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I think TV, YouTube, or even Podcasts can trigger a similar mechanism to socialization, but without any of the risk that comes from interacting with real people

I think TV, YouTube, or even Podcasts can trigger a similar mechanism to socialization, but without any of the risk that comes from interacting with real people. Speculating I'd guess that the low lift and reduced anxiety means more people get stuck in it as a local maximum even if they'd be happier otherwise.

K0SM0S 7y ago
I think you're looking in the right direction. Speaking from anecdotal experience with online communities, when idling or toying at home during their free time, people actually engage socially with friends through chats, networks, games — pick your entertainment drug. They're everything but alone, and it's genuinely real if limited cognitively compared to a real physical interaction. If you add voice chat to that, at the end of the day you really feel like you spent X hours with friend(s), there's just no other way to put it except for the physical location. It's almost a given to me that with appropriate videoconf wall-sized (real-world size) screens in all living rooms, we'd just "invite" friends this way most of the time unless the physical interaction was necessary. Less maintenance, less friction to just spend a cool quality hour. The 'effort' required to move out of your house is getting increasingly higher, your 'local maximum' would essentially converge to an actual maximum in a perfect virtual reality (of which the "80%" / good enough might be just around the next decade).
- fossuser 7y ago
  I haven't read it, but I think your example is closely related to the plot in The Machine Stops, which was pretty prescient. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_Stops https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_Stops
  - darkerside 7y ago
    It's amazing how old this story is. It feels so relevant even today
  - K0SM0S 7y ago
    Looks interesting! Thanks for the pointer.
- slothtrop 7y ago
  Chatting through text is nice but no substitute for face-to-face interaction which is getting rather sparse. We can't, at once, claim to be both lonely and socially satiated by tech, and it seems quite a few are lonely.
  - a123b456c 7y ago
    interesting to note that you posted this via text.
    - slothtrop 7y ago
      Was I talking to anyone in particular?
beat 7y ago
I don't know if it's even about the risk of interaction. I think there's just some mental equivalent of junk food going on. Junk food works by abusing our sensitivity to sweet, salty, and fatty, turning normal hunger into gluttony. This is why you see people holding conversations in real life while still sneaking looks (or not sneaking) at their phones. They're junkies.

K0SM0S 7y ago

I think you're looking in the right direction. Speaking from anecdotal experience with online communities, when idling or toying at home during their free time, people actually engage socially with friends through chats, networks, games — pick your entertainment drug. They're everything but alone, and it's genuinely real if limited cognitively compared to a real physical interaction. If you add voice chat to that, at the end of the day you really feel like you spent X hours with friend(s), there's just no other way to put it except for the physical location. It's almost a given to me that with appropriate videoconf wall-sized (real-world size) screens in all living rooms, we'd just "invite" friends this way most of the time unless the physical interaction was necessary. Less maintenance, less friction to just spend a cool quality hour. The 'effort' required to move out of your house is getting increasingly higher, your 'local maximum' would essentially converge to an actual maximum in a perfect virtual reality (of which the "80%" / good enough might be just around the next decade).

fossuser 7y ago
I haven't read it, but I think your example is closely related to the plot in The Machine Stops, which was pretty prescient. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_Stops https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_Stops
- darkerside 7y ago
  It's amazing how old this story is. It feels so relevant even today
- K0SM0S 7y ago
  Looks interesting! Thanks for the pointer.
slothtrop 7y ago
Chatting through text is nice but no substitute for face-to-face interaction which is getting rather sparse. We can't, at once, claim to be both lonely and socially satiated by tech, and it seems quite a few are lonely.
- a123b456c 7y ago
  interesting to note that you posted this via text.
  - slothtrop 7y ago
    Was I talking to anyone in particular?

beat 7y ago

I don't know if it's even about the risk of interaction. I think there's just some mental equivalent of junk food going on. Junk food works by abusing our sensitivity to sweet, salty, and fatty, turning normal hunger into gluttony. This is why you see people holding conversations in real life while still sneaking looks (or not sneaking) at their phones. They're junkies.