Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The apps that Americans search to “delete” the most

vpnoverview.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 305 posts

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

#241

Post by xherberta »

ncpa-cpl wrote: post #92
neura wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Instagram democratizes the mental illness that used to only affect child stars and the hollywood famous." Wow. I have problems with Instragram, but I've never tried to sum it up into a single statement and while this is rather specific and may not include all the problems I _feel_ are there, it really does bring home the main issue, for me. A little snark in there about democratizing, as some people will always put…

> Wow. I have problems with Instragram I remember that for a few months before my partner broke up with me, their IG feed was full of reels, posts, 'comedy', 'psychology tips', about people complaining about their partners. And also lots of Insta influencers posts giving relationship tips or encouraging people to break up for diverse reasons. While I'm aware my relationship wasn't perfect, the standards promoted by t…

Observe how this amounts to crime. The platform has motive: -newly single users attract more views -newly single users are worth more to advertisers because they’re likely to spend on appearance, travel, new hobbies, and big ticket items formerly shared with a partner. The platform also has opportunity because it has data on exactly what content has highest probability of nudging a particular user to break up. (Perhaps the “you are being abused by a narcissist” stuff others have mentioned works nicely.) (See also Shoshanna Zuboff)

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

#242

Post by capybara_2020 »

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 a generation or two ago you had context. You knew Bob worked in an assembly plant 6 days a week with tons of overtime sacrificing family time or took that vacation after 3 years and stayed in a cheap hotel to enjoy an amazing beach.

With social media you do not have that context, you just see the perfect parts.

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

#243

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]

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

#245

Post by barking_biscuit »

chrbr wrote: post #183
zucked wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 had the same problem and hated it. What fixed it was clicking "Not Interested" on enough of the posts to where it eventually gave up trying to show stuff like that. I think you're correct about the fact that it figures out you're an adult male and assumes you want that content, since a common theme with adult males is, well, an interest in attractive women. The algorithm has now decided to just show me cute animal…

>Now if I could just fix the scenario where somehow it decides I really like garbage pay-to-play mobile games and shows me _nothing_ but ads for them for days on end.

Lords Mobile

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

#246

Post by mbesto »

yodsanklai wrote: post #199
mbesto wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You also have control to not be a celebrity and avoid the paparazzi. This is the parent's point. While you may have free will, it's hard to argue that having cheap access to fame is not appealing to everyone.

A lot of things can be bad if abused. Alcohol, eating, watching TV, video games even healthy activities like sport can be addictive or have risk of injuries. Social medias aren't different. They are entirely harmless for most people. Not that a big of a deal.

> A lot of things can be bad if abused. Alcohol, eating, watching TV, video games even healthy activities like sport can be addictive or have risk of injuries.

Scissors can be bad if abused too. Not sure why we're playing this game...

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

#247

Post by dangond »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #239
ajsnigrutin wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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"

You're right that there is difference in degree. But I don't think that changes the fact that we should already accept that what people post to Instagram are the highlights of their lives and not the drudgery.

It's not a question of acceptance, but rather on the effects it has on people psychologically, whether or not they accept it. Humans don't just operate as rational beings – our brains' perceptions of the world adapt and change based on the things we see and how often we see them. Being aware of this effect is not enough to overcome it, much like being aware of the effects of hard drugs does not prevent you from forming an addiction. It is simply how our minds work. It affects people to varying degrees, but the only way to guarantee avoiding the effect is to avoid such situations in general.

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

#248

Post by lelanthran »

bcrosby95 wrote: post #186
jstarfish wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> While I'm aware my relationship wasn't perfect, the standards promoted by those aesthetic Insta influencers were really impossible to obtain in real life. In the 4 months I dabbled with Instagram, I was shocked by how toxic and outright false the pop psychology memes were. They were stereotypical, frequently backwards, and deliberately misapplied. And all of that is before the cluster-B LARPing. "Your partner won't…

I saw a youtube short like this. It was a video demonstrating the "perfect" guy. It started reasonable, with him saying "oh can you check this on my phone? the passcode is XYZ" Yeah, I would have trusted my current-wife then-girlfriend with my phone passcode pretty early on, no big deal. She didn't feel the need to know it, but casually telling it to her so she could do something with it is probably a thing that happ…

I would like to see that; what should I search youtube for?

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

#249

Post by bcrosby95 »

lelanthran wrote: post #248
bcrosby95 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw a youtube short like this. It was a video demonstrating the "perfect" guy. It started reasonable, with him saying "oh can you check this on my phone? the passcode is XYZ" Yeah, I would have trusted my current-wife then-girlfriend with my phone passcode pretty early on, no big deal. She didn't feel the need to know it, but casually telling it to her so she could do something with it is probably a thing that happ…

I would like to see that; what should I search youtube for?

I have no clue. I mostly get warhammer, video game, and programming videos. It showed up in my shorts one day so I took a look. I have long since purged it from my history because I want to minimize the chances of getting something like that again.

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

#250

Post by Godel_unicode »

trashtester wrote: post #227
onion2k wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It would be fascinating to take a sample of people, compare their avatars to their real life appearance, and then have them spend an hour talking to a shrink about why they are so similar/different.

Anecdotally, I know many people in both the very similar and very different camps, and a few who are very similar except for some small thing.

Post reply on HN