[ SECRET POST #2496 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2496 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 071 secrets from Secret Submission Post #357.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Re: Conversation on the internet - is it a lost art?

[khronos_keeper]

I work in social media too; I've got a degree in communications, and my coursework has let me see this type of stuff firsthand. I've definitely got the same perspective as you, but I'm going to offer a bit of an explanation that I've come across in my classes.

Humans are cognitively lazy; it's an evolutionary thing. They will pretty much do anything to minimize the amount of effort they expend in getting to the goal of their action. This pretty much applies to everything in life, but social media especially. This is also related in some way to their method of thought processing-- internal or external.

Internal processors tend to reflect on what they already think about an issue, and consider multiple sides. External processors rely on cues offered them by the sources around them (like other people's opinions, or material already provided), and go with the strongest answer provided. Now granted, pretty much everyone switches between these two, but for the most part people tend to favor one style over the other.

Which is why people won't write a comment vs. hitting a button. If the option is available, they're going to choose the easier one, especially if there's no intrinsic reward for them to expend more cognitive effort (i.e. getting money, a good grade for class, or the sense of accomplishment for having offered feedback).

I would agree that a lot of the features of social media help streamline the habit of miserly cognition. I know a lot of this is pretty much common knowledge, but there's science to back this up as well.

Unfortunately, trying to pull people away from their cognitive laziness gets them resentful. This calls back to the idea of internal vs. external processing, and people who favor external processing aren't going to enjoy being pulled in the other direction-- it provides too much cognitive dissonance for them to want to engage in easily.

People who process information internally would have less of a problem offering feedback, because they're likely thought of why the system is good or bad before, but unless they really care about the issue, even they're not going to offer comments.

So my suggestion: instead of offering a comment box to write responses, offer a short poll with ticky boxes or radio buttons. This is less cognitively taxing, but you could still get some information about usership opinion trends. Or you could do a formal survey with short answer questions and offer rewards like gift cards or cash. Just my two cents.