5 ms·

But why do people blame social media for that? Every entertainment is equally at fault, wherever it's fictions, movies, tv series, comics/webtoons, games etc

hnuser123456 4y ago
Because it's too easy now. You need a creative endeavor to seem like an easy way to replace boredom with novelty. For a lot of folks especially younger ones, there is already infinite novelty just waiting to be scrolled all the time in their pocket. No need to do anything except wave your thumb around.
analog31 4y ago
I don't think novelists have yet figured out how to completely occupy your cognitive apparatus or put you under pressure to stay engaged. When I'm sitting in my comfy chair reading a novel, I can close my eyes without worrying that I might miss something while I'm asleep.
- 12345hn6789 4y ago
  How is this different than closing your phone, screen shotting a FB post, pausing your video? Really. Even live streams, for the most part, are able to be paused and watched at a later date albiet without chat interaction. I fail to see the difference.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
    If you fall asleep during a video, now you'll have no idea where you were. Similarly if I lose concentration watching a video, I now have to either go back or hope I didn't miss anything important. If I lose concentration while reading, the page is still there, I just have to skim it until I find where i went on a tangent.
    - wst_ 4y ago
      You still need to skim the page. The same way you can skim video to find the place you remember. I don't see a lot of difference here.
      - mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
        You really don't see a difference between skimming a single page and scrubbing through a video that could be hours long? And scrubbing only works when the video is visually distinct enough between parts that you can tell without having to watch a few seconds at multiple different points.
yazboo 4y ago
It’s a difference of degree not kind. The constant audiovisual stimulus running through the internet is much more powerful than any of those things, and more widely available. Cable TV was close. It was always on in the room, but you had to be in the room, and you had to negotiate with your cohabitants over what to have on, or else you could go somewhere and be bored. There are no constraints anymore, with exceptions for the most impoverished among us - there’s always something close at hand to tickle your particular reptile brain until you fall asleep.
- scotty79 4y ago
  That's not what happens when people doom scroll. They are not perfectly entertained. They are profoundly bored on social media. But they still scroll for scraps of entertainment because more promising alternatives are not really accessible to them at that moment, because of physical limitations or their state of mind or their energy levels.
- Buttons840 4y ago
  Computers with social media are so extremely reactive. Literally within half a second I can react to my boredom and find new content. I've noticed myself beginning to read a sentence, get bored half-way through, switch tabs, look over the new recommendations, do it again 30 seconds later. Never bored, and yet never really entertained or satisfied.
  - netsharc 4y ago
    The best is when you're on reddit, think "this is boring", open a new tab and type in "reddit.com"... On that topic, I've luckily managed to make reddit boring that I open it, scroll for a minute or so, and close it again: I unsubscribed from the "interesting" subreddits like politics or tifu or askreddit.
  - Buttons840 4y ago
    One trick I've found to help with this is to live-stream. I once streamed a game on Twitch, nobody really watched, but it forced me to sit down and actually play the game for a good 2 or 3 hours. It was draining, gloriously draining and satisfying. You can stream programming and other personal projects as well. It doesn't matter if you get many viewers or not, just forcing yourself to maintain a consistent course of action helps. If you do get some real viewers though, all the better, you can monetize your work and enjoy free advice and socializing with viewers.
yucky 4y ago
> Every entertainment is equally at fault Clearly not. That would be like dismissing Siberian tigers as just cats, and pretending they're no more dangerous than the average housecat. The taxonomy is the same, but the similarities end there.
p0pcult 4y ago
Social media has feedback loops that can adjust themselves orders of magnitude faster than legacy media, to keep you addicted (er, "engaged") with near zero friction.
luckydata 4y ago
lower friction makes it even easier to consume. We didn't use to turn on a tv every time you took a dump but we are on our phones scrolling through brain garbage every idle second we have in our day. that's not good, our brain is not equipped to either deal with all this stimulus or resist it.
HellDunkel 4y ago
I think social media does negatively affect your inspiration. Boredom on the other hand is absolutely vital to seek out any inspiration.
spikeagally 4y ago
[dead]
mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
If you're suggesting they're equally at fault, you better have some numbers to back it up. Otherwise it just looks like you say they're equal because that's what you want to believe.
megamix 4y ago
Social media is an active mechanism to keep you hooked.
peepee1982 4y ago
In that sense everything is at fault, not just all forms of media. But social media has no downtime and is engineered to be addictive. A casino will lose it's appeal once you've run out of liquidity. Social media has next to no prohibiting qualities.
rr808 4y ago
Yup that too, but TV was strictly scheduled until the 80s(?) people who read books were unsocial nerds who didn't go out.
otikik 4y ago
Traditional media is a static website. Social media is infinite scroll.
Sakos 4y ago
I intentionally avoid things like TikTok because I've experienced how incessantly and constantly addictive it is. But then again, I'll also avoid particularly long TV series, games without definitive ends, etc. I think TikTok et al are unique because you're "doing something" but the effort expended to get that next hit is extremely minimal. Even though I can sink hours into Factorio, it's challenging and exhausting. I might be able to binge a TV series, but eventually I'll want to do something. TikTok hits a perfect blend of "doing" and "experiencing" that makes it endlessly addictive.

hnuser123456 4y ago

Because it's too easy now. You need a creative endeavor to seem like an easy way to replace boredom with novelty. For a lot of folks especially younger ones, there is already infinite novelty just waiting to be scrolled all the time in their pocket. No need to do anything except wave your thumb around.

analog31 4y ago

I don't think novelists have yet figured out how to completely occupy your cognitive apparatus or put you under pressure to stay engaged. When I'm sitting in my comfy chair reading a novel, I can close my eyes without worrying that I might miss something while I'm asleep.

