Social Media: Unlocking the Awesome Potential of Behavioral Disorders
By Barry Ritholtz - July 15th, 2009, 12:15PM
"The hardest thing in the world to understand is income tax." —Albert Einstein
Macro Notes
A very unscientific measure of US$ sentimentPeter Boockvar
With the US$ counter trend (I emphasize counter trend as secular decline will continue again at some point) rally apparently underway, which I believe began on Nov 17th when Bernanke uttered the word 'dollar' in terms of its impact on commodity prices and thus inflation, here is a very unscientific method of measuring dollar bearishness and how extreme sentiment got. Using Google search, 'dollar bull' comes up 6.6mm times while 'dollar bear' has 11.6mm results....
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July 15th, 2009 at 6:29 am
As individuals and as a nation, we now suffer from social narcissism. The beloved Echo of our ancestors, the virgin America, has been abandoned. We have fallen in love with our own image, with images of our making, which turn out to be images of ourselves.
Daniel J. Boorstin
I loathe narcissism, but I approve of vanity.
Diana Vreeland
Narcissism and self-deception are survival mechanisms without which many of us might just jump off a bridge.
Todd Solondz
Shyness has a strange element of narcissism, a belief that how we look, how we perform, is truly important to other people.
Andre Dubus
We’re making far too big a deal out of our sexual preferences. It’s just another form of narcissism, and I think it can be a big problem and a tremendous obstacle.
Andrew Cohen
Whoever loves becomes humble. Those who love have, so to speak, pawned a part of their narcissism.
Sigmund Freud
July 15th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
as a graphic artist wanna point out the use of YellowRedBlue that overlaps into black on an opaque medium such as paint / print … the medium we are here on ie the tv / web uses RedGreenBlue that overlaps as white … why the YRB? to cast Twitter in black? … maybe a Despair2.0 using both for a population education?
… as for other words of wisdom .. I’m all out .. at the moment
July 15th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Where does an off the grid excessively handsome bum who’s an occasional smart ass fit in?
July 15th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
I am on twitter so guess I am not ADH — oh, squirrel!
July 15th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
@hobo: On the TBP. Not on those sites. Say anything remotely controversial and you get beaten to a pulp.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
When my Honey walks down the Street, all the little birdies go “Tweet, tweet, tweet” ?
July 15th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Tried Twitter for about an hour. I thought it might provide my wife with a “Mrs. Weasley’s clock” way of knowing that I’m safe somewhere without the 25c/min charges of my cellphone (text is only about 10c per text). I sent four messages (”tweets?”). One arrived in about 1 minute, the other three arrived the next day and the day after that!! I deleted the account.
I’ve wondered for a while what people get out of those sites. That diagram makes a lot of sense and explains a lot.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
I’m on facebook but have gotten bored of it over time. The same usual suspects are the ones posting their everday moves/thoughts. Too much (and not enough interesting) information. Dull, dull, dull. Or maybe I just know dull people who are afraid to rattle the cages?
July 15th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
It’s completely beyond my comprehension why anyone would put their stuff out for all to see. I know a few on linkedin. Their online resumes are fictional in many parts. One took credit for my work on something and posted it out for all to see. Another is still angry about being fired, ostensibly due to the economy, and it shows clearly on his resume, along with a linked blog entry that openly advertises a narcissistic personality disorder (angry and narcissistic, what a guy).
July 15th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
As for me, all you people know is what I looked like when I was young and handsome. I’ve since had a nose job. You wouldn’t know me now if I came up and asked for some spare change.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Can I help it that I’m so damned handsome?
July 15th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
OK, I will share this. I sometimes go by the name Valued Customer.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Wow, another posting that’s all about me. This is getting repetitive.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
that despair.com website is amazingly funny and inspirational: There are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of inquisitive idiots. And this one on Government: If you think the problems we create are bad, just wait until you see our solutions.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
DESPAIR…
The light is always most dim the moment just before it collapses into the void of complete blackness…
July 15th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
[...] Ritholtz) [...]
