[mpsprd]

Something exciting is happening, of course people want be informed as it evolves.

A similar example are election nights. People already voted, the result is in the box, we could simply wait and announce the result.

But seeing the numbers rise like an ongoing fight is going on makes for a more entertaining evening!

[s1artibartfast]

I think politics would be a lot better if people treated it less as a source of emotional engagement or as a spectator sport.

Don't get me wrong, I'm for fun, excitement, and curiosity.

What turns me off is that once the shallow well of real information depleted, how quickly people switch to speculation, Hype, and attention seeking

[jacquesm]

You essentially want people to stop being people. We are for want of a better term meme machines and we pass on information that we find interesting, gives us hope or makes us feel better and we avoid the opposite because it eventually makes us feel worse.

[j_maffe]

Yes but we can try to be selective about what we treat as a meme. People have that ability, although it is diminishing with the speed of communication these day.

[jacquesm]

That is a very interesting observation. I've always likened it to the diminishing cost of communication but your insight may well be the better one.

[s1artibartfast]

j_maffe took the words out of my mouth.

I would also say that in addition to diminishing cost and discretion, there are changing incentives/rewards structures with online communication.

[jacquesm]

Maybe. I think the point is valid but in the traditional media there is plenty of ways in which the incentives and rewards lead to pathological behavior, especially with TV but also with some forms of print.

[justanotherjoe]

I think there is justifiable view here that people these days are getting more and more addicted to making prediction. We predict everything but we forget most of it will be just a coin toss cause for every 1 factor we consider, 100 more are unconsidered.

[wolverine876]

It's sad that the current assumption is that we have no power to change ourselves or our world. We're not machines, we are human beings, agents; we control what we do.

[jacquesm]

Collectively we have a lot of power, individually much less.

[wolverine876]

I agree, but that's always been true and yet we are communicating on HN and not wandering the savannah trying not to starve.

[whimsicalism]

I think more and more people are using politics as some sort of substitute for sports and/or religion, especially post-pandemic when a lot more people were exposed to political ideas when spending time online.