3 ms·

Yes, what you find on social networks is frequently trivial. For that matter, what most people talk about at family reunions is mostly trivial and what most pe

Yes, what you find on social networks is frequently trivial. For that matter, what most people talk about at family reunions is mostly trivial and what most people talk about at the local bar is even more trivial. Also, yes, you can overuse social networks just as it is easy to overuse the local bar. Used in moderation though, social networks, facebook in particular, have helped me keep in touch with many of my more distant relations that I otherwise would likely see and talk to only at weddings and funerals. It has helped me reconnect with friends from high school and college that I probably would have forgotten about. Overall, I have found that, used in moderation, social networks and Facebook in particular have helped to enrish my social life and help me keep in touch with people that matter to me, and if the price of that is dealing with some triviality, I will pay it gladly.

chadgeidel 15y ago
I agree completely. Social networks are just that, social. Who thinks that catching up on "what is happening" with friends and relatives is worthless? Additionally - why does everything have to be a binary choice between "completely worthless" and "world changing"? Social networks lie on a continuum between those two extremes.
jerf 15y ago
Another perspective on the same basic point: The average neural message transmitted in your brain is trivial. What arises from the sum total of those messages is not. But there is probably no way to get to human-scale cognition without a lot of triviality at lower layers. There's probably no way to have a civil human society without these "trivialities", and if that is true, are they really trivial interactions? Declarations of triviality encode an embedded value scheme that may or may not have actual utility for any purpose. I hesitate to label things "trivial"; it may be missing the forest for the trivial leaves. I don't do Facebook for various reasons, but I don't look down on those who do use it.

chadgeidel 15y ago

I agree completely. Social networks are just that, social. Who thinks that catching up on "what is happening" with friends and relatives is worthless? Additionally - why does everything have to be a binary choice between "completely worthless" and "world changing"? Social networks lie on a continuum between those two extremes.

jerf 15y ago

Another perspective on the same basic point: The average neural message transmitted in your brain is trivial. What arises from the sum total of those messages is not. But there is probably no way to get to human-scale cognition without a lot of triviality at lower layers. There's probably no way to have a civil human society without these "trivialities", and if that is true, are they really trivial interactions? Declarations of triviality encode an embedded value scheme that may or may not have actual utility for any purpose. I hesitate to label things "trivial"; it may be missing the forest for the trivial leaves. I don't do Facebook for various reasons, but I don't look down on those who do use it.