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Large shares of consumers use social media out of a fear of missing out

bfi.uchicago.edu

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Re: Large shares of consumers use social media out of a fear of missing out

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for the reminder of how unimaginative 20 year olds are about their future. That's not a dig at you. You're too busy doing stuff and getting along to actually have any idea what life is about. That has to be a biological necessity or you'd implode

Are you suggesting that I am unable to imagine browsing Reddit at age 50? Seems like you’re too unimaginative to consider a younger perspective imo.

1) Yes why would you assume a a GenX would not know how to navigate algorithmic filter bubbles?

2) The low quality content on the fyp is actually representative of the state of affairs for many youth. Media and data literacy is not a strong point of GenZ. The amount of ridiculous conspiracy theories(both left and right) going viral is a parallel universe of the infamous boomer political chain emails.

Re: Large shares of consumers use social media out of a fear of missing out

#152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for the reminder of how unimaginative 20 year olds are about their future. That's not a dig at you. You're too busy doing stuff and getting along to actually have any idea what life is about. That has to be a biological necessity or you'd implode

Are you suggesting that I am unable to imagine browsing Reddit at age 50? Seems like you’re too unimaginative to consider a younger perspective imo.

More fool you, I'm so imaginative, I imagined the point I'm arguing against. Normally I might apologise and hang my head in shame but age is an interesting thought exercise. So come with me if you will, ignore me if you won't.

The point I was trying to make is that you are unable to imagine what browsing Reddit at 50 will mean to you; how important staying contextualised with pop culture will be to you.

Your Ego is ephemeral, in constant flux. You can't imagine yourself accurately. When you're young you know things will change but it's impossible to predict how those events —health, jobs, homes, children, deaths, friendships, hobbies, your politics, etc— will change who you are.

I'm also saying that's okay. As long as old.reddit.com still works in 30 years, we'll all be okay.

Re: Large shares of consumers use social media out of a fear of missing out

#153
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> It is quite bizarre we call them social networks. They used to be social networks until they got littered with short-term engagement boosting content and ads. Facebook in 2006/2007 was so awesome.

The thing is, Facebook was never awesome. Really. Never. It demonstrably reduces happiness and life satisfaction. It’s just bad. And it’s easy to quit. Really.

Nah, it was good in ‘04 ‘05. Being able to see photos other people took of you at parties was a novelty and was welcome. It was like a phone book with photos.

Even later the groups function was great for many.

On balance it’s been bad, but it has its moments in the sun.

It was also a desktop experience so it wasn’t nearly as potent as it was when the smartphone showed up

Re: Large shares of consumers use social media out of a fear of missing out

#154
post #14
post #4

>Among iPhone owners, a striking 91% of respondents indicate that they would prefer Apple to release the iPhone every other year rather than every year. Among respondents not owning the iPhone, this fraction is even larger, at 94%. I wonder why the 94% care so much about a phone that they do not even intend to own. I can't help but think that this study simply shows that more people should mind their own damn busines…

If I felt that an investment had a 2-3 year life before being semi-formally deprecated, I would feel more like buying it. The thing is, that I can't think of consumer objects I routinely buy where the pressure to show I have the "newest" one is so strong. Nobody cares if my kindle is old. Amongst my colleagues, like me it's a badge of honour to run an old phone. The last nokia standout only ditched it when they turne…

> The thing is, that I can't think of consumer objects I routinely buy where the pressure to show I have the "newest" one is so strong. Nobody cares if my kindle is old.

Honest question: who cares if your iPhone is old? Maybe I'm in a wrong demographic but flashing top new smartphone in front of acquaintances stopped mattering around the time when everyone graduated and got a job (so everyone could buy one and it stopped being "cool").

Re: Large shares of consumers use social media out of a fear of missing out

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Actually I wonder if there’s a market for an actual social network that is restricted to only being social. There's a huge market for them. They're called private group chats, and they're popular everywhere. The problem is that you can't make much money off of that, precisely because they're socially valuable (i.e., they're strictly socially-driven, so there's no opportunity for in-line advertising, or recommending…

Group chats are such a poor substitute though. On 00’s Facebook you could post once for all of your friends to see, and they didn’t have to all know each other.

> On 00’s Facebook you could post once for all of your friends to see, and they didn’t have to all know each other.

I consider the inability to do this a feature, not a bug. Group chats are socially segmented, with friction between those segments. That crazy uncle who loves conspiracy theories will be confined to just the group chats you have in common. You don't get insufferable loudmouths at scale, amplified by social media reward structures and algorithms.

Re: Large shares of consumers use social media out of a fear of missing out

#156

I watch TikTok and read reddit religiously because I'm in my 50s, and I need to make sure I can understand what is relevant to the younger people I work with. Also understanding memes, etc. so that I don't get too old with my thinking.

As a 20-something guy I can’t imagine this strategy working

It’s not exactly hard to watch a few 30 second videos and pick up some new slang via contextual learning. It’s a skill we all learned in elementary school.

Re: Large shares of consumers use social media out of a fear of missing out

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Makes me think of the shift from reality TV (real people living authentically on TV) to “reality TV” (the genre with it’s specific formulas/tropes/manipulation).

Your first one never existed.

Early Big Brother immediately comes to mind

Re: Large shares of consumers use social media out of a fear of missing out

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Playing deliberately obnoxious music to a captive audience? Yeah that's a CIA torture technique. Unironically.

They're doing it (I presume) in the middle of the day, and for a couple of hours maybe. They're not keeping the victims up for 48 hours straight playing the music. I think it's a fine idea for a fundraiser.

When you have an audience of people who are forbidden from leaving, you have some level of obligation to use their time wisely. The myth of "yeah you're forced to be here, but it's for your own good!" really breaks down when the "good" use of their time is intentionally annoying them to extort money. I hated things like this when I was in highschool. It made me think (often rightfully) that even from an academic perspective my time would have been better spent at home playing Counterstrike.

Re: Large shares of consumers use social media out of a fear of missing out

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're doing it (I presume) in the middle of the day, and for a couple of hours maybe. They're not keeping the victims up for 48 hours straight playing the music. I think it's a fine idea for a fundraiser.

When you have an audience of people who are forbidden from leaving, you have some level of obligation to use their time wisely. The myth of "yeah you're forced to be here, but it's for your own good!" really breaks down when the "good" use of their time is intentionally annoying them to extort money. I hated things like this when I was in highschool. It made me think (often rightfully) that even from an academic pers…

Yeah, I was surprised how hated my comment was. I was thinking something like, "pfft, kids these days are too soft." Or something like that.

When I was in middle school, we had an annual fundraiser for the American Heart Assoc. It was one of those "____-a-thon" style events where we all had to jump rope for as long as we could, and we gathered pledges from family members ("only 1¢ per jump, Aunt Sally!"). But this was only for an hour, and it replaced our normal PE period, so it wasn't a diversion from the normal course of schooling. And not everyone participated.

That's the kind of thing I had in mind when writing that comment, but now I'm realizing the parent comment was talking about the entire student body, for the entire school day.

I agree with you. My original take was hot... and bad. :)

Re: Large shares of consumers use social media out of a fear of missing out

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your work chat rooms are filled with discussion of reddit posts and tik-tok? I just struggle to see how your strategy makes any sense or what the purpose of it even is.

sounds like their work chat is mainly populated by younger people and he wants to just understand the context of the memes, chill out

Cap bro, chill your rizz.
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