5 ms·

although I believe the big tech companies are doing their very best to capture attention at all costs, it is a good question to ask why people are in a positio

although I believe the big tech companies are doing their very best to capture attention at all costs, it is a good question to ask why people are in a position to spend so much time on social media and are doing so in place of other activities. For example, the lack of public spaces where one can spend time without spending money, relatively recent parenting practices and legal obstacles to having unsupervised time outdoors, etc.

barbazoo 3y ago
I can see it in myself and I suspect others feel similarly. And I suspect kids feel it even more strongly but that's just an assumption of mine. The way "big tech companies are doing their very best to capture attention at all costs" is by designing their apps such that it's physically addicting. Once you're addicted it's hard to do the other things you mentioned because they don't release the same chemicals in your brain.
- westurner 3y ago
  Would it be abusive or advisable to adapt edtech offerings in light of social media and slot machines' UX user experience findings? While they should never appease students, can't infotech and edtech learn how to keep their attention, too? Perhaps prompt engineering can help to create engaging educational content with substantive progress metrics? "Build a game in JS (like game category XYZ) to teach quantum entropy to beginners" And then what prompt additions could help to social media-ify the game? How should social media reinforce human communication behaviors with or without the stated age of the user? Should there be a "D- because that's harassment" panda video to reinforce? Which presidential role models' communication styles should AI emulate? I find it sad to consider that the most impactful thing to do to improve children's lives would be to ban them from social media due to their age; though, for the record, e.g. Facebook did originally require a .edu email address at an approving institution. Hopefully, Khanmigo and similar AI edtech offerings will be more engaging than preferentially reviewing unacceptable abuse online; but kids and people still need to learn to interact respectfully online in order to succeed.

barbazoo 3y ago

I can see it in myself and I suspect others feel similarly. And I suspect kids feel it even more strongly but that's just an assumption of mine. The way "big tech companies are doing their very best to capture attention at all costs" is by designing their apps such that it's physically addicting. Once you're addicted it's hard to do the other things you mentioned because they don't release the same chemicals in your brain.

westurner 3y ago
Would it be abusive or advisable to adapt edtech offerings in light of social media and slot machines' UX user experience findings? While they should never appease students, can't infotech and edtech learn how to keep their attention, too? Perhaps prompt engineering can help to create engaging educational content with substantive progress metrics? "Build a game in JS (like game category XYZ) to teach quantum entropy to beginners" And then what prompt additions could help to social media-ify the game? How should social media reinforce human communication behaviors with or without the stated age of the user? Should there be a "D- because that's harassment" panda video to reinforce? Which presidential role models' communication styles should AI emulate? I find it sad to consider that the most impactful thing to do to improve children's lives would be to ban them from social media due to their age; though, for the record, e.g. Facebook did originally require a .edu email address at an approving institution. Hopefully, Khanmigo and similar AI edtech offerings will be more engaging than preferentially reviewing unacceptable abuse online; but kids and people still need to learn to interact respectfully online in order to succeed.