Default Settings Are Eating The World

Comments

• A_norny_mousse@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  It’s started to feel to me over the past few months that one of the most insidious things about daily life is the way the average person is pushed away from making informed choices, and is instead driven towards choosing the default options which are by-and-large worse for themselves and the people around them. If the “default settings” of our lives were more often a net-positive for ourselves then this wouldn’t be so much of an issue, but currently we sit in a place where “going with the flow” will inevitably leave us worse off.

  Each decision we make, especially complicated ones that require a level of additional research or insight, incur a mental tax. No one can be perfectly informed enough and have the level of mental presence to fight their way through all of them. Even if you’re aware of these decisions and have a desire to choose better alternatives, it simply isn’t possible for you to keep up with them all. Eventually you will choose a default choice because it’s easy, because it’s being sold to you, because you weren’t aware that an alternative was available to you. This will make your life worse because the default options are worse.

  They’re right of course, but I will hold against that that you can also get used to your own default settings, they become second nature. Which then sometimes feels weird when e.g. I see other people browsing the net without an adblocker (masochists). Or when I realise that other people do not look at the smaller price per kg label when shopping or don’t read the ingredients - it just feels off. Because my own default settings are different.

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  • Xanthobilly@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I’m going to say something that may be upsetting — My guess is you’re autistic. Allistic people simply do not have the attention to detail necessary to do anything but default settings, and when defaults become dark patterns it exploits allistic people and aggravates autists.

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    • SeeFerns@programming.dev ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      If having an ad blocker and reading grocery store tags to get the best deal makes someone autistic, then like, everyone I know is autistic.

      That’s the dumbest metric for measuring autism I’ve ever heard.

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    • entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Some people are just raised to make informed choices, y’know. Doesn’t mean they’ve got a diagnosable condition, they just aren’t part of the “default settings” tribe.

      Like you know allistic nerds exist, right?

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    • null@lemmy.nullspace.lol ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Thanks, WebMD

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    • pHr34kY@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      It’s not attention to detail. Normies are affected by social pressures and emotions. Their behavioural patterns are baised towards acceptance.

      Take that away, and an autist will assess the function and intent. The only desire is something that works, and is designed to work towards the user’s interests. Anything with a dark pattern will be set alight.

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• LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  In a user friendly world, You don’t have to think, You don’t have to know Anything Anymore

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• QuarterSwede@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I don’t agree with the premise of this article. When hunting and gathering the default is, “oh look, berries I can eat on a bush, let’s pick them or there’s a deer nearby, let’s shoot it with my bow and arrow.”

  These are just … choices. The only difference now is the amount of choice we have. It’s overwhelming so we go back to what we know to move forward. That’s just simply the human condition. Don’t think too much into this.

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