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The relationship between social media use and well-being

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Re: The relationship between social media use and well-being

#51

Post by abalashov »

DannyB2 wrote: post #43
abalashov wrote: post #37

I can certainly agree with the study abstract and most posts here, but would add a twist: social media use is depressing, but falling out of touch with faraway friends is even more depressing. I've been on and off FB over the years, and what I've found is that the only thing worse than being on FB is not being on FB. There are many people I'd just never talk to if I didn't use FB, and I do think the connection is som…

I have never been on FB. I email occasionally with far away friends. A phone call once in a while.

It's certainly possible for the truly devoted.

Re: The relationship between social media use and well-being

#52

Post by rconti »

jgrahamc wrote: post #4

"Overall, our results showed that, while real-world social networks were positively associated with overall well-being, the use of Facebook was negatively associated with overall well-being." This is not a surprise. I quit Facebook specifically because of the endless stream of "my life is amazing" posts of people beig happy without any balance. Reminds me of those awful Christmas letters people send round about how w…

Serious question: Would you prefer to not receive those Christmas letters? Or is it more tolerable because it's only once a year, so the benefit of staying in touch is greater than the cost of the annoyance of the letter itself?

Re: The relationship between social media use and well-being

#53

Post by rconti »

eunoia wrote: post #36
tutufan wrote: post #23

Deleted mine a few months ago, and I do think I feel better. Only regret is that I probably can't get hired by Facebook now... :-)

Didn't get the job but I interviewed with FB a couple years ago. Flew me out to the Bay for a day of whiteboarding. Haven't had an actual FB account in 4 or 5 years. I'm sure they were aware but to their credit no one ever asked me about it.

I wouldn't be surprised if nobody looked or noticed. Perhaps they're a big enough organization to check on this stuff, but the average interviewer has better stuff to do, and likely doesn't care.

Re: The relationship between social media use and well-being

#54

Post by brightball »

platz wrote: post #39
brightball wrote: post #13

100% confirm. I quit FB after being on it for a decade and I'm significantly happier. More productive at work. Significantly less angry. The big one is that I'm making much more of a point to spend time with people who actually live near me rather than chatting it up with my friends from college. I think people take for granted how much of a motivator a little bit of loneliness can be.

How do you deal with the fact that couples tend to announce things like "We're having a baby" or "We're engaged" or "I'm moving to Utah" on facebook as their primary mode of informing social circles of these kinds of events?

It's been a funny thing. My wife fills me in on this stuff now.

Previously, conversations would go something like this...

Her, "Did you hear so-n-so had a baby?" Me, "Yep."

Now it goes like this...

Her, "Did you hear so-n-so had a baby?" Me, "Really? That's great news, was it a boy or girl?"

Very similar thing happened with my mom, except with my friends from high school.

Re: The relationship between social media use and well-being

#55

Post by rconti »

j_s wrote: post #41

Time to put together a study on the relationship between HN use and well-being!

I actually find communities like this far more depressing than your average social network. I can go on the vacation my friend is on, but I cannot acquire the expertise of thousands of other brilliant professionals in every niche I see here.

Re: The relationship between social media use and well-being

#56

Post by leepowers »

Social media is a game, just like MMORPG's are games, and slot gambling is a game, or call of duty is a game. For some reason a large chunk of society has been convinced that social media is the "real" game and more normative than all other games.

Overplaying any game is bad for the mental health of the player. Relatedly, a game becomes unhealthy whenever the game becomes the center of the player's life. This applies equally to WoW, Civilization, Facebook, or Twitter, or any other game.

So, social media is a game that can be fun to play, but it shouldn't be a component of the player's identity.

Re: The relationship between social media use and well-being

#57

Post by shivagit »

Being overly obsessed with the social experience of the internet in general is detrimental to one's well-being, in my opinion.

You can't live a full life if you spend most of your time interacting with people on websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, FourChan, Instagram, etc. It's just not the social experience we evolved to enjoy.

Also there's the danger that you're being subtly manipulated by the moderators or programmers of such sites, or the wider community. Are these 'people' you talk to really real? You can never know for sure.

In the end, if you want a quality social experience, you have to get out of your basement and enjoy the company of people in real life.

Re: The relationship between social media use and well-being

#58

Post by platz »

Swizec wrote: post #45
lsc wrote: post #40

I feel the 'social media is bad for you' thing, but for different reasons. I mean, I don't really understand the 'feeling inadequate because of my cousin's baby pictures' thing. I mean, I am happy for them, but that isn't the life I want, so I don't feel bad that I don't have it. Alternately, I could be less jealous than most people, but let's run with the more realistic first reason. For me, the problem with social…

> lots of people are there who lack a background in early internet culture or academic culture I think this hits it. Many (most?) people just aren't used to having people disagree with them. Let alone voice those disagreements and be expected to defend their beliefs and explain why they think they're right. For many people the way they think is correct, just is correct. It's not something that needs defending or even…

Framing that difference as a "lack" the other person has, may be right, but creates a sense of superiority over that person which also seems wrong, for certain people that are aware of their differences (they may not be "lacking" anything").

Some people are emotivists (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotivism), which means that for them preferences are moral positions in themselves, not just reasons about the morality of preferences.

it is “… the doctrine that all evaluative judgments and more specifically all moral judgments are nothing but expressions of preference, expressions of attitude or feeling.”

In other words, emotivism holds that there can be no way of rationally justifying one’s claims about controversial issues.

I think this view describes a great many number of people; though it's true that academia, STEM, and rational enlightenment thinking tends to filter it out or select against it.

Re: The relationship between social media use and well-being

#59

Post by M_Grey »

lsc wrote: post #40

I feel the 'social media is bad for you' thing, but for different reasons. I mean, I don't really understand the 'feeling inadequate because of my cousin's baby pictures' thing. I mean, I am happy for them, but that isn't the life I want, so I don't feel bad that I don't have it. Alternately, I could be less jealous than most people, but let's run with the more realistic first reason. For me, the problem with social…

This may sound bizarre, but I used to have that same problem... and it's actually arguing on the internet that made me realize I needed to lose the anger, lose the need to control, and... then I spent a couple of years really making an effort. If you're already at the point of recognizing what you've described about yourself, you've done the hardest part, and now you just need to build new habits.

That said, avoiding obvious minefields like FB seems like a wise choice too.

Re: The relationship between social media use and well-being

#60

Post by cc439 »

platz wrote: post #39
brightball wrote: post #13

100% confirm. I quit FB after being on it for a decade and I'm significantly happier. More productive at work. Significantly less angry. The big one is that I'm making much more of a point to spend time with people who actually live near me rather than chatting it up with my friends from college. I think people take for granted how much of a motivator a little bit of loneliness can be.

How do you deal with the fact that couples tend to announce things like "We're having a baby" or "We're engaged" or "I'm moving to Utah" on facebook as their primary mode of informing social circles of these kinds of events?

If they, or someone else close to you, doesn't inform you of a major life event like that outside of Facebook, maybe those people aren't anywhere near as close as you believe them to be.
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