7 ms·

I did not read the study, but the finding seems trivial and limited at the same time: Anything you do to alleviate or prevent boredom that is not creative can

by tcmb 4y ago

I did not read the study, but the finding seems trivial and limited at the same time: Anything you do to alleviate or prevent boredom that is not creative can be said to 'prevent reaping creative rewards' of boredom. Not just social media (or any media consumption, really) but also sports or calling a friend or helping in a soup kitchen. If you didn't do it, you'd feel boredom, and might pick up something creative instead.

nullish_signal 4y ago
Sports use more muscles and cardio than social media scrolling. Phonecalls at least rely on speech instead of an algorithm deciding what to show you. Helping in a Soup Kitchen is obviously more productive than doom-scrolling. All of those examples are better uses of time than passively consuming "Social Media"
- themitigating 4y ago
  "Phonecalls at least rely on speech instead of an algorithm deciding what to show you" People participate in social media. Think of all the creative content that exists. In your example you compared a two way phone call with only one part of social media. "Helping in a Soup Kitchen is obviously more productive than doom-scrolling." Though subjective, I agree with you. However without social media how many 14 year olds were helping at soup kitchens instead of watching TV, playing video games, or outside playing. You implied that social media was impacting selfless benevolent acts. This could even get complicated where I show that young people use social media in a positive way to call out social issues or make people aware of volunteer events. "All of those examples are better uses of time than passively consuming "Social Media" Again, social media doesn't have to be passive, your comment that I'm replying to and this reply show that. I believe you are letting your cynicism impact your view of social media
armatav 4y ago
“I did not read the study”
- themitigating 4y ago
  I think he meant he read the conclusion or just the data. Still, when I see this line it's like a protection from from being wrong. "I'm not an expert but...." basically prevents judgement since they qualified their statement
- jimmySixDOF 4y ago
  Leaning into the metaness of having this conversation on social media in social media and on the subject of it's shallowness, then detaching the headline takeaways from the study's detail as done here by GP is a useful case in point. Can a reasonable argument be made even against straw men ? Do the details matter when the sound byte talking head line is the lone subject of interest ?
  - jimmySixDOF 4y ago
    Note to downvoters : no opinion is offered here, for or against. Like it or not the memeification of a study like this compressed in to a couple of headlines which float off into the field of engagement on their own - that phenomenanon is a thing and would not happen if the bullet points didn't tap into a confirmation bias of pre existing wider interest in the topic being advanced in some small way through surfacing the conversation and I question if this holds true whatever the originating details might be. I certainly don't have a clear answer.
rektide 4y ago
Social media is distinct in that it's not one thing, one experience. It's many different experiences, that users are cut between, exposed to. Where-as calling a friend every hour doesnt make sense & would get repetitive, one can just drop into the feed of experiences whenever they want. Your point remains, certainly. But I do think there's a kind of unbridled access to novelty & other-peoples-creativeness that is indeed remarkably blunting when compared to most personal lives & options we'd have.
mrbombastic 4y ago
This is no doubt true but smart phones basically give you the option to never be bored, and get instant gratification whenever you feel like it. I don’t think it is limited to social media but I imagine there are pretty profound consequences to that.
- Jensson 4y ago
  It is a self regulating problem, bored people create entertainment until there are no other bored people left. Modern tech makes that process more efficient so you have less bored people, I don't see why that is a problem.
  - __MatrixMan__ 4y ago
    It's a problem if the things that people used to do while bored were useful and now that social media is handling the boredom problem those things are not happening anymore.
    - themitigating 4y ago
      Why is that a problem? What about video games or TV? What useful things are you talking about and is their evidence of their decline?
      - __MatrixMan__ 4y ago
        Well here I am on HN, so I'm in a bit of a relapse, but personally I've noticed that not being on social media correlates with: - talking with strangers at the grocery store - working on my novel - building things in my garage - antagonizing institutions that I think have crossed a line And those things are meaningful to me in ways that being on social media is not. As for whether such activities trickle up into some kind of high level aggregate good, I don't know, but it's not hard to guess at how they might.
      - tayo42 4y ago
        TV being a problem was talked to death for years. Now the attention is on streaming binges on Netflix. Not everyone likes or plays video games it doesn't have the same mass appeal
Barrin92 4y ago
however there's some pretty stark differences. Sport is inherently physically healthy, and working in a soup kitchen or doing some other charitable work has positive social effects. Much social media usage, despite the name, isn't very social at all. After a game of soccer with your friends you probably feel better both physically and mentally than after scrolling through twitter. The latter is more like reality tv combined with the worst news channel available.

