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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

#121

Post by rogual »

castle-bravo wrote: post #82

facebook's business is advertising, and the more time people spend on facebook, the more valuable facebook's ad space is. If depressed people spend more time on facebook instead of getting out, then it's in facebook's interest to have their product make people depressed. If angry people spend more time writing rants on facebook, then it's in facebook's interest to make people angry. I may be confusing causation with…

I wonder how many of these design decisions were actually made consciously, and how many are just the result of things like blind A/B testing.

If your scientific test shows you that feature set A has better user retention than feature set B, you don't need to worry yourself over why.

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

#122

Post by lucideer »

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…

> I don't really understand the 'feeling inadequate because of my cousin's baby pictures' thing

I concur. I've never understood this, and tbh haven't met anyone who does.

> For me, the problem with social media is a fundamental lack of self control...

I find this interesting because as a very frequent Facebook user, I don't really encounter this there, I guess due to the whole filter-bubble kind of effect of social circles. Facebook discussion are all reinforcing rather than combative, so the question of good faith debate rarely even comes into it at all. The echo chamber has it's own reputation for being "bad for you" for other reasons however.

> I mostly have left other mediums with these sorts of unfufilling conversations

I've definitely engaged in one or two of these on HN, but generally they're in a tiny minority. As an alternate example though, while I don't really tweet, and I figure Twitter is a more likely medium for those sorts of "unfulfilling conversations", it seems to offer a lot of value to counter-balance that aspect.

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

#123

Post by braveo »

platz wrote: post #89
braveo wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't mean to imply that you did, my point is that someone being being "an emotivist" isn't understandable, and it doesnt' mean the people around them should be inclusive of such an outlook on life.

Ok, I didn't say that such people should be accepted, description is not prescription.

yep, no argument there, I was just weighing in with my (admittedly strong) opinionon the matter.

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

#124

Post by omnimus »

esemor wrote: post #3

I was reluctant when I removed my fb account about six months ago but it felt like it was what I needed as it intruded on what I really wanted to focus my time and energy on. A few weeks in I was amazed at how I did not miss the social network at all and surprised that the contacts that previously only contactef me on fb now wrote email and text messages.

Same here. Deleted account just before end of 2014 (facebook changed their data policy). We did it with couple of friends and were amazed by the effect. After two weeks we realized we all feel better and we never needed fb. None of us came back (just more our friends left).

Really the only pain for me were fb events. In my country fb events are the most important calendar to the point that many of the venues/places put events just on fb. The problem is that i organize events from time to time and its impossible without account. Its also getting pretty hard to make fake account (they require copy of ID for new accounts now).

The events are even more pain because they dont have api. Its on purpose. Venues for example cant have automated posting of events from their site. You have to make events in the fb ui. They are read only so people started opposite aproach, they post ebents on fb and consume them in their site. Its limiting and just againts everything internet used to be about.

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

#125

Post by [deleted] »

sandov wrote: post #106
stevehiehn wrote: post #99

Ironically, I find the only internet interactions that stress me out is not FB or twitter its when i post on hacker news (like this:)) I think mostly because i care and also people here can be very confrontational.

When I use facebook, I get angry at the stupidity of people. On HN I feel humbled because of how smart people are here.

[deleted]

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

#126

Post by RodericDay »

city41 wrote: post #104
RodericDay wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arguing is very natural and we would do a whole lot more of it if we lived in real democracies where our votes mattered and had serious consequences (as opposed to a once-every-four-years thing, while everything else is left up to "the market"). You can't both have your opinion matter, and disagreements of opinion not matter.

However, my Father and an ex-coworker of mine socializing is not even remotely natural.

If they were voting in city council it would be. As I've said before, we now vote very rarely once in a blue moon, and leave everything else up to the market.

So you never confront each other about their opinions directly, you just let the market mediate for you.

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

#127

Post by RodericDay »

M_Grey wrote: post #100
RodericDay wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if I agree that the best arguments result in agreement between opponents. It's nice to have and good when it happens, but many arguments boil down to matters where there are, in very real terms, winners and losers. Not everything can be patched up procedurally, nor can people "switch up" when it's eg: a black man told to try to understand the slaver's argument. It's good to develop some capabilities to c…

>I don't know if I agree that the best arguments result in agreement between opponents. They don't end in agreement, they begin with cooperation; you might not resolve the argument, or your position might prevail, or even change. As you say, there is no argument to be had in some cases, there is no reason. I'm talking about a methodology, rather than an outcome; you can still disagree. That said, in the case of somet…

Hmmm.... I think that a lot of these "people jumped on me on social media!" anecdotes aren't because people said they preferred Spartacus over Game of Thrones (Spartacus is way way better btw), but because they got involved in one of those debates that is tantamount to a fight.

Like abortion, or wealth inequality, or police brutality, or gay rights, or race and IQ.

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

#128

Post by frenchy »

seanwilson wrote: post #44

Just for some balance but I don't understand the hate for Facebook, I use it fairly often and it's been a positive impact for me. I use it occasionally to connect with people I've just met, see what friends are up to, send messages to meet up and keep in contact with people out of the country. I've connected to people I otherwise wouldn't have through it, got closer to people I know through it and met up with people…

> ... I don't understand the hate for Facebook ...

I suspect that any hate of facebook has a fair bit to do with the fact that it is 1) pervasive, 2) a fairly closed system, and 3) comes with a lot of strings attached. The fact that it's a closed system is really the crux of the issue, everything else just kind of accentuates the problem. Here's an example of why facebook's existence is annoying

My local climbing gym, for example, has a website, but instead of posting information there, they post most of their updates (like competition dates) on Facebook. Without having a facebook account (and regularly checking it!) there's no way to keep up-to-date on these postings. Now, if you create a facebook account, there's no good way to tell people "don't send me messages here, just email me", so now you have to keep an eye on your facebook messages, otherwise your friends will get annoyed that you're ignoring them. Facebook doesn't implement IMAP or anything though, so your also stuck going to their website regularly, or install their software on your phone and saying goodbye to your once-long battery life.

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

#129

Post by tmbsundar »

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…

> I get into 'someone is wrong on the internet' discussions, and for me, those are the 'addictive but not pleasant' aspects of social media.

This is exacerbated by not having the luxury of taking cues from facial expressions, body language, smiles and the context of the situation. Moreover, f2f discussions are mostly real time and synchronous vs the social media ones being asynchronous, allowing people to pick up days old thread and continue the discussions, thus there is no end at all if one decides to weave the topic further.

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

#130

Post by kordless »

tmbsundar wrote: post #129
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…

> I get into 'someone is wrong on the internet' discussions, and for me, those are the 'addictive but not pleasant' aspects of social media. This is exacerbated by not having the luxury of taking cues from facial expressions, body language, smiles and the context of the situation. Moreover, f2f discussions are mostly real time and synchronous vs the social media ones being asynchronous, allowing people to pick up day…

> This is exacerbated by not having the luxury of taking cues from facial expressions, body language, smiles and the context of the situation.

This is caused by this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE3j_RHkqJc

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