Similarly "User Experience"
“User Engagement” Is Code for “Addiction”
31–40 of 349 posts
Re: “User Engagement” Is Code for “Addiction”
#32I agree with all of this. I also think Medium is a social media site (as is HN), guilty of the same things the author calls out.
Well yes, there are addictive aspects to HN. But aren't they more like side-effects?
The upvoting of submissions is needed to 'crowdsource' an interesting front page.
You might do without the karma reputation system, but that will have negative impact on the quality of discussion. After you passed the first treshold (downvote privilege at karma 500) there seems to be no value to the system (no further privileges). But (forgot the game theory name) the 'punishment' of a downvote + karma decrease is probably a great help against shitposting.
Is there a right way to set things up, and maintain high community standards and comment quality?
Edit: Was it Loss aversion?
Re: “User Engagement” Is Code for “Addiction”
#33For me the pandemic has actually allowed me to spend more time outdoors and with my children and as a result less time online. We have been taking walks daily and started gardening. I've cut down social media time to almost nothing on all major platforms (HN is my last "addiction"). The author claims the pandemic forced us inside and on social media--do people find this true for them?
Really depends on where do people live. For example my surroundings are not the best to walk around in (very close to busy main roads), and the city as a whole have shopping malls as the main point of interests before the pandemic. Parks are closed, and walking infrastructure are available but not what I'd call enjoyable (the risk crossing a main road without stop lights just for a morning walk doesn't sit well with me). I'm definitely more locked into my devices compared to before the pandemic.
Re: “User Engagement” Is Code for “Addiction”
#34For me the pandemic has actually allowed me to spend more time outdoors and with my children and as a result less time online. We have been taking walks daily and started gardening. I've cut down social media time to almost nothing on all major platforms (HN is my last "addiction"). The author claims the pandemic forced us inside and on social media--do people find this true for them?
I go on more walks. But I also meet way fewer people and spend more days and evenings alone at home. Social media fills some of that time if you don't actively avoid it.
Re: “User Engagement” Is Code for “Addiction”
#35> It might be, for all we know, that the primary reason someone posts on social media is anger. If a proper study was done, I bet it would show exactly that.
This is a low quality assertion.
> “How could they have just scrolled and scrolled all day? Didn’t they know what it was doing to them?” Social media is the new cigarettes. Everyone does it, it’s addictive, it’s harmful, and you should quit.
Scrolling is not different that sitting in front of your TV or consuming other types of information. I think social media is bad, but that's just my opinion, this article sounds like an unsubstantiated opinion, too.
Re: “User Engagement” Is Code for “Addiction”
#36Anything that provides a 'hit' stands a chance of being addictive. Including cheeseburgers and fun video games. >Most alarming is the “internet points”. On Reddit, this is called Karma. On Twitter, it’s likes and retweets. Ostensibly, this simple numeric score displays the community’s overall attitude toward a given piece of content. On its face, this appears to be a radically democratic concept; Everyone can vote! T…
Marshall McLuhan, the media theorist, pointed out the hazards of "Peer to peer electronic media" in the 1960s with uncanny accuracy. Calling someone a luddite when your own views are as anachronistic as they are is ridiculous.
And stop flattering yourself by calling social media 'tech'. Every industry uses technology, calling it 'tech' doesn't distinguish it in any way. Social media is a medium for a exchange like a book, or a campfire. Different media have different effects on how information is conveyed and how the world is understood by the users of said medium.
Social media has been overwhelmingly influential to the way people communicate and understand one another and denying any questioning of it's effects outright is telling. Your tribalism is showing. Marshall McLuhan warned you about this, you should have listened.
Re: “User Engagement” Is Code for “Addiction”
#37Yes, and "influencer" is code for psychological manipulator.
It’s always meant, “I’m paid to post ads”. Whether that’s psychological manipulation is up to you. (Yes, ads are designed to get you to interact with them, but on their own, I wouldn’t go as far as saying, “psychological manipulation”. I’ll admit the industry has tended in that direction, however. Your view may differ)
It's not just showing ads. It's endorsement, and in many ways similar to fake reviews. And often the fact that ads are shown is concealed in semi-clever ways.
Re: “User Engagement” Is Code for “Addiction”
#38Yes, and "influencer" is code for psychological manipulator.
It’s always meant, “I’m paid to post ads”. Whether that’s psychological manipulation is up to you. (Yes, ads are designed to get you to interact with them, but on their own, I wouldn’t go as far as saying, “psychological manipulation”. I’ll admit the industry has tended in that direction, however. Your view may differ)
I don't disagree with your point, but influencer nowadays is active whereas a simple ad is passive. Due to this, the modern day influencer (aka person) is absolutely a psychological manipulator.
Re: “User Engagement” Is Code for “Addiction”
#39Anything that provides a 'hit' stands a chance of being addictive. Including cheeseburgers and fun video games. >Most alarming is the “internet points”. On Reddit, this is called Karma. On Twitter, it’s likes and retweets. Ostensibly, this simple numeric score displays the community’s overall attitude toward a given piece of content. On its face, this appears to be a radically democratic concept; Everyone can vote! T…
> I don't think it's the reddit admins
It's actually the mods. A select small number of people are mods on the top 50 or so subreddits by size. They can control what gets posted, what gets upvoted and what gets silently censored. It's also an (unpaid) full time job, it's naive to think they're not monetising their power in any way.
Re: “User Engagement” Is Code for “Addiction”
#40Can't remember who this quote came from but it went something like this: "The only two things that call their clients 'users' is drugs and software."
I try to avoid the term in docs and discussion, but find that - where I can't refer to stakeholder names directly - I fall back to "the people that use the software", which.. might be more efficiently named 'users'.
I mean, the play on words in the gp is cute, and gives one the big Hmmm, but the accepted term is 'user' and some hills aren't worth dying on