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Claiming our lives back from social media addiction

iafrikan.com

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Re: Claiming our lives back from social media addiction

#3
It's kind of the junk food or cigarettes equivalent for our brain (previously was TV but now it's back more addictive than ever)

We will probably look back at this period with the same sense of disgust at ourselves and at companies as we do now when we look back at the tobacco and junk food craze.

Re: Claiming our lives back from social media addiction

#5

Its probably nothing in comparison to video games and we dont talk much about that.

I disagree on both points. Human population spends less time in aggregate playing games that on social media. I don't have a quote from somewhere but just from the monthly active users from various social networks it is quite safe to say that almost everybody is on at least one social network.

The second thing is, that people do talk about the addictiveness and bad effects of games all the time, and have been doing so since games existed.

Re: Claiming our lives back from social media addiction

#6

I feel like there's at least one article per day about this on the front page of HN. Though it's good more and more people become conscious about the issues with social networks and addiction / attention loss.

Will these articles reach people that are not already convinced? I'd like to see how viral they get (if ever) on social media, where most people find content to consume.

Re: Claiming our lives back from social media addiction

#8
I've read an article like this so many times... They called it "internet addiction" before, and accused people of persistent need to check their email.

What all of these authors seem to conveniently ignore is that "social media" is not television, not a single source broadcast, even though social media companies would really want it to be. Just a single chokepoint. Social media has real people on the other end. Mediated by social media companies, sure, but perfectly real otherwise.

Saying that people are addicted to it is largely equivalent to saying that people are addicted to other people.

Re: Claiming our lives back from social media addiction

#10

“The 21st-century challenge will be how to live when others know us better than we know ourselves.” I think this is very well put.

I guess that would/could be correct. Though you have to account for the amount of 'propaganda' people post on their social media. It's not always sunshine as people portray on social media.
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