3 ms·

I'm pretty skeptical about the explanatory value of the "highlights reel" theory. Anecdotally, most of what I see on Facebook is people sharing links to stuff,

by mbrock 12y ago

I'm pretty skeptical about the explanatory value of the "highlights reel" theory. Anecdotally, most of what I see on Facebook is people sharing links to stuff, liking posts by public pages, saying happy birthday, and so on. Couldn't it just be that, uh, Facebook is kinda boring? Or, as the article mentions, that "depressed feelings and lots of time on Facebook [...] go hand in hand," in other words, lonely/isolated people habitually look for connection on social media, but the kinds of communication that happen there are not very interesting or loneliness-assuaging. David Foster Wallace's 1993 essay "E Unibus Pluram" describes a similar tendency but with television as the substituting technology: "Every lonely human I know watches way more than the average U.S. six hours a day. The lonely, like the fictional, love one-way watching. For lonely people are usually lonely not because of hideous deformity or odor or obnoxiousness—in fact there exist today social and support groups for persons with precisely these features. Lonely people tend rather to be lonely because they decline to bear the emotional costs associated with being around other humans. They are allergic to people. People affect them too strongly. Let's call the average U.S. lonely person Joe Briefcase. Joe Briefcase just loathes the strain of the self-consciousness which so oddly seems to appear only when other real human beings are around, staring, their human sense-antennae abristle. Joe B. fears how he might appear to watchers. He sits out the stressful U.S. game of appearance poker. "But lonely people, home, alone, still crave sights and scenes. Hence television. Joe can stare at Them, on the screen; They remain blind to Joe. It's almost like voyeurism."

scribu 12y ago
> Joe Briefcase just loathes the strain of the self-consciousness which so oddly seems to appear only when other real human beings are around, staring, their human sense-antennae abristle. Joe B. fears how he might appear to watchers. That's called social anxiety, just FYI. And yeah, it's plausible that people which have social anxiety are more prone to overusing social media etc.
- mbrock 12y ago
  Yeah, I guess. A study cited on Wikipedia claims that around 18% of American adults have some kind of social anxiety disorder, that is, chronic and debilitating forms of social anxiety. Of course, nearly everyone experiences social anxiety from time to time.
- spacemanmatt 12y ago
  THIS IS THE POST I was looking for. Thank you. I also think it's possible they did not do diligence on causality.
  - aiahopeful 12y ago
    > "It doesn't mean Facebook causes depression, but that depressed feelings and lots of time on Facebook and comparing oneself to others tend to go hand in hand," said Steers. It's pretty explicit that they're not claiming causality.
- cheatsheet 12y ago
  I've had severe social anxiety for the bulk of my life. I've gone through periods of replacing it with a fundamentally dissociative awareness. The best I can describe it is being fully submerged in the belief that life is a dream, and nothing that happens actually matters. It's tough, but what actually works for me now, is giving other people the respect and privacy they need, by not thinking about how they think. You'd be surprised how much extra thinking time you have for everything else just by cutting your thoughts off at that line. Still, there are no rules yet for empathy, and my mind can still get panicky in crowds, and there is the belief that I will be perpetually socially naive and subject to social manipulation. But I think it's better than hiding in the corner of a room, staring at the floor, maybe. I do not really like social media. I like interesting conversations that stimulate me intellectually.
  - walterbell 12y ago
    On busy sidewalks with many people moving rapidly in both directions, how are collisions avoided? If two people each attempt to intuit the other's trajectory while maintaining eye contact, a game of infinitely recursing mirrors ensues, Inception-style. What works is to pick a path, any path, and look in the direction of that path. That is a sufficient signal for all parties to self-organize and avoid collision, even at high speeds and density of people. In other words, leading lowers the cost of following. Even if one could mind-read, one may not like what one perceives. But humans are adaptable and can often reciprocate. If one's actions assume/imply positive intent, one can motivate positive reciprocity and reduce/avoid the cost of perceiving intent.
    - cheatsheet 12y ago
      I think your path selecting algorithm can wind up in a state of deadlock, but it is very clever in a socially passive assertive way. There has to be a way of handling paths crossing simultaneously, non-aggressively, and this can not be resolved without additional signaling semantics. I like my desk and being socially awkward.
aswanson 12y ago
When I was on there, to announce my transcendence over the highlight reel, I would intentionally broadcast lowlights (I need to lose a few pounds, bought a cheap pare of sneaks, hairline recession, etc) as a way to say "Im so above this pettiness I don't give an eff what you think of my life". Of course, that's just as childish, but that's where I was. So glad Im off FB.

by mbrock 12y ago

scribu 12y ago

> Joe Briefcase just loathes the strain of the self-consciousness which so oddly seems to appear only when other real human beings are around, staring, their human sense-antennae abristle. Joe B. fears how he might appear to watchers. That's called social anxiety, just FYI. And yeah, it's plausible that people which have social anxiety are more prone to overusing social media etc.

mbrock 12y ago
Yeah, I guess. A study cited on Wikipedia claims that around 18% of American adults have some kind of social anxiety disorder, that is, chronic and debilitating forms of social anxiety. Of course, nearly everyone experiences social anxiety from time to time.
spacemanmatt 12y ago
THIS IS THE POST I was looking for. Thank you. I also think it's possible they did not do diligence on causality.
- aiahopeful 12y ago
  > "It doesn't mean Facebook causes depression, but that depressed feelings and lots of time on Facebook and comparing oneself to others tend to go hand in hand," said Steers. It's pretty explicit that they're not claiming causality.
cheatsheet 12y ago
I've had severe social anxiety for the bulk of my life. I've gone through periods of replacing it with a fundamentally dissociative awareness. The best I can describe it is being fully submerged in the belief that life is a dream, and nothing that happens actually matters. It's tough, but what actually works for me now, is giving other people the respect and privacy they need, by not thinking about how they think. You'd be surprised how much extra thinking time you have for everything else just by cutting your thoughts off at that line. Still, there are no rules yet for empathy, and my mind can still get panicky in crowds, and there is the belief that I will be perpetually socially naive and subject to social manipulation. But I think it's better than hiding in the corner of a room, staring at the floor, maybe. I do not really like social media. I like interesting conversations that stimulate me intellectually.
- walterbell 12y ago
  On busy sidewalks with many people moving rapidly in both directions, how are collisions avoided? If two people each attempt to intuit the other's trajectory while maintaining eye contact, a game of infinitely recursing mirrors ensues, Inception-style. What works is to pick a path, any path, and look in the direction of that path. That is a sufficient signal for all parties to self-organize and avoid collision, even at high speeds and density of people. In other words, leading lowers the cost of following. Even if one could mind-read, one may not like what one perceives. But humans are adaptable and can often reciprocate. If one's actions assume/imply positive intent, one can motivate positive reciprocity and reduce/avoid the cost of perceiving intent.
  - cheatsheet 12y ago
    I think your path selecting algorithm can wind up in a state of deadlock, but it is very clever in a socially passive assertive way. There has to be a way of handling paths crossing simultaneously, non-aggressively, and this can not be resolved without additional signaling semantics. I like my desk and being socially awkward.

aswanson 12y ago

When I was on there, to announce my transcendence over the highlight reel, I would intentionally broadcast lowlights (I need to lose a few pounds, bought a cheap pare of sneaks, hairline recession, etc) as a way to say "Im so above this pettiness I don't give an eff what you think of my life". Of course, that's just as childish, but that's where I was. So glad Im off FB.