Hacker News Reader

Comment by dagaci | Hacker News Reader

I've never been much engaged in FB,TW or Instagram or too many Social platforms. But I still have to disagree with Mr Linus, after all where would we be without the Slashdot effect?

Social media simply accelerates aspects of what we are as humans. Its well known that we humans are genetically more attracted to the negative than the positive for obvious reasons ... and just to be circular: when was the last time something positive Linus said made the news?

So rather than say Social media is an external invading disease i would rather say it is an expression of what makes us human.

View on HN

I have spent some time studying genetics, and really have no idea what you mean by “Its well known that we humans are genetically more attracted to the negative than the positive for obvious reasons”

This thesis is from psychology, not genetics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negativity_bias

There were a number of studies in psychology related to the negativity bias. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negativity_bias .

This is the kind of thinking social media enables. When everyone in your group already agrees with what you say, the standards of thought fall due to lack of challenge.

I didn't think it was so challenging to use the term "genetics" after all from a reasonable point of view our genes are the blueprint of the body and our emotional responses derive from that...

And before any architects reply smartly about the misuse of the term "blueprint" see here: https://socratic.org/questions/why-is-dna-called-the-bluepri...

I agree that attributing this to genetics is somewhat abstract - it would normally be attributed as a phenomenon of psychology. And "more attracted to the negative than the positive" is an ambiguous way of putting what I guess the OP meant - that fear is a more compelling emotional driver than "positive" things such as the desires to consume or procreate. But in the very long run, since this is all the result of evolution (leaving aside for now the possibility that it is all God moving in His mysterious ways, which, whilst I certainly can't disprove, isn't the thrust of the criticism) and considering that these same behavioral preferences are readily observable in all animals and indeed many plants and bacteria, then the suggestion that they are indeed ultimately transmitted and shaped by genetics seems reasonable?

A euphemism, by which i meant "hard wired". Human's are like every species pre-disposed in so many way to be driven by the negative rather than the positive.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com