4 ms·

>I have never been able to use Twitter. Once I follow more than 30 people the feed is quickly overran with total nonsense and I delete the account. It's becaus

by nojito 5y ago

>I have never been able to use Twitter. Once I follow more than 30 people the feed is quickly overran with total nonsense and I delete the account. It's because you quit before the reward cycle kicked in. The idea behind the scrolling timeline is that you keep scrolling until you find something that interests you (similar to a slot machine). With that reward you continue scrolling and rinse and repeat for the next item of interest.

halfmatthalfcat 5y ago
The reason I was able to quit essentially all social media (FB, Twitter, Insta) years ago was I realized, outside of my very small circle of friends (on Discord) and the thoughts of people on HN, I have no desire at all about what other random people are thinking. After that, it was easy to throw them away.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
georgyo 5y ago
Not who you are responding to, but maybe the slot machine effect is exactly why it does not work for me. To me loosing at the slot roll is actually fairly annoying. When I win, it is not a feeling of reward, but disappointment at myself. Infact, all games if chance really get under my skin. But I can doom scroll Reddit for hours. The big difference is that most posts have some reward, and a few posts have a big reward. But I don't feel like I'm wadding though mountains of garbage. I imagine this is why TikTok is also doing so well. Most of the videos are at least somewhat interesting. However I uninstall it quickly because of how dumb the content is as well. Twitter may have some golden nuggets, but panning for them is more painful then the reward.
- nojito 5y ago
  Twitter, Reddit, TikTok are all using the same mechanism. It's about getting you through the initial cycles as quickly as possible to get you stuck in a longer more permanent reward cycle. It really has nothing to do with content at the end of the day.
  - kingcharles 5y ago
    TikTok, to my eyes, has produced a vastly superior brand of heroin. TikTok is the Fentanyl to Reddit and Twitter's crack rocks.

by nojito 5y ago

halfmatthalfcat 5y ago

The reason I was able to quit essentially all social media (FB, Twitter, Insta) years ago was I realized, outside of my very small circle of friends (on Discord) and the thoughts of people on HN, I have no desire at all about what other random people are thinking. After that, it was easy to throw them away.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

georgyo 5y ago

Not who you are responding to, but maybe the slot machine effect is exactly why it does not work for me. To me loosing at the slot roll is actually fairly annoying. When I win, it is not a feeling of reward, but disappointment at myself. Infact, all games if chance really get under my skin. But I can doom scroll Reddit for hours. The big difference is that most posts have some reward, and a few posts have a big reward. But I don't feel like I'm wadding though mountains of garbage. I imagine this is why TikTok is also doing so well. Most of the videos are at least somewhat interesting. However I uninstall it quickly because of how dumb the content is as well. Twitter may have some golden nuggets, but panning for them is more painful then the reward.

nojito 5y ago
Twitter, Reddit, TikTok are all using the same mechanism. It's about getting you through the initial cycles as quickly as possible to get you stuck in a longer more permanent reward cycle. It really has nothing to do with content at the end of the day.
- kingcharles 5y ago
  TikTok, to my eyes, has produced a vastly superior brand of heroin. TikTok is the Fentanyl to Reddit and Twitter's crack rocks.