Who I maintain relations with and who I don't is not other people's business similarly who I follow and who I don't follow should not be visible to anyone except me but that is not the case.
I can go on and on about similar things but the bottom line is everything on Instagram is designed in a way such that it generates more activity on platform and ultimately more revenue. This is true for almost all the social networks though. A social network that respects norms of our society and does not attempt at maximizing revenue at users expense will probably fill the void left by the existing ones.
The number one rule I learned for interfaces is “Don’t interrupt the proceedings” , which means which means the tools should be optimized for the task and don’t burden the user with unwarranted windows, buttons, lights or beeps. Optimize for flow. Recognize the posture of the application.
This has more to do with “free” services than hosting your data elsewhere.
oh come on. the examples were good so far...
why would i need an app to monitor my sleep if i don't have any sleep disorder or similar? i am putting such app in the "need for attention" category.
It compiles RSS feeds and YouTube, Twitter, etc into a dashboard-like view rather than a crowded timeline. No notifications, no algorithm. Just a tool for a human. Easy to “move into the periphery”. Very calm, even when I’m following 100s of people.
I order a pizza, I have no choice but to provide details since they need them for delivery. Guess what happens next? Yeah, e-mail and SMS spam.
I pay hundreds of bucks for a complete Tado system (thermostat, radiator valves, etc). Guess what I get? E-mail spam about discounts for their "new" app which actually has less features than the current one.
I buy a PS4 and try to set it up. Even for a few hundred bucks for a new console, there is still bullshit telemetry and other crap I need to opt-out of, not to mention some half-assed attempt at a social network where I have to spend 15 minutes setting everything to "No one can see this" so I can regain some privacy because I have no desire to use the social features.
Heck, even some US government agencies (DMV I think) sell your data to scum and you can't even opt out.
I can go on and on. We need some actual ethics, and regulation as a fail-safe for cases where the former doesn't work.
Ironically, in your own dismissive response you give a good reason for the app's existence.
What reason do you have for thinking the public at large is worried about the norms of society being maintained?
The explanatory video alone is a gem, the fact that this extension is open source is a juicy bonus, the coziness factor is sky-high.
From a person that doesn't install any extension ever: great concept, amazing execution, installed right meow.
PS: How much money would you need to program a CLI version of this that I could host, and run forever and ever, on a tiny VPS?
Or become an EU resident and use their brilliant data-handling privacy laws
I see Calm's purpose seems to extend far beyond smartphone apps and consumer technology, but I was hoping more people would create "anti-apps" when I created mine, and it it seems like Calm is doing a better job than me of pushing for such things.
https://100millionbooks.org/blog/news/android-app-err-anti-a...
Can you imagine doing all these things every time your privacy is violated (every non-compliant cookie banner, tracker, newsletter, etc)? That would be a full-time job. It's almost like "justice" in the US, in theory you can win, in practice you have no chance unless you have billions to pay lawyers to fight decade-long legal battles on your behalf.
Maybe 10 years, maybe 100, but the sooner the better: a world filled with pinging "push notifications" and advertisements is not one I would want to gift to future generations.
Funny that some startups by middle class people thought "hustle," meant energetic teamwork like on a kids sports team, whereas if you had any street smarts at all, hustle means getting leverage over someone by pre-empting their ability to reason accurately, often by bullying, nagging, feigning offence, and exploiting their agreeableness by making them think they "owe," you.
Preying on human goodness like reciprocity, empathy, fairness, and agreeableness is basically what a hustler and hustle tech does.
As a corollary, I would add that there is an inequality problem here: those with means will more easily be able to afford "calm technology" that isn't ad supported. Those without will have to suffer through the ads. I don't have the answer to this problem -- just noting that we cannot seriously endorse the idea of calm tech unless it is ubiquitously calm, and that requires a different business model.
