Slashdot Mirror
Some of the Biggest Economies Aren't a Big User Of Social Media (axios.com)
From a report: Only 37 percent of Germans use social media, according to a new Pew survey, a surprising figure given the fact that Germany is the world's fourth-largest economy by GDP, according to the World Economic Forum. Similar patterns follow for Japan, France and Italy, ranked 3rd, 6th and 8th in largest economy by GDP.
Look, not in every country it is good taste or accepted to propagate rumors or opinionate in 100 characters. Some cultures are more rational and this hive mind thing does not work. That someone opionates in first name does not make it less true than if published in some foreign country newspaper - at least that cognitive bias does not work everywhere.
We, consume things made by others. Social media is a waste of time so it fits our lack of productivity.
when the refugees are counted
Gabbing, food-plate moneyshots, selfie-admiration and laughing at animals does not necessarily lead to productivity.
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
Maybe they have in-person communities and social interactions. We Americans are far more socially isolated from the people around us and geographically isolated from our long-term friends and family than most other countries I've visited.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
I've been working with social media across Europe for the best part of the last 10 years (being German myself and working in London), and during that time, social media have generally been handled with a huge amount of skepticism in Germany. Private data protection and consumer protection are very important topics in German politics, and whenever Facebook overextends its reach, you can be sure to read about it in all the newspapers. Data privacy watchdogs have reprimanded Facebook on several occasions. Germany was, as far as I am aware, the first country to force Facebook to filter both fake news and hate speech. All of that is constantly making the news, and Facebook is pretty much "the" social network. Twitter has an entirely different problem - the German language tend to be far more complicated than English. What fits into 140 characters in English can easily reach 200 characters in German, and even then be very imprecise. Most Germans tend to use it as a glorified news feed, less as something interactive.
Social media - also known as mind hive CIA project
Speaking of which : notice how nearly all cited countries - Germany, France and Italy - are in Europe, and we European tend to be really serious about our privacy.
And Japan is similarly concerned with privacy and not intruding onto other people.
And that not only classical social networks (like Facebook).
That's also the case with chat systems. WhatsApp seems to be not as popular there are elsewhere in the world. You could find actually lots of german who prefere/have switched to other systems (basically : systems with more green checks on FSF's list)
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
A lot of these economies are also suffering from a aging workforce where the number of young people are not taking over the older employees jobs, because they are not enough of them to do so. This in the short term is good for a countries economy having a labor force filled with skilled workers who do not have much overhead with children, so they can use their money to buy things, and take risks that wouldn't be wise if you are younger and have a mortgage and car payments and are a couple months away from being broke without your job. These older people have their homes paid off, so they can spend of more stuff and take financial risks which normally will be rewarding.
However in the long term they will die out and not be able to replace the workforce, and if ignored for too long, that workforce that does come in, will not have any cross training from the previous generation and make the same mistakes over again.
We have been wasting time for generations, social media is the newest form, but how far away is it, from water cooler talk, or going out during lunch and getting a bit tipsy.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
does not necessarily lead to productivity.
Though, as mentionned by TFA (sorry, I read it, here I'll turn in my /. member card) they are even more obsessed with their privacy, as a significant part of Europe is.
The other country are also European (Italy, France) or similarly obsessed with privacy and averse to intrusion (Japan).
Seems that the US is actually the anomaly, having a high GDP *but* happily providing all their personal information to be abused by marketeers/advertiser, by three-letter agencies, and by pirates leaking databases and personal photo collections.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
From pewresearch.org:
http://www.pewresearch.org/fac...
In the US it's the only way to get a job. Or so many here have told me. Ich weiß nict.
Twitter has an entirely different problem - the German language tend to be far more complicated than English. What fits into 140 characters in English can easily reach 200 characters in German, and even then be very imprecise. Most Germans tend to use it as a glorified news feed, less as something interactive.
Good point. All it takes is a few of those long German words, and they're already over the 140 limit.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
What we call "social media" is really young, and a huge recession took place during that time. You could snap your fingers, make FaceBook disappear, and the economy at large would not really feel it. Just 10 years ago, nobody was using this crap and things were just fine.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Discount small children, very old people with failing eye sight and arthritic fingers, this is probably as large as it gets. In USA voter turn out struggles to reach 67% and cracks 60% only in presidential elections.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Have gnu, will travel.
What this tells us is that people in developed economies who are productive and satisfied with their lives do not have much desire to waste their time on "virtual existance" and other pursuits of vanity and persistent stimulation.
...education and social media usage. The more educated, the less it is used.
From personal observation, I concur. My most educated acquaintances use it significantly less than the less well educated.
Perhaps we're hitting upon a core truth here !
or be used as a product.
To paraphrase Warren Buffett (about suckers): Look around the economy. If you can't see the products, you are it.
Have gnu, will travel.
the core of the tooth is the pulp
love is just extroverted narcissism
Amateur radio licenses vs. population. Apart Japan (where aged people represent most of the population - ham radio is mostly a hobby for old people), France, Germany, Italy and other industrialized countries show a negligible interest into ham radio. Together with the results described in TFA, one could argue that wasting time into social media isn't a good way to be productive.
Is there a lesson here? Maybe, use of Social Media impedes the economic growth?
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
it has never contributed much to the human race. That does not change because of a new media. Social media boosts human stupidity and conformity while killing real discussion and creativity. It is harder to find thriving communities on the net today than it was ten years ago. Why? People do not go to the internet to exchange ideas and create. They go there to get confirmation of their value... Just like scientific method is designed to be an amplifier of the intellect; the social medias is designed as an amplifier of stupidity and thoughtless emotions.
That sounds about right to me. People focused on productivity probably don't bother with facebook accounts or anything. It's too big a waste of time. I also turned off email notifications and I leave my phone on airplane mode most of the time. Interruptions are a real time waster.
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
Ok, we design things in California.
Often that design process is that a US company contacts a design company in Taiwan, which produces a bespoke design for which the real designer will not claim rights to. It's then "Designed in the USA", because someone in the US approved and paid for the design.
It's ironic that you leave your phone in airplane mode most of the time. Maybe you should get a cheap texting/calling phone for communication and get a tablet that can be tethered to it when you need connectivity?
Your ad here. Ask me how!
When it comes to long words, the Germans have nothing on the Welsh.
Breaking news: people with jobs don't tweet every 14 seconds