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Social media is 21st century cigarettes. Some people stumbled upon something that turned out to be addictive, and after they realized it was they put all their

Social media is 21st century cigarettes. Some people stumbled upon something that turned out to be addictive, and after they realized it was they put all their effort into optimizing it to be even more addictive with little or no regard for the detrimental effects it had on their users. I don't know which is more toxic, the product or the people who make it.

worldsayshi 3y ago
I don't know I mean I kind of find a lot of things on my phone addictive that I don't expect that intentionally evil people have optimized for it. Like regular news sites, hacker news, indie games and Lemmy. Maybe people don't need to try very hard to make things addictive. Maybe we just "like" being addicted to things. Maybe we have strange reasons for it. (And maybe addiction is mostly a coping mechanism when we can't figure other things out.) I'm not sure we can put all the blame on the creators of social media. At least sometimes I'm not sure they even need to try that hard.
- tegling 3y ago
  A lot of industry standard design patterns are a consequence of that additction-optimization UX work. So you're probably applying this whether you wish or not. On the surface it makes the app/game engaging--but why? What's the state of mind of the person using the app? I've recently started developing a game for fun and found my self having to put a lot of effort into figuring out whether "is this _actually_ fun and fulfilling?" or "does it only make me compulsively feel like I have to continue, waiting for the fun that's around the corner (but never shows up)?"
  - worldsayshi 3y ago
    Yeah this is probably a good point. But that makes it very hard to put blame on anything in particular (that we might be able to fix). Except maybe the incentive structures we've created.
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan 3y ago
  I mean Olympic athletes used to smoke cigarettes. The awful effects take years to decades of habitual daily use to really manifest. I suspect social media is the same. Just as a generation destroyed their lungs beyond repair through decades of cigarette use, another generation might be in the process of fundamentally altering their brains, for life, through heavy daily use of an intentionally addictive product. Ten years ago, there was more uncertainty, but today the studies are making it pretty clear that heavy social media use shortens attention spans, can lead to social anxiety and depression, and who knows what else. It's complicated because there are a lot of good things about social media too. But I do think it makes some sense to try to crack down on companies that intentionally target children with addictive, harmful products, just like we eventually did with cigarettes.
- chaosmonger7 3y ago
  [flagged]
yungporko 3y ago
at least cigarettes don't make you dumber, some tiktok zombies are barely even people anymore.
- 15457345234 3y ago
  We should encourage more smoking because then people will have less time to fondle their phones and like tiktoks

worldsayshi 3y ago

I don't know I mean I kind of find a lot of things on my phone addictive that I don't expect that intentionally evil people have optimized for it. Like regular news sites, hacker news, indie games and Lemmy. Maybe people don't need to try very hard to make things addictive. Maybe we just "like" being addicted to things. Maybe we have strange reasons for it. (And maybe addiction is mostly a coping mechanism when we can't figure other things out.) I'm not sure we can put all the blame on the creators of social media. At least sometimes I'm not sure they even need to try that hard.

tegling 3y ago
A lot of industry standard design patterns are a consequence of that additction-optimization UX work. So you're probably applying this whether you wish or not. On the surface it makes the app/game engaging--but why? What's the state of mind of the person using the app? I've recently started developing a game for fun and found my self having to put a lot of effort into figuring out whether "is this _actually_ fun and fulfilling?" or "does it only make me compulsively feel like I have to continue, waiting for the fun that's around the corner (but never shows up)?"
- worldsayshi 3y ago
  Yeah this is probably a good point. But that makes it very hard to put blame on anything in particular (that we might be able to fix). Except maybe the incentive structures we've created.
rrrrrrrrrrrryan 3y ago
I mean Olympic athletes used to smoke cigarettes. The awful effects take years to decades of habitual daily use to really manifest. I suspect social media is the same. Just as a generation destroyed their lungs beyond repair through decades of cigarette use, another generation might be in the process of fundamentally altering their brains, for life, through heavy daily use of an intentionally addictive product. Ten years ago, there was more uncertainty, but today the studies are making it pretty clear that heavy social media use shortens attention spans, can lead to social anxiety and depression, and who knows what else. It's complicated because there are a lot of good things about social media too. But I do think it makes some sense to try to crack down on companies that intentionally target children with addictive, harmful products, just like we eventually did with cigarettes.
chaosmonger7 3y ago
[flagged]

yungporko 3y ago

at least cigarettes don't make you dumber, some tiktok zombies are barely even people anymore.

15457345234 3y ago
We should encourage more smoking because then people will have less time to fondle their phones and like tiktoks