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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

#41

Post by themitigating »

__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #37
Jensson wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Why is that a problem? What about video games or TV?

What useful things are you talking about and is their evidence of their decline?

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

#42

Post by Sakos »

johnfn wrote: post #35
Sakos wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'll put it bluntly. I don't care about people who read a single study and take it as gospel. Science would be nothing without all the studies that are published about every single topic. Even the most important findings are built on studies done before them.

> basically anything can be proven at n=15

Nothing was proven. The paper is literally a philosophical discussion about Heidegger leaning on a survey. If you think that proves anything, I have a bridge to sell you. It's a data point, nothing more and nothing less. It's an interesting perspective worth thinking about and investigating further.

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

#43

Post by frereubu »

Isamu wrote: post #24

Actually being creative requires work, a lot of it, and the people who are very creative think the work is fun or have accepted it. Best to get into a regular groove of doing your creative work on a predictable schedule. The opposite of being bored is cultivating your interests, treating them like a garden that takes work but grows over time into a variety of wonderful things.

I agree that many people think "being creative" is just swanning around being inspired, but all the high-level creative people I know are very hard-working. There's a great book called The Creative Habit by the choreographer Twyla Tharp which is an absolutely fantastic insight into what it takes to operate at a high level in the arts.

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

#44

Post by jimmySixDOF »

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”

Leaning into the metaness of having this conversation on social media in social media and on the subject of it's shallowness, then detaching the headline takeaways from the study's detail as done here by GP is a useful case in point. Can a reasonable argument be made even against straw men ? Do the details matter when the sound byte talking head line is the lone subject of interest ?

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

#45

Post by analog31 »

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

I don't think novelists have yet figured out how to completely occupy your cognitive apparatus or put you under pressure to stay engaged. When I'm sitting in my comfy chair reading a novel, I can close my eyes without worrying that I might miss something while I'm asleep.

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

#46

Post by mrbombastic »

themitigating wrote: post #33
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.

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.

road trips, standing in line anywhere (toll booth, amusement park, gas station, grocery store etc), riding the subway, waiting room at a doctor’s office, riding in a cab, waiting between customers at your retail job, power outages, camping trips, I am sure I could think of many more.

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

#47

Post by eastbound »

themitigating wrote: post #33
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.

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.

> However in what situation prior to the internet would a person be forced to be bored.

What? People used to wait all the time. Meeting friends? “See you at 8 at the mall, east corner” and your friend would arrive at 8:13 while you were there since 7:46pm, unable to walk away for fear of missing the evening completely. So people smoked! A LOT!

And sometimes you would miss the appointment, have no way to reach the person, and spend the whole evening by yourself in the city, having also missed the movie time.

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

#48

Post by themitigating »

nullish_signal wrote: post #8
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…

Sports use more muscles and cardio than social media scrolling. Phonecalls at least rely on speech instead of an algorithm deciding what to show you. Helping in a Soup Kitchen is obviously more productive than doom-scrolling. All of those examples are better uses of time than passively consuming "Social Media"

"Phonecalls at least rely on speech instead of an algorithm deciding what to show you"

People participate in social media. Think of all the creative content that exists. In your example you compared a two way phone call with only one part of social media.

"Helping in a Soup Kitchen is obviously more productive than doom-scrolling."

Though subjective, I agree with you. However without social media how many 14 year olds were helping at soup kitchens instead of watching TV, playing video games, or outside playing. You implied that social media was impacting selfless benevolent acts.

This could even get complicated where I show that young people use social media in a positive way to call out social issues or make people aware of volunteer events.

"All of those examples are better uses of time than passively consuming "Social Media"

Again, social media doesn't have to be passive, your comment that I'm replying to and this reply show that.

I believe you are letting your cynicism impact your view of social media

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

#49

Post by johnfn »

Sakos wrote: post #42
johnfn wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'll put it bluntly. I don't care about people who read a single study and take it as gospel. Science would be nothing without all the studies that are published about every single topic. Even the most important findings are built on studies done before them. > basically anything can be proven at n=15 Nothing was proven. The paper is literally a philosophical discussion about Heidegger leaning on a survey. If you thi…

You may not care, but science as a whole has a responsibility to do more help than harm. Anyways I feel like we’re kind of arguing past each other. I agree studies should be done; I just don’t think people should be getting news articles written up at n=15; that seems deceptive.

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

#50

Post by __MatrixMan__ »

themitigating wrote: post #41
__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Why is that a problem? What about video games or TV? What useful things are you talking about and is their evidence of their decline?

Well here I am on HN, so I'm in a bit of a relapse, but personally I've noticed that not being on social media correlates with:

- talking with strangers at the grocery store

- working on my novel

- building things in my garage

- antagonizing institutions that I think have crossed a line

And those things are meaningful to me in ways that being on social media is not.

As for whether such activities trickle up into some kind of high level aggregate good, I don't know, but it's not hard to guess at how they might.

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