12345hn6789 4y ago
How is this different than closing your phone, screen shotting a FB post, pausing your video? Really. Even live streams, for the most part, are able to be paused and watched at a later date albiet without chat interaction. I fail to see the difference.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
  If you fall asleep during a video, now you'll have no idea where you were. Similarly if I lose concentration watching a video, I now have to either go back or hope I didn't miss anything important. If I lose concentration while reading, the page is still there, I just have to skim it until I find where i went on a tangent.
  - wst_ 4y ago
    You still need to skim the page. The same way you can skim video to find the place you remember. I don't see a lot of difference here.
    - mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
      You really don't see a difference between skimming a single page and scrubbing through a video that could be hours long? And scrubbing only works when the video is visually distinct enough between parts that you can tell without having to watch a few seconds at multiple different points.

yazboo 4y ago

It’s a difference of degree not kind. The constant audiovisual stimulus running through the internet is much more powerful than any of those things, and more widely available. Cable TV was close. It was always on in the room, but you had to be in the room, and you had to negotiate with your cohabitants over what to have on, or else you could go somewhere and be bored. There are no constraints anymore, with exceptions for the most impoverished among us - there’s always something close at hand to tickle your particular reptile brain until you fall asleep.

scotty79 4y ago
That's not what happens when people doom scroll. They are not perfectly entertained. They are profoundly bored on social media. But they still scroll for scraps of entertainment because more promising alternatives are not really accessible to them at that moment, because of physical limitations or their state of mind or their energy levels.
Buttons840 4y ago
Computers with social media are so extremely reactive. Literally within half a second I can react to my boredom and find new content. I've noticed myself beginning to read a sentence, get bored half-way through, switch tabs, look over the new recommendations, do it again 30 seconds later. Never bored, and yet never really entertained or satisfied.
- netsharc 4y ago
  The best is when you're on reddit, think "this is boring", open a new tab and type in "reddit.com"... On that topic, I've luckily managed to make reddit boring that I open it, scroll for a minute or so, and close it again: I unsubscribed from the "interesting" subreddits like politics or tifu or askreddit.
- Buttons840 4y ago
  One trick I've found to help with this is to live-stream. I once streamed a game on Twitch, nobody really watched, but it forced me to sit down and actually play the game for a good 2 or 3 hours. It was draining, gloriously draining and satisfying. You can stream programming and other personal projects as well. It doesn't matter if you get many viewers or not, just forcing yourself to maintain a consistent course of action helps. If you do get some real viewers though, all the better, you can monetize your work and enjoy free advice and socializing with viewers.

yucky 4y ago

> Every entertainment is equally at fault Clearly not. That would be like dismissing Siberian tigers as just cats, and pretending they're no more dangerous than the average housecat. The taxonomy is the same, but the similarities end there.

p0pcult 4y ago

Social media has feedback loops that can adjust themselves orders of magnitude faster than legacy media, to keep you addicted (er, "engaged") with near zero friction.

luckydata 4y ago

lower friction makes it even easier to consume. We didn't use to turn on a tv every time you took a dump but we are on our phones scrolling through brain garbage every idle second we have in our day. that's not good, our brain is not equipped to either deal with all this stimulus or resist it.

HellDunkel 4y ago

I think social media does negatively affect your inspiration. Boredom on the other hand is absolutely vital to seek out any inspiration.

spikeagally 4y ago

[dead]

mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago

If you're suggesting they're equally at fault, you better have some numbers to back it up. Otherwise it just looks like you say they're equal because that's what you want to believe.

megamix 4y ago

Social media is an active mechanism to keep you hooked.

peepee1982 4y ago

In that sense everything is at fault, not just all forms of media. But social media has no downtime and is engineered to be addictive. A casino will lose it's appeal once you've run out of liquidity. Social media has next to no prohibiting qualities.

rr808 4y ago

Yup that too, but TV was strictly scheduled until the 80s(?) people who read books were unsocial nerds who didn't go out.

otikik 4y ago

Traditional media is a static website. Social media is infinite scroll.

Sakos 4y ago

I intentionally avoid things like TikTok because I've experienced how incessantly and constantly addictive it is. But then again, I'll also avoid particularly long TV series, games without definitive ends, etc. I think TikTok et al are unique because you're "doing something" but the effort expended to get that next hit is extremely minimal. Even though I can sink hours into Factorio, it's challenging and exhausting. I might be able to binge a TV series, but eventually I'll want to do something. TikTok hits a perfect blend of "doing" and "experiencing" that makes it endlessly addictive.