Comment by throwaway_9168 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by throwaway_9168 | Hacker News Reader

I would certainly like Facebook the company to completely fail, but the WagesforFacebook website is probably the most idiotic thing I have seen in a long time.

It is like turning into a penniless bum by spending all your money partying, and then blaming all the party hosts for your predicament and asking them to pay you money for each visit so you can keep partying forever into the future.

Why not stop attending the parties?

Why not a) remove the mobile app and use it only on a desktop/laptop to reduce the amount of time you spend on Facebook b) monitor how much time you spend on FB and slowly cut it down c) pick up the phone and pay a few damn dollars to talk to close friends - in case you don't have a way to call for free d) meet people in real life and put your mobile phone away and actually pay attention to the other person e) spend your time educating everyone you know about the problem of FB addiction f) volunteer for some community service where you actually get to meet your friends and neighbors?

But NO! "I want to bum around on Facebook, I want my minute-by-minute dopamine hit, and I want to distort the issue so no one figures out that my FB addiction is actually my fault in the first place"

This is HN, where it is presumed that people who absolutely have the willpower to exert personal responsibility instead convince themselves that they don't, so that they can play the victim.

If you don't like Facebook, don't use Facebook, try not to run their code, try not to connect to their hosts, and don't send data to their partners. Most importantly, live the life that makes the people around you not want to use Facebook either.

> This is HN, where it is presumed that people who absolutely have the willpower to exert personal responsibility instead convince themselves that they don't, so that they can play the victim.

If there's somewhere humans don't do that, sign me up. Not that I'd probably pass the entrance test but my failure would be enlightening.

What makes you think that everyone has this mythical willpower? Is it the same belief as belief in rational market actors, or that eveyone makes decisions after carefully considering all of the concequences?

Face it, humans (you, me, bigshot CEOs) all act primarily based on simple emotional wants and desires, most of the time. I can guarantee you that there are a great deal of CEOs, maybe even some of whom you look up to, that spend too much time on facebook/linkedin/playing golf etc, know it, and yet do nothing about it.

> Face it, humans (you, me, bigshot CEOs) all act primarily based on simple emotional wants and desires, most of the time.

Some people are mentally disabled and can not regulate a desire to use Facebook, but if you tell all the able people that they're incapable of reasoning themselves out of it, they will become less able.

Facebook works on network effects, if people still healthy enough to quit can do so, Facebook becomes inherently less attractive. If you tell people that they are inevitably ruled by their passions, many will just take the faustian bargain and hope somebody swoops in to save them from themselves.

I don't think this is a good strategy, especially if you're not proposing any actual solution (and no, swift legislation is not a practical way to deal with this situation, given how divisive that is).

Focusing on willpower and self-empowerment is a great strategy when applied to oneself. When applied to others it's often 1) shitty 2) self-congratulatory, 3) lacking in empathy and ignorant of the particulars of another's situation, and 4) useless, because clearly these others seem to not find themselves able to do that thing that you are able to do.

Generally speaking, being shamed or otherwise punished is counter-effective when it comes to changing something, especially when it comes to addictions of various kinds.

There's a huge difference between on the one hand a friend telling you that you can do it, and offering help and strategies, and on the other hand a shitty internet commenter telling you that you're simply not trying hard enough.

Tough love has its time and place, but usually it mostly benefits the giver of it.

> If you don't like Facebook, don't use Facebook, try not to run their code, try not to connect to their hosts, and don't send data to their partners

I do all that. The problem is that all that insufficient.

If the like of Facebook, Google, etc., would actually leave me out of things when I don't use their services, I wouldn't care nearly as much about what they do.

Bumming around on Facebook is how Facebook makes money. It's a form of labor and has monetary value for Facebook. Yes, that's ridiculous, but that's how capitalism works.

Capitalism is ridiculous, yes.

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