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Anti-social: It's fads, not friends, which now dominate social media feeds

bbc.com

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Re: Anti-social: It's fads, not friends, which now dominate social media feeds

#191

Post by al_borland »

andix wrote: post #33

I used to browse through my instagram feed a few times per month. Just to keep updated about those friends who often posted there. Now it's mostly crappy shorts and I can't even find the "friend feed" anymore. No idea if it's just well hidden or completely gone. Now I don't use it anymore at all.

This is why I don’t understand why my family/friends keep wanting me on Facebook or Instagram. It’s not about keeping up with each other. They just want it to be slightly easier to send me memes. But if I wanted to browse memes, I could just go do that. I don’t need them sending me their feed with a bunch of jokes that are funny to them, but not me.

Re: Anti-social: It's fads, not friends, which now dominate social media feeds

#192

Post by ChrisArchitect »

hot take maybe: but alot of these shifts have come with the sheer explosion in number of people on these platforms and online in general - the arrival of many/most of the mainstream/normies as it were. Perhaps the reality is that alot of these people's lives on and offline actually are dominated by 'fads' and so this is just naturally following that.

Think 'keeping up with the jones', 'the latest fahsion, food, entertainment, music, x, trends' etc. People live by what I dunno, magazines, Oprah, local morning show hosts, entertainment news shows, etc, tell them. They've brought that view of things with them online.

Re: Anti-social: It's fads, not friends, which now dominate social media feeds

#193

Post by hedora »

janmarsal wrote: post #139
masfuerte wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think it means? One meaning of anti-social is "hostile toward society". Do you think this doesn't describe social media?

traditionally anti-social behavior meant fighting, keying cars, spraying graffitis etc. A kid with antisocial personality disorder can be a danger to other kids due to their reckless behavior. social alienation caused by the internet and the social media usually manifests in asocial behavior like withdrawing from the society. in the recent years people have started calling this anti-social behavior, and they often ge…

They clearly mean the first definition. Ever since the Trump admin got editorial influence at the BBC, the remaining reporters have to be very careful to fly under the radar, or they will lose their jobs like their former colleagues did.

Re-read the reasons it enumerates for moving genuine social interactions to E2EE platforms, or at least 24 hour self-deleting posts.

Re: Anti-social: It's fads, not friends, which now dominate social media feeds

#195

Post by captainclam »

IAmBroom wrote: post #143

This thread is doomed by a common HN* affliction: People are bandying around key terms without defining them, assuming and pretending that the definitions are universally accepted. Here, the term is "social media", which can also be pronounced "boogeye man". We all seem to agree it is bad, but very few are willing to lay down a solid definition. It isn't limited to bad terms. It happens anytime we argue over whether…

I don't think the quality of discussion about social media suffers from lack of specification. Whether or not you consider HN to be social media, or wherever your decision boundary is, doesn't change that most of the conversation does apply to the general class of apps/websites that have become de-facto short form video platforms. Which lots of people use, so the effects of use are consequential and worth discussing.

The conversations on consciousness though...oh man. I have to steel myself before diving into that mess.

Re: Anti-social: It's fads, not friends, which now dominate social media feeds

#196

Post by appplication »

yifanl wrote: post #117
austin-cheney wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And no, HN is not social media in any normal sense of the word. The pedantry involved in that comparison is extremely tiresome. I am thrilled you pointed this out. I also get tired of seeing that.

We keep saying it, because it's what it is. There's some black box (that can _sometimes_ be reached via dang) that determines what you see on HN's front page, and this place is just as susceptible to trends and rabbit holes as any short form video app, it just doesn't have the funny sound effects.

> just as susceptible

It’s really not though. There is no personalized algorithm, which is 98% of the issue with social media. It may seem pedantic, but it’s like saying a horse and a car are essentially the same thing, the car just has an engine.

Re: Anti-social: It's fads, not friends, which now dominate social media feeds

#197

Post by zerobees »

saadn92 wrote: post #167
twodave wrote: post #160

Yes, the game is over, the corps have won. Where the Internet used to be a forum for creativity, it's now a weapon of influence. Where we used to have an anonymous (or at least pseudonymous) playground, we are now monitored more than anywhere else. Where we used to be able to genuinely connect, everything is now artificial and manufactured. And where we once had control, we are now the product.

We should be able to do something around this problem. I don't know myself, but I know there's a lot of smart people on this site and if we all came together to work on something, surely there could be something we can do for this problem.

The people on this site are, overwhelmingly, the people who already "came together" to build businesses like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, and so on.

We pretend we're the victims, but none of these platforms would have been built without an army of willing, enthusiastic, highly-paid engineers who made small "ethical compromises" every day.

And now that there's money made in something else, many of us would accept a seven-digit offer from OpenAI in a heartbeat, leaving the task of figuring out the downstream effects to other people.

Re: Anti-social: It's fads, not friends, which now dominate social media feeds

#198

Post by lfuller »

everdrive wrote: post #3

Social media is now exactly what cable television used to be, but worse; it exists solely to coerce you. You make you feel insecure, you leverage your emotions for someone else's aims. Due to the changes in technology, social media is far more effective at this than cable TV ever could be, but the concept is the same. It's some remote person attempting to manipulate you by also packaging something enticing along with…

> And no, HN is not social media in any normal sense of the word. The pedantry involved in that comparison is extremely tiresome.

This is claimed by users of Reddit regularly as well and I think most people here would consider Reddit to be a typical example of social media.

Re: Anti-social: It's fads, not friends, which now dominate social media feeds

#199

Post by jbd0 »

abhaynayar wrote: post #59

I've been able to quit short-form content, but does anyone have any tips on how to quit long-form content like YouTube or Netflix?

Time box it. I play video games for 1 hour on Fridays. More than that and it makes me depressed.

Re: Anti-social: It's fads, not friends, which now dominate social media feeds

#200

Post by PaulHoule »

malfist wrote: post #28
everdrive wrote: post #3

Social media is now exactly what cable television used to be, but worse; it exists solely to coerce you. You make you feel insecure, you leverage your emotions for someone else's aims. Due to the changes in technology, social media is far more effective at this than cable TV ever could be, but the concept is the same. It's some remote person attempting to manipulate you by also packaging something enticing along with…

Your theory about cable television is fascinating. I never really watched TV growing up, but every time I visit my parents now that they're retired, one of them always has a 24 hour news going and it's just non stop "you should be afraid" and "you should be angry" told to you by pretty faces smiling the whole time. Social media is totally that today too. I quit facebook in 2016 and reddit in 2023 over similar fears.…

One of my in-laws who immigrated from Italy with a big family has a "command center" with a computer he trades stocks on and a few TVs and it drives me nuts when he watches Fox News and they are talking about the dangers of "chain migration" which is exactly what his family did to great success.

YouTube is all over the place. You really can get great stuff but are you always a few clicks from blackpill hell: "men suck", "women suck", "famous consumer brands that have lost their way", "it all sucks", ...

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