arianna higgins

Jane Mulberry wrote:I've had similar issues.  I used to use "Failbook" a lot for my book marketing  and ran a joint reader group there because that's where a lot of my readers are.  But there were so many problems! Lots of dreck I don't want to see in my newsfeed. Irrational decisions on suspicious behaviour made by bots that don't seem possible to contest or reverse, even posts being censored.  I don't want to be supporting all that's wrong with what they're doing there. I passed the big reader group on to my author friend, don't advertise, and go on once a week for a very short time to reply to comments on my page.

A big thank you to all the hard work the moderators here give us to make Permies a safe and reasonable place to visit!

Another huge issue I've noticed where life diverges negatively with social media is that ounce for ounce, the negative interactions are just soooo much higher than in real life. From the absurd usability to ads covering 30-40% of your display to the relentless censorship of a typed opinion to the authoritarian narrowness and stupidity of people you dont know..: in real life there is what? A library overcharge on a stained book? Bad memories from childhood? Nothing present, nothing physical specifically judging *me* like with social media sites....people honking at me or drivers who cant drive around cyclists, maybe? I have a wonderful husband, cat, lovely city, white sand beaches, friends who I do things with, amazing food (when i can afford it) moving from one place to another people are just welcoming and happy. But I open my laptop and god forbid I click on search result to facebook or instagram..mine was hacked btw..and it's just Pain!Pain!Pain! Lol. Notifications, fear, weird posts. I cant shut out the visuals either like I said, maybe just me. Well at least culinary social media has been nice to me thus far...

But yeah I know I can't be the only one to feel assailed by constant negative feedback on social media but treated well in real life?

C Murphy wrote:There is so much evidence that apps like FB and IG increase mental health issues, especially in young people. These apps know this (their own research shows it) and do nothing. I really try and limit my time on them as I know they are trying to show me the maximum amount of ads possible. Old school forums like permies where it's actually just about connecting and sharing are where it's at!

Edited to add: anyone interested in that research, should check out the Behind The Bastards podcast episode 'Let's Look at the Facebook Papers'.

The layout of this forum is great, tbh there are loads of forums out there on all subjects that are less headache inducing/crack-like than social media. I dont get why anyone wants to give their personal information to strangers, make things public etc, for free.

The reason they cause issues in young people is that everything moves too fast to process emotionally and doesnt promote the right types of hormones in the brain. We release oxytocin when we physically are among groups of people. We release a lot of bad stuff including cortisol, vasoconstriction etc when we chase dopamine via posting/attention seek/cloutchasing, trolling, chats, texts, random pics, social comparisons etc. These are pixels
..JUST PIXELS ON A FLAT SCREEN It's obv to me as a gen Xer minus the medical explanations. I got depressed once in my life- as a teen- that was from reading one teen fashion magazine. Once. ONCE. Losing a child didnt do it. Boredom and feeling poor did. There's the answer.

Social media is unrewarding, like an addiction but at least  other addictions give you a high. This stuff just leaves my eyes tired and angry because after an hour, i'm down like six subject holes and I am left with 100 tabs up of information i now need to read/watch/organize/collate/delete/note/remember where i put something

Not fun. How do yall process all the data? When there is no reward?

I try to just use it as therapy like journalling but that stopped working for me after blogspot.

Apparently social media and internetting is bad for neurodivergents since we have sensory processing issues

Sorry if too random

I dont understand how Facebook "sells your data" though. Ive only ever entered a fake name and non identifying email. Oh and eventually a phone number. What value is that to anyone else?

Heather Staas wrote:
I keep my social media super tight.   I'm only on one page,  I block ads, and I don't "friend" people who aren't friends.  It's a small group of people I actually know and have relationships with, and a convenient and efficient way to share events, announcements, updates, photos,  ask questions, check in with people.   Especially people I don't get to see regularly.   I use it on a computer, not a mobile phone, so I'm unplugged 75% of my time.    

right but then basically youre not doing social media, youre simply using texting platforms to communicate with friends and people you already know, some of the time. what youre doing makes sense. i don't get anything except frustration when i can't see, smell and hear someone i'm talking to. it's a very isolating, asocial, experience when i talk to people online. it feels "wrong", bewildering, pointless, backwards and quite angering.

i can still send photos on my phone and email them to friends/fam so i dont get letting strangers see them. it's a very bad idea. events announcements all of that can be text/email communicated or irl. i don't see the ease of use unless i had a huge amount of people i know/am friendly with AND am very "active" (here, come join my cycling troupe! look at my baby photos! I'm volunteering at the local shelter, please donate! I'm running a marathon!) I can't handle that much social activity and connections it's too exhausting , and someone else should be doing it FOR me lol. (Why is it SUDDENTLY *everyone*s responsibility to advertise EVERYTHING to as many people as possible?!??!?!?!?! No! I say no.)Im just saying people should be what the entire lineage has done for nine million years, which is act communally in small tribal groups. We have no town hall or community meeting space or rituals, and the suicide rates and depression rates are skyrocketing, shocker right? And apparently the sex and birth rates are plummeting too. Like DUH.

What I don't get is why people even like social media? Like, what do you get out of typiing words to strangers when there's no benefit, no payment, no payoff like there is with people irl?

yes i get this is social media-technically- but i gave this 30 seconds of my time from an email I was clearing out. I receive no social benefit from this comment, only a rational, intellectual one. I like to clear out my brain worms/organize my thoughts&questions and eventually will check back in.

so how can social media ruining society be the problem for society or dating, when it's the very choice that people are making to use that social media to begin with THAT IS THE ORIGINAL PROBLEM?

as usual, neurotypicals running past themselves to move forward all while running backwards.

Michael Cox wrote:OK, I get that it is interesting that we might be able to reproduce "roman concrete". I'm just not sure why that is significant. It just seems like a slightly "better" form of modern concrete (and I'm not clear why it is better).  It is relatively easy to design smaller projects (eg homes) without large amounts of conventional concrete anyway, and that will still be an environmentally better option than less-bad alternative form of concrete.

But where concrete gets used on massive scales, this is a non-starter. Architects won't be designing large projects around it's use because it is insufficiently consistent in it's behaviour to be guaranteed safe and predictable in it's behaviour.

At best I think this will be a niche concept for individual enthusiasts.

Ever hear of the Parthenon? Roman concrete held for MILLENNIA. Our concrete only holds for maybe a century at most.

https://news.mit.edu/2023/roman-concrete-durability-lime-casts-0106

They think it's something about the calcium in seawater having self healing properties, havent done ll my reading yet.

Phil Stevens wrote:@Thekla - both processes are energy intensive but cement production requires higher temperatures and uses considerably more.

i wonder if we could use the Roman technique for 3D printing a home?

Thomas Crow wrote:Cheers for sharing!  I've always assumed that Roman Concrete was our first (so far) confirmed example of geopolymers, and this seems to confirm that.  

We live on volcanic soils, so super stoked to try this out sooner rather than later.

yeah this development is great ... theyve pinned it down i guess, cant believe they didnt have this earlier...it was mostly meditrranean locations so good for saltwater coast living...bet Surfside wouldnt have happenedif they used ancient roman concrete...