3 ms·
Social media sites are the collective equivalent of a "dollar auction"[1] In the dollar auction, each immediate choice isrational, but the overall process inev
by ajb 2y ago
Social media sites are the collective equivalent of a "dollar auction"[1]
In the dollar auction, each immediate choice isrational, but the overall process inevitably results in you losing value once you've decided to participate. But at each step, you lose more by quitting than by keeping going.
Social media is the same, except that it's collective: if you want to keep in touch with certain people, you don't have a choice other than to use the social media site they are using, so leaving is a collective action problem.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_auction https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_auction
- robin_reala 2y ago> you don't have a choice other than to use the social media site they are using Hence federated social media. No one’s pretending the current implementations are perfect, but they’re far more interesting than the existing closed platforms.
- ajb 2y agoThey are, but I'm not sure what will cause a critical mass to switch. Short of the EU mandating that the existing platforms federate, which could be problematic.
- paretoer 2y agoAs someone who doesn't use social media this analogy strikes me as a rationalization for something you know is bad for you and a waste of your time but you can't stop so you make up this fiction about a dollar auction.
- paretoer 2y agoAs someone who doesn't use social media this analogy strikes me as a rationalization for something you know is bad for you and a waste of your time but you can't stop so you make up this fiction about how you would lose more by stopping. An alcoholic who can't stop going to the bar because they will lose their drinking buddies is not a dollar auction.