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The apps that Americans search to “delete” the most

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Re: The apps that Americans search to “delete” the most

#221

Post by JKCalhoun »

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #210
notShabu wrote: post #17

Instagram democratizes the mental illness that used to only affect child stars and the hollywood famous. Who people think we are is who we are because identity is a reflection, not an actual thing in reality (similar to colors not existing in reality). Having access to a extra mirrors at first creates a sense of control. You know your mom and dad won't give you a "non-distorted" reflection so the reflection from stra…

The biggest problem with instagram (well and most other photo-based social network) is not the fame and glory of a few individuals, but a selective showing of the best highlights of other people. Imagine sitting at a shitty job, going to the bathroom, and browsing instagram... hey look, here's Alice eating at a fancy restaurant.. here's Bob on a beach... here's Cecilia at a party... here's Doug moutain climbing... an…

Everyone knows that though.

I mean, a generation or two ago, it would be a literal vacation slide show you might be "treated to" when visiting a friend. Obviously they never showed slides of Bob at the GM assembly plant.

Re: The apps that Americans search to “delete” the most

#223

Post by trashtester »

lo_zamoyski wrote: post #212
notShabu wrote: post #17

Instagram democratizes the mental illness that used to only affect child stars and the hollywood famous. Who people think we are is who we are because identity is a reflection, not an actual thing in reality (similar to colors not existing in reality). Having access to a extra mirrors at first creates a sense of control. You know your mom and dad won't give you a "non-distorted" reflection so the reflection from stra…

> Who people think we are is who we are because identity is a reflection, not an actual thing in reality Identity is by definition what and who you _are_ and this is _prior_ to thought -- it is a matter of being, not thinking. It is to some extent determined in time; our character is determined by our choices, and choices actualize potentials, or thwart them. The very fact that someone can have a distorted view impli…

>> (similar to colors not existing in reality).

> A digression, but this claim bothers me.

From a pure physical point of view, light exist of an infinite number of wavelengths. A mix of light of different wavelengths thus form an infinite-dimensional color space.

Our eyes only has thress sensors to detect the difference, roughly corresponding to Red Green and Blue, so as the light hits our brain, we receive a 3-dimensional color space. The brain collapses this further into a single qualia, that is very remote in structure to the physical light.

By comparison, our ability to comprehend shapes of objects is much more closely related to the objects' acutal shape.

>> Who people think we are is who we are because identity is a reflection, not an actual thing in reality

> Identity is by definition what and who you _are_ and this is _prior_ to thought -- it is a matter of being, not thinking.

This is not the definition most commonly used, at least not in the physical sense. What we _are_, all of us, is very complicated. Far too complicated for our brains to relate to. Instead we're telling ourselves highly simplified stories about ourselves, where we "identify with" or "identify as" one or more characters (or personas) in these stories. This is not unlike when we watch a movie or read a book, and start to feel that we are one of the lead characters there.

And just like the color "brown" doesn't have a single essential identity (it corresponds to a relatively large are of the RGB space, and an even larger area of the full physical color space), our mental model of who we are, is extremely simplified compared to our physical selves.

Re: The apps that Americans search to “delete” the most

#224

Post by max51 »

zucked wrote: post #95
tristor wrote: post #43

My wife convinced me to install Instagram so she could send me videos of stuff. My experience was that at first it was annoying, then I found out I could follow some cool hobbyist folks working on cars, old computer systems, electronics, and of course all the mechanical keyboard content, as well as travel (I'm an extensive world traveler and used to post travel content on Instagram over 5 years ago) and I got sucked…

> 2. Thots. Maybe because I'm a male between 25-50 or something, but even though I subscribe to 0 people on Instagram that qualify as thots, my feed started getting filled with women using Instagram to advertise their OF/services. Usually these seem cross-recommended as related to comedy shorts, cosplay/gaming, or cars, but aren't really any of those things. THANK YOU FOR POSTING THIS. I have consistently resisted ev…

>I cannot for the life of me figure it out. I'm sure something I did or revealed has tagged me as "likely to find this content captivating" but I don't and I wish I could flag it as such

A lot of engineers in SV (and in this forum) think they know better than the users. They think they are so much better than everyone else that they feel a allowing the user to tell them they don't like something is just extra noise that doesn't provide useful information.

