Snap’s Drop in Active Users Could Signal a Social Media Peak • Hacker News Board

Re: Snap’s Drop in Active Users Could Signal a Social Media Peak

#221

Post by Kiro » Wed, Aug 08, 2018, 11:28 AM UTC

function_seven wrote: post #184

Kiro wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Addictiveness isn't inherently a bad thing though. I'm addicted to working out.

It by definition is a bad thing. I suspect you’re using the term as slang. Like, you enjoy working out, you do it regularly, and you don’t feel right when you’ve gone too long without a bit of exercise. That’s not addiction, that’s a healthy habit. If you were truly addicted to working out, you’d be late for work because you wanted that last mile. Or miss your kids birthday party to hang out at the CrossFit gym. It w…

Ok, I stand corrected!

> Addiction is a brain disorder characterized by compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli despite adverse consequences.

Re: Snap’s Drop in Active Users Could Signal a Social Media Peak

#222

Post by walterbell » Wed, Aug 08, 2018, 11:31 AM UTC

quotemstr wrote: post #210

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you assume that, all the research shows we spend most of our time on auto pilot.

I assume my fellow humans are sentient creatures with volition and judgement. Do you?

Especially those profiting from their fellow humans.

Re: Snap’s Drop in Active Users Could Signal a Social Media Peak

#223

Post by kasey_junk » Wed, Aug 08, 2018, 11:31 AM UTC

kristiandupont wrote: post #207

danepowell wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like an example of Goodhart's Law: "When a metric becomes a target, it ceases to be a good metric." Optimizing for something as abstruse as "engagement" seems like a great way to completely ignore everything that actually makes social networks compelling. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law

When I hear startups declare that they are data-driven I get the image of a person driving a car by focusing stritcly on the dashboard.

There are situations where the only safe way to fly a plane is to ignore everything but the instruments...

Though I suppose in this stretched analogy those are not great positions to be in.

Re: Snap’s Drop in Active Users Could Signal a Social Media Peak

#224

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Aug 08, 2018, 11:42 AM UTC

Alex3917 wrote: post #7

We might be at a local maximum, but we're nowhere near the peak. What we're seeing is an end of the race to the bottom. What's happened is that most of the major social networks only hire and promote people who make decisions primarily based on analytics. As a result these sites no longer have any real communities or organic content, and have been completely hollowed out by math-friendly refrigerator magnet junkfood.…

[deleted]

Re: Snap’s Drop in Active Users Could Signal a Social Media Peak

#225

Post by stef25 » Wed, Aug 08, 2018, 11:42 AM UTC

quotemstr wrote: post #210

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you assume that, all the research shows we spend most of our time on auto pilot.

I assume my fellow humans are sentient creatures with volition and judgement. Do you?

No such thing as free will though

Re: Snap’s Drop in Active Users Could Signal a Social Media Peak

#226

Post by skate22 » Wed, Aug 08, 2018, 11:45 AM UTC

Snapchat used to work lag free on my device. Now it lags so much that it takes over a minute to launch the app, take & send 1 pic.

Might not be the app's fault, but that's the reason i don't use it much

Re: Snap’s Drop in Active Users Could Signal a Social Media Peak

#227

Post by stef25 » Wed, Aug 08, 2018, 11:47 AM UTC

trophycase wrote: post #175

dangero wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've noticed a similar effect with fast food restaurants. Fast food up-and-coming competitors tend to offer higher quality, fresher food at a slightly higher price. Problem is that when you look back at McDonald's 50 years ago, it had higher quality and fresher ingredients than it does today. Profit motive drove slow incremental decreases in quality till eventually new competitors could differentiate by offering a pr…

It's basically just the life cycle of nearly every corporation due to their incessant need to grow. Offer a great product and build a strong customer base, then slowly cut costs by worsening product or externalizing costs.

> their incessant need to grow

This need is something I've never really understood and indeed is the root of all these problems. Zuck wouldn't be mister billionaire if he'd kept FB V1, but the world would have been better for it.

Re: Snap’s Drop in Active Users Could Signal a Social Media Peak

#228

Post by drawnwren » Wed, Aug 08, 2018, 11:50 AM UTC

soziawa wrote: post #100

askafriend wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any proprietary communications platform meant primarily for communicating between humans can be referred to as a social network. It's a pretty broad definition in my mind.

So letters are a social network?

The postal system seems like it would qualify.

Re: Snap’s Drop in Active Users Could Signal a Social Media Peak

#229

Post by josephg » Wed, Aug 08, 2018, 12:01 PM UTC

quotemstr wrote: post #195

josephg wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Algorithmic ranking is not evil. A tiny minority of people rail against algorithmic ranking, but the vast majority, as demonstrated by their engagement, prefer the algorithmic model. Should we let this tiny vocal minority dictate policy, data be damned? I was listening to the Next Billion Seconds podcast the other day. They made the point that in social media 'engagement' is a polite euphemism for 'addictiveness'.…

How can you distinguish "addictiveness" from people just liking the product? The default assumption should be that people are in control of their own actions.

One hint to help differentiate addiction and enjoyment is to ask about enjoyment. Research shows that addicts tend to enjoy the focus of their addiction a bit less than regular folk.

For example, if I’m honest with myself, I don’t enjoy checking my email. But I still compulsively check it dozens of times a day. I think it’s fair to say that I’m an addict.

Do you enjoy checking Facebook? Ask your friends. I know what mine said.

Re: Snap’s Drop in Active Users Could Signal a Social Media Peak

#230

Post by alexvoda » Wed, Aug 08, 2018, 12:04 PM UTC

alkonaut wrote: post #186

ravenstine wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We seem to be on the same wavelength. I might be giving up a viable idea here, but for a while I've been thinking about a sort of hybrid between Meetup and online multiplayer matchmaking where groups of people can meet up and do stuff without the need for an actual organizer. Here's how I envision it: - A user joins and provides a materials used to perform a background check. - People with accounts sign in and are au…

> Users cannot see who is in groups until they join one. This should help prevent people from backing out of matching because being lazy and skip over lots of people they don't like for minor superficial reasons. I'd worry more about being rejected in person, than beforehand. Ideally I'd want to never know I was rejected. Instead I'd like to notice when I wasn't (i.e., I'd rather never know there was an event of whic…

I believe we humans should raise our resilience to rejection instead of shielding ourselves from that information and therefore lowering that resilience even further. However since the first option is a human problem and the second one a technical problem, the second option scales better and is easier to implement (maybe towards our own downfall).