Teens 'rebelling against social media', say headteachers • Hacker News Board

Re: Teens 'rebelling against social media', say headteachers

#61

Post by FajitaNachos » Thu, Oct 05, 2017, 9:08 PM UTC

heroprotagonist wrote: post #10

danjoc wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Welcome to the club. I did this years ago. That was sincere. I found it is hard to talk about it without being treated like a smug asshole. It's like everyone who hears you talk about it, even other people doing it, interpret you as a zealot extremist or something. For instance, if I didn't include this paragraph, I would be flag killed.

Try asking other people not to put your photo on Facebook. More people are becoming understanding about that, but there's still a range of responses like incredulity, contempt, or the inevitable person who wants to turn it into some kind of debate of abstract principles.

I might sign in FB once every few months. We ask people not to put photos of our children on FB. That brought a surprising amount of tension with grandparents etc. It's all fine and understood now, but I remember it being touchy in the beginning.

Re: Teens 'rebelling against social media', say headteachers

#62

Post by hbosch » Thu, Oct 05, 2017, 9:10 PM UTC

3452354326 wrote: post #43

As a teenager (probably a bit younger than the average HN reader) there's definitely been a change in how we approach social media. Most kids now take advantage of privacy settings to moderate who can see what messages, often creating private or "fake" accounts that only a few friends can see that contrast with their "public" accounts. Ironically the "fake" accounts are more "real" due to the more honest and realisti…

> often creating private or "fake" accounts that only a few friends can see that contrast with their "public" accounts

The younger sister of a family friend called this a "sin-stagram", but some people also call them by the more family-friendly "fun-stagrams" or "funstas". Kind of a hilarious concept, creating multiple social media accounts for multiple sides of your personality.

Coincidentally I was reading an article today about a YouTuber who was doing this same sort of thing. A famous, promoted, well-followed channel with his regular content (music reviews), and secondary accounts for alt-right meme commentary (which was shut down recently).

I guess it makes sense... but for some weird reason I find it weirdly grotesque*. It's like containerization for your life: stream my optimism to my family, stream my partying to my friends, stream my depression to strangers... keep them all separated and you have can maintain (and in the above YouTuber's case, monetize?) multiple digital lives.

Another interesting tidbit was a friend of mine who just graduated med school and started their residency. This person changed the names/handles on all their social media accounts, because patients have a habit of trying to search for their doctors on Facebook and Instagram. Apparently this causes issues from time to time in the doctor/patient relationship, so it's common practice among many in the medical field.

———

0. https://www.thefader.com/2017/10/03/needle-drop-deleted-yout...

Re: Teens 'rebelling against social media', say headteachers

#63

Post by yodsanklai » Thu, Oct 05, 2017, 9:11 PM UTC

michaelmarion wrote: post #2

Took the plunge and deactivated my Facebook and Twitter accounts over a month ago. I haven't missed them.

I've found what I think is a good compromise. I don't ever post anything (and painfully deleted everything I've ever posted or liked) but I keep my account to stay in touch with some more distant friends via messenger (which can be used separately from facebook).

As for the notification feed, I've disciplined myself to hide permanently uninteresting content (e.g. friend showing off or too politically active). In the end, there's not much left besides annoying ads so I don't feel the urge to go there as often as I used too. Btw, is it me or there are a lot more ads compared to a year ago? I find them very intrusive.

Re: Teens 'rebelling against social media', say headteachers

#64

Post by pmoriarty » Thu, Oct 05, 2017, 9:21 PM UTC

mattmanser wrote: post #60

pmoriarty wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What % of your city's population attends philosophy meetups or skeptics groups? Would you say it's more than 0.1% ? As for university talks, at least at my university they were attended by a tiny minority of students. Most students went only to the lectures they had to for class and did something else in their free time than go to more lectures. Outside of students and the occasional professor, it was rare for these…

87 people. Probably far too high. But maybe over a year 87 different people fade in and out of a group. But those 87 people know and talk to 100 other people each,that's 10% of the city. Go two degrees of separation and it's the whole town. Students in a town generally only know other students. Students are actually pretty secluded. But normal people? They know their families, they know their friends, they know their…

"But those 87 people know and talk to 100 other people each,that's 10% of the city. Go two degrees of separation and it's the whole town."

While it's true that each of the people at these tiny gatherings probably know and talk to at least 10 people each, and those people talk to another 10 people each, that doesn't mean that they're talking about philosophy or skepticism. Most people just don't want to hear about either of those subjects, or anything else intellectual.

Re: Teens 'rebelling against social media', say headteachers

#65

Post by oceanghost » Thu, Oct 05, 2017, 9:59 PM UTC

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #46

oceanghost wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just the companies behind it that are a problem. The concept of civil debate and discourse is, in large part a thing of the past. Issue any opinion, politely, well reasoned on facebook and you most likely be savaged.

In my experience there is plenty of civil debate and discourse going on, just that Facebook isn't where it's happening, except may be some closed groups. Even in the small city I live in, population ~87,000, there are two regular philosophy meet ups and a skeptics group. The local state university hosts regular guest speakers. There is a tonne of podcasts and books produced from around the world with vastly differing…

I agree with you.