Re: The apps that Americans search to “delete” the most

#225

Post by ajsnigrutin »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #221
ajsnigrutin wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest problem with instagram (well and most other photo-based social network) is not the fame and glory of a few individuals, but a selective showing of the best highlights of other people. Imagine sitting at a shitty job, going to the bathroom, and browsing instagram... hey look, here's Alice eating at a fancy restaurant.. here's Bob on a beach... here's Cecilia at a party... here's Doug moutain climbing... an…

Everyone knows that though. I mean, a generation or two ago, it would be a literal vacation slide show you might be "treated to" when visiting a friend. Obviously they never showed slides of Bob at the GM assembly plant.

But that was once in a month occurence, not 6 times (or more) per day. And it was one coworker, not tens or hundreds of your friends and "friends"

Re: The apps that Americans search to “delete” the most

#226

Post by the_snooze »

prawn wrote: post #219
pixl97 wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://catvalente.substack.com/p/stop-talking-to-each-other... >Stop Talking to Each Other and Start Buying Things: Three Decades of Survival in the Desert of Social Media Covers this effect pretty well.

Yep, I remember that piece. Silly thing is, I think Instagram would be just fine if they didn't suggest things constantly. Every time, I select to see it less often, but it's inevitably back the following day. Let each person choose what they want their Instagram to be, whether it's following friends or being a creator or treating it like a magazine and looking at reels.

>Let each person choose what they want their Instagram to be

That's not as valuable to advertisers though. With recommendations and algorithmic sorting, the platform gets to mold what's important, and that influence makes it easy to sell off to the highest bidder.

I find a lot of value in following my friends---and my friends only. It's why we've all generally migrated off traditional social media and into private group chats. There's no algorithm mediating our interactions, and no one is going to try to sell our attention to outside parties.

Re: The apps that Americans search to “delete” the most

#227

Post by trashtester »

onion2k wrote: post #181
notShabu wrote: post #17

Instagram democratizes the mental illness that used to only affect child stars and the hollywood famous. Who people think we are is who we are because identity is a reflection, not an actual thing in reality (similar to colors not existing in reality). Having access to a extra mirrors at first creates a sense of control. You know your mom and dad won't give you a "non-distorted" reflection so the reflection from stra…

Who people think we are is who we are because identity is a reflection.. That assumes a level of honesty that is missing from social media. On Instagram people explicitly pretend to be someone they are not. The reflection they show is beauty and affluence but the reality is Photoshop and prestige car rental.

Insta is like a computer role playing game, where the player usually plays a character that closely resembles themselves, but often as a more idealized version.

When my daughter started playing Hogwarth's legacy, she instantly created a charcter that looked as much as possible like her. Instagram is not that different.

Re: The apps that Americans search to “delete” the most

#228

Post by sublinear »

luckylion wrote: post #2

Or: Americans wanting to delete Instagram have a harder time figuring out how to delete apps than users of other apps. Or: Instagram is the most-used app.

Sincerely, thanks for pointing out the basics of perceptive bias.

If we all just kept these counter-explanations in mind we wouldn't have anywhere near as much pointless controversy in headlines.

Re: The apps that Americans search to “delete” the most

#229

Post by prawn »

the_snooze wrote: post #226
prawn wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, I remember that piece. Silly thing is, I think Instagram would be just fine if they didn't suggest things constantly. Every time, I select to see it less often, but it's inevitably back the following day. Let each person choose what they want their Instagram to be, whether it's following friends or being a creator or treating it like a magazine and looking at reels.

>Let each person choose what they want their Instagram to be That's not as valuable to advertisers though. With recommendations and algorithmic sorting, the platform gets to mold what's important, and that influence makes it easy to sell off to the highest bidder. I find a lot of value in following my friends---and my friends only. It's why we've all generally migrated off traditional social media and into private gr…

That's not as valuable to advertisers though... ;)

They're pushing away valuable eyeballs by trying to wring cash out of everyone.

Re: The apps that Americans search to “delete” the most

#230

Post by mc32 »

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #225
JKCalhoun wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone knows that though. I mean, a generation or two ago, it would be a literal vacation slide show you might be "treated to" when visiting a friend. Obviously they never showed slides of Bob at the GM assembly plant.

But that was once in a month occurence, not 6 times (or more) per day. And it was one coworker, not tens or hundreds of your friends and "friends"

And in the days before budget airlines most people accepted it that an overseas vacation was a bit like that for national lampoon vacations: working stiffs working hard and after years at the job “earning” a vacation. Not jaunts you did while between dead end jobs.
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