July 15th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
I see he has a shirt version of that diagram. Instant sellout I’ll bet
July 15th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
Some funny stuff in their store. Love the t-shirts.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
That is hilarious! And so spot on. I don’t engage in any of them, but this reflects my understanding of the phenomena.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
@Mannwich 12:43 pm
“Or maybe I just know dull people who are afraid to rattle the cages?”
And where is it that you live? Minnesota? The prosecution rests.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Who needs twitter when you can argue about deflation/inflation on TBP?
July 15th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
@constant: Most of my friends don’t live here. I’m from the East Coast. I don’t think it’s that. It’s just that nobody seems inclined to post anything remotely interesting for fear of putting themselves out there and incurring the wrath. A buddy of mine on fb posted an innocuous religious joke (quote from Bart Simpson on “The Simpsons”) on Easter and he was just about cyber-stoned to death by the masses.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
@Mannwich 1:18 pm
I had the audacity to wear one of their t-shirts to the voting place in the 2008 election, and the (bipartisan) guardians had to confer for about 5 minutes before they decided that it expressed no partisan sympathies, and I could be allowed in to vote while wearing it. Thank God I was not wearing their Kleptocracy t-shirt, or even worser, the terror-t that my son got me the preceding Christmas (I’m a big fan (*not*) of the TSA). I have to be careful about where I wear that one, as it could get me shot.
What were you saying about “rattling the cages”?
July 15th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
@Mannwich — just kidding about where you live
July 15th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
@constant: I would that these social networking sites have the propensity for adding people to your “network” who aren’t really your real “friends” or even anyone that you know all that well (or at all), but more like casual acquaintences that you rarely ever see or speak with on the phone. Therefore, if you’re “friends” with everyone, do you really have any friends?
It’s a great tool to reconnect with/find people, but I would argue that I often don’t want to be “found” by certain people. LOL.
I much prefer my circle of friends small and don’t need to communicate with them on FB, especially the ones here in Minny. I see them enough here in person!
July 15th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
@constant: No worries! Minny can be a bit dull at times, I admit, but it’s a great place to live. Solid people, very civil. After the go-go years in Boston and NYC, the change for me has been most welcome. I have no plans to go back east any time soon.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
I created a Twitter account a few months ago. It asked me “what I’m doing now.” I truthfully replied, “not a damn thing.” Have not changed it since.
It’s THEIR disk space, not mine!
July 15th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
how does a stock market with so little volume rise so high? What idiot programmer would tell their computer to buy at any price?
July 15th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
BTW, Pete Townsend predicted Twitter something like 15 years ago — check out the Psychoderilict album.
(people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, ESPECIALL FROM THE INSIDE!)
July 15th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
@lb 1:36 pm “Who needs twitter when you can argue about deflation/inflation on TBP?”
who cares about ‘flation? I want to know when the Great Reversion to valuation means will occur, or failing that, when we will set new highs on the Dow/S&P/NASDAQ?
July 15th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Marcus Aurelius is currently reading a comment thread on The Big Picture.
July 15th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
bergsten is current writing a comment on…
This is just getting silly.
July 15th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
What do they say about bloggers? hahaha
July 15th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
@dead hobo 1:48 pm
With only a little volume out there, the PT folks can peg the prices pretty much anywhere they want, waiting for the sheeple to be enticed off the sidelines, to join the game and get clipped. Ergo, we will see rising markets until the software sees enough marks to merit a harvesting of them.
Given that most people are not expert traders, in the fullness of time this will lead to the same kind of stock-aversion that came out of the 1930’s, after which the common man would sooner pluck out his eyes than buy stocks. I think BR’s recent chart of CD yields vs stock yields shows that there are places other than the stock market where the sheeple can invest. It will just take a few more repeated trips though the dunk tank before they figure that out for themselves.
