Comment by bandoti | Hacker News Reader

Comment by bandoti | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

Honestly, I hate to say it because it’s become an annoying topic—but the problem is social media. Full stop.

People are so distracted, scrolling ad-nauseam, that the only hope and dream they have is: to become an “influencer.”

They’ll sell a view of their children and family life to the highest bidding sponsor. Then, peddling products to a fresh batch of spectators who think, “Ah! Wouldn’t that be the life? I should do that too—then I will be famous and making a hell-of-a lot more money than I am now!”

I mean the amount of scam ads on YouTube alone selling a lifestyle of abundance and riches—living like a rockstar—only perpetuates the wrong values.

People should be PROUD of hard work. And they will be, when they become less distracted and start to see the joys of value creation again.

Note: I just want to clarify that my intent is not to say that social media is inherently evil—there’s lots of value-creation happening there—just that THIS particular issue is because social media has misdirected people’s ambitions.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/what-is-gen-zs-no...

https://www.sostandard.com/blogs/social-media-is-changing-ge...

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/08/study-young-people-want-to-b...

> that the only hope and dream they have is: to become an “influencer.”

I might be too introverted for that sort of thing in the first place, but that sounds like hell, having to pretend in front of a bunch of strangers just to get clicks, all for clout.

Then again, I did delete Facebook too because I didn’t quite get posting bunches of vacation pics either: if there’s a cool picture or a few I can share those in the likes of WhatsApp or Discord with a more narrow and closer knit group instead of the world.

I’m guessing it’s quite different for most folks and I assume that the few of those who also do successfully become influencers are swimming in money, more than I’ll ever make.

> I might be too introverted for that sort of thing in the first place, but that sounds like hell, having to pretend in front of a bunch of strangers just to get clicks, all for clout.

There's an excellent movie called Eighth Grade. The main girl in it, as a pastime, records videos for YouTube or similar in which she delivers nostrums to her audience about confidence and being authentically who you are and that sort of thing. Meanwhile, in her real school life, she's plagued by self-doubt and pressured by peers into being something different, something "better" than who she is.

That movie hit so hard, looking back on my xennial eighth grade experience, and it still injected ancillary commentary on modern social media trends.

Vacation pictures are a great use of Facebook though. If that's all it was (and say, cats) then it would be worth using.

I have an uncle who takes interesting holidays and writes great updates on what he's seen as he travels. This is all A+ what Facebook should've been...but not what it became.

Because that entire experience...would be equally well serviced by a group chat bar some interface issues. And that's what Signal actually provides for super short form stuff now - I mostly lament that it can't quite fill that longer update niche.

Honestly, maybe social media has accelerated the trend, but this has been happening for all of my life now (almost 44 years).

One Nation under God

has turned into

One Nation under the influence

of one drug

Television, the drug of the Nation

Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation

- TV, the drug of the nation

edit: stoopid HN parser

Reply on news.ycombinator.com