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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

#81

Post by signaru »

dahart wrote: post #73

> “Profound boredom may sound like an overwhelmingly negative concept but, in fact, it can be intensely positive if people are given the chance for undistracted thinking and development.” Is there historical evidence, from before social media or computers existed, that boredom made people productive or creative? I am worried about my kids never ever being bored, and the points in the article are tempting to believe,…

I'm not sure whether it counts as boredom, but Python was said to have been created by GVR to keep himself occupied during a Christmas holiday.

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

#82

Post by verzeichnis »

hecanjog wrote: post #22
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.

We followed a similar path and my experience was mostly the same. I wanted the fediverse to be a positive social thing in my life, I gave it a few years but in practice it felt sadly similar. Reading Amusing Ourselves to Death over the holiday helped me understand my relationship to infotainment a little better. (And I'm conflicted about this site too honestly...)

This book should be required reading in school. I read it when I was around 18 and it vaccinated me profoundly for all things entertainment industry, be it video games, TV or social media. I partake, but there always comes a point where I get that Clockwork Orange gag reaction at some point and am driven away.

And yes, this site is of quality content, but it is still the same opiate.

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

#83

Post by peepee1982 »

dahart wrote: post #73

> “Profound boredom may sound like an overwhelmingly negative concept but, in fact, it can be intensely positive if people are given the chance for undistracted thinking and development.” Is there historical evidence, from before social media or computers existed, that boredom made people productive or creative? I am worried about my kids never ever being bored, and the points in the article are tempting to believe,…

In my personal history my creativity has dropped by a frightening amount since the rise of YouTube and smartphones.

I now have to actively lock myself out of certain services and do daily meditation sessions to somewhat counteract those distractions.

They're just too easy to indulge in.

I've mostly stopped doing music and writing prose because of it, and I'm slowly getting back into the groove.

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

#85

Post by megamix »

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

Social media is an active mechanism to keep you hooked.

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

#86

Post by ckardat123 »

dahart wrote: post #73

> “Profound boredom may sound like an overwhelmingly negative concept but, in fact, it can be intensely positive if people are given the chance for undistracted thinking and development.” Is there historical evidence, from before social media or computers existed, that boredom made people productive or creative? I am worried about my kids never ever being bored, and the points in the article are tempting to believe,…

I think it's hard to judge, because we have so many more tools and resources today which amplify creative output.

It might true that we are have more creative output today than we did 100 years ago, while also being true that social media stifles us from reaching our full creative potential.

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

#87

Post by peepee1982 »

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

In that sense everything is at fault, not just all forms of media.

But social media has no downtime and is engineered to be addictive. A casino will lose it's appeal once you've run out of liquidity. Social media has next to no prohibiting qualities.

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

#89

Post by netsharc »

Buttons840 wrote: post #78
yazboo wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a difference of degree not kind. The constant audiovisual stimulus running through the internet is much more powerful than any of those things, and more widely available. Cable TV was close. It was always on in the room, but you had to be in the room, and you had to negotiate with your cohabitants over what to have on, or else you could go somewhere and be bored. There are no constraints anymore, with exceptions…

Computers with social media are so extremely reactive. Literally within half a second I can react to my boredom and find new content. I've noticed myself beginning to read a sentence, get bored half-way through, switch tabs, look over the new recommendations, do it again 30 seconds later. Never bored, and yet never really entertained or satisfied.

The best is when you're on reddit, think "this is boring", open a new tab and type in "reddit.com"...

On that topic, I've luckily managed to make reddit boring that I open it, scroll for a minute or so, and close it again: I unsubscribed from the "interesting" subreddits like politics or tifu or askreddit.

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

#90

Post by Existenceblinks »

quaintdev wrote: post #14

The whole problem with social media is the feed. Remove that feed and replace it with something that is not the mechanism to keep users captive and most of the issues with social media are solved. One of the ways to achieve that is to make people at the center of app. The user chooses avatar from multiple avatars on main screen and view their updates. Once they have viewed someone's update they can go back do it for…

I think it would have similar effect of reddit or youtube. 99% of the time I use reddit or youtube, it's started with search to jump straight to a topic.

And that is better because the demand side is an active, the knowledge side is the sort of passive. So mediocre knowledge wouldn't have the money backed ads power to outperform the better knowledge or solution.

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