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Facebook addiction linked to staking your self-worth on social acceptance

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Re: Facebook addiction linked to staking your self-worth on social acceptance

#111

Post by Apocryphon »

ohnoesmyscv wrote: post #107
themagician wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the short term I agree with you. But it decreases the long term value and utility of the platform IMO. Take Instagram. It used to be a platform for posting pictures. It was a digital version of Polaroid—an “instant” camera. When you look on Instagram now it’s core functionality and differentiation is basically gone. When you look on the explore tab you are hard pressed to find any photos at all, let alone ones tha…

IG content isn’t nonsensical IMO. The content on IG is generally of higher quality and visually curated. It’s also a better platform for showcasing your brand if you’re in the ecommerce space than FB Pages for example. Granted, there are accounts that are dedicated to memes and other ‘nonsensical’ content, but you get much more of that on FB. Putting IG in the same trash pile that FB is in is unfair.

However, Instagram's reliance on the number of views, likes, followers, and so on still puts it in the same category as Facebook and its likes, Twitter and its retweets and favorites, LinkedIn and its likes and comments, YouTube and its upvotes and comments and subscribes... and so on. It's still a metric-driven network, even if the content happens to be better. And what is showcasing your brand if not grinding for better numbers?

Re: Facebook addiction linked to staking your self-worth on social acceptance

#112

Post by joe_the_user »

themagician wrote: post #100

Social media wasn’t always like this. I think back to the ways I used Twitter, Facebook and Instagram in the early days and they were completely different than they way they are used today. They were personal, real time, and no one cared about “likes”. I think a lot of the problems with social media today could be solved just by removing “the numbers.” If suddenly all the like, follower, following, and comment counts…

I'm one Facebook a lot and even on the rather leftward side and I don't experience any extreme toxicity (though I hear a lot about it). Some of my friends care about likes but mostly when they feel they're being ignored.

I administer a large-ish group where respectful discussion is non-negotiable. It works, it serves it's purpose.

I think "good moderation" is basically the answer for toxicity.

Re: Facebook addiction linked to staking your self-worth on social acceptance

#113

Post by Apocryphon »

themagician wrote: post #100

Social media wasn’t always like this. I think back to the ways I used Twitter, Facebook and Instagram in the early days and they were completely different than they way they are used today. They were personal, real time, and no one cared about “likes”. I think a lot of the problems with social media today could be solved just by removing “the numbers.” If suddenly all the like, follower, following, and comment counts…

Funnily enough, Snapchat doesn't seem to have this particular downside. It has points/scoring, but they were always somewhat hidden away and I'm not sure if anyone took them very seriously. Like the rest of the app's UX, and sort of ranking cryptic and obfuscated (like the emojis signifying how your friends compared to you) and not made into an emphasis.

Re: Facebook addiction linked to staking your self-worth on social acceptance

#114

Post by themagician »

ohnoesmyscv wrote: post #107
themagician wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the short term I agree with you. But it decreases the long term value and utility of the platform IMO. Take Instagram. It used to be a platform for posting pictures. It was a digital version of Polaroid—an “instant” camera. When you look on Instagram now it’s core functionality and differentiation is basically gone. When you look on the explore tab you are hard pressed to find any photos at all, let alone ones tha…

IG content isn’t nonsensical IMO. The content on IG is generally of higher quality and visually curated. It’s also a better platform for showcasing your brand if you’re in the ecommerce space than FB Pages for example. Granted, there are accounts that are dedicated to memes and other ‘nonsensical’ content, but you get much more of that on FB. Putting IG in the same trash pile that FB is in is unfair.

It’s only for ecommerce. You are either selling a product or selling yourself for likes. Every post is an ad. The amount of sharing that happens the today on IG is the same amount of sharing that happens when you watch a TV commercial.

It’s nuanced, but fundamental different from the photo sharing sites that came before it like Flickr.

The share button may as well be replaced with “Promote” because that’s what it is.

Re: Facebook addiction linked to staking your self-worth on social acceptance

#115

Post by themagician »

Apocryphon wrote: post #113
themagician wrote: post #100

Social media wasn’t always like this. I think back to the ways I used Twitter, Facebook and Instagram in the early days and they were completely different than they way they are used today. They were personal, real time, and no one cared about “likes”. I think a lot of the problems with social media today could be solved just by removing “the numbers.” If suddenly all the like, follower, following, and comment counts…

Funnily enough, Snapchat doesn't seem to have this particular downside. It has points/scoring, but they were always somewhat hidden away and I'm not sure if anyone took them very seriously. Like the rest of the app's UX, and sort of ranking cryptic and obfuscated (like the emojis signifying how your friends compared to you) and not made into an emphasis.

You’re right.

