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  5. Living for Pleasure: An Epicurean Guide to Life - Emily Austin
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Curious concerning the chapter on living unnoticed if social media is a boon or negative in your personal individual lives?

  • Eoghan Gardiner
  • October 27, 2023 at 9:36 AM
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  • Eoghan Gardiner
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    • October 27, 2023 at 9:36 AM
    • #1

    Do you find that social media (not including forums like this one but the usual fb,insta etc...) bring pleasure or pain to you personally? Emily seems to think it's the latter. 6

    1. Yes, it brings me more pleasure (1) 17%
    2. No, it brings me more pain (4) 67%
    3. Other/the other two answers don't express my views. (1) 17%

    Poll

  • Cassius
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    • October 27, 2023 at 10:57 AM
    • #2

    I answered "yes" because on balance the pleasure it brings outweighs the pain that it brings. There are certainly pains involved, but I find them worth it given that I am convinced engagement (especially with friends) is necessary at least for me in my own circumstances. I talk to people at times in "real life" who would definitely not fit the same profile, and for whom it's a net negative, but it seems to me that the inability to manage one's experience is a strong limiting factor on the likelihood of being secure and happy in the world today.

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    Godfrey
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    • October 27, 2023 at 3:12 PM
    • #3

    Is there a neutral state allowed in this poll? ^^

    I personally don't use much social media, so it's not much of a factor. A little annoying sometimes, sometimes pleasing.

  • Cassius
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    • October 27, 2023 at 3:22 PM
    • #4
    Quote from Godfrey

    Is there a neutral state allowed in this poll?

    If you mean is it allowed to say that you have a perfectly balanced overall sum, in which the net pains vs net pleasures seem to perfectly offset each other? - YES that's allowable, because in that case your overall opinion about a situation is like a pair of scales perfectly balanced between pleasure and pain.

    If you mean is it allowed to say that you have no feeling about some individual aspect of social media that has been brought to your attention but that you feel neither pain nor pleasure about it? NO. :)

    Because if you admit to an awareness of some aspect of it in particular, and that awareness of that aspect is not painful to you, then by saying "that awareness of that aspect is not painful," you are saying it is pleasant.

    What say you to that?

    ;)

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    Godfrey
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    • October 27, 2023 at 4:05 PM
    • #5

    Bingo!

  • Blank_Emu43
    Guest
    • October 27, 2023 at 4:52 PM
    • #6

    I don’t have any social media or many online accounts in general. I keep myself off the internet as much as possible as I honestly don’t like it that much (I would say that the internet is the worst invention humans have made… well maybe religion a bit more). The only Big Tech (Meta/Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Google and Amazon) account I have is an Apple one because I have an iPhone.

    I deleted all social media ages ago. I used Instagram to message friends but once I got more into cybersecurity and realised all of the data they collect and all of the invasive tracking companies do, I started reducing my online accounts and use of the internet (I even leave my phone at home sometimes if I know where exactly the place I’m going to is located). Not that I used social media much in general anyway so nothing really changed. I now just use iMessage or Signal to message people. I like not hearing a lot of gossip or what’s going on in the world.

    So for me, social media would bring me more pain rather than pleasure. I dislike social media in general anyway, even privacy-respecting ones like Mastodon (alternative to Twitter/X) and Pixelfed (alternative to Instagram).

  • Cassius
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    • October 27, 2023 at 5:08 PM
    • #7
    Quote from Blank_Emu43

    I don’t have any social media or many online accounts in general.

    I totally respect that - and makes me remember to say we appreciate your making an exception for this forum!

    I think it's really important to acknowledge how good people are going to differ on this, and that this decision doesn't have a right or wrong answer that fits everyone.

  • Pacatus
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    • October 30, 2023 at 7:58 PM
    • #8

    I said "No" -- though it's a mixed bag. I was never on Twitter or Instagram; I weaned myself from Facebook, deleted my account. In the end there was more stress than pleasure, even though I restricted my account to family and friends. I'm on the internet a lot, though I try to limit my exposure to a few news sites (especially market-related news)-- and don't find a forum like this one to be obtrusive.

    LATE EDIT: I also play some chess online. :)

    "We must try to make the end of the journey better than the beginning, as long as we are journeying; but when we come to the end, we must be happy and content." (Vatican Saying 48)

  • Blank_Emu43
    Guest
    • November 1, 2023 at 2:37 AM
    • #9
    Quote from Pacatus

    and don't find a forum like this one to be obtrusive.

    I think that's the big difference of a forum compared to all other social medias like X, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. They are all obtrusive not only from a privacy perspective, but also because their goal is to keep you on their platform. The constant feed of posts keeps you glued to the app, wasting away time that could be better spent doing more productive — and, for me, pleasurable — things.

  • Jo.
    02 - Level Two
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    • November 3, 2023 at 5:58 AM
    • #10

    I was tempted to vote Yes because some social media I use gives me the chance to be undestood in a way people don't usually do offline, and to exchange opinions about stuff no one I know cares about. But honestly I don't even have to use certain social media for it to bring me pain. The data privacy of many of these things is so abysmal that you can go your life without ever visiting the website but they still have information about you, gathered from your friends who shared e.g. their contacts with Meta.

    I also think it really depends which social media we are talking about. The culture on twitter, for example, is an amazing example of why you should "live unknown".

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