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Is this the end of social networking?

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161–170 of 503 posts

Re: Is this the end of social networking?

#161

TikTok is winning because it is video first. The more immersive the media, the more profitable the ads. Facebook is having trouble pivoting it's products to video. Facebook is betting big that the next more-immersive medium after video will be VR. That's basically the whole story. Notice I didn't use the word "algorithm" or "social"? These takes are tired and naive, TikTok isn't addictive in any operationally useful…

While you aren't using the words "algorithm" or "social", another perspective to see is that the "medium" is not just video. It is a specific type of short, repeatable, and trivialized pieces of video content. Created by mostly individual creators in niche social networks that convey extreme feelings of pain and pleasure in an infinite feed.

TikTok is addictive in every category. People are addicted to it just like people are addicted to other mediums like books, radio, and tv. Creators are also addicted to creating for it manipulated by incentives and sponsorship opportunities. It is a borderline technological narcotic.

To be human is to be addicted to something. We are addicted to the many "wants" in our lives being sold through these 15s-3 minute videos.

> You may as well write a blog post saying "TV is addictive and it's dying because of commercials"

When the going gets tough, the tough goes shopping.

There's actually a few books on this! i.e. consumerism and advertising

Four arguments for the elimination of television by Jerry Mander

Amusing ourselves to death by Neil Postman

The shallows by Nicolas Carr

And the classic, brave new world by Aldous Huxley

Re: Is this the end of social networking?

#162
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People want their bubbles. We’re all here on HN for that exact purpose. 100% disagree. I'm here to find ideas I disagree with and tell people how they're wrong. I'm not looking for an agreeable experience here. I'm also here to learn about new tech.

Is HN the digital equivalent of going to a bar looking for a fight?

No, it’s not. And you better be shut up about it if you know what’s good for you, pardner.

Re: Is this the end of social networking?

#163

I want to see more niche social networks that are only for one thing. I actually really like Strava which is for workouts only. There’s no way to share pictures of inspirational text. I’ve never seen anyone abuse the platform by sharing a run that is actually 0.1 miles plus a rant about Fox News or anything like that. If I were independently wealthy I’d spend my time building a newsfeed for musicians to share music t…

Agreed. What I love about Strava is it leverages some of the same darker parts of the human psyche that traditional social media does (desire for social status by showing off etc), but in doing so it encourages its users to actually do something extremely positive. It makes me think of how I'd like to see a really well made addictive VR based MMORPG that encouraged its users to exercise in some way to progress.

Re: Is this the end of social networking?

#164
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bubbles don't need to be harmful. HN is a bubble. There are ideas that are not allowed here. There are other ideas that are explicitly promoted. This is the value proposition of HN. You are free to go elsewhere to get other perspectives or interactions. This is as it should be.

> There are ideas that are not allowed here. It would be more accurate to say that some ideas require more work here. The reasons why are open to debate.

If someone did a show HN, for their murder for hire app to connect assains to clients, i imagine it would (rightly) go over poorly.

At least i would hope...

Re: Is this the end of social networking?

#165
post #13

I think that the only domain where social networks can be relevant is in the geoloc domain. Dating apps are quite an obvious example where it works very well, but dating is a very limited scope. So of course, the single problem of anything geoloc is safety and privacy, which is not the strong aspect of any social network right now. Tinder and others work hard to make their users safe, and it's difficult because users…

There's also a need to be filled to let your friends know which college you're going to, how awesome your last vacation was, what job you got,... LinkedIn seems to be filling the void left by Facebook. I don't know if many people who used social media other than dedicated apps to find dates.

Re: Is this the end of social networking?

#166
post #140

When I think about what social medias are left, I can only think about LinkedIn. Interestingly, there seem to have been a recent surge of interest for that platform (especially all the cringe worthy posts that started to pop up). After reading this article, I am starting to wonder if people didn't simply migrate to LinkedIn because of the degradation of Facebook's quality as a Social Network and as they still feel th…

LinkedIn as a whole is quite cringe though. Even companies share cringe worthy posts, often merely virtue signaling, while individuals hopelessly or needlessly exaggerate the greatness of experiences or other people. Trying to judge any company, I would completely leave their LI posts or profile out if the picture, unless it shows things are bad on the inside. And then all those recruiters not knowing how to do their job properly and just spamming everyone with unsuitable job offers ... LI is a strange world in itself and I am not sure it is worth being on the platform at all.

Re: Is this the end of social networking?

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are ideas that are not allowed here. It would be more accurate to say that some ideas require more work here. The reasons why are open to debate.

There are definitely ideas that are not allowed here.

I’m not sure there are ideas that aren’t allowed so much as the way you speak, structure, and present them. I’ve tested many different ideas on topics here and some have received far more positive feedback than I’d imagine and some have been buried too.

I think so long as you follow guidelines generally and don’t outright attack individuals then you’re mainly ok. The community might downvote your idea to invisible but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t allowed - just that not enough people thought it was good. That’s fair.

Re: Is this the end of social networking?

#168
post #63
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I 100% disagree with your idea that you, or anyone for that matter, is just here to disagree with other people’s ideas. Nobody disagrees with stuff just for the sake of disagreement. Who would do such a thing? Don’t bother answering that question though because you’d be wrong.

> I 100% disagree with your idea that you, or anyone for that matter, is just here to disagree with other people’s ideas. Nobody disagrees with stuff just for the sake of disagreement. Who would do such a thing? You must be new here.

Either that, or you are, having apparently missed the obvious irony (mostly in the sentence you didn't quote)...

Re: Is this the end of social networking?

#170
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ideas that break the rules.

There aren't any ideas that break the rules though. Just structure, tone, and context of comments/posts.

I don’t think that’s true.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32432564

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