Comment by nottheissue | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nottheissue | Hacker News Reader

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This appeal to the morality of empathy is actually not relevant to either the discussion or your comment.

>This kind of empathy with others will make you much more effective when you're creating for people who are not like you.

What you are describing is the action of gaining knowledge of other's likes/dislikes. This can be done entirely robotically i.e. completely without emotion. Knowing about others is only a part of empathy. The other part is actually exercising this emotion in your actions, choices, and interactions with other people.

I don't think not understanding snapchat (and not wanting to understand snapchat) is a display of a lack of empathy. There are many things that each of us choose not to spend time learning about. That is just a basic facet of life.

And, I find it extremely disingenuous to start blaming people of being "bad human beings" because they do not care to entertain themselves with a currently popular social application. Like really? Is this what we have lowered our discussion standards too?

This jump to appealing to some sort of moral high-ground to establish your point is logically fallacious at best. Especially when morality/ethics plays zero part in people's personal views/choices in regards to a topic e.g. this topic.

>make an effort to talk to people outside of your normal social circles once in a while.

You do realize that the majority of Snapchat's users are most likely using it to participate in THEIR social circles, right? To each their own. It's perfectly fine to NOT be in some social circles.

I am seriously amused that the top comment is an appeal to ethical standards in regards to people's personal opinions about an app. Very amused! :D

You should reread the comment. It doesn't say everyone needs to use Snapchat, just don't insist it's stupid merely because you don't understand it.

I never called anything stupid. Nor is it the case that I don't understand the comment. You actually pointed out no problem with my comment specifically, you merely accused me of "not understanding" and needing to "reread" the comment. How very unempathetic and condescending of you.

I also never said that the comment was saying that "everyone needs to use snapchat".

Maybe you should either address specific points made in someone else's comment or avoid being outright rude in an otherwise intellectual and civil discussion? Just a thought.

EDIT: I also would expect discussions on a site like this to not devolve to false dichotomies of either total agreement or total disagreement with someone else's position (comment).

If you read my comment carefully you will easily discern that my focus is on the lack of necessity for bringing an appeal to "empathy" into the discussion.

I honestly cannot tell if you're trolling.

I don't see anyone appealing to a moral high-ground. You're the only one talking about ethics.

Let me distill the OP's comment for you: 1) A lot people seem to be complaining about Snapchat being confusing and saying there's something wrong with it, etc. 2) Yet Snapchat is extremely popular with certain groups. 3) If you want to understand why it's popular, try to understand the groups that are using it. 4) In general, that type of empathy (or the ability to understand and share another person's experiences and emotions) can be useful in helping you create things for other people who are dissimilar to you.

You're the only one talking about people being bad or good in relation to their understanding of Snapchat... unless comments have been edited or something.

And mgalka isn't saying you said it was stupid. He was paraphrasing the original argument, because he thought you didn't understand it. Bleh, this type of bickering is pointless, hence my troll suspicion.

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