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I can at least anecdotally say that I am in a privileged position of being enormously happier after COVID-19 shut my workplace down and every employee was told

I can at least anecdotally say that I am in a privileged position of being enormously happier after COVID-19 shut my workplace down and every employee was told to work from home. I associate this entirely with my commute being reduced to nothing. I hope working from home in IT becomes the future standard. Big expensive cities are not worth it. To expand on the article. One thing I've noticed is that a lot of people in my age group (18-24 years old) are desperately trying to find happiness in "experiences" but finding emptiness due to social media. Often for them, it is not achieving something amazing like a long bicycle trip, or summiting a mountain that brings them joy, but they are thinking about the resulting Instagram photos instead. Communication tools like Snapchat are a little bit healthier. Most people use Snapchat not to show off, but rather to regularly share their lives with a small group of friends. Certain social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok seem entirely designed to try to get their users to pursue building a following and attach their happiness to that. Some unfortunate people end up having all the joy of traveling and meeting new people robbed from them as a result. They know that "experiences" are better for happiness than possessions, but somehow the result is a bastardized version the actual experience. Knowing all of this, I am not taking a holier-than-thou position. I myself have accounts on several social media platforms, but make a conscious effort to not get drawn into their dopamine manipulating designs.

ZephyrBlu 6y ago
> Some unfortunate people end up having all the joy of traveling and meeting new people robbed from them as a result. They know that "experiences" are better for happiness than possessions, but somehow the result is a bastardized version the actual experience I'm in the same age group and this is what I don't get. If you're enjoying your experience so much, why the hell are you trying so hard to create content for social media? Just sit back and relax. I think the biggest thing for people our age (And probably a bit older as well) is that they lack purpose. Social media is so popular because it's instant gratification, and a great way to attempt to fill that void.
- yetihehe 6y ago
  > I think the biggest thing for people our age (And probably a bit older as well) is that they lack purpose. Do you have any good purposes? I already have several good ones applicable only to me, but what would a generally applicable one look like?
  - ZephyrBlu 6y ago
    I want to have a positive impact on the communities I'm apart of by building amazing products for them. I'm specifically interested in B2C SaaS products at the moment. That's it for now, nice and simple. I think the community part is pretty generally applicable.
    - Broken_Hippo 6y ago
      Except if you are poor. I've honestly been to poor to be able to volunteer because I either worked weird hours and couldn't volunteer regularly or couldn't afford the gasoline necessary to volunteer. And I'm lucky - I didn't have children. Folks with children have it worse, though a portion says it does give some purpose. I don't know as I'm childless and plan on remaining that way. A just-over-minimum wage job isn't really having a positive impact on the community and even if it did, you aren't treated like it does.
- buran77 6y ago
  > If you're enjoying your experience so much, why the hell are you trying so hard to create content for social media? Because many also enjoy the experience of being admired or envied by others, perhaps even more than the original experience itself. The original experience might even be "the necessary evil"* to get the appearance. Anything that can turn into an exhilarating "high" given by the appreciation of your followers. Like any high you have to chase bigger and bigger experiences to get the satisfaction. Those moments pay off whether they're pleasure or pain because they all translate into literally days (/s) of appreciation from your followers plus a story to throw at the dinner table once in a while for another light dose of the drug. I think it's not really about lacking a purpose. Just perhaps that the purpose doesn't give them the same or enough satisfaction. Like any other "drug", you don't need to lack purpose to take it. After all being admired can be a purpose in itself. And this by no means applies only to social media. People buy expensive watches, or cars, or houses where the maintenance cost itself reminds them every time of the downsides but other people's admiration more than makes up for it. * the popular Everest base camp hikes, marathons, and others. Things most people don't necessarily enjoy yet a disproportionate number of them advertise them on social media.
lowwave 6y ago
>Certain social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok seem entirely designed to try to get their users to pursue building a following and attach their happiness to that. Some unfortunate people end up having all the joy of traveling and meeting new people robbed from them as a result. They know that "experiences" are better for happiness than possessions, but somehow the result is a bastardized version the actual experience. Yeah, not surprised. Talked to a neuroeconomic PHD friend once, and he said social media FB definitely putting in a lot money in R&D to make their product as additive as possible.
- hycaria 6y ago
  A claim that surely takes a neuroeconomic PhD to make !
- gonzo41 6y ago
  Remember in the 90's when everyone thought Bill Gates was terrible and now everyone views have tempered to view Bill as a really smart savvy businessman. I don't think the same fate is in store for Zuck. I believe history will judge him harshly. Mostly because he's damaging children more than anyone else.
- moneywoes 6y ago
  I can confirm this anecdotally. If I don't open Instagram for a day, I'll always get a push notification prompting me to see some of the stories my friends have posted. Like clockwork.
nicbou 6y ago
> Often for them, it is not achieving something amazing like a long bicycle trip, or summiting a mountain that brings them joy, but they are thinking about the resulting Instagram photos instead. This reflects my experience. When you have an audience, you have a certain pressure to perform. You subconsciously start framing everything in terms of potential likes. Having fun isn't enough, you have to prove it. Checking in can easily become more important than being there. I don't post much anymore. My profiles are all private. I do not turn moments into content. I just try to enjoy being there. It certainly improved my experience.
monadic2 6y ago
While there’s a grain of truth to this, you’re neglecting the simultaneous experience of self consciousness of this at the same time. I believe there’s a David Foster Wallace short story about this somewhere in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men.
tsycho 6y ago
Great points. Once you get used to the dopamine high of people "liking" your posts, it can get hard to relax and enjoy the actual experience. And switching off your phone/camera is not really what you want either, because you genuinely want to save the memories digitally. My solution was to basically completely stop posting publicly. I still take lots of photos on trips, because I enjoy photography too, and want to save the photos, but I am doing it for myself. There's no pressure of other people liking it since apart from my close family, no one will get to see them [1]. And as a result, my photographs have organically skewed towards capturing more faces and natural expressions, and not just landmarks. [1] From a tooling perspective, Google Photos private albums are awesome for my use case.
- piffey 6y ago
  Fellow photographer here. I still participate on Instagram, but rarely and only posting prints of my photographs now. I've found that the act of making a print, hanging it, or putting it into a "photo book" type form is way more satisfying of a medium to share with others. I find myself posting less and less on social media and enjoying my own work in that context more and more. It has also led to an improvement in my own work just from the amount of time I spend looking at photo books and thinking about how they're built, sequencing, ties between disparate photographs, etc. If you aren't printing your work now I highly recommend getting a good printer and making some large displays of your favorites for your home. Next time you have people over they'll be asking for prints.
  - grugagag 6y ago
    Can you recommend a good printer for large prints?
rsynnott 6y ago
I'm not sure how _new_ this is, though. Here's Monty Python on the subject of people inflicting their holiday photos on others, 50 years ago, for instance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAxkcPoLYcQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAxkcPoLYcQ At least these days people that way inclined can get all the fun of showing off their photos without actually holding anyone hostage on a sofa.
doublerabbit 6y ago
> I hope working from home in IT becomes the future standard. Big expensive cities are not worth it. I don't. I hate working from home. When my apartment is all I have to run away from life, adjusting it to be a working space just totally wrecks my personal psyche. Sure a laptop can be turned off but knowing the desk I use for general is now my work desk ruins the whole environment for me. At least from the Office I could come home and know it was personal. Everything work related is in the office and everything home is personal.

