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Facebook is bad for you: Get a life

economist.com

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Re: Facebook is bad for you: Get a life

#71

Post by volokoumphetico »

zxcvvcxz wrote: post #36

Alright, here are my honest gripes with facebook: - Professional contacts. I can't share anything I consider "funny" (in the stupid, I'm-in-my-early-20s way) with friends because I have investors and recruiters and these other professional fucks ready to judge me. - I'm tired of seeing your achievements. God damn just wait until I get some, okay? I don't care if you just started med school and are posting pics of you…

but you are exactly the type of person that FB thrives on, insecure, tendency to exaggerate one's sex life, social circles, etc., most importantly perceived fear of other's perception of you based on your psyche at the time of posting that totally uncool photo or link that no one cares about.

I would never go back to it but I'm keeping my linkedin because it pretty much solves all of your problems listed with facebook.

Linkedin is a great tool for career advancement, facebook is a great tool for self-aggrandizing one's ego, a constant arms race of photos, links, and every detail of your life that can give you slightest edge over your peers.

Re: Facebook is bad for you: Get a life

#72

Post by volokoumphetico »

dpatrick86 wrote: post #57
zxcvvcxz wrote: post #36

Alright, here are my honest gripes with facebook: - Professional contacts. I can't share anything I consider "funny" (in the stupid, I'm-in-my-early-20s way) with friends because I have investors and recruiters and these other professional fucks ready to judge me. - I'm tired of seeing your achievements. God damn just wait until I get some, okay? I don't care if you just started med school and are posting pics of you…

> Feeling bad for less socially popular people. When the post an update and aren't getting any likes, I really want to click "like" to make them feel better, but then I remember that I'd look uncool for associating with them. I'd drop this one in particular right in the "over concerned" category.

what's funny is that I would keep posting as often as I desired and that I would always get likes (maybe some were sympathy likes as you say) and it was why I kept posting, like a crazed drug addict, it was a never ending cycle. One youtube video after another, your likes drove me.

Re: Facebook is bad for you: Get a life

#73

Post by jonknee »

blah32497 wrote: post #50
junto wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm similar to you. I had an account for a long time, then "deleted it" a couple of months ago. My entire problem with Facebook has been based around invasions to my privacy. As the years went on, I realised that more and more of my privacy was being eroded. I realised that Facebook really didn't care. I realised that I was helping them to build one big database that was searchable and rampant for abuse by a rogue go…

A bit off-topic, but Facebook has always very intentionally been on the cutting edge of eroding privacy and frankly it doesn't really matter what you do. In 10 years people will care even less about privacy than they do now. Due to Facebook people now-a-days are sharing significantly more than they would ever have been comfortable with even 10 years ago. That trend is only going to continue. "one big database that wa…

> No advanced society (past a certain GDP) has slipped back into tyranny

What are you talking about? There are advanced societies today that are in the middle of tyranny (Russia and China come to mind) and there are very well known examples of societies slipping into it (Germany and Japan come to mind).

National moods can change surprisingly quickly. Look at gay rights for a recent example in the US--public opinion has done a 180 in a generation. Privacy rights have an interesting partisan dynamic as well, unlike many other issues it does not split down party lines. It could definitely go the way you're saying, but I wouldn't consider it a done deal.

Re: Facebook is bad for you: Get a life

#74

Post by smsm42 »

valleyer wrote: post #52
smsm42 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why I practically stopped taking photos on vacations. I discovered I am replacing actual experiences with attempt to record the experience for some future myself, thus sacrificing my present enjoyment for the shadow of future recollection of the enjoyment that I didn't actually have because I was too busy trying to record it.

I think a better idea would be to just limit yourself to a small number of photos. It used to be that you were physically limited to 24 or 48 photos. Limit yourself to that. You'll appreciate having some photos of your vacation without spending the entire time documenting.

I do photos sometimes, I just stopped focusing (pun half-intended) on doing it instead of enjoying the experience. If moment presents itself, I'd snap a pic, but if I didn't or even if I forgot the camera completely - I don't regard it as a problem anymore. It's more about the mindset than the quantity - when I realized my mindset if more about the photos than about myself enjoying the experience, I had to change it. I just resolved not to give too much attention to it, and so far it's working fine.

Re: Facebook is bad for you: Get a life

#76

Post by enraged_camel »

tokenizer wrote: post #29
wh-uws wrote: post #21

So how do you update or replace facebook with more meaningful interaction? And no snarky, just delete it, comments. I mean seriously? There are many people on my facebook whose content I consume but dont interact with. And I know that it happens to me as well and is where the loneliness comes from. How do you fix that without being creepy and showing all who've seen everything you post (which facebook tracks as it is…

Short answer? You appreciate context over content. Anything and everything can be content. But not everything can be contextually meaningful. Take what I had for diner. Should I post that on HN? Absolutely not. Not contextually relevant. What about a blog post on Angular JS modules? Now that makes sense. If facebook has a context like HN, or a meaningful way of identifying it like Reddit, then it has been lost on me.…

>>If facebook has a context like HN, or a meaningful way of identifying it like Reddit, then it has been lost on me.

Facebook's context can be perfectly described using the idiom, "Keeping up with the Jonases."