We have regulation that somewhat works (there are exceptions of course and corruption is a thing, but at least there's an attempt) for other negative impacts on society (environmental damage, etc) but absolutely nothing for tech despite these new apps & services turning people into addicted zombies.
[citation needed]: we're well into the "public has had enough of experts" era.
Vote with your wallet.
I am on the fence about notifications though. They can be very useful for the user. I am planning to add notifications, but probably all off by default, and the user decides very granularly what they want on. Does it seem the right approach? I would appreciate any opinion
Well, then move to another EU country :D I've had ours issue a couple of fines based on complaints I filed, even pre-GDPR.
True, I don't file for every non-compliant cookie banner or tracker, but if they start spamming me despite not having authorized that use of the data, I do. But it's been quite rare in the past couple of years.
Roombas, which the article mentions don't use voice, actually did start using voice in the last couple of generations. And it's great. It tells you that it's stuck rather than just beeping sadly at you.
I'm not necessarily saying the car dashboard should speak warnings, as it may startle people on the highway, but I also think there's a lot to improve on.
... Something relevant to street culture rather than middle-class culture?
We are so eager to try and find a neat place for all our interactions. It never works like that. Pretty much everything ends up being relative.
Anywho, as far as definitions go "energetic teamwork" to me does not really qualify, because hustling in any commonly used sense is not at all required to be a team effort.
The point of hustle in the “kids sports team” context is that a team that “hustles” can beat an equally skilled team that doesn’t. In my experience this is also true of other kinds of teams and even in contests among individuals.
You're right that it would require a new business model, but I don't think there's a business model that allows "Free" and "Paid" users in a way that doesn't inevitably create an equality problem. If Free is just as good as Paid, no one would pay. If people wouldn't pay and it needs to be free, you'll need to monetize it and that's likely advertising.
Open source, community driven apps might be a good solution. But open source tends to be driven by tech people solving a tech need. Just having open code also doesn't solve a lot of issues, like an open source video platform still needs to pay for the data.
I literally do these things everytime my privacy, just like I'd do with any other right, is violated. And no it's not a full-time job, that's precisely why I delegate.
Not using real data, unless the interactions are legally binding, helps a lot. Give it a spin maybe?
"Hustle" was one of my favorite words growing up, because it described something I admired and wanted to embody myself, but I have retired it from my active vocabulary outside of sports contexts, because if it's misunderstood, it's going to be misunderstood as something that I loathe.
I want products and services that i can ignore - product owners should track their success by how infrequently i interact with their product, not how frequently i interact with it. And even on a monthly payment basis, if i don't interact with a product for a whole month then maybe they start worrying that i'm going to stop paying them.
> that's precisely why I delegate.
You mean you pay someone else to deal with the bullshit? It's a good strategy and I've considered it but it shouldn't be up to us to pay (with time and/or money) to investigate these issues, especially considering the regulation doesn't give you any way to recover those expenses even if the offender is indeed in breach of those regulations. There's also the problem of the people who would be the most affected by the privacy breaches are the ones that are less likely to have the disposable income necessary to pay someone else to deal with this on their behalf.
> Not using real data
Two problems with this:
1) It's hard to defend against data being collected in the background, and privacy plugins can be a double-edged sword by making you stand out more (the lack of data is data by itself). IP tracking is very hard to defend unless you have access to a huge pool of IPs and configure your computer to pick random ones for each host it's connecting to.
2) In some cases it's impossible - ordering goods, food or transport online. Some require identifiers like phone numbers you can't easily get in volume.
I'll give a lot of thought into the UX of this still, specially around the trade-off customization vs simplicity.
Digests are good for simplicity, and I like it. A simple opt-in setting and you are all set.
I don't think this is quite right. Instagram mirrors society and amplifies it.
In fact if anything, Instagram levels the playing field. Now anyone can go on IG and gain an audience. Whereas in the past, you'd have to go through a series of gatekeepers for your work as a photographer to see light of day and get in front of an audience. And that process was much more flawed, and didn't guarantee competence either.
