@patm, @greg guys in this topic I am not talking about all the reasons why people use Social Media.
What I am trying to do, is to understand why people complain about Social Media so much.
What is the real reason behind all the complaints about Social Media? Why people hate it more than anything else on the Internet? Is it really about privacy? Is it about too much notifications? Is it about too intrusive advertising?
I think no.
I think “the real beef” that people have with Social Media is the increased social comparison. It leads to heighten feelings of envy, that is usually felt by people as feelings of frustration, irritation, sadness, anxiety. That’s why people complaint about Social Media so much.
Now, is there anything that can be done with it or it is the inevitable consequence of Social Media?
I think, there is something that can be done with it. I think that current, fueled by advertising Social Media entice social competition and envy spirals. When we understand how they do it we can design better Social Networking Services. For example, as I described above in Validbook Social service we use comparmentalized social profiles that allows for assymetric replies to cues of social competition.
Facebook uses monolithic profiles (‘narrow and shallow’ profiles) that are streamlined to entce envy spirals. Validbook Social comparmentalized profiles streamlined to present personalitites in a comprehensive way. They are less engaing, but more humane.
@patm you can check Validbook alpha version here - http://futurama1x.validbook.org/ From there you can go to Validbook Social service.
Note, this is not a production version, so half of the features does not work and another half works half of the time.
(As Validbook is built on Self-Sovereign Identity idea, you will need a cryptographic key for login. To login as a main test “Jimbo Fry” user - download and use the following keystore file https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_ZDoXh4aBUQXR50PLRusZRF7XvEY3OQx/view Password to keystore file - “123456789”. After login go manually to the home page. Use Chrome browser. In production version the process of login will be seamless, as we will use browser extension to store key.)
@patm I understand Validbook looks daunting now, but this is because it is at the very early, gestation stage. Give it a try and let me know what you think about it and more importantly about its idea. Here is a long discussion about Validbook idea with @Free - The nature of issues: Human Nature vs. Attention Based Business Model?