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   Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 13-Feb-2026 08:05:32 JST Evan Prodromou

   One of the things as a software developer I have a hard time reconciling is how much people think that an app lives entirely on their phone. Like, LinkedIn is an app, and all of the infrastructure is inside it, and maybe all of the people live in there too? And if you delete the app from your phone, all the infrastructure and people and technology fall screaming into the void?

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     Johanna, CanCon variety (johannab@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 13-Feb-2026 09:23:06 JST Johanna, CanCon variety

     in reply to

     @evan This is an example of maladaptation at a fundamental level of cognition.

     Our brains are not wired for asynchronicity or the dissolution of a storyline into fragments and tokens. We HAVE to fill in some gaps to make communication "whole" to us.

     But most humans have neither the technical experience nor the self-reflective detachment to realize that is what's going on.

     It's the cause for disturbing parasocial imbalances, lots of online harassment, "AI psychosis", etc.

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     rndeon (rndeon@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 13-Feb-2026 13:08:49 JST rndeon

     in reply to

     @evan to me, that it is possible to misunderstand this has always been a bizarre design dark pattern. With physics in the world, we can't control how hard it is to know what's going on behind or inside or whatever, but in software, it's all human design! Phone apps, and software in general, could be made so you can easily open the hood and see what's happening. Someday i hope that seems worth the effort, and people do it.