The slow death of authenticity in an attention economy • Hacker News Board

Re: The slow death of authenticity in an attention economy

#141

Post by Retric » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 3:34 PM UTC

oangemangut wrote: post #82

Retric wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reputation is still valuable over time. Some YouTube creators I ignore irregardless of the thumbnail, while other content creators get a click automatically. The same happens with websites and everywhere else in the attention economy.

some content creators I click on _despite_ them having to do the click-bait stupid YouTube thumbnails. As an aside - word you may have been looking for is irrespective, or perhaps just plain old regardless. irregardless is not a word.

It’s been in common use for well over 100 years before you where born.

There’s beating a dead horse, and there’s railing about the injustice of it all in the shadow of a great oak growing over the horses grave.

Re: The slow death of authenticity in an attention economy

#142

Post by passion__desire » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 3:35 PM UTC

losteric wrote: post #104

kogus wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree 100% with what you are saying, but I don't think you need a human connection to have good content. The encyclopedia Brittanica didn't establish a human connection, but it was a valuable resource. An ugly problem with an attention economy is that you are rewarded for seeming useful and interesting, but once the attention has been given, there is no incentive to actually deliver. So we get clickbait headlines a…

> An ugly problem with an attention economy is that you are rewarded for seeming useful and interesting, but once the attention has been given, there is no incentive to actually deliver > To be fair, most web users are happy with the arrangement - they get an endless feed of free tiny doses of dopamine while they avoid the real responsibilities of life. I'd argue it's mostly the latter. Most creators produce content…

I think we are missing one important point. Communities acclaimatize to ground realities, though it takes time.

In my early experience of social media, people were criticized for not writing correct English. That is almost gone. Infact, now people realize that people belonging to different backgrounds can't be expected to perform in one particular context. There is reverse sort of meme, where non-natives are celebrated for writing perfect English. Similarly, there was debate on how to actually spell Quran or Koran etc. Now people understand the intention behind the words rather than actual grammer or spelling. It takes time for higher level of ideas to percolate social media.

Re: The slow death of authenticity in an attention economy

#143

Post by Kye » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 3:36 PM UTC

nullindividual wrote: post #73

j45 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depending on the platform it can be other things too. View time, remaining on platform, etc.

What [ad] platform pays on anything but clicks?

There's CPM (cost per mille [thousand]) and CPA (cost per action) too.

Twitter has CPA ads:

https://business.twitter.com/en/help/campaign-setup/create-a...

Re: The slow death of authenticity in an attention economy

#144

Post by bernardlunn » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 3:37 PM UTC

csallen wrote: post #136

kogus wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree 100% with what you are saying, but I don't think you need a human connection to have good content. The encyclopedia Brittanica didn't establish a human connection, but it was a valuable resource. An ugly problem with an attention economy is that you are rewarded for seeming useful and interesting, but once the attention has been given, there is no incentive to actually deliver. So we get clickbait headlines a…

None of this is really new. People have sought low-quality high-dopamine content since television was the main medium. Since the spread of radio. Since the development of novels. Probably the beginning of the printing press, writing, or hell, storytelling and spoken language itself. Each new medium provides more power to dive into this, and each generation panics that we've crossed a never-before-crossed line. And th…

True except now AI robots create low quality content without any qualms

Re: The slow death of authenticity in an attention economy

#145

Post by darkclouds » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 3:38 PM UTC

losteric wrote: post #104

kogus wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree 100% with what you are saying, but I don't think you need a human connection to have good content. The encyclopedia Brittanica didn't establish a human connection, but it was a valuable resource. An ugly problem with an attention economy is that you are rewarded for seeming useful and interesting, but once the attention has been given, there is no incentive to actually deliver. So we get clickbait headlines a…

> An ugly problem with an attention economy is that you are rewarded for seeming useful and interesting, but once the attention has been given, there is no incentive to actually deliver > To be fair, most web users are happy with the arrangement - they get an endless feed of free tiny doses of dopamine while they avoid the real responsibilities of life. I'd argue it's mostly the latter. Most creators produce content…

[dead]

Re: The slow death of authenticity in an attention economy

#146

Post by thedaly » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 3:38 PM UTC

It is interesting, I have almost the opposite experience as the author. I first signed up for twitter 8 years ago, but it never really interested me and I barely used it.