Re: Facebook addiction linked to staking your self-worth on social acceptance

#116

Post by themagician »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #110
themagician wrote: post #100

Social media wasn’t always like this. I think back to the ways I used Twitter, Facebook and Instagram in the early days and they were completely different than they way they are used today. They were personal, real time, and no one cared about “likes”. I think a lot of the problems with social media today could be solved just by removing “the numbers.” If suddenly all the like, follower, following, and comment counts…

Also sharing. Taking the time to save a link/picture, go to another site, and typing in a description and comments on material? Great. Seeing a cat picture and instantaneously clicking "share"? Screw that. That kind of behavior is in the website's interest, not mine. It creates an endless stream of slightly-interesting material from people I know, just enough to keep me watching but not enough to feel like anything g…

The planet was just connected before Facebook with AIM or ICQ. Perhaps moreso, really, since you actually had to talk to people.

Re: Facebook addiction linked to staking your self-worth on social acceptance

#117

Post by incompatible »

Apocryphon wrote: post #113
themagician wrote: post #100

Social media wasn’t always like this. I think back to the ways I used Twitter, Facebook and Instagram in the early days and they were completely different than they way they are used today. They were personal, real time, and no one cared about “likes”. I think a lot of the problems with social media today could be solved just by removing “the numbers.” If suddenly all the like, follower, following, and comment counts…

Funnily enough, Snapchat doesn't seem to have this particular downside. It has points/scoring, but they were always somewhat hidden away and I'm not sure if anyone took them very seriously. Like the rest of the app's UX, and sort of ranking cryptic and obfuscated (like the emojis signifying how your friends compared to you) and not made into an emphasis.

I had the impression some people were obsessed with the "streak" feature on Snapchat.

Re: Facebook addiction linked to staking your self-worth on social acceptance

#118

Post by jdietrich »

aswanson wrote: post #103
DenisM wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The answer is sort of yes, digital fentanyl is in our future. It’s a simple ML model that tells you what you want to hear based on your previous reactions and cross-person prior training data. Whatever your hidden insecurities are, that’s where it will bind. Once it becomes variative enough to keep you on your toes and precise enough to strike in yout heart you will no longer care that’s it obviously failing the Turi…

Sounds like the basis for a good novel/movie. Even suggests a title:"Turing Incomplete".

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1798709/

Re: Facebook addiction linked to staking your self-worth on social acceptance

#119

Post by s-shellfish »

austincheney wrote: post #93
s-shellfish wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In math and logic agreement is attained by a proof. Of course I agree with this. Just makes me think of bad ways of understanding math and logic. Having to carry it around inside myself as though I am it, because nothing else besides myself, others like myself, and actual computers can test the understanding. Proofs can be written with the utmost rigor. There's still room for error. No proof is perfect. I'm not sur…

> Having to carry it around inside myself as though I am it, because nothing else besides myself, others like myself, and actual computers can test the understanding. I think that is an overly simplistic view. Perhaps the way to think about this is not an isolated fragment in the form of an abstraction but rather a product you can hold your in hands. You can test your understanding of that product in various ways and…

Stoicism is the closest I can get away from appealing to emotional harmony blindly (choose the happy way now but potentially make a grave error by doing so).

Thinking about things that aren't presented with a face... one face or many.

Unity with concepts. Read Nichomachean ethics in college, but funnily enough now that I look at it, the professors may have found much more literal value in it than did the students.

Humor, the Greeks, educational systems. Life, sigh.

The directions things go in.

Re: Facebook addiction linked to staking your self-worth on social acceptance

#120

Post by mindgam3 »

MrLeap wrote: post #105
mindgam3 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See, your attitude is exactly what is wrong with Silicon Valley culture. You’re joking about technology to give people social bliss seizures for profit, hahaha hilarious. Meanwhile millions of people are actually dying from addiction, and not just heroin. A member of my immediate family died by suicide recently. She suffered from massive self esteem issues as a result of chronic childhood abuse. She turned to Faceboo…

Please accept my sincerest condolences for the death of your family member. In some ways I followed a similar path to that of your relative, in part because I often obtain validation by publicly satirizing elements of society I think are wrong. I've found satire the best tool in my toolbox at sparking conversation and even changing minds. I've considered your proposal, and respectfully choose to continue the path I'm…

Wait, now you’re claiming that your original post was satire? Perhaps you should clarify that to the multiple people who have responded with comments in earnest.

Regarding your claimed motive to cast a negative light on the victimizers, uhhh... yeah. That might be believable, except that you’re doing the exact opposite in this thread. I hate to break it to you, but leaving insensitive comments about addiction which you later claim are satire isn’t really helping the situation.

You are also pretending to be respectful with your choice of language, but you’re not actually showing any respect at all.

At this point the only logical conclusion is that you’re trolling. In my experience, behind every troll is someone who is suffering and needs psychological help. Whether or not you believe it, I know there’s a “true self” of yours underneath the facade you’re showing here on HN that actually knows how to help people and not hurt them.

Whatever happened to you to make you this way, I wish you all the best in working through it.

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