It's called humblebragging. Without the millions of people looking to find unique experiences to "humble brag" about Facebook would be very boring and wouldn't be as successful.
Stop externalising your life
131–140 of 160 posts
Re: Stop externalising your life
#132The funny thing is, most people I know completely agree with this viewpoint. "Yep, it's tearing the fabric of society apart alright. It's creating a generation of self-interested media whores." But wait, aren't you one of them? Didn't you just post a picture of those tacos you made last night? "Yeah man, they were freaking awesome tacos. " Yes, it's a little narcissistic. Yeah, it's disruptive to your actual in-the-m…
I believe what most people need more of is confessions. When people tell a story about something that deeply affected them it's not just more cathartic and changing, it gets a much more powerful response than other types of posts.
However it's also very very scary when dealing with the most affecting topics. Easier to stick to what you had for dinner today...but I do think society is gradually unraveling the barriers as we present new venues and some anonymity online.
Re: Stop externalising your life
#133Could be that everyone just wants to feel special and induce envy in their peers. The desire to be great drives a lot of human interactions.
Re: Stop externalising your life
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's an excellent point, and very eloquently written. The article does mention one other phenomenon though, and it's the selective nature of what we share. It has been discussed in the media that Facebook can make some people angry, envious, and depressed ( http://ti.me/V9kKkd ). By selectively broadcasting our successes to the world, whether it's a promotion at work or awesome tacos, we contribute to a tapestry of…
I also stopped, about 6 months ago. Since then I have begun writing poetry again, been photographing a lot, sold my first photographs (a few, to different buyers, after many years of photography), travelled, and generally had a good time. Sure, I miss finding out about some weird events, but generally speaking it means I communicate directly with a subset of friends I care about rather than all-and-sundry. I was goin…
Yep, you're a very special snowflake, you've always known you were different, and those sheep are just so ignorant.
If they find value in telling each other about their life experiences but you don't, that's fine. Maybe they enjoy seeing the cool things their friends do, maybe those posts give them great ideas for vacations or what to make for dinner or what kind of dog they want to get.
You can leave the "yeah, what sheep" bullshit for a t-shirt at Hot Topic, where it belongs.
Re: Stop externalising your life
#135The Internet is only 20 years young. In Internet years that is ancient but technology and the way people use it always goes through progressions. Early on, the Internet was largely about research and news. Then, people realized they could shop online: E-Commerce, dotcom bubble. Step 3, everyone could have their own little domain, Blogs and personal websites. Then, the Internet became the place to be entertained, vide…
> The Internet is only 20 years young Are you confusing "the web" with The Internet?
I probably am. Thanks for clarifying. I'm sure it tripped up several people.
BTW, were you using either the Internet or the web before the early 90's? When have you used the Internet without using the web? Are you this hard to communicate with in real life?
Re: Stop externalising your life
#136Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwR5l8wfXlU
Re: Stop externalising your life
#137>But I think our reasons for sharing experiences on social media are more cynical than that. It’s not sharing, it’s bragging.
No. Stop. You do not speak for every user of social media, or most of them, or even a significant fraction of them.
>We end up with a diminished perception of reality because we’re more concerned about choosing a good Instagram filter for our meal than we are about how it tastes.
Does anyone aside from a minority of people who can be described with various adjectives, but I'll settle on "attention whore", actually work this way? I don't. Nobody I know does. Do you?
Balance in all things. This is just another blasted "social media is teh evulz" post dressed in flowery language.
For what it's worth, this is why I think Glass and its descendants will be the next big thing. You remove the friction from sharing, you remove 98% of the author's complaints (and the complaints of those "social media blaarrrgh" types). When sharing becomes as simple as just looking at something and saying a magic word, or nodding your head, or touching your temple, you don't have to throw brain cycles at operating some kind of device, it just happens naturally.
Re: Stop externalising your life
#138When I share what I'm doing, sharing with my friends is secondary to sharing with myself in the future when I look it up again.
Re: Stop externalising your life
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 1. It would be insulting to do that. It's also insulting to not give a conversation your full attention, for some of us. If I'm trying to talk with you about something (as opposed to talking to you), I'm going to be insulted if you're checking your phone and otherwise broadcasting through body language and your inattention that "what you're saying to me right now is unimportant, and I would rather be doing other th…
>> "It's also insulting to not give a conversation your full attention, for some of us." There are certain mental conditions (including variants of ADHD) wherein it's actually easier for someone to focus if they're doing two things than if they're doing one thing. It's insulting to those of us with those conditions to be told to stop because you misunderstand us.
It's fine if people are insulted by that behavior. It's fine if people are insulted by people being insulted by that behavior.
There are enough people with varying behavioral preferences or needs that people insulted by that behavior to a significant degree should simply not associate with those people. Opportunity lost? Maybe. Maybe not. They probably aren't going to be the best fit together for whatever they're doing if they clash with that type of amplitude though.
That said, there's a point here that I don't think is made quite often enough, or not explicitly enough:
People do not have the right to not be insulted. If you're insulted by something some people do, I'd guess your course of actions should be:
+ ask them about why they do it
+ express that you find it insulting and why
and then if the context of their actions doesn't remove the insult to you, stop associating with them.
People are sometimes purposefully insulting -- those people are dicks, and you'll accomplish nothing by engaging them.
Some people are accidentally insulting and will gladly try to be aware of your sensibilities while you're around. Some people will have behavior that is part of their identity that is insulting to you for reasons that are pretty alien to them.
Particularly in that last case, people on all sides need to grow the fuck up and realize that being insulted and/or being interpreted as insulting is not nearly as big of a deal as some people make it out to be. Be insulted, be offended, it's fine.
Stop being indignant about it.
Speaking for myself, I can't imagine being insulted by something that when clarified did not have insult as its intent without having some sort of skewed notion of my value as a living thing in relation to other living things.
Re: Stop externalising your life
#140The key thing to remember is that you are not enriching your experiences by sharing them online; you’re detracting from them because all your efforts are focussed on making them look attractive to other people.
But that is the point for many people. Most people aren't doing things to personally enrich themselves, they are doing it for others.