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To be clear: I completely agree with your premise. We can't blame all of our society's woes on social networks, but they are illustrative of the general trends.
What trends? A lot of it boils down to "everyone is in a rush". Work has become more competitive, and so people are forced to work longer hours. Cities have been suburbanized, so people are forced to commute longer. There are more expectations on individuals (ie. being informed, parenting, wealth generation), so people are forced to "have it all" or be judged. The baseline stress people experience today is higher than previous generations.
The result is a burnt out population (burnout rates are skyrocketing, it's estimated 66% of people are burnt out right now). A plethora of consumer products have emerged to help people cope with this through instant dopamine hits - instant entertainment (media), instant food (delivery), instant sex (dating apps). It's profitable to feed these burnt out people short-term pleasure (that's what sells), but it's not good for our society's long-term health.
So what SHOULD we do? I don't have a good answer. What CAN we do? My current feeling is that meeting up in person more often is a good start (which is the intent behind https://blackflagcollective.org/). We can't heal the world by this act alone, BUT this act is a necessary step towards that. We need to reclaim our in-person networks that cannot be manipulated by an algorithm. We need to reclaim our third places that cannot be taken from us. We need to create long-term connections which help us stay grounded and calm when our entire media landscape is urging us to be reactive and stressed.
Side note: when people say, "Farcaster could be different", I used to say "It's still social media." @adrienne used to say, "Farcaster isn't social media, it's a social network." I think that only works so long as we have alternative clients which tap into the social graph and NOT the associated content. 2 replies
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