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Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

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Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

#141

Post by VLM »

philpem wrote: post #130
VLM wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you like NileRed I think you'd enjoy "Applied Science" and maybe "Cody's Lab". "Scrap Science" is pretty good, I felt bad for the guy after spending a year failing to make heavy water. I spent a couple years in a chemistry lab and that guy's "bathtub chemist" techniques make me cringe but it all generally works out, well, aside from failing to make heavy water. The "Hydraulic Press Channel" is very tangential but…

You've more or less posted my entire Youtube subscriptions list there! Applied Science (Ben Krasnow) is one of my favourites. Cody's fantastic too, for the backyard-science angle. I find Hydraulic Press a bit too "let's break stuff and laugh", but it's fun to watch and switch off for a few spare minutes. Same for Backyard Scientist ;) Post-Apocalyptic Inventor is good for my scrapyard-challenge-but-real fix. My real…

I like how "Applied Science" sends down interesting rabbit holes. One minute I'm watching homemade photochromic glass adventures, next I enjoy three hours of enjoyable clicking thru wikipedia and other internet links.

Yes the Hydraulic Press guys have a lot of "boom ha ha" content but they sometimes have more intellectual content such as "We're going to make homemade particle board out of sawdust" and I'm like, no, you're not, I know its way to complicated, but its fun to watch them try and be partially successful.

If you like retrocomputing, then "Moshix" channel will provide a couple hundred hours of mainframe content. The editing is slightly off, moves too slow during non-interactive content such as watching scripts run, and too fast during interactive content while hand editing JCL and typing sysprog tasks in general. Just because you CAN type 100+ wpm doesn't mean its a good idea during a screencast. The content is very compelling, regardless of editing decisions.

Something I don't like about retrocomputing is stuff I started out doing is now considered retro. Or even worse, stuff that was futuristic when I had a couple years in, is also considered retro. I guess getting old beats the alternative.

Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

#142

Post by josinalvo »

dageshi wrote: post #118
oklol123 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t agree. Watching tv and browsing social media just temporarily heightens the mood, but then tampers of very quickly. That time could be spend doing something useful like following a hobby, because that increases overall happiness.

People have said this about every media since the book was invented.

Did someone measure it and proved them wrong?

I am not saying you are wrong, or he is, but the ancientness of the claim is not an argument in favor or against it

Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

#143

Post by Nasrudith »

CaptArmchair wrote: post #57
sbmthakur wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> FB is so detrimental to society, people that never use it need to be concerned much like with gambling and alcoholism. I don't get how Facebook is detrimental to society . Probably I am missing something. The majority of people do have an option to delete their account or simply not to log in. Apart from Facebook's involvement in scandals like Cambridge Analytica, I don't see what's wrong with the site or company.…

That's the equivalent of the "guns don't kill people. People kill people." argument. It's a sort of "shifting the goalposts" fallacy. Tools, organization, policies,... are always an expression of a specific or a common intent. How Facebook moderates the platform, makes design choices, how it decides on what to show on your newsfeed,... all of that is intentional. Facebook isn't a public commons, it's not a space wher…

I don't see anything to actually blame them for specifically. Lots of insinutations and FUD but no actual claims of harm or what they should have done instead. You have described shady monetization but not the harm inflicted. If I measure everyone in town's height when they walk by a lamppost and sell it to clothing manufacturers I have gotten money due to them but I haven't stolen anything by any sensible framework.

I mean I consider Facebook a pile of trash but that I recognize that the problem has always been the people who make up society being vapid, foolish, and vain caring more about it. Banning Facebook won't fix those problems - their ancestors have been witchhunting, engaging in stupid "reformations and moral crusades" that only make things worse without any redeeming values and lashing back at inconvenient facts long before Facebook.

Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

#144

Post by numpad0 »

philpem wrote: post #54
numpad0 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both side's on it. In fact there's no sides. Just that Twitter is competent at removing constructive elements and distilling hatred/rage/anger for profit and it's working against you. There are few ways to strip out some of their 10-year "improvement" and oh how deserted it looks under there...

Message to the shareholders: "Millions of active users, billions of messages" The truth: most of those messages are angry and argumentative, and most of those "active users" are just the same people being angry and tribal towards each other. It makes for good stats, but like all stats, they're just numbers if presented without the context and analysis behind them.

It makes for good stats and it makes revenues. For those angered victims they would express sympathy if that's what you are going to ask for I guess...? My fear is this is going to destroy the society in a decade or two but then not many company survive that long so in financial risktaking standpoint this can't be significant.

Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

#145

Post by CaptArmchair »

Nasrudith wrote: post #143
CaptArmchair wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the equivalent of the "guns don't kill people. People kill people." argument. It's a sort of "shifting the goalposts" fallacy. Tools, organization, policies,... are always an expression of a specific or a common intent. How Facebook moderates the platform, makes design choices, how it decides on what to show on your newsfeed,... all of that is intentional. Facebook isn't a public commons, it's not a space wher…

I don't see anything to actually blame them for specifically. Lots of insinutations and FUD but no actual claims of harm or what they should have done instead. You have described shady monetization but not the harm inflicted. If I measure everyone in town's height when they walk by a lamppost and sell it to clothing manufacturers I have gotten money due to them but I haven't stolen anything by any sensible framework.…

Are you implying now that it's impossible to hold politicians accountable because you can't prove any direct harmful causality between their actions and the effects on individual citizens?

Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

#146

Post by Mr_qwerty »

a3n wrote: post #112
tyfon wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I stopped watching regular TV around 2005 due to the influx of "reality-tv" and other crappy formats. What I used to watch before was real documentaries on discovery and it's family of channels. Now I just watch Festival of Science or Royal Institution lectures on YouTube and some anime on wakanim :) There are also a lot of real in-class lectures filmed on various topic on YouTube that I find very nice. I don't miss…

I vaguely think I stopped watching TV, modulo Netflix, around the same time as you. Now when I see it in a trucker's break room or similar, it strikes me as shockingly vacuous, and so filled with commercials. And now I'm living the irony, driving a truck and hauling all that stuff that the TV is waving in front of us. Just as some of you are living the irony, spending your hard earned educations building the infrastr…

To digress, I'm curious about your life as a truck driver. What do you do with all the time in the truck? Podcasts? shortwave radio? And what are your thoughts about the industry as a whole?

Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

#147

Post by ctrl4 »

mlang23 wrote: post #27

I totally quit television about a year ago, and it had a very noticeable positive impact on me. I also mostly quit Facebook with the end of last year. I say mostly, because I still use its event calendar, and occasionally check my stream. But I significantly reduced the amount of comments I leave on that platform. I feel like, while the criticism of FaceBook, Twitter, Reddit and co is pretty much warranted, we manage…

Just a little note on using Facebook for the calendar. That was also an excuse for me to not deleting Facebook, but I imported the calendar to Google. It's been a year and I don't miss any of it.

Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

#148

Post by tyfon »

a3n wrote: post #112
tyfon wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I stopped watching regular TV around 2005 due to the influx of "reality-tv" and other crappy formats. What I used to watch before was real documentaries on discovery and it's family of channels. Now I just watch Festival of Science or Royal Institution lectures on YouTube and some anime on wakanim :) There are also a lot of real in-class lectures filmed on various topic on YouTube that I find very nice. I don't miss…

I vaguely think I stopped watching TV, modulo Netflix, around the same time as you. Now when I see it in a trucker's break room or similar, it strikes me as shockingly vacuous, and so filled with commercials. And now I'm living the irony, driving a truck and hauling all that stuff that the TV is waving in front of us. Just as some of you are living the irony, spending your hard earned educations building the infrastr…

Talk about it lol.

I'm in the business of lending money to the people who buy all the things you haul.

Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

#149

Post by tyfon »

philpem wrote: post #130
VLM wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you like NileRed I think you'd enjoy "Applied Science" and maybe "Cody's Lab". "Scrap Science" is pretty good, I felt bad for the guy after spending a year failing to make heavy water. I spent a couple years in a chemistry lab and that guy's "bathtub chemist" techniques make me cringe but it all generally works out, well, aside from failing to make heavy water. The "Hydraulic Press Channel" is very tangential but…

You've more or less posted my entire Youtube subscriptions list there! Applied Science (Ben Krasnow) is one of my favourites. Cody's fantastic too, for the backyard-science angle. I find Hydraulic Press a bit too "let's break stuff and laugh", but it's fun to watch and switch off for a few spare minutes. Same for Backyard Scientist ;) Post-Apocalyptic Inventor is good for my scrapyard-challenge-but-real fix. My real…

Thanks both of you, I've padded my own subscription list today :)

The thing about YouTube vs regular TV is that _I_ chose what to watch not someone else. I also chose the time to watch it.

Slightly OT, but the host of the original Scrapheap Challenge show is now hosting an EV YouTube channel called "Fully Charged Show" :)

Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

#150

Post by a3n »

Mr_qwerty wrote: post #146
a3n wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I vaguely think I stopped watching TV, modulo Netflix, around the same time as you. Now when I see it in a trucker's break room or similar, it strikes me as shockingly vacuous, and so filled with commercials. And now I'm living the irony, driving a truck and hauling all that stuff that the TV is waving in front of us. Just as some of you are living the irony, spending your hard earned educations building the infrastr…

To digress, I'm curious about your life as a truck driver. What do you do with all the time in the truck? Podcasts? shortwave radio? And what are your thoughts about the industry as a whole?

Gonna have to answer later today, I want to be further on before I relax and think. (And I guess that's the first part of the answer.)
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