites and don't go down the rabbit hole of spiraling addiction then you'll be fine. They key is responsible use. Going on soyjak whatever for 6 hours a day is the equivalent of spending hours in a strip bar snorting coke, going on lainchan for an hour is like having a drink with friends. Trying to quit taught me to use responsibly.

I come back to 4chan every couple years or so, browse it daily for like 10 minutes for a month or two and then I just get bored. Don't you get bored? 4chan in 2023 is just mind-numbingly boring. It's on the level of a news site comment section and full of genuinely old people talking about old people nonsense, jobs, latest political scandals, conspiracy theories and so on. If you weren't using image boards 15+ years ago you have no idea how much they changed. 4chan back then used to be full of this insane, creative energy, it was fun and it was ridiculous because the users were just kids. Teenagers. Parts of TikTok are like this right now to a point, kids being kids on the internet, it's that same beautiful, ridiculous, incomprehensible energy. As to YouTube, I use it to listen to music for free and to learn new stuff but there's something you need to understand about YouTube. YouTube is not social media. YouTube is the reason why the internet was created. It's television democratized. It's the greatest source of knowledge in all of history. This is not an exaggeration, the amount of high-quality informational content on the platform is unbelievable. Every language, every topic, everything. I remember the analog world and sometimes I ask myself, how is this even real? You want to learn a new language? You want to learn how to solder? How to paint a wall? How to compose a symphony? It's there, it's all there, go learn something new.

>>68524 What ends up drawing me back to places like lain, to a lesser degree, or 4chan and Discord for another wasted day of nothing but scrolling is the social connection more than anything. It's full of old people, but it's old people that grew up under that same era you're describing trying to make their feeble and common voices heard amidst the blasts of absolute white noise buzzing out from that newish, younger, and infinitely more disgruntling part of the culture that tries itself to make its pathetic nothingness known and acknowledged, but not really heard, as the only thing it has to say are aesthetically unpleasant black-and-white traces of ignorance. Not to mention social media is pretty fuarrrking terrible for creatives in general. The animalization of culture on TikTok as my sister kindly shows me to let me be in the know is depressing to witness. One word about YouTube and learning (as it's pretty fuarrrking great for free music): you end up hitting a wall very quickly if you plan to delve deeper and materialize that knowledge into something if the platform is the only thing you're depending on. It's okay for picking up snippets of new things to do or bite-sized tidbits of information, but what you generally find overtaking the site is a shallow standard of knowledge that's perhaps unavoidable when you democratize it and let everyone, hacks and grifters and snake oil merchants and entertainers and those who perhaps know no better but still stagnate pretty awfully and somehow still find success in their stupidity as they spread it forth and it replicates like a gnawing tumor of overwhelming mediocrity, have a voice. Video is also a pretty bad medium for knowledge retention. You do find some gems from time to time, though, just don't be fooled.

>>68524 For me personally, I think what draws me back to 4chan every now and then is simply a hard baked routine that has been going on for 15+ years and the decade long mantra of hoping to find gold in a massive dumpster fire that should've gone out long ago. Admittedly, this must be what people consider to be akin to social media addiction because there's hardly anything on 4chan that is exciting anymore, it's all a bunch of angry bitter old men but it's also a crowd that I relate to very much and that also sickens me to an extent.

>>68531 >Video is also a pretty bad medium for knowledge retention. Video is the best medium if you want to learn a practical skill. I saved so much money by just watching videos on YouTube and doing things by myself instead of hiring professionals. Pour a concrete slab? I can do that. Plaster a wall? No problem. Install a kitchen sink? You bet. Build a shed? Did that too. YouTube and well, being broke turned me into a handyman. It's awesome.

>>68513 >Has anyone tried even a break from image boards, and succeeded in that break? Is it just will-power, and I'm too lazy and retarded to actually do it? How has using the Internet for only productive things improved your life? Like >>68524, I (almost entirely) stopped visiting 4chan simply because it's boring or just unpleasant to me now. Little to no willpower was necessary in my case, and it almost took this thread to remind me of this fact. That said, I still visit this place perhaps once a week. Although I've personally changed for the better, I still relate to many of the people struggling on this board, and I try to help them as best I can. Some of the content is genuinely edifying to me too. I think that using the internet /strictly/ for productivity is infeasible for us. Virtually everybody needs a bit of diversion, a bit of noise, a bit of fraternity, in their life. If you're not in a position to obtain that solely from your meatspace life (most of us here aren't, perhaps limiting the most on the fraternity side), it only makes sense to spend some time online - just try to be productively chaotic with it to the extent that you do use it.

