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Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

m.nautil.us

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Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#391

Post by dzink »

This is a natural development in the evolution of advertising. The moment a company picks ads as a revenue model is the moment it pivots to become Media. I am building a company that aims to eliminate the need for advertising, and actually save time for its users, instead of making users pay with their time. I lived in an ads-free country for 10 years and saw the tremendous impact advertising had on society when it was finally allowed. I interned at the top Ad firm in the country and had management offers right after college to work in ad agencies, but decided to build things worth advertising instead. Proceeded to work in a top Media firm where advertisers wanted to buy space that was disruptive to users. The system is flawed, but it pays well, because instead of a cut of sales that quantify your performance as a seller, you are making a cut of every seller’s budget competing against other sellers - a reflection of their margin for selling a product. To top it off, you are greatly aided by your inability to sell your customers product to your users - it’s the advertisers fault for not knowing how to target properly, right?

That feels like a great gig until you realize that it is corrosive to you as well. Every site that has advertising as a business model, eventually has to de-prioritize user’s needs in favor of those of advertisers to grow bigger. Yahoo became useless; Google results are getting worse, because high placement requires lots of keywords padded with more words, instead of a succinct thorough answer; Facebook is losing the trust of its users who are clicking, not typing to communicate with friends anymore (anecdotal, not empirical);

The human brain needs dopamine from progress when it can be productive. Eventually when its productivity is drained it needs to escape with distraction and stories. In between is the need for empathy from other intelligent beings. Faking either of these leads to unhappiness. That is why there is always a solution better than advertising-funded companies of today and that will be the next wave. We are on it.

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#392

Post by zamalek »

freebooter wrote: post #364
zamalek wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Attention as well as free will is a scarce resource on a personal level. I used to seriously question why anyone would buy almost identical Apple devices year-after-year; where-as I'd spend at least a day researching which Android devices were available. The truth is that it's a bloody phone. I was expending all my free will on trivialities and wasn't making choices that actually matter. I think this problem is more…

You make good points. I've been in IT now 20 years, and while I need a phone to text and make calls, I do nothing else with it. I'm thinking of ditching my iPhone for a flip phone. I served in the military years ago. Just one tour. I got out with good memories but also some ideas. For example, I have standardized on Levi's 501 jeans, button down shirts of the same brand, and desert boots. I wear this daily. I don't h…

Of all the people I know, us IT folk seem to be the most adverse to interruptions and/or needless complexity, caring most about the things that matter - this is strange considering that we are most responsible for these problems. People have stared at me blankly enough for me to realize that I shouldn't bring up the social evils of Facebook in general conversation, yet my IT friends are happy to talk about the subject to death.

> I'm thinking of ditching my iPhone for a flip phone.

I still don't think I could do without a smartphone. I have practically all notifications muted, but you need apps for too many things (most notably: Lyft to stay responsible).

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#393

Post by egypturnash »

pantalaimon wrote: post #243
jacobra2 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've done something similar with my Android phone, and it's worked out decently. One problem I encountered though - I spent a lot of time on Reddit, and would check it subconsciously, so I deleted it. Now I find that I'm using Google Now, the left swipe off the home screen. In effect I took the attention from Reddit and gave it to Google. I'm not convinced that was a worthwhile trade. Given I can't delete Google Now,…

> I spent a lot of time on Reddit, and would check it subconsciously, so I deleted it. How can you delete a website? No seriously, how do you keep the browser from hooking you? I don't have any apps installed and I often fall into a reddit-hn-local_news1-local_news2-it_news1-it_news2 cycle that I start all over when I'm done with it just to check if something new happened in the meantime! Especially on Weekend mornin…

Set this to your homepage: https://codepen.io/Yakudoo/full/YXxmYR/

And set your browser to open new tabs with your homepage.

Seriously. The gentle smile of playing with this silly little low-res lion can break you out of that loop sometimes.

Does not work if you tend to just keep on reusing the same tab of course.

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#394

Post by superkuh »

intended wrote: post #334
free_everybody wrote: post #256

Stop carrying your smartphone. Leave it at home. If you must because your family/work depends on you, then delete every app. Use your laptop as your main driver. If you need to, get a laptop with better battery life. Start developing a personal philosophy of internet usage. Here is mine: Category 3 [Abstain from completely] Reddit (Yes, all of reddit), Facebook ... Category 2 [Check once every couple days ~15 min tot…

Another option is to get a dumb phone.

