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I resigned from Twitter

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Re: I resigned from Twitter

#381

Post by sAbakumoff »

spion wrote: post #352

Twitter and other social media are probably the biggest problem of our time. By providing simple rules of information flow: small amount of content, retweet, followers) and rewards (likes), they've created the most efficient engines for finding and spreading novelty at the expense of everything else. There are no incentives to improve accuracy, increase thoughtfulness, paint nuance. Fact checking gets lost in the win…

Yeah, feeling of novelty causes a dopamine spike, but shortly afterwards the level is back and we feel like they need more new stuff. Mindless purposeless scrolling may last hours and hours. Twitter is bad, but Tik Tok is the worst. Remove all this stuff from your phone and read HN instead. Here you at least should focus on sophisticated comments like yours!

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#382

Post by burlesona »

BurningFrog wrote: post #367
Tijdreiziger wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN is a social medium.

The more I think about this, the less I agree. To be a social medium/network, I think you need to follow/"friend" specific people. That's what makes it social. I'd say HN is a "forum". I realize these are my personal definitions, and there are no correct answers.

I agree. To me, the definitive negative characteristic of Social Media is the "feed," where each person has a unique view of content. There's no good way to "curate" that for engagement (or monetize for advertising) without creating toxic incentives.

HN is a forum because everyone sees the same discussion.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#383

Post by c7DJTLrn »

spion wrote: post #352

Twitter and other social media are probably the biggest problem of our time. By providing simple rules of information flow: small amount of content, retweet, followers) and rewards (likes), they've created the most efficient engines for finding and spreading novelty at the expense of everything else. There are no incentives to improve accuracy, increase thoughtfulness, paint nuance. Fact checking gets lost in the win…

I wonder how much your mind would have to distort reality for you to believe you're providing the world with a good service when you're at the helm of Twitter or Facebook.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#385

Post by nend »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #259

It will be interesting to see how Twitter changes as a result. Twitter with selective following and setting your timeline to 'time order' creates a pretty good environment for me. It feels like the equivalent of living in only a few chosen 'subreddits' rather than getting the full frontal reddit experience.

This seems to hold true for many social media sites: facebook, reddit, twitter. It takes effort on behalf of the user to make their experience on the site "better".

And by better I mean, less divisive, and less mindless scrolling of memes/low effort content.

Thinking about it from the business's perspective, it probably ultimately also lowers their user engagement metrics. Users get a higher quality experience using the site, but also spend less time on the site. It sorta reminds me of the freemium/grinding experience in games today. It makes for a worse game experience, but a better company bottom line.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#386

Post by spion »

jMyles wrote: post #362
spion wrote: post #352

Twitter and other social media are probably the biggest problem of our time. By providing simple rules of information flow: small amount of content, retweet, followers) and rewards (likes), they've created the most efficient engines for finding and spreading novelty at the expense of everything else. There are no incentives to improve accuracy, increase thoughtfulness, paint nuance. Fact checking gets lost in the win…

If feed-generating algorithms were dispassionate - amplifying liked content rather than massaging feeds for advertising and other behavior manipulation - then your assessment of the results as "brain viruses" might be more accurate. And the world might actually benefit from them.

The thing is, the "natural selection" of this network is decided by people on average spending 5 seconds of thought before getting outraged/scared/intrigued etc (also, whatever is that emotion that says "look world, I found something really clever that y'all have missed!") and clicking retweet. I find that incredibly unlikely to yield any great content whatsoever.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#387

Post by meepmorp »

itsoktocry wrote: post #336
sporkland wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you critique Musk in a similar way? Honest question, because it's eerie how you could swap Dorsey for Musk and the statements would still apply but seem much less true.

> Would you critique Musk in a similar way? Absolutely. Musk's companies manage to get stuff done, but are any of them particularly "well run"?

SpaceX, largely due to Gwynne Shotwell.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#389

Post by mmastrac »

brightball wrote: post #373
spion wrote: post #352

Twitter and other social media are probably the biggest problem of our time. By providing simple rules of information flow: small amount of content, retweet, followers) and rewards (likes), they've created the most efficient engines for finding and spreading novelty at the expense of everything else. There are no incentives to improve accuracy, increase thoughtfulness, paint nuance. Fact checking gets lost in the win…

Where it all went sideways was when mainstream news started showing tweets on air. EDIT: I need to add clarification. I don't mean when breaking news gets onto mainstream channels. No question that happens. What I mean is the use of a single tweet with maybe 1 or 2 likes here or there to reflect public sentiment on different issues. All any news station had to do was fish through the pile of tweets about any given to…

I agree. News stories about X "dragging" Y on Twitter were rock bottom.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#390

Post by pram »

pvsukale3 wrote: post #380

Unrelated: I really liked the "Hi mom!" at the end of the letter. To be one of the co-founders and CEO of global tech co, and to say "Hi mom!" at the end of the your publicly shared resignation letter is such a big flex. I understand his mom must already have been very proud of him, but this hit different.

Yeah also a big flex saying the company you just quit should be the most transparent (but not during my tenure of course)
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