Where else am I supposed to go? Imageboards are the only place I have ever had friends. I don't need to know names to have friends

>>68553 I can't learn from video dont pretend to speak for others this tech stuff has left me in the dust I am fundamentally incapable of learning from a computer

Lainchan was more cozy till those scum from 8chan migrated here. It's fine to use the internet you just need to schedule your time better and be more selective of content you consume.

>>68512 That's easy. Sleep all day if not getting sick doing so. Then you have less time for scrolling soykafs and more urges for changes. >and become more involved in my life, because I'm a hikkineet. How long can you keep hikikomori? Have you tried not to make yourself a deadline for developing a new interest or skill set? Best wishes.

>>68559 Wasn’t 8chan’s /cyber board basically enemies with “lamechan” way back? Why did they move here?

>>68513 Imageboards are meant to be hostile and toxic. To everyone. It's a place where ideas meet, and that mean the ones you disagree with as well. If you want a safe space, go to any corner of the internet where the local consensus won't be disturbed by other worldviews. I think cardinal truths should meet and conflict, only then a debate can take place, but feel free to not be in the warzone. Just don't force everyone on the planet to live in a seculed island. I have tried to be wired free for entire weeks only to miss the only place where I could talk with peole who do not care about their social status. Now about depression, I don't know how to cure it but I know how to not cure it, and it's by looking at a screen. What the pixels on the screen are is irrelevant. You have a body and it's your body that create the chemicals that make you depressed. Use your body to do whatever you can and like.

>>68590 >Imageboards are meant to be hostile and toxic. To everyone. Stupid and incorrect, infa tile and reactionary mindset. Binary, dichotomous. You see imageboards as "not like the other thing", which is fuarrrking braindead. Like you, fuarrrking braindead. >It's a place where ideas meet, and that mean the ones you disagree with as well. Which has nothing to do with hostility or an extreme and unnecessary degree of adversarial behavior and discussion. You think it's either hostile or hugbox, this is known as splitting, it is an infantile defense mechanism and it comes from your childhood. >I think cardinal truths should meet and conflict, only then a debate can take place, but feel free to not be in the warzone. A warzone isn't a debate, you stupid fuarrrk. It's kill or be killed, feed or be fed upon, and the entire frame of it is something other people threw you into. It's win at all costs and minimize losses. That isn't debate or even rhetoric, it's "win the race even if I have to bust everyone else's kneecaps so they can't compete". I'm not going to read the rest of your soykaf. Your whole manner of framing is delusional, you don't even know what you're saying. Probably that happens to you a lot though.

>>68591 >You see imageboards as "not like the other thing", which is fuarrrking braindead That is correct. I don't want all sites to be the same and I don't want internet to be more dead than it is. I want porn site to get my porn, twitter to listen to the idiocy of celebrity, chans to tell me the latest conspiracy theory and informative websites to be productive. I want all the sites to have their identity because when everything is the same it just make you want to kill yourself. >You think it's either hostile or hugbox, Correct. There is a ladder of tolerance for ideas that are against the local norm and chans are hurtbox. No matter how sane and reasonalbe your ideas are, someone, somewhere disagree with you and chans are the only place where you can meet that person. And we should have the possibility to meet him. >A warzone isn't a debate While the word warzone wasn't wise, wars are in fact debates because the law is only the opinion with the side that have the biggest guns. It's the debates that decide where the country are and what set of crooks get to make the common laws.

>>68520 Not only 4chan is hostile but it's also not even anonymous since they block VPNs and Tor. Personally I like imageboards conceptually very much, but except for Lainchan imo every single one of them absolutely is like kicking dead whales down the beach for one reason or another - lack of privacy, soykaf moderation, excessive brewing soykaf, etc. I think that there's a lot to be gained from scrolling through here and most half decent forums, since at the very least everytime I come here I learn something or at least become curious enough to get into a search engine and read about some subject that I would otherwise not known about.