ZephyrBlu 6y ago

> Some unfortunate people end up having all the joy of traveling and meeting new people robbed from them as a result. They know that "experiences" are better for happiness than possessions, but somehow the result is a bastardized version the actual experience I'm in the same age group and this is what I don't get. If you're enjoying your experience so much, why the hell are you trying so hard to create content for social media? Just sit back and relax. I think the biggest thing for people our age (And probably a bit older as well) is that they lack purpose. Social media is so popular because it's instant gratification, and a great way to attempt to fill that void.

yetihehe 6y ago
> I think the biggest thing for people our age (And probably a bit older as well) is that they lack purpose. Do you have any good purposes? I already have several good ones applicable only to me, but what would a generally applicable one look like?
- ZephyrBlu 6y ago
  I want to have a positive impact on the communities I'm apart of by building amazing products for them. I'm specifically interested in B2C SaaS products at the moment. That's it for now, nice and simple. I think the community part is pretty generally applicable.
  - Broken_Hippo 6y ago
    Except if you are poor. I've honestly been to poor to be able to volunteer because I either worked weird hours and couldn't volunteer regularly or couldn't afford the gasoline necessary to volunteer. And I'm lucky - I didn't have children. Folks with children have it worse, though a portion says it does give some purpose. I don't know as I'm childless and plan on remaining that way. A just-over-minimum wage job isn't really having a positive impact on the community and even if it did, you aren't treated like it does.
buran77 6y ago
> If you're enjoying your experience so much, why the hell are you trying so hard to create content for social media? Because many also enjoy the experience of being admired or envied by others, perhaps even more than the original experience itself. The original experience might even be "the necessary evil"* to get the appearance. Anything that can turn into an exhilarating "high" given by the appreciation of your followers. Like any high you have to chase bigger and bigger experiences to get the satisfaction. Those moments pay off whether they're pleasure or pain because they all translate into literally days (/s) of appreciation from your followers plus a story to throw at the dinner table once in a while for another light dose of the drug. I think it's not really about lacking a purpose. Just perhaps that the purpose doesn't give them the same or enough satisfaction. Like any other "drug", you don't need to lack purpose to take it. After all being admired can be a purpose in itself. And this by no means applies only to social media. People buy expensive watches, or cars, or houses where the maintenance cost itself reminds them every time of the downsides but other people's admiration more than makes up for it. * the popular Everest base camp hikes, marathons, and others. Things most people don't necessarily enjoy yet a disproportionate number of them advertise them on social media.

