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Ask HN: What is the root cause of negative social media experience?

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Re: Ask HN: What is the root cause of negative social media experience?

#11

Post by 082349872349872 »

atmosx wrote: post #8

Allow me to propose a theory: In the realm of social media, where time is limited and the pursuit of quality content is paramount, individuals tend to gravitate towards the most extreme and polarizing statements. This often takes the form of irony, insults, and other provocative tactics, which serve to elicit "reactions" - the primary currency of the digital landscape. In order for a meaningful conversation to take p…

I think Facebook provides an existence proof that the non-anonymous can be just as horrid as the anonymous.

Re: Ask HN: What is the root cause of negative social media experience?

#12

Post by 082349872349872 »

anonymoose33282 wrote: post #4

I think there's a "too many people in the pool" problem that happens with everything virtual. Facebook was a big deal when I was in High School and early college, and I remember how quick the fall-off was once Instagram came out. Our parents had slowly been signing up for FB for years, and all the young people flocked to Instagram to have their "exclusive" club again. Reddit is another great example for me. 2010-2015…

Maybe better to say "both be a popular platform and a GOOD platform"? (although I guess "platform" instead of "service" already implies that the figure of merit for success is popularity)

compare the motto: "avoid success at all costs"

Re: Ask HN: What is the root cause of negative social media experience?

#13

Post by coldtrait »

Instagram is like youtube now. Most of my close friends don't post and those that do post are not people I am close with, so I pruned as much as I can but there are a lot of good content creators now so I follow them. It ends up becoming like another reddit rather than a platform I use to connect with friends.

Re: Ask HN: What is the root cause of negative social media experience?

#14

Post by MorganeR »

I think the problem is above all linked to the nature of humankind. In the case of haters, we see the worst part of human beings: the desire to hurt. Besides that, we have the race for likes and the desire for recognition and to be in the light. Having had an Instagram account focused on landscape photography, I fell into it without realizing it and it was a relief to stop it. The desire for “always more” becomes addictive and we end up thinking about the post before even taking the photo. What should be a pleasure at first (walking around and taking photos), becomes a perpetual search for posts for the Insta account. After that, there is a mixture of bitterness at seeing identical accounts succeed, and sadness at the idea of imagining what the people behind these accounts are going through, who spend their time thinking about their Instagram account.

Re: Ask HN: What is the root cause of negative social media experience?

#15

Post by mattbrewsbytes »

Infinite scroll, popularity points, public posts and monetization has produced many online forums which bring out the worst human commentary. I wasn't going to use the words human behavior because I think if two opposed people met in person they would act like decent humans and most likely people try to find things they have in common with others - sports, kids, food, etc.

HN doesn't have infinite scroll, outright monetization or any popularity points for that matter. I would imagine BB/forums back in the day also didn't have this. I don't do Discord but I imagine private forums there are similar.

Re: Ask HN: What is the root cause of negative social media experience?

#16

Post by rawgabbit »

It is due to the same reason why we get phishing emails and junk mail. The platform is incentivized to get views; it is not incentivized to promote quality content. Those who post the content can spam because it costs them nothing. The platform is happy with all the spam, click bait, and scams.

Is there a better way? I am hoping for a virtual public square that is organized like the US public TV stations. Run by free speech true believers and paid for by a mix of user fees and donations.

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