Just like people in real life try to impress their friends and coworkers with nice cars, big houses, fast motorcycles, shiny gadgets, etc. people on Facebook try to impress their Facebook friends with pretty pictures, funny videos, interesting articles, and clever status updates.

Re: Facebook is bad for you: Get a life

#77

Post by throwmeaway33 »

jonknee wrote: post #73
blah32497 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bit off-topic, but Facebook has always very intentionally been on the cutting edge of eroding privacy and frankly it doesn't really matter what you do. In 10 years people will care even less about privacy than they do now. Due to Facebook people now-a-days are sharing significantly more than they would ever have been comfortable with even 10 years ago. That trend is only going to continue. "one big database that wa…

> No advanced society (past a certain GDP) has slipped back into tyranny What are you talking about? There are advanced societies today that are in the middle of tyranny (Russia and China come to mind) and there are very well known examples of societies slipping into it (Germany and Japan come to mind). National moods can change surprisingly quickly. Look at gay rights for a recent example in the US--public opinion h…

None of those societies are modern by current standard and none had truly stable functioning democracies(russia and china? you can't be serious).

I don't have a direct link to a study, but I'll quote this article

http://thediplomat.com/2013/02/13/5-ways-china-could-become-...

"Statistical analysis shows that authoritarian regimes become progressively more unstable (and democratic transitions more likely) once income rises above $1,000 (PPP) per capita. When per capita income goes above $4,000 (PPP), the likelihood of democratic transitions increases more dramatically. Few authoritarian regimes, unless they rule in oil-producing countries, can survive once per capita income hits more than $6,000 (PPP)."

There are plenty of advanced countries where privacy isn't considered a god given right, and they aren't turning authoritarian. I once tried to explain to a group of japanese businessmen the america idea that guns are meant to counteract the potential tyranny of the government. They looked at me like I was insane.

In my limited experience in France (so I may be wrong here), people didn't seem to really have a concept of police not being allowed on private property.

A quick google search says that in the UK they don't need warrants, not to mention guns are almost completely illegal. http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=2010033008545...

We in America live in a complete lala-land when it comes to the government going evil - and more broadly the fascination with apocalypse (but that's a larger issue)

Re: Facebook is bad for you: Get a life

#78

Post by larrys »

zxcvvcxz wrote: post #36

Alright, here are my honest gripes with facebook: - Professional contacts. I can't share anything I consider "funny" (in the stupid, I'm-in-my-early-20s way) with friends because I have investors and recruiters and these other professional fucks ready to judge me. - I'm tired of seeing your achievements. God damn just wait until I get some, okay? I don't care if you just started med school and are posting pics of you…

"I have investors and recruiters and these other professional fucks ready to judge me."

Exactly because assuming you are not simply trying to be funny you have a huge attitude problem that would definitely be a red flag.

Nothing wrong with thinking anything by the way, to yourself. I can come up with some pretty inappropriate thoughts from time to time. The difference is I don't share them and if I did I would have to suffer the consequences.

If you say things people will judge you. If you meet your mother in law you aren't going to tell her what you really think of her, are you?

Re: Facebook is bad for you: Get a life

#79

Post by bluedino »

aylons wrote: post #5

Am I the only one who feels the same in technical forums or even in Hacker News? Of course people will talk about things they know (and I come here to see these), but I can't help but have a feeling that I don't know enough, or that I can't keep with the technology and knowledge. Or worse: that I can't even get a good grasp of established tech, or that I am not smart enough. At deeper levels, this probably relate to…

>> Am I the only one who feels the same in technical forums

Sort of. I used to have a forums addiction and have probably 300,000 posts across about 5 forums that I regularly used.

In most cases forum threads are just re-hashing the same things over and over. The same arguments. The same recommendations. Jeff Atwood wanted to fix this real bad.

Especially when you're talking about something like a vintage Apple computer or 80's Ford Mustangs. Nothing has changed with these things in years so why do we need to make thousands of posts with people asking the same fucking questions as they were in 1995?

Tech news sites were another thing. Refreshing AnandTech, HotHardware, ArsTechnica, The Verge, (the list goes on) only to find out that yes, Virginia, the new widget is 20% faster than the old widget!

After a while I realized none of it matters. When I buy a new laptop, I'll spend an hour reading the reviews. If I need to recommend some hardware at work, I'll look at it (and not have to look over my shoulder to see if my boss is wondering why I'm reading SSD articles all morning).

Re: Facebook is bad for you: Get a life

#80

Post by robryan »

dpatrick86 wrote: post #57
zxcvvcxz wrote: post #36

Alright, here are my honest gripes with facebook: - Professional contacts. I can't share anything I consider "funny" (in the stupid, I'm-in-my-early-20s way) with friends because I have investors and recruiters and these other professional fucks ready to judge me. - I'm tired of seeing your achievements. God damn just wait until I get some, okay? I don't care if you just started med school and are posting pics of you…

> Feeling bad for less socially popular people. When the post an update and aren't getting any likes, I really want to click "like" to make them feel better, but then I remember that I'd look uncool for associating with them. I'd drop this one in particular right in the "over concerned" category.

Is this really a thing? More often than not less "popular" people on Facebook are the ones actually posting interesting content.
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