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Why our outdated brains are making us unhappy

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Re: Why our outdated brains are making us unhappy

#31

Post by TheAdamAndChe »

overcast wrote: post #24
graphitezepp wrote: post #17

Nobody will even bother to listen to me talk about social media anymore, because I am always telling people it is unhealthy and they should get off it (and yet I'm here). It is the worst fast food imaginable for our human need to socialize, transient and shallow.

I think comparing a discussion on HN to liking photos, and notifications on Instagram. Is a bit far fetched. You can easily argue about the addictiveness of an online forum, and social interaction. We are social creatures after all. But social media sites like IG, Facebook, Twitter, specifically target those weaknesses in our brain.

It's not completely far-fetched, at least not with Reddit. Part of facebook and instagram is social, sure, but Reddit and HN has that with their comments sections too. Another really important part of these sites is novelty seeking, which all of these sites do well.

Re: Why our outdated brains are making us unhappy

#32

Post by JD557 »

thewarrior wrote: post #7

What I've noticed is that Instagrams recommendation algorithms are creepily accurate. If you like browsing pictures of butts you'll get lots of butts and of the exact kind that you'd like. I'm not sure how they do it. I don't even post on Instagram. And yet I'm addicted now to the Explore tab. They've genuinely managed to build something addictive in a way that other networks are not. Also Instagram is completely san…

I don't have a Facebook account (never did) but eventually "had" to create an Instagram account.

I was baffled when I saw their recommendations: They recommended me some old classmates and my university without having any direct interaction from me.

I understand how cookie syncing/matching works and I know Facebook probably knows a lot about me even without an account, but that still got me by surprise.

Re: Why our outdated brains are making us unhappy

#33

Post by graphitezepp »

justzisguyuknow wrote: post #9

> Today, we live in a completely different world as our ancestors. Yet, our biology is still exactly the same. Is that really true? I've heard this kind of argument so many times that it seems right, but I've rarely seen any scientific evidence to back it up. Surely our bodies have evolved in some subtle and diverse ways over many thousands of generations?

'Exactly the same' is surely an exaggeration, but I see no way we could have changed significantly considering the timescale and nature of our evolutionary pressures.

Re: Why our outdated brains are making us unhappy

#34

Post by pwython »

pinky1417 wrote: post #13
thewarrior wrote: post #7

What I've noticed is that Instagrams recommendation algorithms are creepily accurate. If you like browsing pictures of butts you'll get lots of butts and of the exact kind that you'd like. I'm not sure how they do it. I don't even post on Instagram. And yet I'm addicted now to the Explore tab. They've genuinely managed to build something addictive in a way that other networks are not. Also Instagram is completely san…

Oh woah, definitely not sanitized of politics. Probably because I follow some politicians, I get recommendations for these crazy, aggressive political meme pages. I see some very very hot button stuff on my feed. Count yourself lucky that Instagram looks politically sanitized!

I mean, you can't escape politics on Instagram if you're actively searching & subscribing to the topic. I think the point is, even if you just follow close friends on Facebook, your news feed is almost still guaranteed to have daily political posts/memes/ads. The lack of ability to post links & easily repost/share on Instagram deters those types of groups from posting clickbait in the hopes to drive people to their ad-heavy pages. Instagram is a refreshing break from it in that regard.

Re: Why our outdated brains are making us unhappy

#35

Post by zzalpha »

Didn't add much to the discussion, unfortunately.

The post is just material copied from Hooked (which is a creepy book worth reading!), plus observations that have already been made (social media causes us to compare ourselves to everyone else's highlight reel), followed by a bunch of generic, currently popular fads/lifestyle advice (keto diet, exercise, meditate, stoicism).

A far simpler solution is available to all of us: stop using Instagram.

Re: Why our outdated brains are making us unhappy

#36

Post by rb808 »

justzisguyuknow wrote: post #9

> Today, we live in a completely different world as our ancestors. Yet, our biology is still exactly the same. Is that really true? I've heard this kind of argument so many times that it seems right, but I've rarely seen any scientific evidence to back it up. Surely our bodies have evolved in some subtle and diverse ways over many thousands of generations?

Maybe born the same, but looking at the people around me that sit down 14 hours a day and eat "modern food" our physique certainly is different to their great grandparents, it wouldn't surprise me that brains differ too.

Re: Why our outdated brains are making us unhappy

#37

Post by swiley »

graphitezepp wrote: post #29
overcast wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think comparing a discussion on HN to liking photos, and notifications on Instagram. Is a bit far fetched. You can easily argue about the addictiveness of an online forum, and social interaction. We are social creatures after all. But social media sites like IG, Facebook, Twitter, specifically target those weaknesses in our brain.

Yeah whatever damage (if any) HN does is child's play compared to the big players. Being explicitly about technology and related news rather than yourself makes a huge difference already. With consideration to the lack of aggressive personalization/click manipulation makes it hard to claim its even in the same game. It still is a social network at the end of the day though, least how I see it.

The /only/ reason I still have a hackernews account after abandoning my other accounts is because it's one of the only sites that seems aware of this.

I'm especially fond of the noprocrast feature. I don't know of any other site/app that will kick their users out if they use it for too long.

Re: Why our outdated brains are making us unhappy

#38

Post by anotheryou »

gipp wrote: post #10
anotheryou wrote: post #6

also important: your friends always have more friends/likes than you. edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendship_paradox

Not a contradiction, it's a statistical certainty.

whops, that's a miss-paste :) meant to paste this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendship_paradox

Re: Why our outdated brains are making us unhappy

#39

Post by Boothroid »

Its difficult to want to be too critical about this since I think the author's motives are only good in that he seems to genuinely be trying to impart good advice; but so what, I'll criticise anyway. This reads like parody of a certain time, peppered as it with trendy buzzwords and ideas; it just happens that the time it is unintentionally parodying is right now. There's a faint air of desperation about the whole thing: the banality of a life punctuated by 'cheat days' rather than one lived with dietary equilibrium; the tacit assumption that the world is right and we are primitive; the unspoken message that we are effectively living in a world that is hostile to us, but that the problem is not the world, and we should rather learn to adapt to it instead of bending it to serve our interests as human beings.

Re: Why our outdated brains are making us unhappy

#40

Post by jonmc12 »

For more on cultural evolution and the impact on evolution of our brain, check out Joseph Henrich's "The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution". There are many youtube videos of the author discussing the book as well. The ideas in the book give deeper context to cultural evolution discussed in the Wait But Why Neuralink article.
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