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Instagram, TikTok, and the Three Trends

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Re: Instagram, TikTok, and the Three Trends

#81

Post by cwkoss »

nprz wrote: post #70
cloutchaser wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a really silly point frankly, and can be applied to any product people have ever gravitated towards. You might claim to not like tv but it still became the most used entertainment product for decades. Same goes for the newsfeed. Any social network or product with a newsfeed will easily beat one without for users using it. Whether utopians like yourself think people like it or not is irrelevant. It’s about sur…

Crack seems to be a product people gravitate towards, but that doesn't mean it's a good product or beneficial for the user.

(Crack) consumers like crack. Nobody likes news feeds filled with ads.

Re: Instagram, TikTok, and the Three Trends

#82

Post by majormajor »

Invictus0 wrote: post #35
slowmovintarget wrote: post #32

The Three Trends (according to the article): 1. Medium: text -> images -> video -> 3D graphics -> VR 2. AI: time -> rank -> recommend -> generate 3. UI: click -> scroll -> tap -> swipe -> autoplay By this definition, the end of the line is a totally passive consumption of endorphin-inducing pablum that blots out the real world. (I may be exaggerating a touch.) It might stop short of a wire into the pleasure centers o…

David Foster Wallace predicted it all in the 90s

I was thinking the wireheads from Hyperion

Re: Instagram, TikTok, and the Three Trends

#84

Post by svnt »

thenerdhead wrote: post #53
notacoward wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Isn't the whole premise of modern social media to get you to engage in stuff you would not normally engage in I think "whole premise" is a bit of an exaggeration, but there is only so much "organic" engagement to be had. Some social media (e.g. Tumblr) don't try to reach too far beyond that. They're content in their niche. Facebook and TikTok, on the other hand, have infinite ambition and infinite appetite for enga…

> Facebook and TikTok, on the other hand, have infinite ambition and infinite appetite for engagement. They're well beyond the point where they need to employ manipulative dark patterns (and keep inventing new ones!) to keep those numbers up. Mind elaborating here? I'm interested in your perspective regarding social media not employing newly discovered dark patterns (infinite video feeds, shorter content, targeted ad…

It was confusingly worded but the parent probably holds the same position you do.

They’re saying big social media is beyond the ‘natural’ resting size where they would exists if they did not engage in dark patterns, and so must make and use new ones to stay there.

Re: Instagram, TikTok, and the Three Trends

#85

Post by BitwiseFool »

rconti wrote: post #29

> I saw someone recently complaining that Facebook was recommending to them…a very crass but probably pretty hilarious video. Their indignant response [was that] “the ranking must be broken.” Here is the thing: the ranking probably isn’t broken. He probably would love that video, but the fact that in order to engage with it he would have to go proactively click makes him feel bad. He doesn’t want to see himself as th…

I absolutely loathe YouTube Face. If you've never heard of the term, it's that exaggerated, wide-eyed, often with an open-mouth, expression on most thumbnails. I know that at some psychological level it works, probably because it hijacks the part of our brain that is meant to respond to when a fellow human being in front of us makes that expression - there must be something dangerous going on behind us and we need to pay attention.

Even credible channels do this, Linus Tech Tips has such thumbnails and I'm sure it measurably affects their view count. I just lament how so much of getting people to click on videos has become reduced to the kinds of tricks that work on babies. I mean that literally, if you've ever played with a toddler or seen caretakers playing with them, you'll notice they use the same kind of exaggerated expressions and gesticulation.

Re: Instagram, TikTok, and the Three Trends

#86

Post by elefanten »

gonehome wrote: post #76
slowmovintarget wrote: post #32

The Three Trends (according to the article): 1. Medium: text -> images -> video -> 3D graphics -> VR 2. AI: time -> rank -> recommend -> generate 3. UI: click -> scroll -> tap -> swipe -> autoplay By this definition, the end of the line is a totally passive consumption of endorphin-inducing pablum that blots out the real world. (I may be exaggerating a touch.) It might stop short of a wire into the pleasure centers o…

Urbit is trying to build the tools that enable this (in part by fixing the ad driven engagement incentives that lead to centralization and the current state). One interesting bit is if you’re making vegetables when everyone else is giving away heroin it’s not enough to just to make great vegetables, you really need to offer something that can’t exist outside of what you’ve built because your core technology does some…

Do you have any recommended introduction to Urbit that touches on these possibilities in particular?