Don't get me wrong, Instagram has many problems - but not in the way you're suggesting.
> Who I maintain relations with and who I don't is not other people's business similarly who I follow and who I don't follow should not be visible to anyone except me but that is not the case.
Then make your profile restricted? You don't have to have a public presence on Instagram. Lots of people lock their account down.
> This is true for almost all the social networks though. A social network that respects norms of our society
What even are these "norms of our society" that you keep referring to? There are no norms - there are really only moments in time. Whatever bubble you're living in, is simple one possible version of reality even in your own country. Again, you may not like it - but Instagram is a mirror of society in many ways. Norms are changing all the time. There is no guarantee that the "norms" you grew up with as a child will endure through your adulthood and so there shouldn't be an expectation of it either.
I'm sure similar arguments you're making were also made for Radio and TV when they were the primary carriers of culture and media.
A sign-up wizard that splits up users' PII entry so they are invested in the process by the time it asks them for the valuable stuff is a good UX tech example.
Spam messages that pretend to be bills or from an authority are well into dishonest territory. The key difference seems to be in the honesty of the problematization. It's a continuum.
The best hustles play on the target's conceits, the worst on their virtues. 3-card monte plays on greed and a sense of superiority.
Business ones are basically blackmail like, "everyone thinks you're a smart problem solver who is easy to work with, if you want that to continue to be true, you will solve this problem for me, I'll let you know when you're finished." Less tech oriented, but the leverage pattern is similar.
This makes my notification badges scream for my attention much less. The whole phone feels calmer and less distracting. I have actually been doing this for over a year, and it’s been life-changing.
Another benefit is that due to the increased contrast of black and white, I can run my brightness way lower; this is excellent for battery life. Screenshots still show up in color.
I have an Accessibility Shortcut mapped to my side button to turn this on and off. If I want to look at a photo or something, I toggle it by triple-clicking my side button. It’s seamless and it stays out of my way.
For anyone who wants to try this: Go to Settings -> Accessibility -> Display & Text Size -> Color Filters. Flip the switch to enable and select “Grayscale”.
Then, go back up to Settings -> Accessibility -> Accessibility Shortcut and select “Color Filters”.
Will follow up if I figure it out!
Unfortunately, it was killed by our Customer Care team, who were, paradoxically, more concerned about giving the driver/customer negative information that might lead to complaints, buybacks, etc. Needless to say, there are many stories like this, and it shows that even though UX/UI design is the most apparent aspect of a product, it is only as good as the decisions made underneath it.
The challenge — and I believe this is one of the fundamental challenges of the Information Age — is that the business model of most companies making tech today is that user attention funds the development of the technology.
Every ad-driven business rests on this trade: We give you software X and in return you give Y% fraction of your attention. We sell that attention to company Z which pays us in cash.
Tech from these companies cannot reduce the amount of attention the software consumes without directly affecting their bottom line and their ability to deliver tech to users in the first place.
Just trying to sort out how to make it work, make it look.
It's not just about (B). There is a tricky balancing act involved. A company that does too much (B) ends up with an app that users don't like and stop using. A company that does too much (A) produces a beloved app right up until the point that the company runs out of money and folds.
Can you give me examples of this? Because I don't see it amplifying anything but its own revenue. I do see it amplifying negative traits of humans though.
> Instagram levels the playing field. Now anyone can go on IG and gain an audience.
That's what social media is for. In fact, its a basic requirement.
> Then make your profile restricted?
I have a private account. What about the 200 followers that I have? They can still see what I follow and not long ago they could also see what I like.
Why do you even need to show people how many people I am following or how many followers do I have or how many likes I have on my photos. We don't go through life telling everyone how many friends do I have, do we?
Some people do want to show it but at least give us the control of these things?
> There are no norms - there are really only moments in time.
Lost you here.
This is great! I'd definitely subscribe to a Patreon or something to support this project.
