4 ms·

Social Vanity

17 points by stevenkovar 15y ago

giusemir1978 15y ago
Nice point of view. Actually, it is ok to spend some time on social networks, the point is we collectively spend too much of it trying to boost our ego.
acavailhez 15y ago
That "63 years" comes out of nowhere and does not means anything. Those 800m users combined have more than 2 millions years "per day". They spend way more time brushing their teeths. For just a second spent, "liking" something on Facebook seems a pretty efficient use of time.
- joezydeco 15y ago
  Brushing my teeth has a direct, proportional return on my time investment. My mouth stays healthy (reducing dentist expenses) and my wife doesn't turn green when I speak near her. Clicking "Like" has an unbalanced return on my time investment, short as it is. I get virtually nothing in return, but marketers and advertisers have another data point that they can use. My friends couldn't give a crap what I click Like on.
  - TeMPOraL 15y ago
    > My friends couldn't give a crap what I click Like on. Well, in case of my friends Liking things, I do. It's a good recomendation engine. Especially, if your friends are not from the same industry as you, looking at what they Like is a way to avoid filter bubble.
cathrithbo 15y ago
The lady doth protest too much, methinks. There are plenty of activities that may seem to an outsider to be a waste of time. Daydreaming, for example. (Just don't tell that to Albert Einstein who used to daydream about travelling on a wave of light.) Even supposing that social networking is some sort of vice, it's easy to think of much more harmful alternatives.
- AlexandrB 15y ago
  > Even supposing that social networking is some sort of vice, it's easy to think of much more harmful alternatives. If a vice is less harmful but more widespread is it better or worse than the alternative? E.g. Facebook vs. World of Warcraft
  - cathrithbo 15y ago
    With vices I suspect that it isn't just the activity concerned but the purpose, which varies from person to person. e.g. TV can be used to educate but it can also be used to distract That said, some vices may be worse than others. In the case of social networking, I guess the obvious alternative is going to parties which are OFC a gateway to alcohol consumption.
littledude 15y ago
i wouldn't call it a waste of time. they're using some of the most efficient current forms of personal trait signaling. check out the book "Spent: sex, evolution and the secrets of consumerism".
stevenkovar 15y ago
Beyond the time being spent via social media, I'm curious what HN thinks we can do to show qualitative value per interaction vs. quantitative. One thing I didn't include in my post was Hoffman's discussion of the three types of data that will prove to be important moving forward: explicit (data people supply), implicit (data created by behavior), and analytic (data gleaned from explicit and implicit information). Currently most social tools are very good at taking in the explicit data and showing people their own implicit data (think Tweets, Retweets, Followers), but there is--from a user standpoint--a lack of open analytic data showing the impact of their own behaviors.
drewonstuff 15y ago
You have to have faith that all this time wasting will go somewhere practical, at some point. I posted this yesterday: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3607718 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3607718 If people can use this online time to figure out how to apply their skills to make money, they wouldn't be at their jobs browsing Facebook.
ypcx 15y ago
echo "127.0.0.2 www.facebook.com plus.google.com \ www.twitter.com news.ycombinator.com www.reddit.com" >> /etc/hosts sudo vim /etc/hosts ...and add '#' in front of that line every time you want to get social. Remove the '#' after use. Works miracles.
niyogi 15y ago
and so is posting a link to your own article on hacker news

17 points by stevenkovar 15y ago

giusemir1978 15y ago

Nice point of view. Actually, it is ok to spend some time on social networks, the point is we collectively spend too much of it trying to boost our ego.

acavailhez 15y ago

That "63 years" comes out of nowhere and does not means anything. Those 800m users combined have more than 2 millions years "per day". They spend way more time brushing their teeths. For just a second spent, "liking" something on Facebook seems a pretty efficient use of time.

joezydeco 15y ago
Brushing my teeth has a direct, proportional return on my time investment. My mouth stays healthy (reducing dentist expenses) and my wife doesn't turn green when I speak near her. Clicking "Like" has an unbalanced return on my time investment, short as it is. I get virtually nothing in return, but marketers and advertisers have another data point that they can use. My friends couldn't give a crap what I click Like on.
- TeMPOraL 15y ago
  > My friends couldn't give a crap what I click Like on. Well, in case of my friends Liking things, I do. It's a good recomendation engine. Especially, if your friends are not from the same industry as you, looking at what they Like is a way to avoid filter bubble.

cathrithbo 15y ago

The lady doth protest too much, methinks. There are plenty of activities that may seem to an outsider to be a waste of time. Daydreaming, for example. (Just don't tell that to Albert Einstein who used to daydream about travelling on a wave of light.) Even supposing that social networking is some sort of vice, it's easy to think of much more harmful alternatives.

AlexandrB 15y ago
> Even supposing that social networking is some sort of vice, it's easy to think of much more harmful alternatives. If a vice is less harmful but more widespread is it better or worse than the alternative? E.g. Facebook vs. World of Warcraft
- cathrithbo 15y ago
  With vices I suspect that it isn't just the activity concerned but the purpose, which varies from person to person. e.g. TV can be used to educate but it can also be used to distract That said, some vices may be worse than others. In the case of social networking, I guess the obvious alternative is going to parties which are OFC a gateway to alcohol consumption.

littledude 15y ago

i wouldn't call it a waste of time. they're using some of the most efficient current forms of personal trait signaling. check out the book "Spent: sex, evolution and the secrets of consumerism".

stevenkovar 15y ago

Beyond the time being spent via social media, I'm curious what HN thinks we can do to show qualitative value per interaction vs. quantitative. One thing I didn't include in my post was Hoffman's discussion of the three types of data that will prove to be important moving forward: explicit (data people supply), implicit (data created by behavior), and analytic (data gleaned from explicit and implicit information). Currently most social tools are very good at taking in the explicit data and showing people their own implicit data (think Tweets, Retweets, Followers), but there is--from a user standpoint--a lack of open analytic data showing the impact of their own behaviors.

drewonstuff 15y ago

You have to have faith that all this time wasting will go somewhere practical, at some point. I posted this yesterday: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3607718 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3607718 If people can use this online time to figure out how to apply their skills to make money, they wouldn't be at their jobs browsing Facebook.

ypcx 15y ago

echo "127.0.0.2 www.facebook.com plus.google.com \ www.twitter.com news.ycombinator.com www.reddit.com" >> /etc/hosts sudo vim /etc/hosts ...and add '#' in front of that line every time you want to get social. Remove the '#' after use. Works miracles.

niyogi 15y ago

and so is posting a link to your own article on hacker news