221–230 of 281 posts
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HN might seem more focused and professional than typical social media, but it fosters a community and interactions
How does it foster a community? I don't think I've connected with anyone on here beyond a single thread in the few years I've been around, and I consider myself a typical user Not looking for a fight or anything. I'm just curious about different perspectives and definitions of social media. The responses so far have been interesting
Social media is many people speaking to many
HN is social media
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I would argue the defining factor of social media which separates it from blogs/forums/etc. is the ubiquitous feedback metrics, in the form of likes/downvotes/retweets/etc. Imagine attending party where whenever you finished a sentence, everyone who was listening immediately responded with a silent thumbs up / thumbs down in response. Pretty dystopian. The Onion did a sketch illustrating the problem a few years ago:…
HN is simply pre-Web 2.0 social media, a la Slashdot, Metafilter, the WELL, kuro5hin, etc.
That was the sweet spot IMO. The days before things were constantly "going viral". Sometimes memetic speedbumps are a good thing.
Several of the comments here certainly have some superiority complex issues as well as what would appear isolation issues. You seem cynical towards a large majority of modern society. If you need a hug, I’m here.
Can you explain what you mean by that?
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I would argue the defining factor of social media which separates it from blogs/forums/etc. is the ubiquitous feedback metrics, in the form of likes/downvotes/retweets/etc. Imagine attending party where whenever you finished a sentence, everyone who was listening immediately responded with a silent thumbs up / thumbs down in response. Pretty dystopian. The Onion did a sketch illustrating the problem a few years ago:…
I never thought that votes, etc. would be that important to what defines social media and would have included forums in it. But if I think of social media as "that thing that's addicting", then yeah, the feedback metrics are what make it addicting. Otherwise, I would think of "social media" as places where visitors get the opportunity to be equal participants. Anyone can post, anyone can comment in places like these…
Popularity metrics facilitate popularity contests.
And popularity metrics facilitate mob rule. Lone voices of dissent get steamrolled.
Reddit is especially bad, IMO. It's almost like it was designed as a confirmation bias engine.
The frustrating part is that voting systems also solve a genuine quality-filtering problem. HN does a good job of balancing the costs and benefits, but I suspect there are other viable approaches.
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We might be past peak "bulk" social media, where people would be public, more or less, with their posts/videos. Now everything is closing and many people have "group chats" as they realize that free-for-all chatting/posting doesn't work.
In other words, people are returning to how online communication worked before Facebook. Offline, people have always tended to come together around common interests and values. My wife and I, for example, are part time performing magicians and we're a member of a local magic group that meets IRL. Prior to what we have come to call "social media", existed forums. Forums were this wonderful utopian paradise of yesterye…
Except now it's all on Facebook and it's incredibly hard to leave Facebook, because all communications with any type of group happens on Facebook. I have friends who can't leave Facebook, because their kids soccer team holds them hostage. Leave Facebook and we'll kill your child's social life. I can't even join the parents group for my child's school, almost no one else will do it, because it takes time, so they are lacking parents, but it is coordinated on Facebook.
I used to organise playtime for toddlers once a week, no one else wanted to do, but the kids loved it. Everyone was used to everything being organised via Facebook, where I don't have an account. So the communication was done by someone else in the umbrella organisation for all local sports, gymnastics, e-sport etc. More than once I showed up to get everything ready only to learn that the space was booked for something else that day, being cleaned or renovated. Everyone else had been informed, expect me, the guy who was suppose to be in charge of the damn thing, because the organisation had no real website or mailing list to speak of and just expected everyone to be on Facebook.
Everything is on f-ing Facebook, Sports, clubs, hobbies, reselling, announcements of everything local, and only on Facebook. The only exception is professional meetups, which Linkedin will happily inform you about two weeks after the meetup, stupid, brain dead, algorithmically power "news" feed.
I want mailing-lists and Usenet, but everyone else want a mobile app and apparently Facebook.
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HN is simply pre-Web 2.0 social media, a la Slashdot, Metafilter, the WELL, kuro5hin, etc.
IIRC, the term "social media" came about with Facebook/Twitter/Youtube. Before that, we had forums/blogs/wikis. That was the sweet spot IMO. The days before things were constantly "going viral". Sometimes memetic speedbumps are a good thing.
I think we need more forums outside of mega-communities like Reddit or even HN, but at least there are many that are still alive:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41783682
Also, things were going viral even before the mid-'00s when the concept consolidated. All Your Base and Star Wars Kid went viral before it was called that, even if they garnered a fraction of the mindshare of the general public. Even that dancing CGI baby qualifies.
I was one of those security/privacy people in the 00's who declined to join facebook or do any of the social media stuff. Feels like it was the right call. Meta was the best possible company name for the social media machine, because when you turn it all off, you really do become less meta. I'd suspect it's a bit like being a vegan, where it's a self-imposed constrant that makes you aloof from others and makes them t…
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It's an infinite feed of content with comments and ranking based on upvotes (aka likes)
It is social media, but I'd argue that it lacks the worst incentives of social media: monetization and ads, which lead to attention-hacking algorithms and regression to lowest common denominator content.
Sure the occasional "Promoted post" is way less than say Reddit or mid-roll ads.