Have "likes" and "kudos" polarized our society?

[downbeatplumb]

Another red-letter day when I agree with RR.



It is an addiction for many and actual face-to-face communication is becoming passe.

I saw someone cycling no handed down a major road while texting the other day. I wonder if he survived the trip.

[LastPoet]

While there are benefits of social media, I don't know that overall, it will be a good thing for society.

(bold mine)

Man, what happened to "God Did it", "It's in God's hands", "God works in mysterious ways" and mst of all, "Free will" ?

[Catholic_Lady]

Hadn't thought about it that way before, but it makes sense.

[RoadRunner79]

While there are benefits of social media, I don't know that overall, it will be a good thing for society.

(bold mine)

Man, what happened to "God Did it", "It's in God's hands", "God works in mysterious ways" and mst of all, "Free will" ?

What the heck are you talking about?

[Catholic_Lady]

(bold mine)

Man, what happened to "God Did it", "It's in God's hands", "God works in mysterious ways" and mst of all, "Free will" ?

What the heck are you talking about?

Trying to argue religion with you rather than comment on the topic at hand, which has 0 to do with religion.

[KevinM1]

What's interesting about this forum environment, is that there isn't really any practical purpose to want to collect kudos/rep.  There isn't a chance to go viral.  And with such a small community, it's not like someone is going to become famous in any way because they got 10 kudos on a post, or hit 50 rep.  Everybody is a pretty known commodity.

In this specific situation, I think maybe the kudos/rep is a loose reflection of the responses one's posts receives, which is where the echo chamber effect takes place.  So a kudos is a substitute for "I agree with Kevin" rather than posting "I agree with Kevin."  So it serves as shorthand more than anything?  But what it's shorthand for is the stuff about positive feedback.

All I know is that more people should agree with me on things.

But, yeah, there are a few different things going on, even in the context of this thread. The first is the nature of social media. The second is the gamification of it (being tangibly rewarded for expressing certain opinions). The third is the ubiquity of it, and of mobile devices in general.

I don't think that the gamification aspect - kudos, likes, etc. - is the root of the problem. It's really just an add-on to an existing thing. Social media, itself, however, is rife with problems. In a weird way, it highlights the pitfalls of the so-called free marketplace of ideas. Turns out most people are some combination of gullible, ignorant, and/or lazy, and it's really easy to shape opinions with targeted misinformation campaigns that latch onto binary thinking, cultural/religious/race/gender/political bias, and snarky quips.

The echo chamber effect is magnified because it's really easy to simply escape into these digital safe spaces (irony intended) where one's opinions are simply defended and reinforced by the herd a person feels comfortable in. We see it on a smaller, more focused scale with all those religious forums that ban atheists for simply being, but it definitely happens on a larger, more personal scale when the user has the power to curate what they see and who they interact with. We're at the point where we can effectively silence the dissent in our personal lives with the click of a button. And that, I think, is what's at the root of our social dysfunction. We're no longer forced to get along with each other during the course of our lives.

And that's not getting into the aspects of harassment, doxxing, abuse, etc.

All I know is that it's really easy to tell people to get off their devices and experience the real world once in a while, but that kind of demand isn't really helpful. There's a reason why we escape into our little corners, and until the real world can be a better alternative, there's no impetus for change.

[CapnAwesome]

I usually put kudos in for the effort of a well written post, or as a way to saving me the time to post that I agree with said post. Or I found it fun.

In Mafia, I usually kudos people when I want to change their opinion of me. Usually when I am scum to get town cred. Its a thing.

That's how I use kudos too, which is exactly what I think is part of the problem. People conform their posts to try to get the most people in their given group to agree with them, being clever, often at the expense of whoever is the target of the post. That leads you to conform your opinion to that of the group you are in, because you want those kudos.

I also admit kudos is the first thing I check on here and on Facebook.

So people are not encouraged to be detailed and thoughtful, but clever and partisan. Nothing will not get you kudos like a "too long, didnt read" post.

---

What's interesting about this forum environment, is that there isn't really any practical purpose to want to collect kudos/rep.  There isn't a chance to go viral.  And with such a small community, it's not like someone is going to become famous in any way because they got 10 kudos on a post, or hit 50 rep.  Everybody is a pretty known commodity.

In this specific situation, I think maybe the kudos/rep is a loose reflection of the responses one's posts receives, which is where the echo chamber effect takes place.  So a kudos is a substitute for "I agree with Kevin" rather than posting "I agree with Kevin."  So it serves as shorthand more than anything?  But what it's shorthand for is the stuff about positive feedback.

All I know is that more people should agree with me on things.