>>68593 >That is correct. I don't want all sites to be the same and I don't want internet to be more dead than it is. You're responding to just say the same thing in different words. I'm telling you that you've characterized the core soul, function, utility, of imageaboards as "not X". It's ridiculous. >Correct. There is a ladder of tolerance for ideas that are against the local norm and chans are hurtbox. Wrong. Your conception of a hurtbox is so suburban and domesticated that you don't even know what you're saying. If hurt is someone saying scary words and disagreeing with you, I've got news kiddo. You are the problem killing imagebaords and helping drain the life and enthusiam out of retard and effortposter alike. Chans aren't "hurtboxes", they're not ascetic, nor are they about transmuting pain and discomfort into growth. They're not fight club. That's not their core. There is still an expectation to deliver value and a social contract. You're an edgy teenager. >While the word warzone wasn't wise, wars are in fact debates because the law is only the opinion with the side that have the biggest guns. No, the analogy isn't salvageable. I'm all for abstraction and lateral thinking, but just let it go. This ain't it.

>>68595 > I'm telling you that you've characterized the core soul, function, utility, of imageaboards as "not X". It's ridiculous. You wouldn't be less dishonest by saying that I define Twitter by not being a chan. >proceed to say chans are not X chans are not Y Ho, the irony. What kill the boards in their specialization. /b/ will never be creative again because the fappening made too many normal people use it. Face the reality: if you just wanted to share pictures, you would be on instagram and you are here instead because instagram is for vapid, socially accepted norms and we are the divergents. Ever had a conversation about reincarnation with schizophrenic people on Instagram? Ever had a discussion about how the consequences of the digitization of the world on the social structure? It's called an imageboard but you go to them for the text. Here is your social contract: we will both expose our honest views to each other without care for the consequences on our social life and we will both be honest with the others about what we think of them.

>>68590 >It's a place where ideas meet, and that mean the ones you disagree with as well. If you want a safe space, go to any corner of the internet where the local consensus won't be disturbed by other worldviews. In a way such an environment IS a safe space; safe from discourse that doesn't match the format of mostly short form insults and putdowns. This isn't necessarily bad, as there is a lot you can do with that format, and there is a lot it enables that isn't allowed elsewhere, but it's limiting. Appeal to cynicism can lead you away from the truth since the truth isn't always about a person or thing being extraordinarily terrible. When I post on imageboards I try to match the style of rhetoric, like if I was trying to write a haiku I'd put the right number of syllables on each line. But in the end that's all it is, a format, not more true in itself than a different one.

>>68597 >Here is your social contract: we will both expose our honest views to each other without care for the consequences on our social life and we will both be honest with the others about what we think of them. That's acceptable. However if, for a prolonged period, you try to coerce and contrive to extract more than you put in, if it were up to me your ass would be gone (or otherwise remade). These behaviors bring useless materials into being and drag down the SNR. These behaviors should be destroyed, that is the metric for creating the ideal.

>>68598 >safe from discourse that doesn't match the format of mostly short form insults and putdowns This is not what happen on the chans. Memes have a power due to their repostability, and yes since the events of 2016 we have lost a lot of maturity, and yes a lot of interest group opposed to the very existance of honest debate try to jam the chans with their spam to lower the signal to noise ratio, but honest discourse still, and will always have a place even if it's for the sole reason that the best way to mock an idea is to show how wrong it is.

>>68601 >but honest discourse still, and will always have a place even if it's for the sole reason that the best way to mock an idea is to show how wrong it is. It's not a bad way, but a fixation on mockery creates its own bias and disqualifies many good forms of argument. Also, one insidious effect of an environment of open hostile disagreement is that it creates a baseless impression that censorship is not occurring. 4chan in particular is a very censored platform that pretends to be otherwise, and you only realize it once you have genuinely interesting or dangerous things to say.

>>68603 So is Lainchan. Back when I made bioelectromagnetics and magnetobiology threads, getting into the convergence of wireless systems (including but not limited to 5G), synthetic biology, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence, my threads were initially flooded with bots and sh!lls (the whole vibe and slant to the discourse was very different from how it usually is around here). Then my threads were deleted and the topic was derezzed.(USER WAS WARNED FOR THIS POST, Do not whine and cry about 8chan, lainchan.jp, "quality", "invasions", "newfags", mods, bans, or kalyx outside of /q/.)

For me it was the opposite I might try and wean myself off YouTube by using chatrooms first. fuarrrk that site but I know I'm the problem

>>68605 are you that "coils" anon? I remember those threads. it quickly vanished and when I was about to archive the stuff it was gone. do you happen to know any kind of archive/trove of that stuff? ty. I cannot find it in the arisuchan archives

>>68609 >are you that "coils" anon? No, I don't think so anyway.

>>68603 >4chan in particular is a very censored platform that pretends to be otherwise Show me how. The only time I have been derezzed I was doxxing people, posting CP or encouraging a murder.

