3 ms·

I am curious what's the point of being connected all the time? It's a question I've been asking myself since the U.S. election. So I can have access to a bunch

by debt 10y ago

I am curious what's the point of being connected all the time? It's a question I've been asking myself since the U.S. election. So I can have access to a bunch of garbage people post on the Internet? So I can chat people quickly? There's like a handful of truly useful things on the Internet. Most of the useless things though take up 90% of time on it. I'm failing to see the value at this point.

lsniddy 10y ago
to stave off the existential dread of course. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HbYScltf1c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HbYScltf1c
two2two 10y ago
As someone who doesn't participate in social media, I do see what the value was and still could be: a way for keeping up with people's lives you care a little or a lot about. My problem is, similar to yours, that the majority of content is external noise. I began to withdraw from social media when sharing external information became a norm, rather than internal information about someone's life. edit: formatting
sp332 10y ago
Why would you follow/friend people who post garbage? If you're using it as a contact list, you can "unfollow" your "friends" on Facebook, so their posts don't show up in your feed by default but you can still contact them. Or even use messenger.com instead of the main Facebook interface.
colmvp 10y ago
I never played WoW because I was afraid of how far I'd fall into an addiction. Having read "Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked," I was rather relieved to read game developers who have said they have willingly abstained from WoW for the same reasons. Even device-makers and tech leaders are cautious about introducing their own devices to their children. The book, along with others like Hooked, remind me that we have to be very careful about the technology we use on a day to day basis, because it effects our brains in a way we might not want it too. Our brain and willpower is being tested against the skills of thousands of incredibly smart and talented designers, developers, product managers, et al. Having chosen to abstain from apps like Facebook or social media websites, I don't feel like I lost anything. If anything, I've regained more time and mental space for things like getting deeper in my career. I'm not a luddite, as I am still a big believer in the productivity and information gains via the internet and computers. But our attention is a resource that a lot of companies want. And yet, I only feel like it's more recently that we've begun to question whether the benefits these companies give to us is worth the change in ourselves. Because of mindfulness, I have recognized the need to distract myself (via Twitter, Reddit, E-mail, Whatsapp) is sometimes a symptom of not wanting to deal with something that is hard or uncomfortable (e.g. paperwork, making a decision, etc.). Yet we know that become deep at something we care about, we truly do need focused time (Deep Work by Cal Newport is a worthwhile read). So I think it's really in our best interest to only choose apps that provide a lot of benefits with only marginal drawbacks to our mind, and to be very careful about how often we use them.
- cableshaft 10y ago
  Game developer here who abstained from WoW and pretty much all MMOs or Free2Play shenanigans. Although I happily put plenty of hours into single player RPGs (currently Persona 5 and Breath of the Wild). But those have an ending, and they don't require me to schedule my life around them in order to play them. In fact they let me drop in and out of them very quickly, since they suspend and I don't have to connect to any networks.
a_imho 10y ago
It has nothing to do with the election though, it was always like this since it was called web 2.0. Especially for us, working with computers, we are pretty well connected.

by debt 10y ago

lsniddy 10y ago

to stave off the existential dread of course. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HbYScltf1c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HbYScltf1c

two2two 10y ago

As someone who doesn't participate in social media, I do see what the value was and still could be: a way for keeping up with people's lives you care a little or a lot about. My problem is, similar to yours, that the majority of content is external noise. I began to withdraw from social media when sharing external information became a norm, rather than internal information about someone's life. edit: formatting

sp332 10y ago

Why would you follow/friend people who post garbage? If you're using it as a contact list, you can "unfollow" your "friends" on Facebook, so their posts don't show up in your feed by default but you can still contact them. Or even use messenger.com instead of the main Facebook interface.

colmvp 10y ago

I never played WoW because I was afraid of how far I'd fall into an addiction. Having read "Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked," I was rather relieved to read game developers who have said they have willingly abstained from WoW for the same reasons. Even device-makers and tech leaders are cautious about introducing their own devices to their children. The book, along with others like Hooked, remind me that we have to be very careful about the technology we use on a day to day basis, because it effects our brains in a way we might not want it too. Our brain and willpower is being tested against the skills of thousands of incredibly smart and talented designers, developers, product managers, et al. Having chosen to abstain from apps like Facebook or social media websites, I don't feel like I lost anything. If anything, I've regained more time and mental space for things like getting deeper in my career. I'm not a luddite, as I am still a big believer in the productivity and information gains via the internet and computers. But our attention is a resource that a lot of companies want. And yet, I only feel like it's more recently that we've begun to question whether the benefits these companies give to us is worth the change in ourselves. Because of mindfulness, I have recognized the need to distract myself (via Twitter, Reddit, E-mail, Whatsapp) is sometimes a symptom of not wanting to deal with something that is hard or uncomfortable (e.g. paperwork, making a decision, etc.). Yet we know that become deep at something we care about, we truly do need focused time (Deep Work by Cal Newport is a worthwhile read). So I think it's really in our best interest to only choose apps that provide a lot of benefits with only marginal drawbacks to our mind, and to be very careful about how often we use them.

cableshaft 10y ago
Game developer here who abstained from WoW and pretty much all MMOs or Free2Play shenanigans. Although I happily put plenty of hours into single player RPGs (currently Persona 5 and Breath of the Wild). But those have an ending, and they don't require me to schedule my life around them in order to play them. In fact they let me drop in and out of them very quickly, since they suspend and I don't have to connect to any networks.

a_imho 10y ago

It has nothing to do with the election though, it was always like this since it was called web 2.0. Especially for us, working with computers, we are pretty well connected.