What would you suggest if you were helping design a healthier social network?
For example, would removing infinite scrolling help make it less addictive? Would you keep the upvote/downvote system, remove it, or classify posts differently to foster better discussions? How about adding a countdown timer to log the user out after a certain number of hours of use?
If psychological research can be used to keep users engaged on a social network for as long as possible, I believe it can also be applied to help prevent excessive use, improve the quality of discussions, and create a more empathetic environment. That’s why I’d love to hear suggestions from those in the field.
So let me preface this by saying I understand all of the privacy and other reasons why the below would be a very bad idea, but I think it might help:
Make everyone use their real names. I already pretend that everyone knows who I am online and sees all my comments, I strive to treat all of my online interactions as if I was talking to someone in real life. If it’s something rude or something I don’t have the guts to say to a person’s face, or something I don’t want shared to everyone I know, then I don’t post it.
Edit to add after theotherben’s comment below: I definitely understand how this could be dangerous to many people and I don’t think it’s feasible. My main idea is just try to ask yourself whether you would say what you want to post or comment, to someone in person. But you guys are right, too many people ARE jerks in real life so that wouldn’t change. Idk, I mask a ton in real life and don’t use social media outside of Lemmy so I’m probably the wrong person to even think about this.
This guy is likely from Finland considering his instance or maybe not. They're nice people but they are so well more civilized on that sphere of the planet than the rest of the world, he's in a social bubble that the entire world behaves the same most likely.
Yeah, because that won't make people overly anxious and some fake a lot of their interactions or be too obsessed, the best part is: the examples of this are the biggest social medias such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn.
Also, have you thought of those who are in danger because they have an ex or a random internet user stalking them all over? Congratulations, that'd not help those people.
Anonymity can be good and bad but the good can overweigh the bad if you care that much to at least moderate the bad.
If it’s something rude or something I don’t have the guts to say to a person’s face, or something I don’t want shared to everyone I know, then I don’t post it.
This is a psychology community, talking is healthy, you're thinking everyone must suffer of exposing themselves because the platform can't be properly moderated? Then it shouldn't even be public.
Did you seriously not see that I acknowledged the privacy and safety concerns? I’m just saying, I try to use social media (which is literally just Lemmy and used to be Reddit) as if I was talking to someone face to face.
Did you seriously not see that I acknowledged the privacy and safety concerns?
You didn't before but now you edited 2h after my reply which is public for anyone to check, a bit immature to pretend you just didn't do that now but fine.
lol yes I edited to clarify, but my original comment said:
“So let me preface this by saying I understand all of the privacy and other reasons why the below would be a very bad idea”
Did you see that at the beginning of my original comment? I should have phrased it stronger but I DID acknowledge it before I edited the end to emphasize.