Reading this helped me realize some feelings I've been having recently after not being on Instagram for a few years and then going back to it recently. The content has shifted from a feed of my friends' lives to a feed of copy-paste memes, headlines with weird music playing, tiktok screen-caps, and a ton of advertisement as media content. It's unfortunate that the reigns of almost all kinds of social media are now in control of Meta, soon when X/Twitter disappears and Threads becomes the leading thoughts and news platform, it will feel like we might be missing big chunks of real news and life because that stuff doesn't sell ads.
Ego Death
61–70 of 122 posts
Re: Ego Death
#62Funny how many "I"'s and "my"'s in this piece. This was especially ironic: > " I want to kill my ego , or at least substantially break it"
It is preferable to generalizations or pretending you are speaking for other people.
Re: Ego Death
#63Humans need to have a persistent world view. Without persistent world view I could not even use a spoon -- I would be constantly surprised by what is this thing in my hand, and what I am supposed to do with it.
My current understanding is that purpose of the ego is to maintain the world view. In other words, it provides resistane to change to the current world view.
It is supposed to work like soil works for seed -- provides some initial resistance to facilitate growth and make it possible for the plant to survie after it breaks through the surface.
Therefore, ego is absolutely necessary part of humans. Killing it is not possible and even trying to kill it is not a useful aim. (I know, I have tried.)
That said, there may be many problems related to oversized egos and learning to work with your ego is worthwhile.
Re: Ego Death
#64> We aren’t using social media to drive action. We are using it to farm a false sense of worth. To cast stones at anyone who foolishly stumbles into the latest virtue-trap. Yeah, it feels like most of social media is now shit-flinging and calling the "outside group" stupid so one can feel "At least I'm not a stupid horrible person like that idiot!". I notice on Instagram you can "like" comments but not dislike them,…
> most of social media is now shit-flinging and calling the "outside group" stupid
I saw myself in both your quote and the one you responded to.
For the past year, I've participated in calling out Unstoppable Domains for their bullying tactics[1], shady behavior[2], &c. I've delighted in catching their employees off-guard in obvious lies. I've made ample use of the #StoppableDomains hashtag to further expose how they're a Web2 company masquerading as Web3. All this for Twitter to indefinitely ban my account for "platform misuse."
Was it worth it? My previous data export was almost a year ago so, unfortunately not. Losing a decade plus of memories hurts but it further illuminates the need to own your content (and that's a rant for another day).
I do think that holding people and corporations accountable is important. At this point though, I don't care to continue putting energy into platforms and not really getting much back from them (if anything).
--
[1]: https://domainnamewire.com/2023/06/26/court-handshake-wallet...
Re: Ego Death
#65“Enlightenment is achieved not when there is nothing left to post, but when you disable the comment section on your personal website”
—The Buddha
Re: Ego Death
#66Sounds like they are describing an addiction. Not everyone's social media experience is the same. The author was participating in the noise, stuck in the culture of substance abuse. Their experience is that this is the only experience. To the most casual observer this is clearly untrue. ---- Anyone paying attention to the science on social media is aware there are people stuck in this cycle. It's cool that this perso…
Yeah I’m pretty tired of people who have a problem with social media assuming that that means everyone has a problem with social media - or that social media itself is a problem. If it doesn’t work for you, then don’t do it. Stop projecting and start taking responsibility for yourself. Self worth comes from yourself . If you’re getting your worth from an outside source, that’s external validation, which is a wholly u…
While taking responsibility for yourself is important, I think there still needs to be a discussion in society about addicting habits. There is a reason why many substances are forbidden, why alcohol and tobacco are not sold to kids, and why gambling is regulated.
Sure, regulations change (like the push for legalizing marijuana), but I doubt anyone is seriously advocating to make everything addictive completely freely available.
Re: Ego Death
#67Sounds like they are describing an addiction. Not everyone's social media experience is the same. The author was participating in the noise, stuck in the culture of substance abuse. Their experience is that this is the only experience. To the most casual observer this is clearly untrue. ---- Anyone paying attention to the science on social media is aware there are people stuck in this cycle. It's cool that this perso…
Yeah I’m pretty tired of people who have a problem with social media assuming that that means everyone has a problem with social media - or that social media itself is a problem. If it doesn’t work for you, then don’t do it. Stop projecting and start taking responsibility for yourself. Self worth comes from yourself . If you’re getting your worth from an outside source, that’s external validation, which is a wholly u…
Would you apply the same judgement to drugs?
I'm not saying I disagree with you, or the author for that matter, but I can't quite entirely tease apart why one would apply to the one and not the other.
Re: Ego Death
#68I don't know how to say this constructively, but this post reads like it is written with a deep smugness. It feels very "ego-y". It feels like the author has glommed onto a real concept (denying the ego) but instead used it to get out of the competitive marketplace of social media, and instead take it to their blog where the competition is invisible and lesser. It even basically finishes with "tune in later to keep in touch with my journey of mastering what all you plebs struggle with and can't see."
Just how it feels to me, anyway. It's very overwrought.
Re: Ego Death
#69>I deeply believe everyone is virtuous, as they personally define it. For the most part, I believe the world’s virtues are common. We all want peace, joy, safety, and comfort. We all want to smile. Well I don't. And this belief isn't any more valid or invalid than mine, or anyone else's. Regardless of the flimsy definition of virtuousness, there are people out there who are hellbent on causing harm, and some are pett…
What makes you think "the people in charge of social media"* aren't good people?
(* Is this just at the CEO level, so a handful of people? Or like, their immediate underlings, so a few dozens of people? Or middle management, so hundreds? Are they all not good people?)
Re: Ego Death
#70I noticed the train wreck phenomenon she described around 2009 on facebook and immediately quit knowing that I lacked the self control to look away. I post from multiple anonymous hn accounts to test ideas and make a point of not acquiring a particularly high karma before switching to a new account to ensure that I don't get attached to a particular persona that might become correlated with the handle.
This is an interesting approach.
Do you imbue reach handle with its own persona (presumably a fragment of yours, writ whole)?
Or is it basically just a cover for whatever you feel like writing in each moment?