What I've noticed is that Instagrams recommendation algorithms are creepily accurate.<p>If you like browsing pictures of butts you'll get lots of butts and of the exact kind that you'd like. I'm not sure how they do it. I don't even post on Instagram. And yet I'm addicted now to the Explore tab. They've genuinely managed to build something addictive in a way that other networks are not.<p>Also Instagram is completely sanitized of politics and any other hot button stuff. So its just a space where you zone out.<p>Instagram is the crack cocaine of social media. A cocktail of addiction and narcissism refined into its most potent form. I predict that Instagram will continue to grow and might one day rival Facebook itself.
The overall way the author frames the discussion is putting the cart before the horse and ultimately Procrustean. The author's argument is a bit like a person with his head in a bucket of water claiming that human beings are "outdated" because we have this "primitive" need to breathe that's preventing us from being able to deal with having our heads stuck in buckets full of water. Maybe we shouldn't be sticking our heads in buckets of water? Maybe breathing is good?<p>There is a pathological strain of individualism divorced from reality that understands freedom not as freedom from all those things that are opposed to human nature (and especially our own vices), but as the right to arbitrarily will and do anything with no reference to human nature. Indeed, there is a hostility to the very idea of human nature because it is seen as an impediment to freedom.
I've been reading a lot about this "ancestral hijacking" lately and have tried to cut out on a lot of them. My phone now only has two possible notifications: phone calls and Things app. I have 0 social apps or games. I am also slowly cutting out sugars and extra carbs. I think you guys should read about <i>supernormal stimulus</i> [1].<p>There is this comic [2] about supernormal stimulus that shows how man, and man alone, has the ability to overcome it.<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernormal_stimulus" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernormal_stimulus</a><p>[2] <a href="http://www.stuartmcmillen.com/comic/supernormal-stimuli/" rel="nofollow">http://www.stuartmcmillen.com/comic/supernormal-stimuli/</a>
Seems the author's intentions are good but it's such an odd way to frame it. He outlines that many companies are explicitly designing products in such a way as to exploit ("hack") people's brains at great detriment to those people. But his response is to frame it as that we should place blame on our own brains rather than on the people doing these things or the social structure that rewards them. Feels like he could think a little bigger here.
In society we have an endless amount of social warnings, "Don't drink too much, you'll get ill. Don't do drugs, you'll become an addict. Don't drive without your seatbelt, you can die. Don't watch too much TV, it's not good for you."<p>But we still lack any sort of warning in the greater contemporary society about the risks of overuse of the hyper stimulus that comes along with social media. I am definitely beginning to see this take shape in our society (with people rejecting social media applications, articles like this, the way people speak to the overuse of such platforms)
Nobody will even bother to listen to me talk about social media anymore, because I am always telling people it is unhealthy and they should get off it (and yet I'm here). It is the worst fast food imaginable for our human need to socialize, transient and shallow.
Its difficult to want to be too critical about this since I think the author's motives are only good in that he seems to genuinely be trying to impart good advice; but so what, I'll criticise anyway. This reads like parody of a certain time, peppered as it with trendy buzzwords and ideas; it just happens that the time it is unintentionally parodying is right now. There's a faint air of desperation about the whole thing: the banality of a life punctuated by 'cheat days' rather than one lived with dietary equilibrium; the tacit assumption that the world is right and we are primitive; the unspoken message that we are effectively living in a world that is hostile to us, but that the problem is not the world, and we should rather learn to adapt to it instead of bending it to serve our interests as human beings.
