3 ms·

We are humans. We need social connection, we need soap operas, "trash TV" is just human drama basically. Our brains were not made for studying math 24/7 but the

We are humans. We need social connection, we need soap operas, "trash TV" is just human drama basically. Our brains were not made for studying math 24/7 but they were made for social interaction 24/7. Social interaction is like driving on autopilot. It fulfills us. Doing science, solving hard abstract problems, being engaged in political events is tiring. Sometimes we just want to do what our brain is made for as its default, resting activity. Why is it trash also? I'm sure there's a lot of interesting psychology to unpack there. It's just trash if one thinks we need to dedicate ourselves to "higher purposes" and anything else is "lowly" and "denigrating". As if whatever one chooses to do in their free time, that doesn't hurt anybody, and is just a little human drama in a watchable package that maybe we miss during day to day, as so much of a job life is dry, and that makes us connect to our inner humanity is "trash".

thelettere 5y ago
Social media ≠ social connection, for the most part (i.e. the proportion of time spent messaging vs. passively viewing is skewed towards the latter). That's why it's trash - it's a pseudo-relational avoidance of both the greatest rewards of connection but also - crucially I suspect - of its most painful liabilities (i.e. no one's heart is broken if a pseudo; relationship ends). And since humans are naturally biased more towards avoiding loss than seeking gain, social media takes over the world and online becomes the default place to hang out. A world which in aggregate no one wants becomes a reality because of narrow preferences repeated over and over again and at scale.