Comment by AdmiralGinge

5 years ago

>We have to start reminding people that they are in control of their decisions, and that they can take steps to reduce their social media usage to healthy levels. I know the common refrain is "Delete Facebook!" but that's the equivalent of abstinence-only education. We need to start talking about how to configure Screen Time on iOS, or how to use Facebook's built-in tools to hide content you don't want to see.

I couldn't agree more, and to add to that I think it's usually a foolish approach to treat people as hapless automatons without any agency if you're trying to convince them that your point is worth listening to. If you look at two of the worst political failures in the UK recently (the Remain campaign for the Brexit referendum in 2016 and Labour's election campaign in 2019), I think what they have in common is that they essentially told people "you're a downtrodden proletariat buffeted about by forces well outside your control, but we can make things better for you" which is such a foolish approach in my opinion. Regardless of whether they actually do or not, the average person likes to think they're in control of their own destiny so blaming everything on Facebook being manipulative bastards will never work if your aim is to change the public's relationship with social media.

9 comments

AdmiralGinge

Reply
PontifexMinimus  5 years ago

> they essentially told people "you're a downtrodden proletariat buffeted about by forces well outside your control

That's the plain and simple truth, isn't it? I mean, I don't control facebook.

  • AdmiralGinge  5 years ago

    Yeah it might be true, but it's extremely counterproductive to point this out when you're trying to convince someone of something. People like to feel like they have agency, even if it's mostly an illusion.

legerdemain  5 years ago

I agree! The economic effects of Brexit are difficult or impossible to measure, so they're not worth worrying about. On the whole, Brexit was good for British people because it gave them a feeling of action and momentum, like they had a real "hand in history." Britain has never been as energized and optimistic as it has been post-Brexit.

In the same way, I bristle at the suggestion that I'm not rational enough to resist the "addiction" of push messaging. We all know what the word "addiction" actually means. This is not addiction, this is just hokey phooey using fake-medical language to push a liberal agenda of extra regulation.

Every time I get a notification from Twitter or Facebook, my day gets a little brighter. When LinkedIn tells me that someone is looking at my profile, that means someone cares, and that's a wonderful thing to know.

  • SpicyLemonZest  5 years ago

    Your experience is far from universal. Twitter has made my life measurably worse: I'm less happy, have less free time, react less charitably to people I disagree with. I can look through my comment history and identify the periods where I was most active on Twitter, because I'm constantly flying off the handle at people for no good reason.