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>> As with so many criticisms of "technology that enables laziness," this analysis ignores disability. Yes, it's a good thing to communicate with your friends!

>> As with so many criticisms of "technology that enables laziness," this analysis ignores disability. Yes, it's a good thing to communicate with your friends! However, if you have significant social anxiety, "Tinder for bailing" could be a useful assistive technology. (And before you say "get therapy" - yes, of course, but that takes time and people should be able to live their lives whether or not they meet arbitrary standards of normal behavior.) As someone who has done the therapy I can tell you that that app, while it may help you in the short term, is only going to make things so so so much worse in the long term - to the point where you can't live your life anymore. Medicating social anxiety with avoidance is similar to medicating pain with drugs. It just gets worse and worse until it's worse than you ever imagined. Every time you don't avoid something you're taking a step in the right direction. If possible I'd highly recommend therapy :)

NoraCodes 5y ago
> Medicating social anxiety with avoidance is similar to medicating pain with drugs. It just gets worse and worse until it's worse than you ever imagined. The implication here is that there is always an alternative to medicating pain with drugs. There often isn't - other than letting the patient be in horrible pain forever. I'd argue that this is true for many kinds of clinical anxiety, too.
- basisword 5y ago
  Good point, I shouldn't make assumptions. However I think that making these options so easy (via an app) will have a net negative effect on society.
  - NoraCodes 5y ago
    I don't know that it would be so easy, tbh! Using this effectively would require that your friends be bought in, and would be willing to use the app. That in and of itself would likely require some difficult conversations.
LordDragonfang 5y ago
While I broadly agree, I would like to point out that there are plenty of people that successfully manage chronic pain with a static dose of painkillers, even opiates in many cases. A particular Slate Star Codex article comes to mind. https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/09/16/against-against-pseudoaddiction/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/09/16/against-against-pseudo... That said, if you feel like you need figurative "pain meds" to navigate cancelling plans, that may be indicative of a larger issue, yes.
- basisword 5y ago
  Yeah I guess I was thinking more of numbing mental pain with drugs as opposed to physical pain and the spiral that could lead to (taking more and more until you can no longer function). In the case of anxiety for example: 1. Avoid work socials. 2. Hybrid working. 3. WFH. 4. Camera off in meetings. 5. Skipping meetings entirely. Maybe not the best example but you've went from minor avoidance to help you keep your job and avoid your anxiety to major avoidance that will lead to you losing your job - and on top of that your anxiety will have increased to a level that recovering is much more difficult than if tackled earlier.

NoraCodes 5y ago

> Medicating social anxiety with avoidance is similar to medicating pain with drugs. It just gets worse and worse until it's worse than you ever imagined. The implication here is that there is always an alternative to medicating pain with drugs. There often isn't - other than letting the patient be in horrible pain forever. I'd argue that this is true for many kinds of clinical anxiety, too.

basisword 5y ago
Good point, I shouldn't make assumptions. However I think that making these options so easy (via an app) will have a net negative effect on society.
- NoraCodes 5y ago
  I don't know that it would be so easy, tbh! Using this effectively would require that your friends be bought in, and would be willing to use the app. That in and of itself would likely require some difficult conversations.

LordDragonfang 5y ago

While I broadly agree, I would like to point out that there are plenty of people that successfully manage chronic pain with a static dose of painkillers, even opiates in many cases. A particular Slate Star Codex article comes to mind. https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/09/16/against-against-pseudoaddiction/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/09/16/against-against-pseudo... That said, if you feel like you need figurative "pain meds" to navigate cancelling plans, that may be indicative of a larger issue, yes.

basisword 5y ago
Yeah I guess I was thinking more of numbing mental pain with drugs as opposed to physical pain and the spiral that could lead to (taking more and more until you can no longer function). In the case of anxiety for example: 1. Avoid work socials. 2. Hybrid working. 3. WFH. 4. Camera off in meetings. 5. Skipping meetings entirely. Maybe not the best example but you've went from minor avoidance to help you keep your job and avoid your anxiety to major avoidance that will lead to you losing your job - and on top of that your anxiety will have increased to a level that recovering is much more difficult than if tackled earlier.