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What did you expect? Most people are normal and normal people are boring. The majority of folks' lives, outside the small percentage of people you would actual

by OzzyB 14y ago

What did you expect? Most people are normal and normal people are boring. The majority of folks' lives, outside the small percentage of people you would actually want to follow, are just: Eating, Shitting & Fucking. Shitting == Too gross to document unless it's a prank. Fucking == Too exhibitionistic for most & social networks' TOS seem to frown on that sorta stuff. That leaves Eating... Nice, safe, normal. Boring.

irollboozers 14y ago
Well then why are we spending all this time and effort to 'gift' these glorious tools and platforms to 'normal' people. It's certainly not for their benefit. Or maybe we're all (aka any app ever made) just projecting how people should behave. If you think this is about food, then I think you're missing the point.
- drivebyacct2 14y ago
  Because as it turns out, boring people have money. I think that a lot of people build products that don't necessarily elevate humanity to some higher altruistic plateau. I think they see a market where a boring person would enjoy sharing their boring life and fill that void.
  - irollboozers 14y ago
    I'm not even going to list all the apps and services that claim to improve the way you ____, or bring you closer to ____, or make ____ exciting and fun, or... We need to stop seeing social networks as a way augment real life, and more a way to capture life as it is. We're so connected to the internet now anyways that there are very few places left where the internet provides any honest solitude. Even gaming is changing like this with professional circuits, tournaments, yet there are high ranked gamers who don't want to participate because they don't want to be in the public. I just happen to be a recent college grad. Go back a few years and instead of food pictures, it's drunken party pictures. Same exact thing, except a bunch of 18 year old kids goofing off with a camera and alcohol. But if you go back a bit earlier, when Facebook hadn't yet blown up, the content was very different. There were status updates on relationships. People helping eachother with homework. News articles that people liked. Conversation threads. Funny jokes. All of it without fear of judgement. This could be the fact that I've grown up and many of my cohort don't have the same time for those activities. And also the fact that a real identity has much to do with it. But I think it's just that the way we view social networks has changed. And not in the direction that most founders/investors/really big socially connected visionaries realize. Yet that's where they promise big $$. I want to see someone giving to a project they like on Kickstarter. I want to see someone learning something new. I want to see someone build something. I want to my friends meeting new people and where they met them. I want to see people's accomplishments. I want to see someone vote. I want to see people's fears. I want to see if someone's life has been impacted. If I'm on a social network for my life, I want to see real life. I don't really want to see pictures of food.
    - rdtsc 14y ago
      > We need to stop seeing social networks as a way augment real life, and more a way to capture life as it is. But we can't. It is like the Heisenberg principle for social life. As soon as we start recording and observing things and post them on Facebook, Instagram, Foursquare etc. it changes and becomes different. People start doing things just to post and broadcast to others. Others react by changing their behavior based on what was posted by others.
      - irollboozers 14y ago
        If anything, this thread has given me the idea that it is possible. If someone can build a true to life platform where behavior isn't changed as a factor of the medium... brb, give me a few years. Once people have fatigued from the social norms of current social media sites, I should have this app finished.

by OzzyB 14y ago

irollboozers 14y ago

Well then why are we spending all this time and effort to 'gift' these glorious tools and platforms to 'normal' people. It's certainly not for their benefit. Or maybe we're all (aka any app ever made) just projecting how people should behave. If you think this is about food, then I think you're missing the point.

drivebyacct2 14y ago
Because as it turns out, boring people have money. I think that a lot of people build products that don't necessarily elevate humanity to some higher altruistic plateau. I think they see a market where a boring person would enjoy sharing their boring life and fill that void.
- irollboozers 14y ago
  I'm not even going to list all the apps and services that claim to improve the way you ____, or bring you closer to ____, or make ____ exciting and fun, or... We need to stop seeing social networks as a way augment real life, and more a way to capture life as it is. We're so connected to the internet now anyways that there are very few places left where the internet provides any honest solitude. Even gaming is changing like this with professional circuits, tournaments, yet there are high ranked gamers who don't want to participate because they don't want to be in the public. I just happen to be a recent college grad. Go back a few years and instead of food pictures, it's drunken party pictures. Same exact thing, except a bunch of 18 year old kids goofing off with a camera and alcohol. But if you go back a bit earlier, when Facebook hadn't yet blown up, the content was very different. There were status updates on relationships. People helping eachother with homework. News articles that people liked. Conversation threads. Funny jokes. All of it without fear of judgement. This could be the fact that I've grown up and many of my cohort don't have the same time for those activities. And also the fact that a real identity has much to do with it. But I think it's just that the way we view social networks has changed. And not in the direction that most founders/investors/really big socially connected visionaries realize. Yet that's where they promise big $$. I want to see someone giving to a project they like on Kickstarter. I want to see someone learning something new. I want to see someone build something. I want to my friends meeting new people and where they met them. I want to see people's accomplishments. I want to see someone vote. I want to see people's fears. I want to see if someone's life has been impacted. If I'm on a social network for my life, I want to see real life. I don't really want to see pictures of food.
  - rdtsc 14y ago
    > We need to stop seeing social networks as a way augment real life, and more a way to capture life as it is. But we can't. It is like the Heisenberg principle for social life. As soon as we start recording and observing things and post them on Facebook, Instagram, Foursquare etc. it changes and becomes different. People start doing things just to post and broadcast to others. Others react by changing their behavior based on what was posted by others.
    - irollboozers 14y ago
      If anything, this thread has given me the idea that it is possible. If someone can build a true to life platform where behavior isn't changed as a factor of the medium... brb, give me a few years. Once people have fatigued from the social norms of current social media sites, I should have this app finished.