#mindless scrolling

I can't keep myself off of my phone I just keep scrolling scrolling scrolling scrolling scrolling scrolling mindless scrolling mindless scrolling scrolling scrolling scrolling scrolling scrolling scrolling scrolling scrolling scrolling scrolling scrolling scrolling scrolling scrolling scrolling scrolling scrolling scrolling scrolling scrolling

Just trying to distract just trying to survive the day

Ever feel like you’re stuck in a mindless scroll and can’t get out?

Ah, the gap between intent and action, the “now self” vs. the “later self,” or morning guy vs. night guy:

We all know our tendency to opt for immediate rewards even when (especially when?!) it doesn’t align with long-term goals. We put off exercise. Date people we shouldn’t. Watch shows instead of work. 

As a researcher interested in all things human behavior, this got me thinking. The internet (more specifically, Tumblr) is the perfect place for us to more deeply understand why we behave in ways that don’t make us happy. Tumblr sees a future where social platforms aren’t designed to exploit our tendency to seek immediate rewards. So I approached them with a question:

What if we could ‘nudge’ our decisions to reflect a version of ourselves that brings us happiness in both the short and long-term?

Enter Benevolent Hellsite.

Welcome to an exploration and investigation of happiness and human behavior online. This blog is a staff-affiliated, independent research project designed to start a conversation.

The end goal? 

Create real features on Tumblr meant to increase short and long-term happiness, informed by YOU—Tumblr users—and the science of human behavior.

What to expect from this blog:

1. Open discussions about how our behavior online leads to (or takes away from) our happiness

2. Prototypes of new features and quizzes based on your responses

‘Happiness’ looks different for everyone, so...

They make money off your attention so whatever gets you to leave the app is something they're not going to want to do .

PSA from a person pissed about tiktok ads

BIG news on the YouTube front—Welcome to the Internet just hit 99 MILLION views today! 🥳

In other news, I was reading about the Ennui Engine, and this author must have seen Inside or just agrees with Bo about the IV drip of mediocre content that is slowly ruining our lives.

We scroll through Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Reddit, vaguely hoping to find something with which to amuse or inform ourselves before getting up in the morning or going to bed at night. We favor videos that either are very short or don’t require dedicated focus, confident in the knowledge that we can move on to something else whenever we want to. We ignore thoughtfully composed “walls of text,” but we electronically applaud memetic image macros and single-sentence references that aren’t inherently entertaining or insightful (yet are somehow still poorly written). When we amplify these things – using our likes, upvotes, retweets, and shares – we encourage the creation of more low-effort content, and in so doing, we send the message that higher-quality offerings are unwelcome and unwanted.

Even when “difficult” pieces of content do get seen, they still share the stage with everything else, marking them as being no better than equal to things that require minimal care and effort to create and consume.

Therein lies the real problem, however: We don’t enjoy the low-effort content… at least not as much as we’ve tricked ourselves into thinking that we do.

Really thought-provoking and well-written article, and it makes me rethink my entire relationship with the Internet—what exactly DO I get out of scrolling for hours on end? Sigh

All we can do is view everything online critically and with a grain of salt. As the author optimistically concludes, we CAN make things better:

The Ennui Engine keeps roaring, and we’re left with tiny, stale pellets that we tell ourselves are satisfying. Beneath the lie, though, we only feel depressed, disconnected, and frustrated.

There is a solution to all of this; a way that we can reclaim our lives, help both people and online entertainment improve, and escape the endless churn of the Ennui Engine. It doesn’t begin with turning to legislators or forum-administrators, though, and it doesn’t involve a retreat from the Web, but it does require that we stop encouraging the ritual. As unpleasant as it may be to admit, we are each individually to blame for this slump-inducing cycle’s persistence, and we are each responsible for halting it.

Whenever we feel ourselves getting listless, we should step away, then challenge ourselves to find (or create) something new, original, and requiring of a bit more effort than we might initially want to expend. We need to remember that five minutes invested in reading an article – even a mediocre one – will almost always offer a better payout of emotional energy than five minutes of gambling on a slot machine with only one reel.

The Internet was created with the intention of connecting exceptional people and sharing noteworthy content, and it can still fulfill that purpose today. As such, the takeaway here is not that we should distance ourselves from social media, turn off our screens, or reject the trappings of the modern era. Instead, we should remain self-aware and discerning as we traverse the Web, encouraging, applauding, and insisting on effort and earnestness from anyone who intends to contribute (no matter how small or substantial their contributions might be). The Ennui Engine will continue running, of course, but we can each make the personal choice to keep from sacrificing ourselves to it… and we can warn others against getting ground up in its gears.

I was also reading about how Google offered its suite of software for free—including YouTube videos as educational resources—to schools, planning on getting young children addicted to the algorithm (only benefitting the bug-eyed salamanders, indeed).

I just try to keep my kids informed and discerning about what content they are consuming (no easy task, but I think I made a breakthrough when my 11yo daughter got my point about how no massively popular Roblox YTers exist who are female AND American without an insane, ultra-feminine schtick...why is that?)