>>68618 Moderation actions on 4chan are opaque, and in the words of a 4chan moderator, that's "by design". I can't prove anything, all I have is half remembered anecdotes from others, rumors, and my own limited experiences. I can only speculate that the rest of what you're saying there happens to not be suppressed. That isn't to say that I think the nature of most of this suppression is a grand conspiracy, much of it is more likely incidental and pragmatic and small scale corruption, but it still strongly shapes the discourse. In the absence of being able to give evidence, I'll just say again, the acceptability of normally disallowed conversation does not prove absence of censorship. If you think it does, you have a false sense of security.

>>68649 >Moderation actions on 4chan are opaque, and in the words of a 4chan moderator, that's "by design" In the good old time, there was no rule for posting, enjoy your freedom and no rules for mods either, so enjoy your ban. The only thing I have seen being suppressed was to talk about that women who slept with 5 guys for good videogame reviews. Not even on the board made to contain neo nazis. This is what fulled the great 8ch4n migration. Now given the number of spam thread, BBC threads and demoralization thread, you can't accuse them to censor those who oppose uncle Paul.

>>68649 I have just witnessed a thread of 4chan disapear without reason and now I understand you. It's a place of freedom where you are allowed to talk about flat hearth, transgenders and how disbalanced the justice system is in the us, but make a thread that talk about the sensitive bits and it get removed with possibly a ban on the poster. The thread was about this: https://report.foundationforfreedomonline.com/11-9-22.html

>>68742 >my platform is soykaf >no MY platform is soykaf >*looming pile of soykaf*

>>68742 >that article it's like watching Rome in real time. A great time to live if you're not american lol

>>68742 >4chan Cloudflare makes it impossible to post via Tor or a decent VPN. All those people are posting bare IP and/or subjecting themselves to thorough device fingerprinting to get passed the captcha. All the javascript and webgl stuff on the captcha page is not to catch bots, and when the captcha keeps failing it's not because you did it wrong it's because your setup is too anonymous. >>68531 >Video is also a pretty bad medium for knowledge retention. The reason books are superior is because you can pause after every page, or paragraph or sentence to reflect on what you've read, challenge it or absorb it. The problem with video is that the information keeps coming whether you are ready for it or not. So in reality the things you retain are emotional undertones and very basic information. Which is why totalitarians and propagandists love video. That's pretty much the point of Fahrenheit 451. >>68745 >A great time to live if you're not american lol Modern America is basically The British Empire 2.0. It is collapsing but they will juice the colonies to keep the imperial homeland afloat for as long as possible. If you speak English your country is probably one of those colonies.

>>68848 America has 10 years left at the very best. And no I don't speak English.

>>68851 Look how much money europe is sending to US weapons and energy companies because of the ukraine situation. America doesn't have 10 years left. Europe has 5 and america has 10 + 5.

>>68848 As for all that stuff about 4chan, what people need to realize is it isn't the same place as when moot owned it.

>>68851 >>68852 >>68848 So you're telling me that US and Europe with over 50% of world's economy, population of over a billion and the strongest military in history is going to collapse in 10 years? You guys are brain-damaged, like you're not even stupid.

>>68873 I'm sorry, yes, 5 years. Hopefully less to be honest.

>>68609 Read the books by Robert O. Becker. Especially "Cross Currents".

>>68598 Are you guys living in opposite world? >the format of mostly short form insults and putdowns Imageboards and Forums are the only place on the internet that does NOT host the format of mostly short form insults and putdowns

>>74060 It absolutely does. Look i just did it. Don't tell us posts like mine are rare. /hum/ posts are particularly verbose, it's a norm around here but not on other imageboards so yes "mostly" and this can be observed right now or in a few months for anyone reading this in the future. Your post and mine are low effort zingers. I have things to write about our internet-raised generations: fuarrken child soldiers. Or old brainwrecks exhausted from reading too many posts all day long who can't muster an elaborate thought because they know they'll get nothing worth reading in return. Ideas are not traded anymore on anonymous megaboards. It's wartime alright, for some stupid reason, can't trade with your enemy.

I keep coming back to lainchan and a few tiny comfyboards for some reason. But I abandoned 4chan and 8chan years ago because they suck, they're worse than the rest of the internet. I think lainchan scratches some kind of itch that I can't get scratched elsewhere. I fuarrrking hate most /hum/ posters but y'all sure are interesting to talk to.