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Social media may prevent users from reaping creative rewards of profound boredom

bath.ac.uk

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Re: Social media may prevent users from reaping creative rewards of profound boredom

#31

Post by themitigating »

amelius wrote: post #30
dreen wrote: post #19

Quit Twitter about 6 years ago because of related issues. Checked out Mastodon, but apart from the distributed aspect it just seems like more of the same, as in an evolution upon the experience of watching TV, in the internet era. I've been quite happy without it since.

Yet here you are on HN ;)

Sarcastic remark but I agree with you.

Everytime there's some article about Netflix, Facebook, or the like there's a bunch of people telling everyone they quit and how their life is better, etc.

Many times the article isn't even about quitting social media, just some controversy. I wonder if some percentage of those people are right-wing and wait for a chance to jump in so they can harm companies they disagree with.

Re: Social media may prevent users from reaping creative rewards of profound boredom

#32

Post by 411111111111111 »

highspeedbus wrote: post #27

There's a brazillian song called Tédio (Boredom) that was popular in the 80's. It talks about not withstanding boredom inside home, while life goes on out there. It's curious how the depicted feeling is so unrelatable today. I think boredom is a real force that pushes ourselves to the edge, to hopefully make a change in life, like going out to see real people. Social media creates this cozy, safe place to keep your m…

But why do people blame social media for that? Every entertainment is equally at fault, wherever it's fictions, movies, tv series, comics/webtoons, games etc

Re: Social media may prevent users from reaping creative rewards of profound boredom

#33

Post by themitigating »

mrbombastic wrote: post #15
tcmb wrote: post #6

I did not read the study, but the finding seems trivial and limited at the same time: Anything you do to alleviate or prevent boredom that is not creative can be said to 'prevent reaping creative rewards' of boredom. Not just social media (or any media consumption, really) but also sports or calling a friend or helping in a soup kitchen. If you didn't do it, you'd feel boredom, and might pick up something creative in…

This is no doubt true but smart phones basically give you the option to never be bored, and get instant gratification whenever you feel like it. I don’t think it is limited to social media but I imagine there are pretty profound consequences to that.

TV and video games are also an option but as you implied you may not always have access to them.

However in what situation prior to the internet would a person be forced to be bored. Waiting at the DMV? I guess what I'm saying is it's pretty rare that someone wouldn't have an escape from bordem, even before phones.

Re: Social media may prevent users from reaping creative rewards of profound boredom

#34

Post by dreen »

amelius wrote: post #30
dreen wrote: post #19

Quit Twitter about 6 years ago because of related issues. Checked out Mastodon, but apart from the distributed aspect it just seems like more of the same, as in an evolution upon the experience of watching TV, in the internet era. I've been quite happy without it since.

Yet here you are on HN ;)

Very true, but HN has a hard limit on how much time I will spend here. A few stories on the main page plus sometimes comments, and that's it for the day. Social media is designed to eliminate that limit, I used to be able to spend an entire day scrolling Twitter.

Re: Social media may prevent users from reaping creative rewards of profound boredom

#35

Post by johnfn »

Sakos wrote: post #5
Jorengarenar wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, those findings are good prompt for the researchers to continue their research, but not something you publish as the results!

Why not? Just because it's published doesn't mean it implies that it's found an absolute truth that can't ever be changed or further analyzed.

You don’t publish because basically anything can be proven at n=15. I could probably go perform another study right now at n=15 and if I chose my variables right I could determine that social media has no effect whatsoever. And as much as you or I know not to read too much into this one study, there are plenty more people who won’t read too closely or carefully.

Re: Social media may prevent users from reaping creative rewards of profound boredom

#36

Post by themitigating »

armatav wrote: post #12
tcmb wrote: post #6

I did not read the study, but the finding seems trivial and limited at the same time: Anything you do to alleviate or prevent boredom that is not creative can be said to 'prevent reaping creative rewards' of boredom. Not just social media (or any media consumption, really) but also sports or calling a friend or helping in a soup kitchen. If you didn't do it, you'd feel boredom, and might pick up something creative in…

“I did not read the study”

I think he meant he read the conclusion or just the data.

Still, when I see this line it's like a protection from from being wrong.

"I'm not an expert but...." basically prevents judgement since they qualified their statement

Re: Social media may prevent users from reaping creative rewards of profound boredom

#37

Post by __MatrixMan__ »

Jensson wrote: post #29
mrbombastic wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is no doubt true but smart phones basically give you the option to never be bored, and get instant gratification whenever you feel like it. I don’t think it is limited to social media but I imagine there are pretty profound consequences to that.

It is a self regulating problem, bored people create entertainment until there are no other bored people left. Modern tech makes that process more efficient so you have less bored people, I don't see why that is a problem.

It's a problem if the things that people used to do while bored were useful and now that social media is handling the boredom problem those things are not happening anymore.

Re: Social media may prevent users from reaping creative rewards of profound boredom

#38

Post by hnuser123456 »

411111111111111 wrote: post #32
highspeedbus wrote: post #27

There's a brazillian song called Tédio (Boredom) that was popular in the 80's. It talks about not withstanding boredom inside home, while life goes on out there. It's curious how the depicted feeling is so unrelatable today. I think boredom is a real force that pushes ourselves to the edge, to hopefully make a change in life, like going out to see real people. Social media creates this cozy, safe place to keep your m…

But why do people blame social media for that? Every entertainment is equally at fault, wherever it's fictions, movies, tv series, comics/webtoons, games etc

Because it's too easy now. You need a creative endeavor to seem like an easy way to replace boredom with novelty. For a lot of folks especially younger ones, there is already infinite novelty just waiting to be scrolled all the time in their pocket. No need to do anything except wave your thumb around.

Re: Social media may prevent users from reaping creative rewards of profound boredom

#39

Post by Barrin92 »

tcmb wrote: post #6

I did not read the study, but the finding seems trivial and limited at the same time: Anything you do to alleviate or prevent boredom that is not creative can be said to 'prevent reaping creative rewards' of boredom. Not just social media (or any media consumption, really) but also sports or calling a friend or helping in a soup kitchen. If you didn't do it, you'd feel boredom, and might pick up something creative in…

however there's some pretty stark differences. Sport is inherently physically healthy, and working in a soup kitchen or doing some other charitable work has positive social effects. Much social media usage, despite the name, isn't very social at all.

After a game of soccer with your friends you probably feel better both physically and mentally than after scrolling through twitter. The latter is more like reality tv combined with the worst news channel available.

Re: Social media may prevent users from reaping creative rewards of profound boredom

#40

Post by frereubu »

Jensson wrote: post #29
mrbombastic wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is no doubt true but smart phones basically give you the option to never be bored, and get instant gratification whenever you feel like it. I don’t think it is limited to social media but I imagine there are pretty profound consequences to that.

It is a self regulating problem, bored people create entertainment until there are no other bored people left. Modern tech makes that process more efficient so you have less bored people, I don't see why that is a problem.

If efficiency is your only goal then no, there is no problem. But I would argue that's an extremely shallow way of looking at entertainment.
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