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Claiming our lives back from social media addiction

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Re: Claiming our lives back from social media addiction

#41

Post by BetterThanSlave »

Nope.

You can't claim your lives back. You haven't become addicted to social media at all. You've become addicted to always being right and social media is the path of least resistance to achieve that feeling.

Have you ever accused someone of being a troll? A racist? A sexist? Have you ever stretched the definition of actual abuse to cover abstract abuse? You would be doing this even if you didn't have social media. Social media just gamified the accusations and rewarded samethink by punishing otherthink.

You deserve this lazy mirror. The real complexity of human nature to too much for your brittle ego. All I do is shitpost on social media all day long while armies of "being right" addicts filter and categorize every single pixel they interact with. You're just a Bayesian trainer and you're doing it for free.

Re: Claiming our lives back from social media addiction

#42

Post by bowlich »

jchw wrote: post #13

Social media and people on social media do not know us better than we know ourselves because all of us lie and try to look cool on social media. Like, can you think of the last time you saw someone clearly trying to act smart on a forum, maybe even... right here? As far as I'm concerned, all social media knows is how to exploit us. It hones in on what gets us engaged. I think that is far worse than 'knowing us' - I'd…

I'm starting to think that the hyper-engagement of fighting over every $CANDIDATE, $CAUSE, and $OUTRAGE is going to drive people away from Social Media.

I started doing blackouts on Twitter and Facebook every time some major news event occurs because I just don't want to hear about it. And the one thing that I have noticed is a slow consolidation of my Facebook feed to just a narrow slice of hyper-engaged people who post multiple times a day about whatever the latest outrage is -- the broader spectrum of users haven't deleted their accounts, but most on my "Friends" list haven't posted in years. I suspect a lot of my friends are disengaged from the platform precisely because they have zero interest in fighting their loud, opinionated relatives of opposing political sides.

I miss the days where everyone was just avatars, nick-names, personalities. It still seems odd to me to be expected to mix my virtual and real identities, since the "internet culture" when I got online insisted that you do not share your real-life identity* and Facebook came along and turned that entirely upside down.

*It was common practice on some of the bulletin boards that I frequented in the late nineties for users to maintain multiple accounts under different nicknames and personas, and even have conversations with themselves.

Re: Claiming our lives back from social media addiction

#43

Post by jacquesm »

I have a little project going for the last couple of weeks. Things I got to replace the screens with: an old typewriter, a world radio and an electronics kit with which you can make a large number of different devices.

Still in the works: an old fashioned wind-up alarm clock, a cassette or tape reel to reel recorder and a polaroid camera.

You can get all of those for pennies or even for free on Ebay or the local equivalent. The kids are absolutely fascinated with all this real world stuff that does only one thing.

And there is no 'app' for the kind of satisfaction you get from receiving a painstakingly type-written letter with a bunch of stuff crossed out or a morse code message just for you. Grandparents will likely much more appreciate one of those too far over and beyond a Facebook message. And what's more magical than to pull some Latin American station out of thin air?

Besides learning a lot about what makes stuff tick they also learn about the evolution of technology and the old stuff is so much more real and easier to relate to that they freely start to figure out how they can do other things in a simpler and low tech way as well.

After that: tools to take things apart and to do some basic repairs on broken stuff that we find.

Re: Claiming our lives back from social media addiction

#44

Post by meebs »

bowlich wrote: post #42
jchw wrote: post #13

Social media and people on social media do not know us better than we know ourselves because all of us lie and try to look cool on social media. Like, can you think of the last time you saw someone clearly trying to act smart on a forum, maybe even... right here? As far as I'm concerned, all social media knows is how to exploit us. It hones in on what gets us engaged. I think that is far worse than 'knowing us' - I'd…

I'm starting to think that the hyper-engagement of fighting over every $CANDIDATE, $CAUSE, and $OUTRAGE is going to drive people away from Social Media. I started doing blackouts on Twitter and Facebook every time some major news event occurs because I just don't want to hear about it. And the one thing that I have noticed is a slow consolidation of my Facebook feed to just a narrow slice of hyper-engaged people who…

>I started doing blackouts on Twitter and Facebook every time some major news event occurs because I just don't want to hear about it.

Thus the apathy of the majority perpetuates the oppression of the minority.

Re: Claiming our lives back from social media addiction

#45

Post by supernovae »

jhiska wrote: post #29

Articles on social media detailing how to combat social media addiction or "the crisis of attention" or whatever clickbait title is the latest way that social media is capturing our attention.

yeah, do people not realize hackernews is "social media"?

Re: Claiming our lives back from social media addiction

#46

Post by leggomylibro »

jacquesm wrote: post #43

I have a little project going for the last couple of weeks. Things I got to replace the screens with: an old typewriter, a world radio and an electronics kit with which you can make a large number of different devices. Still in the works: an old fashioned wind-up alarm clock, a cassette or tape reel to reel recorder and a polaroid camera. You can get all of those for pennies or even for free on Ebay or the local equi…

Heh, that'd be a fun rule for your kids: you can only use technology powered by energy you generated and stored. Here's a how-to guide for a simple hand-crank generator and directions to the library, have fun.

Of course, that might also be a good way to wind up with the next David Hahn, but...well just keep an eye on them. Maybe set up some ground rules like, 'no hydrogen.'

Re: Claiming our lives back from social media addiction

#47

Post by someguys »

We (with a friend) think that what people became with social media is really depressing. Nobody goes out anymore and everyone is connected online without really knowing nobody. Facebook, Twitter... made an awful society. The solution would be to connect these people more in real life. What do you guys think of a social media 2.0 that would connect people irl? We are working on something like that, a meetup like improved app. Would love to get feedbacks about the idea.

Re: Claiming our lives back from social media addiction

#48

Post by deadmetheny »

someguys wrote: post #47

We (with a friend) think that what people became with social media is really depressing. Nobody goes out anymore and everyone is connected online without really knowing nobody. Facebook, Twitter... made an awful society. The solution would be to connect these people more in real life. What do you guys think of a social media 2.0 that would connect people irl? We are working on something like that, a meetup like impro…

I miss the days when if you wanted to meet somebody you just went to a bar or coffee shop or started some sort of hobby and talked to people. Trying to push tech as a solution of a problem that was caused by tech to begin with...man, that's something.

Re: Claiming our lives back from social media addiction

#49

Post by BetterThanSlave »

Nope. You can't claim your lives back. You haven't become addicted to social media at all. You've become addicted to always being right and social media is the path of least resistance to achieve that feeling. Have you ever accused someone of being a troll? A racist? A sexist? Have you ever stretched the definition of actual abuse to cover abstract abuse? You would be doing this even if you didn't have social media. Social media just gamified the accusations and rewarded samethink by punishing otherthink. You deserve this lazy mirror. The real complexity of human nature to too much for your brittle ego. All I do is shitpost on social media all day long while armies of "being right" addicts filter and categorize every single pixel they interact with. You're just a Bayesian trainer and you're doing it for free.

Re: Claiming our lives back from social media addiction

#50

Post by Demoneeri »

I find the comments here depressing. Like everything, only a small portion of people are addicted to something. I use social media every day. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. If I read the comments here, I should be alone in a dark room envying other people's lives. But last Thursday, I met some of my friends after work for a 5@7, Friday I had dinner with my wife and her friends. Saturday, a friend couple from another city came for an event in our city and we went walking and stopped to take a beer in an Irish pub. Then Sunday, 2 friends came home for brunch. Yes people checked their phone 1 or 2 times, but nobody was "addicted"...

Most people go on with their life while enjoying social media.

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