Re: Instagram, TikTok, and the Three Trends

#87

Post by BitwiseFool »

mike10921 wrote: post #21
benjaminwootton wrote: post #8

There is something about the TikTok style swiping videos which just hits differently. I am far from the demographic for TikTok, but find it super addictive so just keep it off my phone. I barely use Instagram, but having checked in a few times recently I find myself mindlessly swiping their “Reels” for hours before pulling myself away from it. YouTube is my goto timewaste, but now when I pick it up on mobile I find m…

YouTube is my time waster as well (besides when I actually watch technical info). YouTube Shorts are decent but I must keep the volume off because for some reason creators think they must add the most annoying music to any video clip they upload. Similar to the way you describe TikTok I feel like I need a cold shower after endlessly scrolling those videos.

I suspect they do it because they are trying to snap your attention back to their video. Kind of reminds me how a few years ago people would intersperse "ear-rape" segments in the video. It's that thing where the blast the volume up and the audio gets all distorted for dramatic - and infuriating - effect.

Re: Instagram, TikTok, and the Three Trends

#88

Post by thelock85 »

slowmovintarget wrote: post #32

The Three Trends (according to the article): 1. Medium: text -> images -> video -> 3D graphics -> VR 2. AI: time -> rank -> recommend -> generate 3. UI: click -> scroll -> tap -> swipe -> autoplay By this definition, the end of the line is a totally passive consumption of endorphin-inducing pablum that blots out the real world. (I may be exaggerating a touch.) It might stop short of a wire into the pleasure centers o…

This reminds me of the evolution of the slot machine (as read in Matthew Crawford's The World Beyond Your Head). A rough analog would be:

1. Medium: Mechanical reel > Digital reel

2. Gameplay: Fixed odds > Adjustable odds > Programmatic adaptive odds

3. Experience: Pull the lever and win or lose > Pull the lever and win even if you lose (e.g. get back change) > Swipe a card and win even if you lose > Swipe a card and watch the game auto-play until you're out of money

After reading that book (in 2014), I made my last Facebook post (the history of the slot machine) and promptly downloaded my data and deleted my account. I'm paraphrasing but Crawford's point was basically that social media is a socio-emotional slot machine.

Re: Instagram, TikTok, and the Three Trends

#89

Post by 650 »

wutbrodo wrote: post #47
ssalazar wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> By this definition, the end of the line is a totally passive consumption of endorphin-inducing pablum that blots out the real world. Doesn't seem all that different from 99% of media consumption thats existed in my lifetime.

The novel element is combining the passive medium with infinite content. In my circles, sitting slack-jawed in front of the TV for hours was something that only those with little mental energy or drive did[1]. By contrast, probably 75% have some non-trivial degree of slack-jawed passive social media consumption, even more so since IG and Tiktok. To wit, I think what's interesting about this Era of media relative to t…

Idk how people do this, its just so boring. I tried tiktok and the first 200-300 scrolls were interesting, but then its just people regurgitating the same comedy/meme. Sure you can find a niche subject you're into like cooking, but most topics do get kind of dry after a while. I do think I'm in a minority though and know quite a few who spend hours a day on tiktok/insta.

Re: Instagram, TikTok, and the Three Trends

#90

Post by nomel »

slowmovintarget wrote: post #32

The Three Trends (according to the article): 1. Medium: text -> images -> video -> 3D graphics -> VR 2. AI: time -> rank -> recommend -> generate 3. UI: click -> scroll -> tap -> swipe -> autoplay By this definition, the end of the line is a totally passive consumption of endorphin-inducing pablum that blots out the real world. (I may be exaggerating a touch.) It might stop short of a wire into the pleasure centers o…

> It might stop short of a wire into the pleasure centers of the brain

I don't think we'll ever reach that. I'm sure there will be non-invasive methods, soon enough.

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