I can see why people might want it to come back, but I don't think bringing it back will bring back the good old days.
Much of that was made the early web less shit was people being more mentally stable by having most of their social interactions happen for real offline, rather than clinging like Harlow's monkey to a simulacrum of togetherness mediated via a screen like we do today.
MySpace was notorious for people with social problems who weren't getting out much. Bedroom musicians were able to share tunes and get buzz that they wouldn't have been able to achieve before, since they couldn't manage the in-real-life socialization needed for self-promotion.
Man yeah... that's some heartbreaking stuff. I was (oddly) relieved to see that these horrible experiments actually did lead to improvements in how humans raised their young.
Physical contact with infants was considered harmful to their development, and this view led to sterile, contact-less nurseries across the country.
A view which these experiments apparently contested, and now is probably widely regarded as abhorrent.
Critics of Harlow's research have observed that clinging is a matter of survival in young rhesus monkeys, but not in humans, and have suggested that his conclusions, when applied to humans, overestimate the importance of contact comfort and underestimate the importance of nursing.
I don’t know how one (especially anyone who has raised a child) could think contact is less important in humans or that this doesn’t generalize.
I don’t know how one (especially anyone who has raised a child) could think contact is less important in humans or that this doesn’t generalize.
Look around this forum, and all of the rampant fealty and worship towards LLMs and the mythical blood sacrifices made to the vaporware AGI god, or asociable people bragging about how Claude is a better friend, co-worker, and (rare but I've seen it) romantic partner than actual human beings.
Plenty of people out there, more than we're willing to admit, are callous, unfeeling, unempathetic, and uncaring. They may not rise to the level of outright sociopathy or psychopathy, but they generally do not regard emotions highly, negative or positive. This archetype is overrepresented in academia and science, so make of that what you will.
Plenty of people out there, more than we're willing to admit, are callous, unfeeling, unempathetic, and uncaring. They may not rise to the level of outright sociopathy or psychopathy, but they generally do not regard emotions highly, negative or positive. This archetype is overrepresented in academia and science, so make of that what you will.
FWIW in tech I think this is often poor emotional awareness and lacking emotional vocabulary than callousness and a lack of emotions in themselves. Kind of state you end up in if you spend too much time with computers and books and not enough learning the nuances of social life as a kid.
Though with Harlow I don't know. Gives me a vibe he could have been a season of Mindhunter if he'd made a few different life choices.
What people want back is the crazy innovation of getting every one of your friends' updates unless you have intentionally muted them, in chronological order. It was also nice to decorate your page. Made it yours.
There is also an age factor. As we get older, people simply are way too busy to update others on their life. Or we recognize that most people simply do not care.
That is something that can never come back, no matter what changes a social network implements
The good old days were when social media wasn't a thing. There was a gap between MySpace and Facebook circa 2007 where neither was popular for my age range, I guess cause only older people used MySpace.
Comments
I can see why people might want it to come back, but I don't think bringing it back will bring back the good old days.
Much of that was made the early web less shit was people being more mentally stable by having most of their social interactions happen for real offline, rather than clinging like Harlow's monkey to a simulacrum of togetherness mediated via a screen like we do today.
MySpace was notorious for people with social problems who weren't getting out much. Bedroom musicians were able to share tunes and get buzz that they wouldn't have been able to achieve before, since they couldn't manage the in-real-life socialization needed for self-promotion.
That whole emo scene seemed to eminate from MySpace.
It was great for budding musicians of all types though
I was curious too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Harlow#Monkey_studies
Content warning: One will be extremely sad and dissapointed at humanity.
Man yeah... that's some heartbreaking stuff. I was (oddly) relieved to see that these horrible experiments actually did lead to improvements in how humans raised their young.
A view which these experiments apparently contested, and now is probably widely regarded as abhorrent.
Poor monkeys though.
I was amazed reading this:
I don’t know how one (especially anyone who has raised a child) could think contact is less important in humans or that this doesn’t generalize.
Look around this forum, and all of the rampant fealty and worship towards LLMs and the mythical blood sacrifices made to the vaporware AGI god, or asociable people bragging about how Claude is a better friend, co-worker, and (rare but I've seen it) romantic partner than actual human beings.
Plenty of people out there, more than we're willing to admit, are callous, unfeeling, unempathetic, and uncaring. They may not rise to the level of outright sociopathy or psychopathy, but they generally do not regard emotions highly, negative or positive. This archetype is overrepresented in academia and science, so make of that what you will.
FWIW in tech I think this is often poor emotional awareness and lacking emotional vocabulary than callousness and a lack of emotions in themselves. Kind of state you end up in if you spend too much time with computers and books and not enough learning the nuances of social life as a kid.
Though with Harlow I don't know. Gives me a vibe he could have been a season of Mindhunter if he'd made a few different life choices.
Damn that analogy hits hard.
What people want back is the crazy innovation of getting every one of your friends' updates unless you have intentionally muted them, in chronological order. It was also nice to decorate your page. Made it yours.
There is also an age factor. As we get older, people simply are way too busy to update others on their life. Or we recognize that most people simply do not care.
That is something that can never come back, no matter what changes a social network implements
The good old days were when social media wasn't a thing. There was a gap between MySpace and Facebook circa 2007 where neither was popular for my age range, I guess cause only older people used MySpace.
Why does it have to be all or none? There’s clearly a demand for this.