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Dopamine Fracking

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271–280 of 446 posts

Re: Dopamine Fracking

#271
post #103

> The Strawberry Example Is this really the best example the author could come up with? If you want fresh strawberries, you can just go to a supermarket and buy them. In many places you can get a few pounds per for less than the money you earn in one hour . It's pretty much a heaven compared to pre-industrial days. But I guess the analogy of fracking is pretty spot on, just in a way the author didn't realize -- the c…

> If you want fresh strawberries, you can just go to a supermarket and buy them Whut? It's a perfectly relatable example. Commercial fruit genetics are selected for shipping and shelf life. Nutrients and taste come way down the list of priorities. I've noticed the strawberries in my supermarket have a more consistent quality every year. Consistently awful. It seems like one company have taken over the market and the…

First of all it's not what the article says. It doesn't mention heirloom harvest at all.

Second, after trying heirloom tomatoes myself, I stopped buying the claim that commercial cultivars are that bad.

Re: Dopamine Fracking

#272
post #247

As someone under 40 who never had any social media, I cannot overstate the negative impact it's had on my peers and their behaviours. Worst thing to ever happen to society imo, I feel for the younger ones who grew up with it.

why doesnt hackernews count as social media?

Why should it? Can I add you as a friend on HN? Can I become your follower? What are the social features that would make HN social media?

Re: Dopamine Fracking

#273
post #43

> Written by a human. That for some reason uses em dashes and writes in a voice that at times I find hard to distinguish from AI. Man, I'm tired. Are people just lying? Am I just seeing things? Some mystery third option? Is it meta commentary? Everything is poisoned. I suppose it feels incorrect regardless of actual AI use, because it's still the LinkedIn thought leader template with relevant current issue. Which is…

Using em-dash is as much a sign that a writer (1) knows how to produce documents properly and (2) has a good grasp of the English language as it a sign of LLM usage.

Re: Dopamine Fracking

#274
post #247

As someone under 40 who never had any social media, I cannot overstate the negative impact it's had on my peers and their behaviours. Worst thing to ever happen to society imo, I feel for the younger ones who grew up with it.

why doesnt hackernews count as social media?

[deleted]

Re: Dopamine Fracking

#275

The prime example for me of this phenomena is selfies. What is the point of taking pictures, really? To capture the moment? Or to post to social media? If I am going to be honest, most pictures today are taken so that they are able to be broadcasted it to everyone. I believe I have superior taste in this where I don't take selfies but instead take pictures of people and environment just doing stuff. The moment someon…

I feel similarly. Take good photos of your friends doing cool things. Absolutely do not stop everyone for a group picture. Forget things. It’s okay to forget the minutia of life.

[dead]

Re: Dopamine Fracking

#276
post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why doesnt hackernews count as social media?

It does, but as you really can't get money out of it in a reliable way by exploiting the user addictive behaviors, it doesn't have that effect on society. It's just a cool place to visit now an then an check cool stuff out.

Kind of interesting how many people don’t realize that the purpose of Hacker News was to be an advertisement for Y Combinator and their portfolio companies.

You don’t see it as much these days, but YC portfolio companies can post privileged threads on this site for job listings, which in practice double as ads for the company. You’re not allowed to comment on them.

I haven’t seen one for a while because I suspect every company is already inundated with 1000 applications for every job in this market, but this is what Hacker News was for.

Re: Dopamine Fracking

#277
post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why doesnt hackernews count as social media?

It does, but as you really can't get money out of it in a reliable way by exploiting the user addictive behaviors, it doesn't have that effect on society. It's just a cool place to visit now an then an check cool stuff out.

And, HN doesn't show your ranking, at least obviously, so it doesn't get the same gamification to try and maximize points.

But, it is social media. Just that they make a point to try and tone it down and keep it focused.

Re: Dopamine Fracking

#278
post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly what the article touches on, the race to the bottom. It drags everyone's experience down. This appeal to scalability is part of the problem, IMO. Not every experience is or should be scalable. Some kids find blackberry bushes at grandma's instead of strawberries. Little is gained by strip mining human experience so the thinnest veneer can be "scaled".

That means most people can never have it, which is why romanticism ends up pining for aristocracy.

I take your point, but the other argument against scaling in this way doesn't rely on sentiment: it's unsustainable. I actually hate that word, but the point is that current production methods create (unpriced) environmental externalities. We're draining aquifers, exhausting topsoil, pouring fertilizer into rivers, using too much petroleum - and then throwing a massive portion of what we produce away. (And that's just for food; similar arguments exist for fashion, and sometimes for buildings and infrastructure.) That argument gets effectively zero traction - despite, I think, being the better one - so some people who care more about that argue from sentiment instead, which (for the reasons you explain, and rightly object to) has better legs with the general public.

Re: Dopamine Fracking

#279

I love this term - I think it beautifully describes the direction that at least, YouTube is heading towards. Take for example, this racket where a channel copies popular (non-kids) creators’ parody work, splits the screen in half with the content on left, adds a completely random DIY type video on the right half, and lo and behold its content for kids who are too young to know any better[1]. Another one: AI voiceover…

It's wild that the same easily detectable spam formula from a decade ago is still active beneath every finance video today: "I'm confused! Well I gave my money to Mr. Scammy McScamface and he gave me 1000% returns! Google Scammy McScamface now!"

Re: Dopamine Fracking

#280
post #247

As someone under 40 who never had any social media, I cannot overstate the negative impact it's had on my peers and their behaviours. Worst thing to ever happen to society imo, I feel for the younger ones who grew up with it.

why doesnt hackernews count as social media?

If you want to be pedantic, everything that has user interaction I think technically counts as social media. So just about any forum on the internet counts. But there's a pretty big difference in an anonymous forum, and something like twitter, facebook etc.
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