Perhaps rather poorly, I was trying to point out that aggression and hostility are now normalized discourse for the masses. I expect stupidity on facebook, but naked hostility is now the norm in my opinion.

Re: Teens 'rebelling against social media', say headteachers

#66

Post by nradov » Thu, Oct 05, 2017, 10:48 PM UTC

hbosch wrote: post #62

3452354326 wrote: post #43

As a teenager (probably a bit younger than the average HN reader) there's definitely been a change in how we approach social media. Most kids now take advantage of privacy settings to moderate who can see what messages, often creating private or "fake" accounts that only a few friends can see that contrast with their "public" accounts. Ironically the "fake" accounts are more "real" due to the more honest and realisti…

> often creating private or "fake" accounts that only a few friends can see that contrast with their "public" accounts The younger sister of a family friend called this a "sin-stagram", but some people also call them by the more family-friendly "fun-stagrams" or "funstas". Kind of a hilarious concept, creating multiple social media accounts for multiple sides of your personality. Coincidentally I was reading an artic…

Another common term is "finsta", as in "fake Instagram". In principle I don't see anything wrong with compartmentalization and maintaining different online identities, although it can be misused to hide some really ugly behavior.

Re: Teens 'rebelling against social media', say headteachers

#67

Post by nradov » Thu, Oct 05, 2017, 10:58 PM UTC

heroprotagonist wrote: post #10

danjoc wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Welcome to the club. I did this years ago. That was sincere. I found it is hard to talk about it without being treated like a smug asshole. It's like everyone who hears you talk about it, even other people doing it, interpret you as a zealot extremist or something. For instance, if I didn't include this paragraph, I would be flag killed.

Try asking other people not to put your photo on Facebook. More people are becoming understanding about that, but there's still a range of responses like incredulity, contempt, or the inevitable person who wants to turn it into some kind of debate of abstract principles.

If you're out in a reasonably public place then some people are going to take pictures and post them online. It's unreasonable to expect them to filter out pictures where you happen to appear in the frame somewhere. On Facebook though you can at least prevent others from tagging you, so those pictures won't show up when someone searches for you.

Re: Teens 'rebelling against social media', say headteachers

#68

Post by Zarath » Thu, Oct 05, 2017, 11:01 PM UTC

hbosch wrote: post #62

3452354326 wrote: post #43

As a teenager (probably a bit younger than the average HN reader) there's definitely been a change in how we approach social media. Most kids now take advantage of privacy settings to moderate who can see what messages, often creating private or "fake" accounts that only a few friends can see that contrast with their "public" accounts. Ironically the "fake" accounts are more "real" due to the more honest and realisti…

> often creating private or "fake" accounts that only a few friends can see that contrast with their "public" accounts The younger sister of a family friend called this a "sin-stagram", but some people also call them by the more family-friendly "fun-stagrams" or "funstas". Kind of a hilarious concept, creating multiple social media accounts for multiple sides of your personality. Coincidentally I was reading an artic…

As a thatistheplan subscriber and frequent watcher. I will say that while some of Anthony Fantano's political opinions could be considered in alignment with the alt-right, I definitely don't think he is a member (and in fact was likely a Bernie Sanders supporter). You can check some of his other commentary on channels such as fantano and theneedledrop and it's pretty clear his politics is much more nuanced than just being a member of the alt-right.

Re: Teens 'rebelling against social media', say headteachers

#69

Post by Atheros » Thu, Oct 05, 2017, 11:29 PM UTC

3452354326 wrote: post #43

As a teenager (probably a bit younger than the average HN reader) there's definitely been a change in how we approach social media. Most kids now take advantage of privacy settings to moderate who can see what messages, often creating private or "fake" accounts that only a few friends can see that contrast with their "public" accounts. Ironically the "fake" accounts are more "real" due to the more honest and realisti…

This is an obvious effect of Mark Zuckerburg refusing to believe in privacy contexts. Users have routed around the problem by using different accounts themselves for the different privacy contexts.

Re: Teens 'rebelling against social media', say headteachers

#70

Post by heroprotagonist » Thu, Oct 05, 2017, 11:46 PM UTC

nradov wrote: post #67

heroprotagonist wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try asking other people not to put your photo on Facebook. More people are becoming understanding about that, but there's still a range of responses like incredulity, contempt, or the inevitable person who wants to turn it into some kind of debate of abstract principles.

If you're out in a reasonably public place then some people are going to take pictures and post them online. It's unreasonable to expect them to filter out pictures where you happen to appear in the frame somewhere. On Facebook though you can at least prevent others from tagging you, so those pictures won't show up when someone searches for you.

It's been surprisingly easy to avoid. Facebook doesn't know me, so random strangers uploading a photo with me in the background can never associate it with my identity. And people who know me don't post my photo.

The concern is not so much with people finding me, it's with the unknown data processing they could be performing.

I just wonder if those random photos where I make an appearance without being tagged are getting cataloged and a profile for this 'unknown individual' is being built so that it can be linked with my identity if there is a slip someday.

I don't quite have the nerve to ask relatives for photographs of people who died in the 20th century to put up as my own photo to confuse their sensors, though, so I suppose it will eventually be unavoidable to be correctly cataloged and tracked.