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Comment by pbw | Hacker News Reader

> Trained or not, there is nothing good about scrolling through stuff for every moment when you're bored.

OP here. TikTok doesn't mandate you use it every moment you are bored, that's a choice made by the user. However I agree it is very potent entertainment technology, and I have read about people using it 8 hours a day, and hating what it's doing to them. I have not read the book, but it brings to mind Infinite Jest, a film "so entertaining that its viewers lose all interest in anything other than repeatedly viewing it, and thus eventually die." The premise of my post is it can be used for good instead of evil, but it does require discipline.

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Dissenter in the thread here; rather than read Infinite Jest (which I've also not read, purely out of disinterest in doing so), I would kindly suggest that you read Marshall McLuhan's Understanding Media, the premise of which is that the premise of your post is flawed.

And I really mean it; if you're the sort that has an interest in figuring out how things work, which is clearly the case here - you will find it effortless and fascinating reading.

What I'm mainly saying, I think, is that it's possible to find good content on TikTok, but it takes discipline and effort. You are saying McLuhan would disagree and say it is not possible to find good content on TikTok? I'm lost there.

I'd like to read the book, though. I've never paid much attention to media studies but now with AIs powering things it's becoming more interesting to me. And I know people have been talking about it since the 1960s.

To tell you the truth, I almost don't want to spoil it for you. Your particular interest, at the intersection of media and AI, makes me believe that you would find the book worthwhile.

The structure and exposition of his arguments is what makes the text particularly engrossing, and I am loath to try to summarize what is best experienced within its intended context.

But I'll give you some copied paste from Wikipedia to get you started:

> McLuhan's insight was that a medium affects the society in which it plays a role not by the content delivered over the medium, but by the characteristics of the medium itself.

The problem with most social media that is “clingy” (non scientific term :) , the ones that manipulate so you keep viewing is that it adds to what is called “fragmentation” (scientific term) where you consciousness is being scattered, instead of flowing. Your brain is constantly being interrupted in the process it was doing. This is especially true when you constantly need to check your phone.

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