User or used

The horror of escaping to be a product is a constant task.

It helps to be a technological savant with the user interface. If user experience, how it can be used against us.

Even the status role of no status role envy, one can scroll down, see the numbers, then feel badly. That can be turned into a psychological contest. Agnosticism does not sell to the social media investors. Affiliation ain't in their cards if they're reading Milton Friedman with giga brain takes on maximizing industry.

Agnosticism is turned to a contest, of who's more agnostic or less, ranked and graded. Its important to see it. If it wasn't the case, we'd be invisible hermits in caves, not buying those status signifiers that are nicer than we need. To beat and win a made up numbers game.

Agnostic community builders are turned into humblebraggers to drive jealousy and envy. Even if that is not the intent. (Which is hard to read.)

A game of status promotion or affliation.

From the colour of the icons, to the artificial intelligence which does not curate community, it creates a maelstrom of addiction with no social responsibility. Playing into the hands of social media grooming even as we try to get out of it. To subsume all critique into of itself.

From the writing of disco Elysium, I'll quote a game once.

All to make a single number go up.

Milton Friedman did a frightening post on the true intent of these companies, along with being a pencil necked nerd.

We are all back in the circle game.

That, in conspiracy of predatory user experience designers, is what it's made it for. To get used hooked, become “whales” and have the attention of action advertisers. Like a mindless gacha design selling jpegs and jewels to children. Over and over. That's the system of industry the audience wants and entertainment provides.

One can't escape the status roles, even the status of no status, otherwise selling "boosts" or subscriptions of increased discovery. It matters, from tumblr to linkedin.

The saying of building community can't be fully trusted. Even tutorials of how to use media can't, status roles matter.

It's good industrial business, to make a good living. Faceless as it was.

That is what happens, when they race to the bottom, it's important to see it, with every decision they make. This is what we've signed up for, when we pursue to be a self-publishing success on the net.

The app blocker I used uses fomo and calls to action. Softening one up with predatory user experience design. Tempting uninstallation.

All to make a yearning for jomo, joy of missing out. Yet there is no other choice but to self-publish, to the smallest viable audience.

It's best to plow through, along with merely being happy with others with the high numbers of status. Not to assume cheating otherwise, (another subject entirely). Then move on. Lindsay Ellis's advice on dealing with Jealousy applies here.