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by icebraining 2991 days ago
The point of not avoiding FB for petty vanity - essentially, don't cut off the nose to spite the face(book) - is valid. But the analysis falls short, because by adding content to FB, you're still strengthening its network effect. How many people will keep using FB (at least partially) to follow your profile? Arguably, you're complicit in that.
1 comments
croon 2991 days ago
To add to that: What's the culmination of all this?

Everyone ends up with a non-personal brand avatar that interacts with other brand avatars while life outside is entirely separate?

I understand that people "pose" online, as well as sartorially and socially offline, but this would be an entirely different ball game. What's even the point of participating after you've removed the last remaining percentage of real interaction from social media?

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icebraining 2991 days ago
What's the culmination of all this?

Oh, that we've know for fifty years. It's the acceleration of the Spectacle:

"In societies where modern conditions of production prevail, all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into a representation."

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croon 2991 days ago
That's both well put and awfully prescient.
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throwmenow_0140 2991 days ago
> What's the culmination of all this? > What's even the point [...]

I can assure you that the answer to your question leads to something that you don't want to endure.

I receive my dopamine from browsing on HN. Is this better? If I would be an AI that is able to simulate real interaction and you wouldn't know it, it wouldn't change anything. reminds me of https://xkcd.com/810/

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croon 2991 days ago
> I receive my dopamine from browsing on HN. Is this better?

Two things spring to mind. You're right in that we're not interacting socially, but on the other hand you have an anonymous throwaway account, so I know you're not trying to sell me your brand. So while we're not building a social repertoire, we are (hopefully) having a constructive dialogue focused on topics, not on brand personas.

HN isn't a social network for me, or if it is, it's removed from identities. I don't come here for specific people, I come here for a collective (anonymous as far as I'm concerned as I very rarely open someones profile) group of people with links and insights I for the most part find interesting.

That makes this different from a social network where the expressed purpose is connecting individuals with old and sometimes new acquaintances, which then is entirely subverted in GPs premise.

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