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Socialization is about conspecifics. AI may augment the process for humans, but you can't expect people at large to engage with nonhumans. I mean, people do ta

by seydor 2y ago

Socialization is about conspecifics. AI may augment the process for humans, but you can't expect people at large to engage with nonhumans. I mean, people do talk to their pets, but they don't consider that socializing.

bluGill 2y ago
If you just need someone to talk to AI might be good. There are a lot of lonely people out there that need someone to talk to and don't know how to do it. (particularly people in nursing homes who thus cannot get out and meet real people) However I want Facebook as a way to remain connected to be distant friends not talk with people. I want to see my friends kids, their cats, whatever else they do that they are proud of. I know them personally even if I only see them at a class reunion every 10 years or something. I don't want to see cute cats (unless it is your cat), I don't want to see "joke of the day" - if I want that I'll find one of the many joke of the day places that cater to my sense of humor. I get plenty of politics elsewhere (unless they are running for office or assisting a campaign - share is not assisting a campaign). If I care about professional sports I can see it myself - let me know how your (or your kid's) games go since I won't find out about that. I wish there was a way to make Facebook that latter - it sortof fills that role. However Facebook hates it because I catch up after 5-10 minutes of scrolling every day (usually the lower end of that list, but with the holidays the latter these last few weeks) and then close.
- PittleyDunkin 2y ago
  > you just need someone to talk to AI might be good. There are a lot of lonely people out there that need someone to talk to and don't know how to do it. Facebook is about the last company on earth I'd trust to identify, let alone be responsible for facilitating, social behavior.
mrweasel 2y ago
> but they don't consider that socializing. Which is exactly why this will make Facebooks problem even worse. Honestly I don't think Facebook understand what their main issue is, it's lack of real human interaction. The stupid part is that they killed their main product themselves, in order to push ever more ads. LinkedIn is becoming a shit show as more and more people are posting stuff that previously belonged on Facebook, though they are tacking on some work related angle, you know to keep it professional. It is my opinion that the reason why LinkedIn is seeing more and more of these Facebook posts is because it is the last place online where you'll get real human interaction and socializing (however f-ed up it might be).
- weitendorf 2y ago
  You can certainly get real engagement on other platforms still. I think the reason there is so much weird cringe on LinkedIn is that: 1. It actually does get a lot of engagement and watch time, maybe not even despite how bad it is, but because it’s so bad that people can’t look away. If it’s cringy enough it’s no longer boring. It used to be that people ignored the feed entirely because it was all just boring stuff. 2. Building a personal brand is a really big thing these days and is legitimately valuable. Being able to write something and hit post and get real engagement for $0 (vs what it’d cost to get that engagement by paying for it directly) is nuts. IMO this isn’t obvious if you’re working as an engineer but if your job requires any sales or marketing it’s genuinely helpful. 3. LinkedIn is actually a really good place to farm engagement because of its general user base (professionals from early career to prime earning years), professional bent (intent), and availability of real names/titles/location. I find it kind of fascinating how these engagement mechanisms work in spite of it all because they all rely on some kind of “hack” on human attention.
  - mrweasel 2y ago
    You're second point is interesting, because that's probably what's going on, but the brand that many of these people are building is that they are psychopathic nutjobs who view dead/dying/sick children as a career advancing opportunity.
nerdponx 2y ago
> you can't expect people at large to engage with nonhumans NPCs are a big component of a lot of video games. Imagine an Elder Scrolls game with no NPCs. A social media platform filled with AI agents pretending to be your friends is basically just a "social media simulator" video game, with all the same requirements for immersion that make it enjoyable/entertaining to use. The fact that it's "multiplayer" (other real humans engaging with the mix of humans and AIs) doesn't change that. Facebook has become a ghost town, so they want to turn Facebook into a Facebook simulator. Imagine if a dying MMORPG could populate its game with NPCs that would help retain the dwindling player base, to avoid a collapsed network effect. Sounds good, right? Same thing here. (Facebook became a ghost town in large part due to Facebook's own enshittification campaign, but that's another story)
tokioyoyo 2y ago
A few months ago, the same argument popped up about AI videos. But the long game strategy is making it “normal” for the kids and youth growing up, so they would consider it as socializing. It’ll be up to the adults to fight against it. If we grew up with AI YouTube, we wouldn’t bat an eye on more AI videos, or socialization and etc., as we would consider that as just… business as usual.
- seydor 2y ago
  Not sure. Which Cgi videos make it to the top? Not even movies
  - tokioyoyo 2y ago
    Doesn’t matter, we’re not the audience. We have preexisting beliefs that if there was no effort put into making the video, it’s not worth watching. The key is to target people who don’t have that.
paxys 2y ago
Social media stopped being about socialization a long time ago. It's now purely content consumption.

