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Doomscrolling ourselves to death

edwest.co.uk

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Re: Doomscrolling ourselves to death

#341

Post by adolfojp »

outside1234 wrote: post #271
Escapado wrote: post #69

On a personal level I have become more anxious and it has become more difficult to deal with my tendency to procrastinate the more screen time I have and the more I am exposed to social media. 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. A few weeks ago I blocked them too. I would say in totality I read…

The thing to realize is that you aren't alone in this feeling. I feel exactly the same as you. Has anyone found a way to reduce this addiction?

The proliferation of AI content is making these platforms so disgusting to me that I'm actually quitting, and for real this time.

I guess it works like putting bitterant in cans of compressed air to stop people from huffing them.

It started as you expect, with more and more bot accounts pretending to be real people to either act as sleeper agents for future causes or to actively promote politics and products, except they're now interactive so you're tricked into engaging with them.

But the tipping point for me was when real people started using AI to write their posts and comments for them. And I'm not just talking about randos but about real people you follow who have written tech books and such. I've seen a few of them admit to this when confronted and they use the same excuse, that these are their thoughts and they stand by them, they're just improved by AI.

And I'm not just talking about long posts or comments. You see it with one liner responses which leads me to think that their reddit experience has now been automated and that at the most they hit approve on a queue.

So I've become cynical, almost in a state of solipsism, about every post and comment that I see, assuming everything is AI by default until I've checked which is now almost impossible with the private history. And at that point being on reddit is just like chatting with an LLM but with extra deception, so why even try.

Re: Doomscrolling ourselves to death

#342

Post by adolfojp »

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…

I went to the beach the other day by myself to decompress and I ended up randomly engaged in conversation with a lifeguard.

We're both in our late 40s so we grew up before the Internet but then aged into it.

Our political views were very different and yet the lengthy conversation that we had was not just polite but also oddly relaxing. We found ourselves finding common ground and even persuading each other to grow our views on some topics.

When I left he told me that this was the nicest most interesting conversation he's had in a long time and I agreed.

And then I remembered having these conversations all the time when I was in my late teens and early to late 20s and that trying to have these conversations in the last decade was always futile so I stopped.

And then I remembered being ashamed of myself several times for being dysregulated and defensive and even volatile, guilty of what you describe and aware of it, not just online but also in person.

So yes I agree with you about what you're saying but sadly I don't know of a solution.

Re: Doomscrolling ourselves to death

#343

Post by adolfojp »

sdcfgy wrote: post #87

Currently reprogramming myself on this. I’ve started doing more stuff on paper and using single-use devices as there’s not an immediate attention demand from something else then.

I got a Kindle a while back and I found myself when i first bought it swiping the screen as if I was trying to open the web browser on a smartphone.

I didn't even do it on purpose, it was a force of habit. I programmed myself to interrupt myself with mindless distractions, not even diversions, distractions.

So yeah, I always carry a small notebook and a kindle (and a fanny pack) and I have no social media apps on my phone which is a start.

Re: Doomscrolling ourselves to death

#344

Post by mitxela »

teiferer wrote: post #305
mitxela wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And that's frightening. AI tell. I don't think you wrote this comment with AI, but you might want to tweak this writing style in the future.

Um excuse me? Some people use LLMs to generate slop. That slop tends to have a certain style. I happen to use similar style. And now you are suggesting that I should adjust my style so that lazy people won't be tempted to classify it as slop? I think you got this all upside down.

I swear, officer, it's a Buddhist symbol of peace

Re: Doomscrolling ourselves to death

#345

Post by yawz »

teiferer wrote: post #150

Scrolling through the comments here, let's be honest about having actually read the entire article. Have you? Be honest. At first I had not, only the first 3-4 paragraphs. And it just read like another one of those articles where somebody is sad about their own and their kids' habits. I then found that most comments here are about that too. But I realized that not actually reading a lengthy article like this one is p…

Hah! I'm usually guilty of not reading the (entire) article before coming here to read the comments, which usually give me a good indication if the article is worth reading. But this time I read it all before coming here because like so many of the people here, it's hitting too close to home at many levels.

Re: Doomscrolling ourselves to death

#346

Post by CrimsonRain »

krapp wrote: post #311
CrimsonRain wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

great ones like berserk, 5cmps, cowboy bebop, your name are rare. Good ones are plenty. In fact, considering, how shitty western writers have become, even the trash manga/manwha are infinitely better.

If you're talking about animation, Western animation is arguably the best it's ever been. IDK about comics compared to manga.

Animation doesn't exclude writing. And the writing is the worst in last 50 years

Re: Doomscrolling ourselves to death

#347

Post by berytos_storm »

CrimsonRain wrote: post #270
krapp wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good manga and anime are even more rare.

great ones like berserk, 5cmps, cowboy bebop, your name are rare. Good ones are plenty. In fact, considering, how shitty western writers have become, even the trash manga/manwha are infinitely better.

> even the trash manga/manwha are infinitely better.

Including the vast amount of gooner bait for pedophile losers who got no attention from women in their life? I doubt that

Re: Doomscrolling ourselves to death

#348

Post by Lagoon3384_SWE »

ciupicri wrote: post #253
Lagoon3384_SWE wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit on defaults is a crazy experience. Subs with names like /r/wowlookatthis are posting blatant "west bad" propaganda. Making USA and EU people feel bad. Yet I walk outside in Sweden and I'm in one of the best functioning and beautiful nations in the world. Yet Swedish Reddit will post "west bad" propaganda on how everything is right wing doom. I mean from their perspective, sure... but so so so wrong they are. I…

> r/Wowlookatthis is banned > This subreddit was banned due to being unmoderated.

I made up a subreddit.

But check out r/pics & r/interestingasfuck

They are crazy especially after Oct 7. Constant pro-pali posts.

/r/sweden is a leftie craphole. same with /r/tillsverige and /r/svenskpolitik

Re: Doomscrolling ourselves to death

#349

Post by yawz »

giarc wrote: post #250
talon8635 wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How old are they?

9 and 12. They've been reading like this since the day they could read. My wife wants to keep pushing my older daughter away from graphic novels (to regular novels) but to me, doesn't matter what they read, as long as they are reading.

I think it gets worse during their early teens when most of the socializing these days seems to be phone/app-driven. I hope they'll keep the habit going.

Re: Doomscrolling ourselves to death

#350

Post by krapp »

CrimsonRain wrote: post #346
krapp wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're talking about animation, Western animation is arguably the best it's ever been. IDK about comics compared to manga.

Animation doesn't exclude writing. And the writing is the worst in last 50 years

I was referring to the writing as well. You're expressing real pick-me behavior here.
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