Gregory's ServerOver on #bluesky, somebody pointed me to this very fascinating thread on this topic: https://bsky.app/profile/rahaeli.bsky.social/post/3kp7lfkssxl2q
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6 comments
 @danlyke Yes, indeed. The thing that struck me more, though, is that the thread alludes to a number of entirely different use cases / user needs addressed by **the same** social media application, and it would be so much more useful to think of them as distinct. I wrote down 5 of them on my whiteboard. Need to blog about this. Interestingly, in the fediverse we could actually have different applications for different needs! @danlyke My thesis is that I'd prefer to run a different app in the evening lazing on the couch, for mild entertainment, compared to the daytime app where I, say, want to engage in this conversation that we are having right now. "Another interchangeable app" clearly would be too many.  @J12t I respect the empirical observations, but I think in this conversation it's important that we be tediously explicit about the distinctions between what people want, what people say they want, what they use the most, what makes them happiest in the moment, what leaves them most satisfied afterwards, etc. etc. Word has broadly gotten around that engagement maximizers cause doomscrolling and FOMO, but I still see too much conflation of "time spent on feed" with "this is what people want". @julian Yes, we need to do a public service (with selfish benefit, too) to categorize and articulate those different usage scenarios. In the fediverse, we could actually build different apps for different needs/wants on the same network and social graph. |
@J12t Seems like this question is largely analogous to "would you like salad, or would you like a burger and fries?" We all say we'd like a healthy meal, but not enough of us actually order it to make it a viable option when we're road tripping.