I don't think humans were really prepared for what it would be like to have unfettered access to the entire world's communication. We're communal animals, our brains evolved to manage a few hundred people in our local community. Suddenly we're thrust into this endless chasm of noise and imagery. Of course it will be overwhelming.
The main danger I see with social media is how it messes with our emotions. It blunts our emotions because we don't get real feedback about how our words are making other people feel, so we don't care as much. It amplifies voices to large numbers of people by posting to viewers we would never share with in real life. It creates an emotional hook that reinforces our interaction with the site and homogenizes and commoditizes the feedback from others into a single button (a like button, a star). This is not how our emotions work in any natural way and our brains aren't really prepared to deal with it.
A good rule of thumb I've found for notifications is, if it wasn't created by a real person trying to get in touch with you directly (i.e. a text or chat message), you should probably turn it off.
I think you make a good point saying that it messes with our emotions! Do you think there is a way social networks can address this problem? Remove like buttons?
Another thought I had concerned teaching social media behaviour. It seems like people forget their manners once online. Examples reach from extremes like hate speach to mild versions - I can only think of users asking instagram followers very private questions i.e. concerning pregnancy and so on, something they would never to face to face. Because the boundaries seem so low, they just try and see what works, not respecting their counterpart. And I wonder if that is something that can be taught like social rules/manners. In the same way we could teach how to deal with
unfettered access to the entire world's communication.
So everyone can learn how to deal with the overflow of information.
I think figuring out some way to instill empathy in users is really important. Most of the time on social media we are interacting with a picture, a profile, or even just a username, and we don't treat them like a real person who deserves respect and forgiveness. It's kind of like driving. We see the car, not the person in the car, and so social behavior feels more aggressive when you're driving.
As far as the addictive aspects are concerned, companies aren't encouraged to make it less addictive, and it helps their bottom line to keep you hooked. Turning off notifications is a great start because it puts you in control of when you want to interact with the app, and it stops the lure from pulling you back in when you didn't really want to be.
Yeah, most of my apps don't have notifications turned on and I haven't felt I was missing out on anything. A lot of apps just use push notifications to get you to open the app for no reason.
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I don't think humans were really prepared for what it would be like to have unfettered access to the entire world's communication. We're communal animals, our brains evolved to manage a few hundred people in our local community. Suddenly we're thrust into this endless chasm of noise and imagery. Of course it will be overwhelming.
The main danger I see with social media is how it messes with our emotions. It blunts our emotions because we don't get real feedback about how our words are making other people feel, so we don't care as much. It amplifies voices to large numbers of people by posting to viewers we would never share with in real life. It creates an emotional hook that reinforces our interaction with the site and homogenizes and commoditizes the feedback from others into a single button (a like button, a star). This is not how our emotions work in any natural way and our brains aren't really prepared to deal with it.
A good rule of thumb I've found for notifications is, if it wasn't created by a real person trying to get in touch with you directly (i.e. a text or chat message), you should probably turn it off.
I like the rule for notifications! Well put.
I think you make a good point saying that it messes with our emotions! Do you think there is a way social networks can address this problem? Remove like buttons?
Another thought I had concerned teaching social media behaviour. It seems like people forget their manners once online. Examples reach from extremes like hate speach to mild versions - I can only think of users asking instagram followers very private questions i.e. concerning pregnancy and so on, something they would never to face to face. Because the boundaries seem so low, they just try and see what works, not respecting their counterpart. And I wonder if that is something that can be taught like social rules/manners. In the same way we could teach how to deal with
I think figuring out some way to instill empathy in users is really important. Most of the time on social media we are interacting with a picture, a profile, or even just a username, and we don't treat them like a real person who deserves respect and forgiveness. It's kind of like driving. We see the car, not the person in the car, and so social behavior feels more aggressive when you're driving.
As far as the addictive aspects are concerned, companies aren't encouraged to make it less addictive, and it helps their bottom line to keep you hooked. Turning off notifications is a great start because it puts you in control of when you want to interact with the app, and it stops the lure from pulling you back in when you didn't really want to be.
I really like that mindset for notifications. A good approach to take when apps ask for permission to send them.
Yeah, most of my apps don't have notifications turned on and I haven't felt I was missing out on anything. A lot of apps just use push notifications to get you to open the app for no reason.