Yup. My ancient nokia works for me. All it does is make voice calls, send/receive texts, and last for a week on a charge (when left on 24/7).

I carry it turned off and turn it on if I really need to make a call or expect someone to contact me.

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#395

Post by rootusrootus »

free_everybody wrote: post #338
devmunchies wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Reddit (Yes, all of reddit) ... Twitter (Follow helpful people only) I swap those. I only follow a few helpful subreddits to pick up things that don't make it to HN and I don't use twitter.

If that works for you, then cheers. I get so sucked into Reddit's front page that I just need to avoid it all entirely. With Twitter, I'm less inclined to explore.

Best thing I ever did with reddit was to subscribe to the subreddits that are useful to me and then never ever go to the front page again.

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#397

Post by telchar »

stcredzero wrote: post #176
telchar wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue that those things historically have drowned out actual meaning, if by actual meaning you mean factually correct and significant information. Only with the advent of science have we been able to reliably sort the meaningless from the meaningful. I think the major concern here, aside from the general deleterious effects of addiction of any sort on people, is that the tide of meaningless factoids and usele…

I would argue that those things historically have drowned out actual meaning, Which is precisely why humanity didn't progress, never invented science, never improved human rights and the standard of living, and we died out in a state of primitive brutishness. Clearly, actual meaning has found its way through, somehow. I think the filter you mention exists but is struggling in this environment more than in the recent…

In comparison to the last few hundred years, and with a few notable exceptions in time and place, we have spent the great majority of the past not progressing. Compare the progress made from 10000 BCE to 1700 CE to the progress made since. The rate isn't zero but comparatively very low.

That said, I haven't put much thought into this viewpoint and was mostly extending the parent poster's idea. Proper discussion of this would require a great deal of care and nuance and I honestly don't feel like putting in the effort for that. Apologies if you were looking for a substantive debate.

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#398

Post by briga »

rorykoehler wrote: post #319
jmcgough wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like them or not, the NYT and WashPo do some of the best, factual investigative journalism in the world. Have they been wrong? Sure. But they have extremely high standards for publishing a story, so you can generally assume that they're accurate. They also are the ones who break a lot of the biggest, most impactful stories. I think a better criticism of them would be wash po turning a blind eye to Bezos and others th…

They practice the worst type of disinformation. Correct most of the time but when it really counts they publish incorrect propaganda (eg wmds in Iraq).

Care to name any large news publications that don't do this? I can't think of any.

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#399

Post by intrasight »

free_everybody wrote: post #256

Stop carrying your smartphone. Leave it at home. If you must because your family/work depends on you, then delete every app. Use your laptop as your main driver. If you need to, get a laptop with better battery life. Start developing a personal philosophy of internet usage. Here is mine: Category 3 [Abstain from completely] Reddit (Yes, all of reddit), Facebook ... Category 2 [Check once every couple days ~15 min tot…

Abstain from Facebook? For me, that's like saying "abstain from talking to your friends". Why would you choose to be so antisocial? Besides that, your other suggestions match my usage.

What I am trying to do with FB is treat it like talking to my friends on the phone - which I would not do during the workday other than by exception. I thought that I could do this with self-control but I have not succeeded. So I think that I am going to have to add time filters to my router configuration.

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#400

Post by terminalcommand »

analog31 wrote: post #382
QML wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think smartphones are the main issue here — problem is people can’t delay gratification. I’m sure if we ran the Marshmellow experiment again, a higher proportion of people won’t be able to wait. Among my peers, I’m noticing an inability to study continuously for more than 30 minutes; even in my friend group, a couple can’t watch a whole movie without checking their phones. However, keeping your smartphone at…

Amusing anecdote: I started college in 1982, and couldn't study continuously for more than 30 minutes. Still can't. I've gotten to where I am in my career -- for better or worse -- with virtually zero attention span. There are some exceptions: I can concentrate on math or programming for hours.

I found that if I distract myself enough, I can start doing a task and the time just flies.

Currently my solution is to listen to classical music full volume. That way I can concentrate 1-1.5 hours a day.

On the other hand I too can focus without any problems when I'm programming. The problem is that I'm studying law :/.

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