I think that the longer this charade of “free and fair markets” continues, the closer we come to the day when they are abandoned by the masses, and the bulk of the investment capital in this country. Either we get actual “free and fair markets” or they will be abandoned, even with the brainwashing of the mutual fund and brokerage industries.
July 15th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Mannwich @ 12:43
“…maybe I just know dull people who are afraid to rattle the cages?”
There are the occasional “cage rattlers” here on TBP.
July 15th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
@DL: I think that’s why many of us come here daily in lieu of bland sites like facebook.
July 15th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
“If at first you don’t succeed, don’t go skydiving.”
July 15th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
For all the “Doombloggers” out there!
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1183009725&play=1
July 15th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
I just looked at the 10 year for the past 5 years on Yahoo. Recent history makes it look like there is a lot of pressure to bring it back to at least 4.5%. Then what? Economy crash and burn because mortgage rates are no longer being gifted in the 5% range. Or more financial engineering to buy the rates down for another few weeks?
There is a fix. It’s called deflation. It requires all pumps to stop and the natural forces of the economy take effect. Commodities need to be priced according to supply and demand for the item and not via supply and demand for the derivatives used to bet on prices. The stock market will fall a lot. At this point, only a few will notice … the rest are already broke or are in cash.
Of course this won’t happen. More pumps and more convolutions and more cronyism and more happy talk will be used to paint over problems. Obama will make a speech!
July 15th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
@dead hobo, when did you last see natural forces of the economy take effect? You can’t have a Fed+government and natural forces of the economy.
July 15th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Okay, where is the spy-cam in my house located? I was just thinking about this subject this morning out on the deck. My 14-year-old granddaugher flew in from Michigan last week to spend a couple of weeks with us. She hasn’t seen us for a couple of years. On the way home she was talking and texting to all her friends who she’d just left as her grandmother was trying to have a conversation with her. When we got to the house she asked if we had a computer and an Internet connection. She said she had to check her personal sites on My Space and Facebook. That night, as she was going to bed, her grandmother noticed her cell phone laying in the bed and asked her about it. “Oh, I have it on vibrate and lay on it so that if anyone calls or textes it’ll wake me up”. Oh, and then there’s the Ipod. You have to give her a two hour notice when you’re taking her somewhere so that she can “get ready”. She is absolutely useless around here as to doing things, like fixing herself something to eat, getting a drink, washing dishes, etc… She’s going to make someone a happy man someday. Wrong!! But she’ll be tech savvy. Counting the days til we take her back to the airport.
July 15th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
@Pat G., “she’ll be tech savvy”, hardly she’ll be consumer savvy (slave to her tech toys), she’ll know how to work the phone, but not how to construct the software.
I guess my childhood was really sad. Living in a socialist country, only had 2 channels, channel 1 and channel2. I remember reading how American kids were exposed to 6+h of TV, I don’t know how that could be possible since the 2 channels I were watching only broadcasted between 1700 and 2300. Fortunately I lived close to another country which also had 2 stations, though it was extremely hard to understand what they were saying. Later came cable and satellite and ruined that paradise.
July 15th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
@Pat G., “she’ll be tech savvy”, hardly she’ll be consumer savvy (slave to her tech toys), she’ll know how to work the phone, but not how to construct the software.
July 15th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
super_trooper
You took the words right out of my mouth! She’ll be far from tech savvy. She’ll just be a slave to fashion and the latest vapid fad. And someday, hopefully, she’ll look back and think, “what the … was I doing?”
July 15th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
@super_trooper
I stand corrected. Either way, she won’t know how to boil water… lol
July 15th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
SP and Troy – kind of like when I was a kid and we were all playing PacMan and Atari. I dunno though, I think these kids are a lot farther into their fads that we were in the 80’s.
July 15th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
@dead hobo
I thought you were the infamous consumer. LOL
All fads if u ask me.
July 15th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
Pat G.’s granddaughter is a natural for a job in Middle Management. Or Marketing.
