Ask HN: Which popular websites have mental disorders? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Which popular websites have mental disorders?

2 pointsrobocat4 comments

I can think of specific popular sites that could be thought of as being “unhealthily” sociopathic, paranoiac, obsessive, or anxious.

An example: HN often feel to me that it is Autistic Spectrum. I am curious whether my impression is due to me, or due to it’s users, or if it is some emergent effect of the site.

Obviously human disorders don’t apply to sites, but the metaphor feels productive, and I am really interested in your thoughts.

A high risk topic, so I ask that you try to be nice, to please avoid talking about individuals and politics, and please avoid making stereotype errors about groups of people. Also please be thoughtful if talking about user demographics. I am most not interested in unpleasant trollfulness (maybe just flag if conversation veers into the void). https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

I'm not sure the metaphor feels productive, especially given that there are entire suites and collections of other, non-pathological terms covering the same effects that are likely more appropriate for a number of reasons.

The behavior of someone you know with a given pathology may overlap with behavior or preferred perspectives you have witnessed here, but that's far from valid as a diagnosis and still manages to sound like a slight. I understand it's not your intention but to me this signals more homework to be done on your perceptions and their possible labels, for good reason.

Edit: I am mostly talking about websites with communities. I guess my question has a parallel to organisational pathologies, or disfunction. I like to see myself as a science-type, looking for cause and effect. Do website communities filter for pathology or produce pathology? Maybe I am just trying to fit a square metaphor into a spherical file.

Riffing on that, consider the generational trauma created by the wars and violence over the past few centuries, and how it must affect our society and culture.

Yeah, I can see that some dramatic websites could or do cause trauma.

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