But, yeah, there are a few different things going on, even in the context of this thread. The first is the nature of social media. The second is the gamification of it (being tangibly rewarded for expressing certain opinions). The third is the ubiquity of it, and of mobile devices in general.

I don't think that the gamification aspect - kudos, likes, etc. - is the root of the problem. It's really just an add-on to an existing thing. Social media, itself, however, is rife with problems. In a weird way, it highlights the pitfalls of the so-called free marketplace of ideas. Turns out most people are some combination of gullible, ignorant, and/or lazy, and it's really easy to shape opinions with targeted misinformation campaigns that latch onto binary thinking, cultural/religious/race/gender/political bias, and snarky quips.

The echo chamber effect is magnified because it's really easy to simply escape into these digital safe spaces (irony intended) where one's opinions are simply defended and reinforced by the herd a person feels comfortable in. We see it on a smaller, more focused scale with all those religious forums that ban atheists for simply being, but it definitely happens on a larger, more personal scale when the user has the power to curate what they see and who they interact with. We're at the point where we can effectively silence the dissent in our personal lives with the click of a button. And that, I think, is what's at the root of our social dysfunction. We're no longer forced to get along with each other during the course of our lives.

And that's not getting into the aspects of harassment, doxxing, abuse, etc.

All I know is that it's really easy to tell people to get off their devices and experience the real world once in a while, but that kind of demand isn't really helpful. There's a reason why we escape into our little corners, and until the real world can be a better alternative, there's no impetus for change.

That is a really consise and well thought out analysis and I totally agree. My first thought was to kudo. Lol.

[Minimalist]

What's interesting about this forum environment, is that there isn't really any practical purpose to want to collect kudos/rep.  There isn't a chance to go viral.  And with such a small community, it's not like someone is going to become famous in any way because they got 10 kudos on a post, or hit 50 rep.  Everybody is a pretty known commodity.

In this specific situation, I think maybe the kudos/rep is a loose reflection of the responses one's posts receives, which is where the echo chamber effect takes place.  So a kudos is a substitute for "I agree with Kevin" rather than posting "I agree with Kevin."  So it serves as shorthand more than anything?  But what it's shorthand for is the stuff about positive feedback.

Quite right.  With the kudos system it keeps the thread length down without all those "I agree" posts.

Now, I still find myself sending out a lot of "Go Fuck Yourself" posts when I disagree. 

Maybe we could have a "Disagree" function?

[Fidel_Castronaut]

After being on FB for 10+ years I quit in around August 2017. Same with every every other social media platform though I wasn't active on them aside FB, which I would post on at least a few times a day.

I realised that actually I have enough friends in RL and that sharing what I'm doing with people. Or what I'm eating or where I'm travelling, is really more just an exercise in extreme narcissism.the only people who would give a fuck are my close friends and family anyway, and I can tell them in person. When someone shares some images of themselves in an exotic holiday resort I just either didn't care or thought about the flip side, how much did you borrow to get there or why did you feel the need to share an image of yourself on a beautiful beach fully knowing everyone else is back here grinding it out 9-5 for a shitty pay check. Then I came to the what should of been obvious realisation that people do the exact same thought process to me. I posted loads of images of myself in Iceland early in 2017, then asked myself why the fuck anyone would care outside of my immediate social group who I either already told and showed pictures to anyway.

There have been numerous articles and studies that have gone into the negative (and positive) mental and physical health effects of excessive social media use, especially in younger people. My favourite anecdotal article is the below which is what tipped me over the edge in leaving it all behind forever.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...on/534198/

Rebuttal article here, because I thought about it a lot and read up on it quite a bit. For brevity I'll just leave these two here. Be interesting to see who people agree with the most:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/onc...generation

[Fidel_Castronaut]

What's interesting about this forum environment, is that there isn't really any practical purpose to want to collect kudos/rep.  There isn't a chance to go viral.  And with such a small community, it's not like someone is going to become famous in any way because they got 10 kudos on a post, or hit 50 rep.  Everybody is a pretty known commodity.

In this specific situation, I think maybe the kudos/rep is a loose reflection of the responses one's posts receives, which is where the echo chamber effect takes place.  So a kudos is a substitute for "I agree with Kevin" rather than posting "I agree with Kevin."  So it serves as shorthand more than anything?  But what it's shorthand for is the stuff about positive feedback.

There used to be an addon in the forum which showed the total kudos given to each member, ranking them daily, weekly, monthly and of all time.

Weirdly when I joined (as a noob) it was good to see me near the top of the weekly or daily kudos-meters because it meant that people were reading what I was saying.

The yearly one was a joke though. Turns out minimalist has been on here about 80 years and had tens of thousands more kudos than anyone. Lol