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A Teenager’s View on Social Media

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Re: A Teenager’s View on Social Media

#271

Post by xvedejas »

0942v8653 wrote: post #150

Here's another teenager's view on social media. I don't have an account for any of these, and I don't want one. I have, let's see, HN, GitHub, and Stack Exchange. Those accounts are my online identity, which I make sure is separate from my real identity. If you want to contact me, you can email me, or if you know me in real life, you can text me. I don't feel smug about not having those accounts, but I'm not embarras…

I mean, you sound like a pretty typical hacker kid... which is to say, not a typical kid that people care about when discussing things like market share or teen trends.

Re: A Teenager’s View on Social Media

#272

Post by UrMomReadsHN »

mtbcoder wrote: post #249
alexqgb wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. I mean, I can understand obsessing about the teen / YA demographic if that's who you're selling to, but the idea that what they do represents some ground-shaking historical shift, and not just a (fairly well-understood) phase in normal human lives is just ridiculous. For me, one of the most interesting things about this piece was the total bafflement with Twitter. Not that they didn't like it, they just didn't…

In all honesty, I'm in my mid-30s and I don't get the appeal of Twitter either.

I don't understand how someone can not "get" twitter but use instagram. Aren't they basically the same thing except instagram is pictures and twitter is text? That's what I thought, but I never used either.

Re: A Teenager’s View on Social Media

#273

Post by kristiandupont »

crazypyro wrote: post #100
ghshephard wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re: "These are all just anecdotes" - yes, he made it very clear in the beginning of his essay: "This article will not use any studies, data, sources, etc. This is because you can easily get that from any other technology news website and analyze from there. I’m here to provide a different view based off of my life in this “highly coveted” age bracket. That being said, I'm not an expert at this by a long shot and I'm…

Yeah, except that is basically saying his analysis is worthless, in my honest opinion. Combine this with the fact that he is clearly biased towards Snapchat (just look at his personal Twitter and blog), yet doesn't disclose that fact, and you get a bad article that is taken way more seriously than it should be. Its similar to that fake radar app that claims it detects police radar from your smartphone then at the bot…

> he is clearly biased towards Snapchat

You've repeated this many times so it must really have struck a nerve with you but it's not like this is a recommendation for SnapChat. He thinks it's the most used and he states so, I really don't see a problem with that even if he is best friends with the CEO.

Re: A Teenager’s View on Social Media

#274

Post by kristiandupont »

UrMomReadsHN wrote: post #272
mtbcoder wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In all honesty, I'm in my mid-30s and I don't get the appeal of Twitter either.

I don't understand how someone can not "get" twitter but use instagram. Aren't they basically the same thing except instagram is pictures and twitter is text? That's what I thought, but I never used either.

Well, "getting" a social medium is not about understanding the data model.

Re: A Teenager’s View on Social Media

#275

Post by quadrangle »

mbesto wrote: post #49
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #3

This is filled with gems that old farts like me (I'm 30) don't have any idea about. If I don’t get any likes on my Instagram photo or Facebook post within 15 minutes you can sure bet I'll delete it. Super interesting take - it's as though they are posting not to show people stuff but to get people's approval for what they are posting. Simple but critically different in my opinion. Facebook is often used by us mainly…

The "liking" feature on FB/Instagram is one of the clearest manifestations of the vanity-seeking behavior that all humans possess. Here's my longer form take on it: http://www.techdisruptive.com/2014/05/01/vanity-sells/

Hah, you just want to get people to click that link to your article so you can get views and feel good about yourself.

[Cue reply to me saying I'm only replying so that I can see other people pay attention to me and reply to my comment.]

Re: A Teenager’s View on Social Media

#276

Post by azinman2 »

nosequel wrote: post #210
dgcoffman wrote: post #182

Just tried Yik Yak after reading this. In SF's FiDi, appears to be mostly dudes looking for gay hookups. Am I doing it wrong?

It just takes posts from 10 miles around your location. If you are in a location with primarily homosexual population, I'd imagine you'd get mostly posts like you did. I live near a university, so all I see is drinking, smoking, classes, roommate drama, and hookups.

SF doesn't have a "primarily" gay population. It might be higher than other cities on average, but it's by no means the majority and certainly not in the financial district.

My guess is here there's isn't much for office workers to be sharing with strangers -- it's kind of a weird premise unless there's some specific city wide event like a parade or a terrorist attack. Thus the next logical reason for (gay male) strangers to interact is to hookup.

Re: A Teenager’s View on Social Media

#277

Post by rwallace »

javajosh wrote: post #247
alexqgb wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and teenagers still operate under the illusion that "being a real grownup" is a actual thing, and not just the thinnest of veneers.

This may be true at an emotional level, but there is a fairly unambiguous criteria for adulthood, which comes when you are able to sustain your life and perhaps the life of a family.

Then again, by that criterion a 40-year-old who loses his job and can't find another one is suddenly not an adult anymore, which doesn't really seem to match what most people want the term to mean.

Re: A Teenager’s View on Social Media

#278

Post by warp_ »

I'm amazed how many people here say "everyone is on facebook". Edit: Maybe it's like that because you've molded your social circles to fit those of your own socioeconomic status?

From my closest 20 friends (all of them I've known for 5+ years), 7 use facebook, most of them use IRC and the rest are on WhatsApp. I've never made any new friends through facebook, as a matter of fact, the posts made by people on facebook push them further away from me, because I'm a cynical bastard and their shameless self-promotion is disgusting to me and I see through their bullshit.

To me, facebook always seemed like a public display window of your life, to show off those old high school classmates that nowadays you live in the cool downtown hipster district and you've gotten laid. Nothing to do with actual friendships or socializing.

24/m/finland

Re: A Teenager’s View on Social Media

#279

Post by Niten »

this_user wrote: post #239
hugs wrote: post #55

Also noteworthy that Google+ didn't even get a mention, even if to mock it.

Are there people who actively use G+? To me it seems to have turned into this weird thing that tries to offer a lot of functionality but doesn't really make it clear what it actually is. It was supposed to be a social network and now it's Google's "social layer" - whatever that may mean. I personally don't even know anyone who would describe G+ as relevant.

The Linux community uses it heavily.

Re: A Teenager’s View on Social Media

#280

Post by krapp »

this_user wrote: post #239
hugs wrote: post #55

Also noteworthy that Google+ didn't even get a mention, even if to mock it.

Are there people who actively use G+? To me it seems to have turned into this weird thing that tries to offer a lot of functionality but doesn't really make it clear what it actually is. It was supposed to be a social network and now it's Google's "social layer" - whatever that may mean. I personally don't even know anyone who would describe G+ as relevant.

I think "social layer" means it's supposed to be integrated into every Google service. Google wanted everything they offered to be a single unified G+ experience that would dwarf Facebook. Which of course worked out brilliantly for them, especially on Youtube.
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