Solve loneliness by giving people another reason to stare at their phone. Sigh.
I sometimes feel like the tech industry is an episode of black mirror.
Secret’s founder returns with anti-loneliness app Ikaria
71–80 of 145 posts
Re: Secret’s founder returns with anti-loneliness app Ikaria
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're absolutely wrong. Technology enables an avenue for easier communication, discovery. It may not be a panacea and not the only solution. But saying 'it won't fix' is defeatist.
> But saying 'it won't fix' is defeatist. Insisting technology _must_ be capable of fixing these problems is naive idiocy. Technology isn't our only means for addressing social issues, and it's certainly not a panacea. Why should we resort to the newest and least well proven approach to issues that humanity has faced for thousands of years? Do you have my actual justification beyond "it gives me a job?"
I don't think 'technology must' is the narrative here. Well, it's trying to solve a problem. What's wrong in having different approaches for solving a problem? I don't think they are preaching on being the only solution and "disrupt" traditional approaches.
Re: Secret’s founder returns with anti-loneliness app Ikaria
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
> But saying 'it won't fix' is defeatist. Insisting technology _must_ be capable of fixing these problems is naive idiocy. Technology isn't our only means for addressing social issues, and it's certainly not a panacea. Why should we resort to the newest and least well proven approach to issues that humanity has faced for thousands of years? Do you have my actual justification beyond "it gives me a job?"
I don't think someone launching an app stops people using all the other means of addressing their social issues. It's another option, not a replacement option.
But is it an option that will actually help? Or is it a red herring that will drive in app purchases and ad revenue while letting the problems it purports to help with fester?
Attention is a finite resource.
Re: Secret’s founder returns with anti-loneliness app Ikaria
#74> “I don’t feel good about that. That sucks,” Chrys Bader-Wechseler reflects when asked about the bullying that went down on the anonymous app Secret he co-founded in 2013. After $35 million raised, 15 million users and a spectacular flame out two years later, the startup was dead. “Since I left Secret I feel alive and aligned with my values and my purpose again.” I wonder what his values and purpose are.
To look forward, to hope for the best for everyone and to overcome the unforeseen.
Idk who this guy is, but it is clear from the text that he is a startup entrepreneur.
Re: Secret’s founder returns with anti-loneliness app Ikaria
#75> It’s a different kind of chat app, named after the Greek island where a close-knit community helps extend people’s lifespans.
As someone who actually has family on several Greek islands including Icaria, this is fucking disgusting and insulting marketing.
Nearly _every_ village on any island and nearly _every_ village on the mainland have an extremely tight-knit community that care about one another. To claim this is exclusive to one island, or that it somehow extends lifespans in a description of a fucking app?
Are you Gwyneth Paltrow? Are you that fucking dishonest?
Who the fuck are these people you've hired? Who the fuck advised them to say this? This is legitimately insulting and disgusting.
The marketing team for this app are morons, and should (and probably will) be fired. How could any competent team make such a basic fucking mistake?
Re: Secret’s founder returns with anti-loneliness app Ikaria
#76> “I don’t feel good about that. That sucks,” Chrys Bader-Wechseler reflects when asked about the bullying that went down on the anonymous app Secret he co-founded in 2013. After $35 million raised, 15 million users and a spectacular flame out two years later, the startup was dead. “Since I left Secret I feel alive and aligned with my values and my purpose again.” I wonder what his values and purpose are.
> “Since I left Secret I feel alive and aligned with my values and my purpose again.”
> I wonder what his values and purpose are.
Few people know the founder and whether he's actually a good person or a fraud, but we do know that: he was the recipient of huge VC largess, created an app with shaky moral foundation that caused actual harm, and then shut it down after lots of bad publicity.
Not reasons to totally discount a person, but good reasons to be skeptical.
Re: Secret’s founder returns with anti-loneliness app Ikaria
#77I read through around 75% of the TechCrunch article and I am yet to figure out what exactly this app is supposed to be. Seemed like a lot of feel good jargon but it couldn’t tell me how exactly it will make my life better or improve upon other social media (if that’s what this app is??)
Re: Secret’s founder returns with anti-loneliness app Ikaria
#78Suspicious app.
This might be another clever way to harvest private user information. Are you lonely? Hey, how about some therapy? Here’s a list of some good therapists. (Your name was auctioned off to the highest bidders.)
Or how about some Zoloft? It cures everything. Buy now, for a 25% discount. (Your name and demographic was auctioned off to the highest bidder.)
If I was a lunatic, then, I don’t think I want to be in some random company’s insecure database, just waiting to be hacked.
Re: Secret’s founder returns with anti-loneliness app Ikaria
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
> But saying 'it won't fix' is defeatist. Insisting technology _must_ be capable of fixing these problems is naive idiocy. Technology isn't our only means for addressing social issues, and it's certainly not a panacea. Why should we resort to the newest and least well proven approach to issues that humanity has faced for thousands of years? Do you have my actual justification beyond "it gives me a job?"
I don't think someone launching an app stops people using all the other means of addressing their social issues. It's another option, not a replacement option.
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Re: Secret’s founder returns with anti-loneliness app Ikaria
#80> It’s a different kind of chat app, named after the Greek island where a close-knit community helps extend people’s lifespans. As someone who actually has family on several Greek islands including Icaria, this is fucking disgusting and insulting marketing. Nearly _every_ village on any island and nearly _every_ village on the mainland have an extremely tight-knit community that care about one another. To claim this…
Disgusting and insulting?
Please don't be ridiculous. This kind of reaction is a large reason why society is in the situation it is in.
But I get it. To feel "special", one must feel "insulted". That's how to collect "victim points". Do you really want to live in a society like that?