As long as there's a vote/like/share/other counter, people are going to be incentivized to act like that. It's the part of our monkey brains that are desperate for approval from others.
I wonder if the solution to that problem is better education, like we teach kids not to do drugs. Both drugs and internet points activate chemicals in our brains that make us feel good, and both fuck us up if we do them too much. Yet we're able to coexist with drugs, but having problems with social networks.
Maybe we need PSAs and cheesy slogans with mascots to tell us that "cool kids don't dopa-meme!", and hip celebrities kids can identify with (Youtubers?) to casually mention that they don't use gamified social networks, etc.
> Maybe we need PSAs and cheesy slogans with mascots to tell us that "cool kids don't dopa-meme!", and hip celebrities kids can identify with (Youtubers?) to casually mention that they don't use gamified social networks, etc.
That's not likely to happen. The real secret of the gamified social networks is that they've found a way to keep you participating in the economy 24/7. Even when you're not doing anything, you're creating value in the form of metadata that gets shuffled off to Google and Facebook. Even when you're off work, you're "working" in the sense that you're contributing to the economy.
If we cut all of that off, I would expect a drop in GDP as people revert back to having large periods of time when they're not active in the economy.
I'm with you, I think they need to go away, but it won't be without it's drawbacks.
I wonder if the solution to that problem is better education, like we teach kids not to do drugs. Both drugs and internet points activate chemicals in our brains that make us feel good, and both fuck us up if we do them too much. Yet we're able to coexist with drugs, but having problems with social networks.
Maybe we need PSAs and cheesy slogans with mascots to tell us that "cool kids don't dopa-meme!", and hip celebrities kids can identify with (Youtubers?) to casually mention that they don't use gamified social networks, etc.