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This really strikes me as wrong. I can't quite put my finger on why. It's like if I'm watching my friend go through a hard time, this removes my responsibility

by gcr 10y ago

This really strikes me as wrong. I can't quite put my finger on why. It's like if I'm watching my friend go through a hard time, this removes my responsibility to connect with them? I can just ask robots at Facebook to do the dirty emotional work for me. How messed up is that? We're outsourcing emotional labor to robots now? like if I get uncomfortable supporting my friend, i can click a button to have robots do it instead? An actual handcrafted message from someone saying "hey, it sounds like you're hurting. what do you need?" would mean far more to me than a popup from Facebook that says "An Unnamed Friend has Activated Crisis Response Protocol! Deploying Support Resources ..."

pugio 10y ago
You're describing the world in terms of "should/ought" rather than "is". Yes, it would be nice to live in a world where every person has friends who are capable of connecting with and supporting them, but that is not the present world. The point of tech is scalability - you can implement something which can rapidly help _everyone_, especially those for whom other systems have failed. Additionally, you're ignoring how hard it can be to adequately support a suicidal friend. Often times people want to help, but feel out of their depth and don't know how, and many people are unaware of the availability of resources such as the Crisis Text Line or Suicide Prevention hotline (which is what FB connects you with). As for the "responsibility to connect with them", at a certain point your responsibility as a friend is to get someone professional help and intervention. Trying to keep a depressed friend afloat as a layperson is enormously taxing, and often unsuccessful. Yet people think they have a "responsibility" to keep trying, as a good friend, and can easily burn themselves out, with disastrous consequences for both themselves and their depressed friend. I welcome any extra support technology and AI can provide, at least in terms of connecting people with the correct resources.

by gcr 10y ago

pugio 10y ago

You're describing the world in terms of "should/ought" rather than "is". Yes, it would be nice to live in a world where every person has friends who are capable of connecting with and supporting them, but that is not the present world. The point of tech is scalability - you can implement something which can rapidly help _everyone_, especially those for whom other systems have failed. Additionally, you're ignoring how hard it can be to adequately support a suicidal friend. Often times people want to help, but feel out of their depth and don't know how, and many people are unaware of the availability of resources such as the Crisis Text Line or Suicide Prevention hotline (which is what FB connects you with). As for the "responsibility to connect with them", at a certain point your responsibility as a friend is to get someone professional help and intervention. Trying to keep a depressed friend afloat as a layperson is enormously taxing, and often unsuccessful. Yet people think they have a "responsibility" to keep trying, as a good friend, and can easily burn themselves out, with disastrous consequences for both themselves and their depressed friend. I welcome any extra support technology and AI can provide, at least in terms of connecting people with the correct resources.