Social Control Networks Give You False Metrics to 'Addict' You To Them
"Fear of missing out" (FOMO) is an excellent, useful phrase/term. It helps describe what makes so many people "addicted" to social control media, characteristically if not stereotypically unable to put their so-called 'phone' down for more than a few minutes.
We've just mentioned some evidence that social control media is emitting false statistics. It makes people think or feel like their supposed 'popularity' or perceived (to oneself and others) importance is tied to particular platforms. That makes it harder for them to leave, but evidence suggests a lot of those platforms boil down to bots (Mastodon certainly does a lot of that due to the way it's structured and distributed). Identi.ca and Twitter did similar things because of thumbnails/previews; being mentioned in social control media can generate many hits, but how many are just worthless bots which slow down your site (getting in the way of real visitors)?
Similarly, many site metrics aren't measuring access but the % of people they spy on who visit particular sites. Netcraft, Alexa, and SimilarWeb are like that. People who block scripts and don't install spyware in their Web browser are in effect 'invisible'.
With very few exceptions, social control media is fake and overrated. Leaving social control media may seem hard, but the same is true for any other addiction. █