This article doesn't mention some of the old standard examples:
Live Wire was a sculpture at Xerox Parc that twitched every time some number of network packets went through the office's router - you could get an intuitive feel for how much load was on the system.
There's an X Windows applet called "LavaPS" which shows all your unix processes as colored blobs in a lavalamp, sized by memory footprint, floating to the top by age. It gives you a quick impression of what your computer is doing - is one webserver process eating your whole core? Or are you getting forkbombed by thousands of little ones? Those look really different.
The definitive works on Calm Computing are a paper written by Mark Weiser (RIP) in 1996, "Designing Calm Technology" (which has unfortunately fallen off the internet) and an O'Reilly book called "Calm Technology" by Amber Case (the Cyborg Anthropologist)
Ideally we'd go calmer than a "status light" or "status tone" - those are still pretty active! What can you convey with the color of a Phillips Hue bulb that changes slowly?
"You will only see public entries from people that have both being included in your list and included you in their list. No stranges following you (or even knowing you have an account)."
"There will be no way to like entries, only conversations. Also, there will be no way to share content outside of the list of who posted. So no way to go viral and no instant rewards."
"All the design decisions above already point to a social network with less activity. Adding to that, you won't see any advertising on the site, so there is no incentive to keep you aimless wandering around here. Stay as long as you need to connect with your family, your close friends, and yourself. Then leave."
The past 15 years of social media has been a terrible experiment in attention-driven business models.
I’d like to think I’m helping buck this trend with my current project - a subscription based social network called Thread - https://get.thread-app.com
"Technology should make use of the periphery... A calm technology will move easily from the periphery of our attention, to the center, and back."
And this ->
"Machines shouldn't act like humans. Humans shouldn't act like machines. Amplify the best part of each."
On all platforms, its home view is that of things you've consciously chosen to curate to see. The home view has both overt and subtle indicators to tell you to leave the app: all the stories to view no longer have the red outline, the post you scroll past says "You're all done".
The notion that society rewards high competence people who do not promote is also prima facie nonsense. That is not at all the case, not economically, not socially, nothing. If you want to be seen, you have to promote.
Because, let's be honest, your photo is 10x as valuable to your friends because you took it. If I'm looking at the universe of photos, the probability that you took one in the top 20 I want to see today might as well be a measure-zero set and the utility I gain from that photo is such that I need a discovery engine to bring it to me to be worth it. I won't look for it. The cost-benefit is negative as soon as I type in a single search term.
But that shaky handheld phonecam video of my friend fucking around with glow poi and hitting my other friend in the face? That is cost-benefit positive at up to 1 hour of search. And that makes sense, because it's a true social network, it's about the digital equivalent of your social circle.
Instagram is a magical social network. It is the circle of friends meeting for a Sunday afternoon hangout, your rave crowd, your dorm room buddies. It is happiness incarnate.
Because they have to compete with people doing lots of (B), and giving the app away for free. I'm increasingly feeling that "free + ads/surveillance" is the problem.
I've been looking for something like this on mobile and would sign up in an instant if it was something I could use everyday.
Good luck with the project!
[0]: for anyone interested in looking its at https://www.kickscondor.com/
[1]: I am not in any way shape or form affiliated with the author, just very impressed!
I must say it will take some time to create mobile apps for it. I want to create the right product on the web, and then make mobile apps
Love the vibe of that intro video.
Tangential question about the video: what's the name of thar movie with Nicolas Cage at 4:17?
Thanks!
> The unusual name of the wine region dates back to a 12th-century tale of a German bishop traveling to the Vatican for a meeting with the pope. The bishop sent a prelate ahead of him to survey the villages along the route for the best wines. The 'wine scout' had instructions to write 'Est' (Latin for 'There is') on the door or on the wall of the inns he visited when he was particularly impressed with the quality of the wine they served so the bishop following on his trail would have known in advance where to make a stop. At a Montefiascone inn, the prelate was reportedly so overwhelmed with the local wine that he wrote Est! Est!! Est!!! on the door.