I started using it again around the time that Elon bought it, and I have found it to be both useful and entertaining, depending on what I'm looking for.

I'm very selective about who I follow, and I'm quick to unfollow, mute/block, etc any content that I don't want on my feed.

Re: The slow death of authenticity in an attention economy

#147

Post by TeMPOraL » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 3:41 PM UTC

thrwwyunpopular wrote: post #121

losteric wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> An ugly problem with an attention economy is that you are rewarded for seeming useful and interesting, but once the attention has been given, there is no incentive to actually deliver > To be fair, most web users are happy with the arrangement - they get an endless feed of free tiny doses of dopamine while they avoid the real responsibilities of life. I'd argue it's mostly the latter. Most creators produce content…

The harsh reality is that any conversation about what "people" want needs to factor in the fact that half of "the people" are dumber, more simpler-minded than the average person. No, you and I don't want to look at staged animal rescues or celebrity drama... but if the average person does, then so does at least 50% of the population. We're in the minority.

Yes, but also let's cut people some slack: most people on either side of IQ 100 are spending all their energy at work, and between the job, commute, preparing food, spending time with kids, etc. they only have enough energy to crawl into bed and start the grind again the next day. With that in mind, the popularity of low-effort, high-dopamine entertainment doesn't necessarily imply that most people are simple-minded and just like this - the alternative hypothesis is that they just don't have time and energy for any more complex, richer ways of spending their time.

Re: The slow death of authenticity in an attention economy

#148

Post by DerekBickerton » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 3:42 PM UTC

huevosabio wrote: post #139

Some thoughts: > Megathreads about AI, thoughtful, longform narratives that could have been blog posts... Honestly, the long form tweets became a signal to just ignore that tweet. I unfollow or block users that tweet long form often. > The people in my feed—most of whom I’m not following, by the way— Yea, just use the chrono-tab ("following"). Only usable version of Twitter. > love posting for engagement. Some of the…

Their lists feature is a massively undervalued feature. Pretty certain if lists was deprecated I would disband Twitter.

Re: The slow death of authenticity in an attention economy

#149

Post by dpifke » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 3:42 PM UTC

Toine wrote: post #11

anonzzzies wrote: post #3

Is it slow though? It seems to be going at neck-breaking speed.

It was completely dead and buried at least 5 years ago.

Definitely longer than that.

My favorite "Twitter is dying" is from 2012: https://i.insider.com/4f4f8f0d6bb3f71e5700002b

Re: The slow death of authenticity in an attention economy

#150

Post by deanCommie » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 3:43 PM UTC

I do not enjoy the default economic perspective that when it comes to artistic creation, capitalism will necessarily force all the worst possible negative incentives.

Least of all, if using Twitter as the example, for reasons I will return to.

The history of art and creation is filled to the brim with examples of creatives that refused to fold to the mold, to embrace the trends and incentives of the economy, and stuck to their convictions regardless of the monetary disincentives to do so.

YouTube and TikTok each have stereotypical extremes that gravitate for attention but each have brilliant, unique, relatively long-form (Hours+ on Youtube, 5-10 minutes on TikTok) content that is are basically the singular vision of one human sharing their perspective in a way that does not exist anywhere else. (I like many of you prefer to consume written word, but there is of course a lot to be said that seeing a person speak, and all their emotional intonation contributes something too).

It's hysterical to me that the stereotype for TikTok is still "teenagers dancing" or "gen z making funny faces", when for me it's Philosophers, Lawyers, Activists, Scientists, Technologists, Adventurers, all sharing their passions and perspectives in deep nuanced interesting looks into subjects I know nothing and everything about.

Twitter itself is interesting because this all used to be true about it too, and to a much more constrained way can still be found there. But by and large it was deliberately destroyed by Elon Musk, and the only "creators" that are left are ones that are absolutely there because they are salespeople selling themselves, or basically get rich schemes masquerading as tech content (NFTs -> Generative AI, but in general also a lot of "here's how i made money by selling a course on how to make money")