Attention Addiction

[Remy]

People have been wandering around the planet for over 250,000 years, and I don't think we've made up any new mental disorders since the beginning. We've always had them. It's that we live in the information age. We love to tell others all about ourselves, and in the information age, we can tell thousands. It's not that social media causes addiction, it's that social media enhances the addictive behavior that was already there.

It may be that we are finally identifying long standing mental disorders.
It may be that the digital age presents a whole new environment to create new disorders.
It may be that we now label emotional issues previously overlooked as serious mental disorders.
There could be other explanations too.

But as I look about, I am aware that something significant has changed about human society, at least in America. I see unstable people coming out of the woodwork, and leaders who feed off of them, leaders who are either unstable themselves or pretend to be to garner the support of selected groups. I never thought I would see an America that has become so dysfunctional.

I remember someone I dealt with through work. This individual had a completely entitled personality. For his existence, he should be given all he wants. He was difficult to deal with. I stated to a co-worker one day "if it were 200 years ago, the tribe would have thrown him off the cliff." My co-worker responded "oh absolutely." His entitled mindset would not have been tolerated. You were either a productive member of the tribe or that was the end of you.

I don't think that means all people were dumped. I remember a show where very old bones were excavated. They found bones with healed fractures and bones that clearly showed arthritis. Yet these people continued to live. Perhaps they could not hunt and gather but they could take care of children, they could prepare food brought to them. They could remain productive.

Today, we may enable people who don't want to be productive.

 

[David777]

You’re splitting hairs. As technology has evolved so too has nomenclature and the lexicon for same. Few folks are going to relate to or understand “pre-and post smartphone” social media. The term “social media” has long since become an umbrella term for a website (senior forums) or application to enable a user (you, me, the rest of us here) to share content. On the other hand, if you feel that you must make the clarification for your own peace of mind, go for it. You do you. Just be prepared to go into a similar lengthy explantation each time.

As an old tech savvy person never involved with new social media but up to my neck in the Internet from earliest era, I have not liked the little I know about some facets of it, so do not like being put into that sand box and will continue to mildly grate against those pushing everyone else into that category. Of course many new to web people have had little exposure to why "social media" is controversial. So for a wee education, the below is a comment from one person. Go to that site and read what other's comments were a decade ago that shows many in tech have felt as I related long ago while other's who like the new social media felt a need to also categorize older media as social media just to dilute criticism of what they personally like. Especially since there was resistance. Others mostly new comers are wondering why anyone cares.

https://www.seroundtable.com/archives/017027.html
snippet:

Before reading on, would you consider forums "social media?" This is the question that is posed on a High Rankings Forum post.

Many people find that the answer varies. Forums, after all, are inherently social -- they bring people together on common ground. But others disagree. Forums are not "social media" because they don't like the negative connotations of social media (such as being "poked" like on Facebook). In other words, the person finds social media as meaningless but forums are meaningful. Your mileage may vary. Forums really do predate social media. If I'd give my insights, I think forums are not "social media" per se (the way we social media folks see it), but they certainly were a stepping stone and precursor to "real social media." However, of course, there's the other side of the coin: social media is, after all, the technology that people use to share their opinions and insights, and forums definitely provide that.

 

[Beezer]

Stated this before...

Facebook is the one place you'll get to meet all of the people you've purposely ignored your whole life.

And Twitter is the same 800 or so losers living in their parents' basements...projecting and feeding off of each other's stupidity.

I only post on this forum and one other smaller website. Keepin' it real, folks!

 

[PeppermintPatty]

@David777 - “Forums are not "social media" because they don't like the negative connotations of social media (such as being "poked" like on Facebook). In other words, the person finds social media as meaningless but forums are meaningful. Your mileage may vary. Forums really do predate social media. If I'd give my insights, I think forums are not "social media" per se (the way we social media folks see it), but they certainly were a stepping stone and precursor to "real social media."

The above clipping from your post is very biased / opinion based. . Saying that forums don’t like the negative connotations is mere speculation. You don’t know how others think or feel.

To add that people find social media meaningless and forums meaningful is your personal opinion and not fact based.

If we as forum members are socializing ( being social ) on a forum using internet ( media ) , that’s ‘social media.’ Whether people like it or not is irrelevant to the facts. Personal preference has nothing to do with factual information.

 

[Ronni]

Stated this before...

Facebook is the one place you'll get to meet all of the people you've purposely ignored your whole life.

And Twitter is the same 800 or so losers living in their parents' basements...projecting and feeding off of each other's stupidity.

I only post on this forum and one other smaller website. Keepin' it real, folks!

Facebook doesn’t “poke” anymore. Sometime after 2011, it lost popularity with users.

If you’ve ignored Facebook users in real life, then why on earth would you accept friend requests from them on Facebook?

Barack and Michelle Obama, Elon Musk, Ed Sheeran, Lady Gaga, Stephen Fry, Ricky Gervais, Taylor swif, Martin Sheen, Brittney Spears…..and hundreds of other celebrities are on Twitter. You can hardly characterize them as losers living in their parents’ basements.

I appreciate you wanting to keep it real. It helps to also keep it factual.