What's in a Number?

[kmo]

In recent conversations, I've been returning to the idea that Facebook and social media generally are driving us insane. Social media, and Facebook in particular are certainly useful. I went to my 30-year high school reunion last year, and Facebook played a major role in shaping that gathering. The Friends of the C-Realm group on Facebook puts me

Comments

Social Media is like Fire---Good Servant, bad Master

[ext_4021213]

I have two responses. I loathe social media. It eats my time that I would rather be spending doing something else. But it has two advantages

Re: Social Media is like Fire---Good Servant, bad Master

[kmo]

Yes, I can't disconnect from social media for the same reason. Tending my social media presence is part of my podcasting job.

No horse

[dode]

I really enjoyed the semi-rant from the end of episode 512 that covered this. I tend to agree that social media or the way a lot of people are using it is driving us nuts. Partly I blame how it has typically become reactive. Adopting an app or allowing your web browser to interrupt other activity creates an irritation or starts brain juices flowing that drive us away from thought and toward snarling. I noticed that earlier technologies like Usenet generally degraded as more become tended to be always on. In the days of dial-up and download there was always time for thought and the possibility to edit a post before the next batch of messages were exchanged

[peristaltor]

Based on their posture, their facial expressions, their gate and even their smell, we can not only determine their mood and disposition, but we have a very good idea of what they're feeling.

Another aspect of social media that I feel is being neglected is (of course) advertising. Ads used to be cooler conversation material, stuff that would be discussed along with "the game," one of the bigger network productions, or any of the other limited phenomena accessible to all.

Now that we have admissions of psychometric ads being used in the last election, ads disseminated to FB users based on an assessment of their personality types, we have ads that, unlike ads of the past, fit with a person's perspective of the world.

Meaning they are not visible to just anyone. We have come to a world where people can simultaneously view a device and access/see content that no one else in their household or workplace can see

Velocity is the enemy

[ext_4021213]

I just listened to the podcast where KMO read out loud this post. I'm fascinated about how much I had missed in reading both his original post and the comments that other people had made. I don't know if it's multi-tasking or just my giant ego, but I think dode is right about the temporal element to dysfunctional social media

[tejanojim]

Pretty quickly after getting my first smart phone I removed FB and twitter, because they were so distracting. After the election I went further, blocking both sites on my computer at work. I also meditate at the end of the day, and I won't look at them between meditating and sleeping. I still get bored, I still browse random stuff, and I'm still active on social media, but taking these steps seems to have had a positive affect on my mental state. YMMV.