Finding new interests without social media

[KiwiMeowo]

Recently, I have reduced my use of social media due to the amount of negativity and stress it gives me. Now I usually spend time on indie web, listen to music, play computer games and stuff in my free time.

However, I noticed an issue, which is I haven't found a major interest in a long time.

In my life, I had fixations on media such as anime and games, and I relied on social media such as Twitter and Youtube to check out some new fanart and news on my fav medias. And now, the fact I stopped using Twitter as frequently makes me harder to see cool fanart, discussions or even find new media to obsess over.

While I like OC stuff and some hobbies that doesn't involve social media (such as drawing and coding HTML), I feel kinda uninspired recently and really wish I have something to geek over.

Considering how many people here may be trying to reduce social media from their life as well, how do you find new interests, and how do you find other people who share the same interests?

[fairyrune]

the library. really! 

libraries typically have many clubs advertised, even if they don't host them themselves. there's clubs for reading, of course, but also for craft, gaming, music, coding, etc. etc.

also, would you consider a forum to be "social media"? if you're already interested in something, there's a forum for it. if not, go browsing hobby forums! check threads out in here, and if something sounds cool to you, go see if there are forums or pages about it!

[hikatamika]

Maybe those tracker sites for media could help, as well.

Goodreads, Letterboxd, AniList, whatever a video game equivalent of those would be.
I tend to avoid the social features on those sites, and just use them to stay aware of new releases in genres I like.

The library is good for discovering what may be your next hidden gem, even if it isn't a new release, or currently within the hype cycle.

[fablefound]

hard vouch for media tracking/archiving websites: i love them a lot! the ones i have in my rotation are...
- storygraph: like goodreads but not owned by amazon and lots of QoL improvements. it doesn't pressure you to use the app socially too much, and often has giveaways and nice recommendatoins.
- rateyourmusic: i use this thing so much it's unreal. goodreads/storygraph but for music. the community's a little pretentious and kinda sticklers about rules/formatting, but if you're just using it to rate and archive music you enjoy, it's great. also, it'll make you a feed of all the musicians you follow so you never miss their new releases again.
- letterboxd: we all know letterboxd. goodreads/storygraph for movies. love her.
- backloggd: letterboxd for videogames. i haven't used this much but it's neat.
- serializd: someone's trying to make letterboxd for tv again, and i think they might actually stick the landing this time because i really quite like how it's set up. also i like that anime isn't pointlessly segregated to its own websites anymore.
also going to third the recommendation of the local library. see what events they put on, and also see what fun sites and apps you can get access to through a library card--mine gives me access to free ebook renting through libby, free movies and tv through kanopy, and also access to craft classes and workshops through creativebug. :]

[littlelum]

I don't have too many suggestions, but I might as well throw some into the mix:

HowLongToBeat: Like Backloggd, but it focuses on providing estimates on how long a game takes. Also has a forum that still gets activity.

... I guess that's it.

I should use my local library more...

[Nael]

May I suggest....

- Tumblr. Is it a social media? is it not? I personally don't consider it one but I know the definition is all over the place but....! Tumblr doesn't have an algorithm pipelining tragedy and bad vibes to your screen, initially you will have to do a bit of digging on the tags to find stuff you like but I swear it's super easy and once you are done you will have a never ending influx of nice stuff. I have abolished all social media from my life but I still use tumblr because it gives me only pretty stuff. There are blog that post random anime/manga pictures or figures, etc, those always work for me to find new stuff. I can post blog recommendations if anyone is interested~

-Pluto.tv. Free online television, you can tune into a channel that streams random anime, or cartoon, or movies so you can idle watch as background noise until something catches your interest.

Apologizes if my suggestions are a bit stupid but I wholeheartedly use them for finding new stuff on a low-effort way

[arcus]

Blogs and their blogrolls, forums, lurking random personal sites and skimming the about section, and Steam's activity page to see what my friends buy and wishlist.

• Knockout: Has two sections for video games, good for what's currently popular and some hidden gems.
• AUTOMATON: A Japanese news site that also focuses on English language games and net culture, has an English version but it's less active. Focuses too much on AAA games and Twitter at times.
• Mogura Games: Mostly focused on Japanese indie games, they're also on Steam as a curator.
• The Virtual Moose: A very good blog for finding out about new adventure games. Check out their list of links for more blogs.
• Neocities' search: Neocities has a search feature in addition to tags, that for some reason is hidden near the end of this page.
• Art sites: Sheezyart and various boorus. Pixiv still exists but it's flooded with spam.
• COMPASS LINK: An index of Japanese personal sites. 二次創作 is the tag for fanworks.
• The General Interests section: There's threads here that are handy for finding new interests.

 

[cyberfun1 (dizz)]

May I suggest....

- Tumblr. Is it a social media? is it not? I personally don't consider it one but I know the definition is all over the place but....! Tumblr doesn't have an algorithm pipelining tragedy and bad vibes to your screen, initially you will have to do a bit of digging on the tags to find stuff you like but I swear it's super easy and once you are done you will have a never ending influx of nice stuff. I have abolished all social media from my life but I still use tumblr because it gives me only pretty stuff. There are blog that post random anime/manga pictures or figures, etc, those always work for me to find new stuff. I can post blog recommendations if anyone is interested~

Im prettyyy suuuure that the guy who owns that site was doing some shifty stuff around ai and transphobia. someone mentioned this in the forum a couple months ago
Also, https://www.kanopy.com/en is a similar idea. It uses your library card as registration. Pretty cool.
If you wanna find a hobby or something to take up your time, you gotta looks through magazines. Theres always someone making something cool that they show off on them.
But really, finding something cool to like isnt something that can be forced. You usually find this stuff out because someone else mentions it in one place, so you check it out, get interested, and you either love it or hate it. Like I wouldnt have found Psykosonik if it wasn't for X-Kaliber 2097, and I wouldnt have found X-Kaliber 2097 if it wasn't for Biometal, and I wouldnt have found Biometal if it wasnt for Tempest 2000, and I wouldnt have found Tempest 2000 if it wasn't for AVGN