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Facebook practically invented the dark triad of addictive UI elements that are currently partially responsible for driving us all constantly insane (violence fo

Facebook practically invented the dark triad of addictive UI elements that are currently partially responsible for driving us all constantly insane (violence for the last 4 years, the attack on DC, etc. ad infinitum): 1.) Animated or colorful icons with incrementing numbers in some context. This is huge for the addiction factor. 2.) Infinite scrolling. Also for addiction factor. 3.) Relative Timestamps. Everything is more immediate and you feel the need to stay on longer. So, hopefully their employees stay safe, but as far as the company is concerned... Occasionally, to continue to have a republic, we have to slay a dragon or two. I can think of three, actually.

r00fus 6y ago
Did Apple invent dock notification badges (and web/FB uptook) or was it the other way around? IIRC Apple did this as early as OSX Tiger (2005). Also I believe infinite scrolling existed before FB, probably on RSS readers and other places on the web. NNTP clients did this long long ago. If you're saying FB popularized them because they were so popular - well ok maybe.
- DreamScatter 6y ago
  None of these companies should be proud of inventing narcissistic addictive UI elements, it's harmful to society. These companies are so narcissistic, that they want to fight over who gets credit for inventing these narcissistic addictive UI elements... the like button is not a genius invention, it's a simple idea that has been exploited for psychological addictions.
clircle 6y ago
Please explain the problem with relative time stamps.
- userbinator 6y ago
  "44 minutes ago" sounds so much more "urgent" and "fresh" than... 2021-01-13T00:44:00Z.
  - clircle 6y ago
    Or, human readable.
alliao 6y ago
damn, here's me clicking More on Hacker New.. and this comment was 12 hours ago. I think I'm going to start noticing these everywhere now... Have to give some kudos to iOS 14, letting me hide all the apps so I no longer need to individually adjust their notification settings so I don't see that incrementing notification number!

r00fus 6y ago

Did Apple invent dock notification badges (and web/FB uptook) or was it the other way around? IIRC Apple did this as early as OSX Tiger (2005). Also I believe infinite scrolling existed before FB, probably on RSS readers and other places on the web. NNTP clients did this long long ago. If you're saying FB popularized them because they were so popular - well ok maybe.

DreamScatter 6y ago
None of these companies should be proud of inventing narcissistic addictive UI elements, it's harmful to society. These companies are so narcissistic, that they want to fight over who gets credit for inventing these narcissistic addictive UI elements... the like button is not a genius invention, it's a simple idea that has been exploited for psychological addictions.

clircle 6y ago

Please explain the problem with relative time stamps.

userbinator 6y ago
"44 minutes ago" sounds so much more "urgent" and "fresh" than... 2021-01-13T00:44:00Z.
- clircle 6y ago
  Or, human readable.

alliao 6y ago

damn, here's me clicking More on Hacker New.. and this comment was 12 hours ago. I think I'm going to start noticing these everywhere now... Have to give some kudos to iOS 14, letting me hide all the apps so I no longer need to individually adjust their notification settings so I don't see that incrementing notification number!