lowwave 6y ago

>Certain social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok seem entirely designed to try to get their users to pursue building a following and attach their happiness to that. Some unfortunate people end up having all the joy of traveling and meeting new people robbed from them as a result. They know that "experiences" are better for happiness than possessions, but somehow the result is a bastardized version the actual experience. Yeah, not surprised. Talked to a neuroeconomic PHD friend once, and he said social media FB definitely putting in a lot money in R&D to make their product as additive as possible.

hycaria 6y ago
A claim that surely takes a neuroeconomic PhD to make !
gonzo41 6y ago
Remember in the 90's when everyone thought Bill Gates was terrible and now everyone views have tempered to view Bill as a really smart savvy businessman. I don't think the same fate is in store for Zuck. I believe history will judge him harshly. Mostly because he's damaging children more than anyone else.
moneywoes 6y ago
I can confirm this anecdotally. If I don't open Instagram for a day, I'll always get a push notification prompting me to see some of the stories my friends have posted. Like clockwork.

nicbou 6y ago

> Often for them, it is not achieving something amazing like a long bicycle trip, or summiting a mountain that brings them joy, but they are thinking about the resulting Instagram photos instead. This reflects my experience. When you have an audience, you have a certain pressure to perform. You subconsciously start framing everything in terms of potential likes. Having fun isn't enough, you have to prove it. Checking in can easily become more important than being there. I don't post much anymore. My profiles are all private. I do not turn moments into content. I just try to enjoy being there. It certainly improved my experience.

monadic2 6y ago

While there’s a grain of truth to this, you’re neglecting the simultaneous experience of self consciousness of this at the same time. I believe there’s a David Foster Wallace short story about this somewhere in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men.

tsycho 6y ago

Great points. Once you get used to the dopamine high of people "liking" your posts, it can get hard to relax and enjoy the actual experience. And switching off your phone/camera is not really what you want either, because you genuinely want to save the memories digitally. My solution was to basically completely stop posting publicly. I still take lots of photos on trips, because I enjoy photography too, and want to save the photos, but I am doing it for myself. There's no pressure of other people liking it since apart from my close family, no one will get to see them [1]. And as a result, my photographs have organically skewed towards capturing more faces and natural expressions, and not just landmarks. [1] From a tooling perspective, Google Photos private albums are awesome for my use case.

piffey 6y ago
Fellow photographer here. I still participate on Instagram, but rarely and only posting prints of my photographs now. I've found that the act of making a print, hanging it, or putting it into a "photo book" type form is way more satisfying of a medium to share with others. I find myself posting less and less on social media and enjoying my own work in that context more and more. It has also led to an improvement in my own work just from the amount of time I spend looking at photo books and thinking about how they're built, sequencing, ties between disparate photographs, etc. If you aren't printing your work now I highly recommend getting a good printer and making some large displays of your favorites for your home. Next time you have people over they'll be asking for prints.
- grugagag 6y ago
  Can you recommend a good printer for large prints?

rsynnott 6y ago

I'm not sure how _new_ this is, though. Here's Monty Python on the subject of people inflicting their holiday photos on others, 50 years ago, for instance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAxkcPoLYcQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAxkcPoLYcQ At least these days people that way inclined can get all the fun of showing off their photos without actually holding anyone hostage on a sofa.

doublerabbit 6y ago

> I hope working from home in IT becomes the future standard. Big expensive cities are not worth it. I don't. I hate working from home. When my apartment is all I have to run away from life, adjusting it to be a working space just totally wrecks my personal psyche. Sure a laptop can be turned off but knowing the desk I use for general is now my work desk ruins the whole environment for me. At least from the Office I could come home and know it was personal. Everything work related is in the office and everything home is personal.