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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

#131
post #30
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 ;)

I'm fine with HN personally because there is no infinite scrolling, plus a significant number of the posts/comments here teach me something new every day.

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

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Boredom is what led to pretty much every project I've ever done. I usually have a list in my head of things that could be made better, but they never come to anything until I have a lengthy period of nothing to do. Latest example: I had to take all my vacation time this year or else I'd lose it. I got so bored that I built this over the past weeks: https://github.com/kstenerud/kbnf

I don’t know anything about your job, so it’s pure assumptions, but aren’t you using your creative input to solve problems in your job as well ? Basically, your hobby projects are probably more freeing and unbounded, but are they more _creative_ than the work you’re be doing in your paid time ?

That's an interesting question... I'm not sure how one would quantify which is more creative, and I certainly wouldn't stay long at a job that has no creative outlet. It's also confounded by the fact that I got my current job because they're using one of my open source projects as part of their core business.

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

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One trick I've found to help with this is to live-stream. I once streamed a game on Twitch, nobody really watched, but it forced me to sit down and actually play the game for a good 2 or 3 hours. It was draining, gloriously draining and satisfying. You can stream programming and other personal projects as well. It doesn't matter if you get many viewers or not, just forcing yourself to maintain a consistent course of…

Playing the game was what was draining?

Streaming games live is a job that people burn out doing, it is very draining.

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

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One trick I've found to help with this is to live-stream. I once streamed a game on Twitch, nobody really watched, but it forced me to sit down and actually play the game for a good 2 or 3 hours. It was draining, gloriously draining and satisfying. You can stream programming and other personal projects as well. It doesn't matter if you get many viewers or not, just forcing yourself to maintain a consistent course of…

Playing the game was what was draining?

Yes, normally I would play for 30 mins and then do something else. It was Outer Wilds though, a mystery / puzzle game similar to Myst and so the problem solving made it more tiring and more tempting to take breaks.

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

#135

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…

It’s very difficult when you have to make a conscious decision to.. be bored. I do think most people still get stimuli like loneliness that hopefully drives them out sometimes.

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

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm so grateful for having abandoned social networks. My main motivator were the fights over political weaponization of COVID-19, but then I went on and abandoned youtube and news as well. Now, I'm halfway with my first book, found a new hobby and developed my previous ones, rediscovered programming for fun, am learning a new foreign language, found a new job with very good compensation, lost 10 kg and became a bette…

Is browsing and commenting on Hacker News not considered social media use though?

> Is browsing and commenting on Hacker News not considered social media use though?

Somewhat and it is quite addictive too but the quality is way better and there is even an option to turn limit your time spent on HN (no procastination flag/option). HN is not employing dirty techniques to keep user enganged with dumbed down content, people are just commenting out on articles, it’s more like a community

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

#137

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…

With twitter setting your feed to show the latest instead of the top shows you the latest stuff from just the people you follow. [1] I have noticed doing this has massively reduced the amount of time I spend there. [1] https://mashable.com/article/set-twitter-timeline-most-recen...

Except this setting reverts back to the default if you haven't visted Twitter for some time (48h or so IIRC), which works as another gravity to let you habitize it.

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

#138

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…

Interesting. We should not forget that social media creates this cozy safe place for everyone, so even if you personally realize that, your friends and acquaintances may not. In my own experience, since around 2010 and with the rise of social media and streaming services -especially after covid- people are more inclined to spend time at home instead of hanging out or doing stuff "in real life"

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

#139

Perhaps this is due to my insufficient understanding of English, but "an abundance of uninterrupted time spent in relative solitude" doesn't sound like boredom to me, especially if the time is spent on active thinking. If you are deeply engaged in musing, despite the solitary situation, you are not really bored, are you? At least I wouldn't call it being bored. You've got something to do, and you're well occupied by…

I think it’s an attempt to refer to the mind idling, without active engagement, left to itself to wonder, improvise, manifest spontaneous connections… create.

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

#140
> Profound boredom stems from an abundance of uninterrupted time spent in relative solitude, which can lead to indifference, apathy, and people questioning their sense of self and their existence - but which Heidegger said could also pave the way to more creative thinking and activity.

I wonder if there is a record of what could help one break out of 'indeifference, apathy, ...' phase and into the 'creative thinking and activity' phase. It is just a matter of time? Is it possible only for some and not for others? Have you, dear reader, succesfully transitioned to the latter phase and as a result, change the course of your life towards a desirable goal?

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