More information about how you can avoid making apps that do this, or how you can control your own app usage, can be found here:<p><a href="http://www.timewellspent.io" rel="nofollow">http://www.timewellspent.io</a><p>There's an interesting page where they show the results of 200,000 users of an app called Moment[1] where you can see which apps make people the least happy. Additionally, you can see the time limits at which users start to feel happy about their usage.<p><a href="http://www.timewellspent.io/app-ratings/" rel="nofollow">http://www.timewellspent.io/app-ratings/</a><p>I came upon the movement after incorporating suggestions from Tristan Harris' "How Technology is Hijacking Your Mind — from a Magician and Google Design Ethicist[2]" into my every day life.<p>[1] - <a href="https://inthemoment.io" rel="nofollow">https://inthemoment.io</a><p>[2] - <a href="https://journal.thriveglobal.com/how-technology-hijacks-peoples-minds-from-a-magician-and-google-s-design-ethicist-56d62ef5edf3" rel="nofollow">https://journal.thriveglobal.com/how-technology-hijacks-peop...</a>
Didn't add much to the discussion, unfortunately.<p>The post is just material copied from Hooked (which is a creepy book worth reading!), plus observations that have already been made (social media causes us to compare ourselves to everyone else's highlight reel), followed by a bunch of generic, currently popular fads/lifestyle advice (keto diet, exercise, meditate, stoicism).<p>A far simpler solution is available to all of us: stop using Instagram.
Tldr: diet, exercise, sleep, meditation, relationships, and self reflection will improve your life because that's how humans have always thrived. It's a little wordy but on point. Since I stared focusing on these things, I have felt better, been less depressed, much more energetic, etc.
Instagram follows the same path as Facebook when it comes to curating content to the core of user's likes and dislikes. When a content that is tailored to the user's preference starts to surface more on the feed ,it tends to keep the user engaged passively even if not active, leading to ad revenue for the company. Once you are out of the platform and exposed to different, if not opposing views,people find it tough to handle and lead to depression.
Every week, news articles and people here on HN say that neural nets can be easily fooled by adversarial images. Yet human behavior has the same flaws. Apparently there are adversarial triggers for unintended/undesired human behavior.
Why are people treating engagement as a new thing?<p>AdTech companies use the same strategies that newspapers used to use. Yellow journalism has become fake news. Tabloids are now blogs fueled by rumor mills. Newspapers trying to promote celebrities are the same as having a twitter / snapchat / instagram account.<p>A rose by any other name is still a rose.
To read the original post (OP), I had to look up the meaning of the acronym PPL -- "push, pull legs".<p>I never did see what "the 'gram" meant.<p>Uh, we have the Roman alphabet, the English language we can write using the Roman alphabet, and dictionaries where we can look up words in the English language written with the Roman alphabet. Commonly we can also use Google to look up such meanings.<p>Then acronyms such as PPL and abbreviations such as "the 'gram" are not in an English dictionary and, thus, are obscure and poor means of communications. Similarly for icons.<p>So, in the interest of clear communications, ease of use, and a good user experience (UX), the Web pages for my startup are in English using the Roman alphabet and have no acronyms, abbreviations, or icons, obscure or otherwise.<p>Doing the same, the OP would be easier to read.
I tried 80% fat diet and blood ketone monitoring for a few months. I felt more energetic and happy. My girlfriend tried the same thing, she felt lethargic. I think individual customization based on genetics and lifestyle is necessary if you want to do any effective biohacking.
also important: your friends always have more friends/likes than you.<p>edit:
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendship_paradox" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendship_paradox</a>
To be honest I found instagram much more real than other social media platforms. Especially the story modus seems to make people more open to show their real emotions even when they are unhappy.
For more on cultural evolution and the impact on evolution of our brain, check out Joseph Henrich's "The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution". There are many youtube videos of the author discussing the book as well. The ideas in the book give deeper context to cultural evolution discussed in the Wait But Why Neuralink article.
> Today, we live in a completely different world as our ancestors. Yet, our biology is still exactly the same.<p>Is that really true? I've heard this kind of argument so many times that it <i>seems</i> right, but I've rarely seen any scientific evidence to back it up. Surely our bodies have evolved in some subtle and diverse ways over many thousands of generations?
I don't know what the "right" thing to post on social media is. I don't want to brag, nor complain, nor talk about how average my day is. I usually just end up posting cool articles and never anything personal. I thought about automatically posting the #1 HN article to my timeline every day, for the likes.
It also applies to media and websites like medium.com that use clickbait to make money for itself.<p>Anything in excess is terrible. It's why so much of news industry and people who watch too much too get depressed.<p>People who religiously watch foxnews and the members of NPR or subscribers to the NYTimes are just as depressed.<p>Ultimately, this is an article that says nothing. It's a clickbait form of water is wet. And yes, too much water is also bad for you.