July 15th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Pat G – silly question – why don’t you and your wife just take all that crap away from her? My grandparents spoiled me rotten but when I was in their home I lived by their rules. If she has a problem with that send her home
July 15th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
“… facebook … The same usual suspects are the ones posting their everday moves/thoughts. Too much (and not enough interesting) information. Dull, dull, dull.”
I’ve never used or visited Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc., and never will.
Back in the early 1990s, when cell phones first became small, cheap, and common, I sat on a bus near a guy who reported every street we passed. “I’m at 35th Street. OK, just passed 36th. We’re at 37th now.” That went on without a break for 50 blocks.
That day back in the early 1990s I learned everything a person ever needs to know about social networking technology from now until the end of time. I don’t need to try them to know what they’re like.
July 15th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
pat g
where’s the love?:-)
July 15th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
Henry David Thoreau: “We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas, but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.”
July 15th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Facebook is indeed a mixed blessing – puts you in contact with people you haven’t spoken to in years, many of whom you haven’t spoken to in years for a very good reason. I recently joined it at the urging of some of my closer friends. A nice feature of the site is that you can ignore people. The below post from someone I knew years ago is typical of a lot of people.
Jim is about to tuck into a steak burrito…YUM!
Followed about an hour later by -
Jim – My burrito was only moderately good, if you were wondering.
July 15th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
@bergsten
I’ll remember that.
@Thor
She came with all the gadgets. Besides all her friends are 2000 miles away, so we gotta cut her some slack. There won’t be any spoiling by me. I didn’t spoil my own kids.
@ahab
Guess I’ve run out… :+)
July 15th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
PatG – “I didn’t spoil my own kids.” – Then you were a great dad in my book! My mom left the spoiling to my grandparents – she was the iron fisted lady to me.
July 15th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
“I envy paranoids; they actually feel people are paying attention to them”
Susan Sontag 1933-, American Essayist
July 15th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
She is absolutely useless around here as to doing things, like fixing herself something to eat, getting a drink, washing dishes, etc… She’s going to make someone a happy man someday. Wrong!! But she’ll be tech savvy. Counting the days til we take her back to the airport.
On the flip side, I never realized what a great babysitter/pacifier a cell/internet connection could be. Times have changed. 20 years ago if the kids were quiet you had to check in on them to see what they were destroying. Nowadays all you need to do is check and see that the upload download light on the broadband box is flashing and all is probably well….at least from a physical perspective. What the kid is pumping into their head is another fear altogether.
As for taking a cell away these days, I don’t know if I’d recommend that. With kids being taught from many corners that murder is a rationalizable option, I would think taking a cell from one is the equivalent of taking a piece of meat from a starving lion. Not doubt also that nowadays a defense attorney worth his coin could find 12 people that would agree with the kid!
July 15th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
My wife and I don’t have kids, but we’re putting some money into 529 plans for her brother’s two pre-teen kids. I’m thinking of making the 529 money conditional on his forbidding his two kids to have cell phones until they’re finished with high school.
I sure would not be happy about helping with college if he and the kids spend their high school years throwing money down the rat hole of cell phone plans for the kids.
July 16th, 2009 at 7:42 am
I envy paranoids; they actually feel people are paying attention to them”
———–
It’s not because you’re not paranoid that no one is out to get you.
July 16th, 2009 at 7:45 am
Pat G:
I did not cook and clean up at my Grandparents. I made my bed and brought my plate to the counter that’s it and I did not have any technology.
And using this technology is the equivalent of driving a car. It does not give you and edge, it’s social inclusion period.
July 16th, 2009 at 11:16 am
[...] Social Media: Unlocking the Awesome Potential of Behavioral Disorders | The Big Picture [...]
July 18th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Remember in 1968 when elders proclaimed the future is dead because it will belong to long haired, lazy, good for nothing hippies?
There may have been some truth to that, given perspective of last 2 years.
Or — we may be in throes of social change ala the 60’s and this generation is the best suited to lead the way.
And. If so. What throes of change will twittering be preparing youth for? Connectedness?