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Doomscrolling ourselves to death

edwest.co.uk

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Re: Doomscrolling ourselves to death

#281

Post by [deleted] »

bogwog wrote: post #97
good8675309 wrote: post #91

It’s not just kids at risk, I also struggle with it as a millennial. I love skimming HN, comments, blogs but I almost never read a full article. I wanted to read the Bible recently, and it was such a challenge that instead I generated an app to doomscroll it called ScrollMyBible.com (plugging because it’s 100% free/ad free and has actually been helping me read more) - maybe this idea could be used for other applicati…

> redirect this tendency that is weaponized against us towards something constructive Who is "weaponizing" it against you, and how?

[deleted]

Re: Doomscrolling ourselves to death

#282

Post by qlte »

hirvi74 wrote: post #279
mitxela wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Wake up. All default subs are left wing crazy. Worldnews bans you instantly if you disagree with Israel. That's a default sub, yeah? Left or right wing?

Is the topic of Israel and Palestine truly that decisive across some binary party lines? I know people with a wide range of opinions both sides. I feel like it's more loud social media echo chambers than some sort of political schism.

The comment you're replying to is refuting the parent's statement that all default Reddit subs are "left wing".

Re: Doomscrolling ourselves to death

#283

Post by cheevly »

genghisjahn wrote: post #233
Aurornis wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have in essence deleted the vast majority of my social media accounts years ago, but stayed a passive and rather anonymous consumer on Reddit, X and YouTube Most of the people I’ve known who struggled with doomscrolling had established a similar set of social media sites at their worst point. I think we’ve seen so many articles about how social media is bad that reference mainstream sites like Facebook and Instag…

My opinion, anything driven by an algorithm is inherently bad. It’s hard giving up those sites, not because that’s where the people are but because we are all addicted to them. If you switch to mastodon or pixelfed, you’ll find good stuff there, but you won’t engage with it as much because it’s not algo driven, which to me is a win.

That’s an interesting algorithm you use to classify anything driven by an algorithm.

Re: Doomscrolling ourselves to death

#284

Post by mermadicsolutio »

Often time I just found myself unconsciously take out my phone and start scrolling for no reason. Was not a conscious decision just muscle memory. Stop scrolling isn't really an option for me because a lot of info are genuinely useful, but I do fall into rabbithole of some of the most random stuff. Feel like that's how most people start doom scrolling

Re: Doomscrolling ourselves to death

#285

Post by qlte »

Barrin92 wrote: post #197
TexanFeller wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my problems with blocking things like YouTube is that there’s so much outstanding long form content that’s not always available elsewhere. I love watching semi popularized physics lectures like from Sean Carroll but I can’t help but click on the mindless content next to it after, or even during, my wholesome viewing.

the semi popularized physics lectures are also mindless content. It's infotainment, it might be worse than junk because it disguises itself as learning. People will consume thousands of hours of that stuff and not be able to solve one physics problem. Endless exercise and fitness science videos and still be out of shape. Watch language learning content and never speak another language. Endless programming tutorials w…

If you paint with such a broad brush that watching anything on a screen is equally bad, that's a backdoor way to justify scrolling through TikTok ragebait videos since "it's all poison anyway".

Edutainment is a spectrum, while you are correct that everyone should understand they can't "learn quantum theory" in a way that can be applied meaningfully by watching videos, sparking intellectual curiosity and learning new topics/areas of interest is a good thing in general. And most edutainment that isn't so flawed/simplistic as to be wrong is better than watching an influencer whose dayjob is churning out weekly content with some alluring hook to grab viewers and mostly just inane lowest common denominator filler around it.

PBS NOVA Documentary > PBS Spacetime on YT >> YT "Fun" Science Content > TikTok "Fun" Science Content >> YT Influencer Content > TikTok Influencer Content >> YT Ragebait/AI Slop > TikTok Ragebait/AI Slop

Sesame Street isn't nearly as harmful for young kids as 2 minute TikTok AI videos that next play into God knows what. It has interesting inoffensive characters teaching useful language and social skills.

Re: Doomscrolling ourselves to death

#286

Post by mrheosuper »

talon8635 wrote: post #219
coffeefirst wrote: post #11

I can tell, usually within a few minutes of meeting them, who’s really into social media. There’s a little bit of frenetic emotional dysregulation, and then they say the weirdest stuff to me. I don’t think you could have made a similar argument about heavy trash tv watchers. They may have had less to talk about, you may have found them less interesting, but it didn’t literally alter their personalities. We have a big…

My 30 year old sister in law throws disregulated tantrums somewhat similar to a 3 year old. She failed out of college before completing the first semester, went to a bougie AA retreat in Hawaii for many months, made her entire identity AA, until online outrage became mainstream. She might literally have never read a single book cover to cover in her life, and yet has the strongest polarizing opinion you could imagine…

What is AA ?

Re: Doomscrolling ourselves to death

#287

Post by mitxela »

hirvi74 wrote: post #279
mitxela wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Wake up. All default subs are left wing crazy. Worldnews bans you instantly if you disagree with Israel. That's a default sub, yeah? Left or right wing?

Is the topic of Israel and Palestine truly that decisive across some binary party lines? I know people with a wide range of opinions both sides. I feel like it's more loud social media echo chambers than some sort of political schism.

It's divisive across left and right. Not across US party lines since both of them are right.

Re: Doomscrolling ourselves to death

#289

Post by vkou »

mitxela wrote: post #255
SkyeCA wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit is a site which I would only recommend to someone I truly hated. It's poison on every level imaginable, more so than basically any other social media I've ever used. People will say Twitter is worse, but the Twitter algo with actually listen to you (in my experience) when you tell it what you do/don't want to see. My feed was nearly 100% furry artwork because I refused to interact with anything else.

And it doesn't feel like poison. I haven't used Reddit in several years so I don't know how it is now, but I used to feel yucky if I visited Facebook or Instagram, but not Reddit.

It's one thing when randos on the internet choose to express something vile and stupid, it's an entirely different thing when people you know express something vile and stupid.

Re: Doomscrolling ourselves to death

#290

Post by vkou »

Barrin92 wrote: post #197
TexanFeller wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my problems with blocking things like YouTube is that there’s so much outstanding long form content that’s not always available elsewhere. I love watching semi popularized physics lectures like from Sean Carroll but I can’t help but click on the mindless content next to it after, or even during, my wholesome viewing.

the semi popularized physics lectures are also mindless content. It's infotainment, it might be worse than junk because it disguises itself as learning. People will consume thousands of hours of that stuff and not be able to solve one physics problem. Endless exercise and fitness science videos and still be out of shape. Watch language learning content and never speak another language. Endless programming tutorials w…

I throughly enjoy music edutainment, and I don't think I'm the only viewer who then goes and actually plays some music after viewing it.

(I can't honestly say that I go and start doing chemistry after listening to NileRed...)

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