Damn that was amazing though, definitely will try out.
Outstanding execution there.
Yeah there's the meaning in sports which was probably the first I ever encountered, but it's pretty different from the startup/business definition (one might relate them, but they seem to me to carry pretty different connotations) and again, in the context of some kind of money-making venture my association with it was 100% "scamming folks".
[EDIT] for context, my upbringing was very much not in "street culture"
[EDIT EDIT] I may be alone in this, but I dislike the HN use of the word on the grounds of both other definitions—the sports version strikes me as trying too hard to associate business with sports as a kind of borrowed glory or, in the worse cases, lame machismo, while the way it also—by my own prior association and in the ways the use of the term differs subtly from the sports meaning—brushes up against the "running a scam" definition is bad on its own, obviously, but also makes the sports association grosser, somehow.
I feel the same about the UI. It’s cozy. I will be installing this next time I’m at a computer. I agree with others that I would gladly pay for this, support it on patreon, etc, especially to help pay for the web hosting to make this into e.g. a website I could use on my phone.
Thanks for making this!
I've seen a company try to build a streaming/DVR box. It failed for a bunch of reasons but among those was that it wasn't expected/able to spy on the user and monetize the data—all its competitors did, and they all sold their devices, retail, for right at what these devices would cost the manufacturer to build them (in part, but not entirely, because they're subsidized by spying), so if they wanted to make any money and wanted to actually get on store shelves (often a minimum margin required) they were talking a significantly higher price; meanwhile most people aren't even aware that their competitors are spying on their users in some super-creepy ways, so that's a really hard sell, especially if you aren't already at or beyond feature parity.
html {
overflow-y: scroll;
}
body {
overflow-x: hidden;
}
Simplest fix is to shift the overflow-x: hidden to the html element, or remove it altogether.
We should instead question whether we need the information that is being communicated in the first place, because even a colored LED or a soft haptic buzz can be stressful when we know what they mean. Maybe we should minimize the use of such technology instead.
In my view, calm technology only functions when you use it. It answers your questions or solves your problems only when prompted to do so. Maybe a robot vacuum cleaner that beeps on faults and vacuums on its own initiative is helpful technology, but with alternatives that won’t have any reasons to steal your attention I can’t say that it’s calm technology. IM with a soft haptic buzz to notify you of the receipt of a message may again be immensely helpful, but an email account that I check myself when I feel like reading messages is more calm.
If your life seems calmer when you know exactly when you’ve received a message regardless of what you are doing at the time or the nature of its content, you should perhaps think of how to lead a calm life before worrying about whether a pleasant beep or a soft buzz is the best way to direct your attention to it.
To complete the digression (from the same Wiki):
... the wine often receives mixed opinions with wine experts ... describing in The World Atlas of Wine 'Est! Est!! Est!!!' ... as "usually the dullest white wine with the strangest name in the world."
Pretty much what Telegram does. Yet people are finding their ways to abuse this approach and "noisily take over" your attention.
This is why I love Apple for pretty much eliminating blinking lights in their devices, while other manufactures of laptops etc. still don't seem to get it.
The only lights remaining in my room at bedtime are the power strip and external hard disks, and even they can be annoying.
But GDPR is just the 2nd step. The 3rd is the e-privacy regulation that is coming, hopefully in this mandate.
The internet's content should be controlled by the individual, not the feeds a big reddit,hn or facebook gives you. Simple good tools like what you provided should be a good step in cultivating an internet garden that can integrate into people's lives in a more orderly fashion.
Building requires the old gnome libraries (180mb on ubuntu)
However, I do see a place for search. I would love to add search terms like 'Nicholas Cage' and any time his name comes up (or perhaps even a related topic) I can track that.
Perhaps some people desire (or even need) the unasked-for notification to start the meditation session they forgot about last week.
Let's not throw out optionality.