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Facebook is the social equivalent of fast food. They've tuned the menu to make it addictive. > I wish I had a clever idea for a solution to this because I real
by golemotron 11y ago
Facebook is the social equivalent of fast food. They've tuned the menu to make it addictive.
> I wish I had a clever idea for a solution to this because I really think the world deserves an open social platform that not only engages people socially, but provides the social lubricant to enable people to form online/offline clubs and interact with each other in a high-bandwidth so we can use the internet to teach each other and create fun things with each other.
It's called a coffee shop.
We need to get off the curated online experiences and back to interacting with people physically. It's vital. A therapist friend of mine says that most of the clients he sees that are teens or in their 20s have poor interaction skills in person and social phobia. Those lead to incredible rejection anxiety. I know from my own experience that some of the best conversations I've had with strangers have been people in their 50s and above who know how to engage in casual conversation and find joy in it rather than angst.
Go to a coffee shop and talk to a stranger. We should all do more of that. It's healthy.
- cognivore 11y agoI have nothing to add but what a great post.
- petra 11y agoIt's not just you or your therapist friend. According to a study[1]: Empathy Dropped 40% in College Students between 2000 to 2010. And now everything is much more addictive, and mobile wasn't even that common in 2010. And now we have virtual reality, which when you read the research some scary side effects surface - stuff like "derealization" - basically having a consistent feeling that real life isn't real. Or stuff about ads having deep brainwashing like power. And almost nobody is working to solve those issues. [1]https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/born-love/201005/shocker-empathy-dropped-40-in-college-students-2000 https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/born-love/201005/shocke...
- bpchaps 11y agoWow. I've been suspecting this more and more, but whenever I bring it up or similar, it ends with an asinine amount of resistance and I'm regarded as an SJW, worse, and even unempathetic. Hell, when I bring up some of the civics work I do, people get angry that I'm trying to help others. Parpaphrased statements like, "Why are you trying to help dumb people?" are unbearably common and sad. Thanks for the article. It gives me a lot to think about (after fact checking, of course).
- steego 11y agoBTW, I'm actually a very social person. I've literally spent years in coffee shops socializing in the days before cell phones, the World Wide Web and Facebook. In the mid 2000's, I discovered Meetup and spent 4-5 nights a week going to or organizing my own meetups. I have no social phobias or rejection anxiety and I'm very comfortable speaking in public. I think you underestimate the anxiety people experience when they go out. I see it when people come out to my meetups, so I make it a point to introduce myself and introduce them to other people. When I say I wish I had a clever idea to offset the effects of Facebook, I really mean to say, I wish I had a clever idea encouraged people to go out, talk to strangers and make lifelong friends on a Facebook scale.
- eli_gottlieb 11y agoUhhhh... what's the status if I find it easy and enjoyable to interact with other people in-the-flesh, but they find me extremely weird and not a little abrasive because they expect everyone to view the world the same way as them?