by seydor 2y ago

bluGill 2y ago

If you just need someone to talk to AI might be good. There are a lot of lonely people out there that need someone to talk to and don't know how to do it. (particularly people in nursing homes who thus cannot get out and meet real people) However I want Facebook as a way to remain connected to be distant friends not talk with people. I want to see my friends kids, their cats, whatever else they do that they are proud of. I know them personally even if I only see them at a class reunion every 10 years or something. I don't want to see cute cats (unless it is your cat), I don't want to see "joke of the day" - if I want that I'll find one of the many joke of the day places that cater to my sense of humor. I get plenty of politics elsewhere (unless they are running for office or assisting a campaign - share is not assisting a campaign). If I care about professional sports I can see it myself - let me know how your (or your kid's) games go since I won't find out about that. I wish there was a way to make Facebook that latter - it sortof fills that role. However Facebook hates it because I catch up after 5-10 minutes of scrolling every day (usually the lower end of that list, but with the holidays the latter these last few weeks) and then close.

PittleyDunkin 2y ago
> you just need someone to talk to AI might be good. There are a lot of lonely people out there that need someone to talk to and don't know how to do it. Facebook is about the last company on earth I'd trust to identify, let alone be responsible for facilitating, social behavior.

mrweasel 2y ago

> but they don't consider that socializing. Which is exactly why this will make Facebooks problem even worse. Honestly I don't think Facebook understand what their main issue is, it's lack of real human interaction. The stupid part is that they killed their main product themselves, in order to push ever more ads. LinkedIn is becoming a shit show as more and more people are posting stuff that previously belonged on Facebook, though they are tacking on some work related angle, you know to keep it professional. It is my opinion that the reason why LinkedIn is seeing more and more of these Facebook posts is because it is the last place online where you'll get real human interaction and socializing (however f-ed up it might be).

weitendorf 2y ago
You can certainly get real engagement on other platforms still. I think the reason there is so much weird cringe on LinkedIn is that: 1. It actually does get a lot of engagement and watch time, maybe not even despite how bad it is, but because it’s so bad that people can’t look away. If it’s cringy enough it’s no longer boring. It used to be that people ignored the feed entirely because it was all just boring stuff. 2. Building a personal brand is a really big thing these days and is legitimately valuable. Being able to write something and hit post and get real engagement for $0 (vs what it’d cost to get that engagement by paying for it directly) is nuts. IMO this isn’t obvious if you’re working as an engineer but if your job requires any sales or marketing it’s genuinely helpful. 3. LinkedIn is actually a really good place to farm engagement because of its general user base (professionals from early career to prime earning years), professional bent (intent), and availability of real names/titles/location. I find it kind of fascinating how these engagement mechanisms work in spite of it all because they all rely on some kind of “hack” on human attention.
- mrweasel 2y ago
  You're second point is interesting, because that's probably what's going on, but the brand that many of these people are building is that they are psychopathic nutjobs who view dead/dying/sick children as a career advancing opportunity.

nerdponx 2y ago

> you can't expect people at large to engage with nonhumans NPCs are a big component of a lot of video games. Imagine an Elder Scrolls game with no NPCs. A social media platform filled with AI agents pretending to be your friends is basically just a "social media simulator" video game, with all the same requirements for immersion that make it enjoyable/entertaining to use. The fact that it's "multiplayer" (other real humans engaging with the mix of humans and AIs) doesn't change that. Facebook has become a ghost town, so they want to turn Facebook into a Facebook simulator. Imagine if a dying MMORPG could populate its game with NPCs that would help retain the dwindling player base, to avoid a collapsed network effect. Sounds good, right? Same thing here. (Facebook became a ghost town in large part due to Facebook's own enshittification campaign, but that's another story)

tokioyoyo 2y ago

A few months ago, the same argument popped up about AI videos. But the long game strategy is making it “normal” for the kids and youth growing up, so they would consider it as socializing. It’ll be up to the adults to fight against it. If we grew up with AI YouTube, we wouldn’t bat an eye on more AI videos, or socialization and etc., as we would consider that as just… business as usual.

seydor 2y ago
Not sure. Which Cgi videos make it to the top? Not even movies
- tokioyoyo 2y ago
  Doesn’t matter, we’re not the audience. We have preexisting beliefs that if there was no effort put into making the video, it’s not worth watching. The key is to target people who don’t have that.

paxys 2y ago

Social media stopped being about socialization a long time ago. It's now purely content consumption.