by tcmb 4y ago

nullish_signal 4y ago

Sports use more muscles and cardio than social media scrolling. Phonecalls at least rely on speech instead of an algorithm deciding what to show you. Helping in a Soup Kitchen is obviously more productive than doom-scrolling. All of those examples are better uses of time than passively consuming "Social Media"

themitigating 4y ago
"Phonecalls at least rely on speech instead of an algorithm deciding what to show you" People participate in social media. Think of all the creative content that exists. In your example you compared a two way phone call with only one part of social media. "Helping in a Soup Kitchen is obviously more productive than doom-scrolling." Though subjective, I agree with you. However without social media how many 14 year olds were helping at soup kitchens instead of watching TV, playing video games, or outside playing. You implied that social media was impacting selfless benevolent acts. This could even get complicated where I show that young people use social media in a positive way to call out social issues or make people aware of volunteer events. "All of those examples are better uses of time than passively consuming "Social Media" Again, social media doesn't have to be passive, your comment that I'm replying to and this reply show that. I believe you are letting your cynicism impact your view of social media

armatav 4y ago

“I did not read the study”

themitigating 4y ago
I think he meant he read the conclusion or just the data. Still, when I see this line it's like a protection from from being wrong. "I'm not an expert but...." basically prevents judgement since they qualified their statement
jimmySixDOF 4y ago
Leaning into the metaness of having this conversation on social media in social media and on the subject of it's shallowness, then detaching the headline takeaways from the study's detail as done here by GP is a useful case in point. Can a reasonable argument be made even against straw men ? Do the details matter when the sound byte talking head line is the lone subject of interest ?
- jimmySixDOF 4y ago
  Note to downvoters : no opinion is offered here, for or against. Like it or not the memeification of a study like this compressed in to a couple of headlines which float off into the field of engagement on their own - that phenomenanon is a thing and would not happen if the bullet points didn't tap into a confirmation bias of pre existing wider interest in the topic being advanced in some small way through surfacing the conversation and I question if this holds true whatever the originating details might be. I certainly don't have a clear answer.

rektide 4y ago

Social media is distinct in that it's not one thing, one experience. It's many different experiences, that users are cut between, exposed to. Where-as calling a friend every hour doesnt make sense & would get repetitive, one can just drop into the feed of experiences whenever they want. Your point remains, certainly. But I do think there's a kind of unbridled access to novelty & other-peoples-creativeness that is indeed remarkably blunting when compared to most personal lives & options we'd have.

mrbombastic 4y ago

This is no doubt true but smart phones basically give you the option to never be bored, and get instant gratification whenever you feel like it. I don’t think it is limited to social media but I imagine there are pretty profound consequences to that.

Jensson 4y ago
It is a self regulating problem, bored people create entertainment until there are no other bored people left. Modern tech makes that process more efficient so you have less bored people, I don't see why that is a problem.
- __MatrixMan__ 4y ago
  It's a problem if the things that people used to do while bored were useful and now that social media is handling the boredom problem those things are not happening anymore.
  - themitigating 4y ago
    Why is that a problem? What about video games or TV? What useful things are you talking about and is their evidence of their decline?
    - __MatrixMan__ 4y ago
      Well here I am on HN, so I'm in a bit of a relapse, but personally I've noticed that not being on social media correlates with: - talking with strangers at the grocery store - working on my novel - building things in my garage - antagonizing institutions that I think have crossed a line And those things are meaningful to me in ways that being on social media is not. As for whether such activities trickle up into some kind of high level aggregate good, I don't know, but it's not hard to guess at how they might.
    - tayo42 4y ago
      TV being a problem was talked to death for years. Now the attention is on streaming binges on Netflix. Not everyone likes or plays video games it doesn't have the same mass appeal

Barrin92 4y ago

however there's some pretty stark differences. Sport is inherently physically healthy, and working in a soup kitchen or doing some other charitable work has positive social effects. Much social media usage, despite the name, isn't very social at all. After a game of soccer with your friends you probably feel better both physically and mentally than after scrolling through twitter. The latter is more like reality tv combined with the worst news channel available.