
Stick to your resolution this year by filming it for the Internet - karenxcheng
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2014/01/100/
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Spearchucker
_Warning_ rant:

All this can add is satisfaction for attention-seekers, and public shame when
it's not achieved. I find new year resolutions as offensive as St. Valentines'
Day.

If I want to do something (stop smoking, write an app or redecorate a room) I
just... get to it. It doesn't need to be January 1st. I simply need to _want_
it.

Valentines is much the same. Society shames you into spending money - the
message is if you don't, you don't love her. Fuck that. It has much more value
when I demonstrate my love in private, on my own terms, without the social
pressure of anything.

What I do is my choice. How I react to something beyond my control is my
choice. I choose value over approval-seeking.

~~~
drdeca
Is there really any significant social pressure to make a new years
resolution?

I more see it as an option to make decisions at the same time as others, which
some might find useful for reasons I will describe later in this post.

You describe the service as an option to make those that succeed look good/get
attention, and those that fail look bad (publicly).

You probably intended this as a complaint, but to me it seems like a more
neutral thing, if words with more neutral connotations were used.

Some people might have trouble staying with their decisions if they just made
the decision, at some random time. Announcing their decision creates an
additional incentive for them to succeed, which I reckon for some people is
enough to push them past the edge into success.

Creating disincentives for oneself for things that seem appealing in the short
term is a valid course of action to help one make preferred decisions.

People are not perfectly rational. Knowing this helps them plan things to
avoid making poor decisions.

Having it at new years is nice for aesthetic reasons, and having a designated
day for it makes people more comfortable announcing their decision, and also
solves the problem of people putting things off. Some people will repeatedly
decide "oh, I'll do it next month/week."

With new years, there's a definitive day, where its harder to delay it. (of
course, one can say "oh, I'll do it next new years.", but that's kind of a
ways away, which makes it less likely)

Generally, new years resolutions are an option, not anything people are
socially forced into, from my experience.

Note that I am only a high school student, so I may be less aware of affects
of social things, or other things one learns abouth through life experience.

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snowwrestler
This might actually make it harder to stick to your resolution, as there is
some research evidence that publicly announcing your goals partially fools
your brain into thinking that they are already accomplished.

[http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_you...](http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_yourself.html)

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ahmeq
interesting concept.

