A “gold standard” study finds deleting Facebook is great for your mental health • Hacker News Board

Re: A “gold standard” study finds deleting Facebook is great for your mental health

#31

Post by dsfyu404ed » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 3:55 PM UTC

insickness wrote: post #23

It would be interesting to see a study on general social media beyond facebook, such as reddit, instagram, hacker news, etc. I can waste hours on non-facebook social media. It's nice for those times I'm tired and just want to kick back and not think too hard. I'm fairly certain it lowers my attention span but I wonder if there are other negative effects.

Reddit is basically Twitter with a thin veneer of politeness. My guess would be that it's not good for mental health unless you go fishing for validation by towing the party line in every sub you visit.

Re: A “gold standard” study finds deleting Facebook is great for your mental health

#32

Post by dnate » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 3:57 PM UTC

For those not ready to completely delete their facebook account yet, I recommend:

1. deleting the app

2. Using a custom facebook style (like this one [1]) which deactivates the news feed. That way you can still use it to check your messages occasionally and have to actively make the decision to scroll through the news feed by deactivating the extension.

3. Deleting messenger once you have told all relevant people that you will be less reachable through facebook, more through email / signal whatever alternative you use.

I have been using facebook less and less that way and realized how often I was mindlessly scrolling through the feed.

[1] https://userstyles.org/styles/128616/quiet-facebook-official

Re: A “gold standard” study finds deleting Facebook is great for your mental health

#33

Post by naravara » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 3:57 PM UTC

Brigadirk wrote: post #4

I quite liked facebook. I don't have the urge to constantly check it, nor post much on it, but it was useful for events, casually keeping up with life events of acquaintances, and keeping a rolodex of semi-friends (e.g. people I met on holiday and would like to run into again). I deleted it because the company seems thoroughly evil and doesn't respect my privacy. But if anyone comes up with a privacy-respecting alter…

Only accessing Facebook via mbasic.facebook.com works for me. I only really ever check it because I have local community forums that only post information on events there. Most of my friends have departed for Instagram at this point.

Which is probably why Facebook is trying to Facebookify Instagram and WhatsApp. Once they do I'm sure people will start to flee to knock-off services instead.

Re: A “gold standard” study finds deleting Facebook is great for your mental health

#34

Post by thecouve » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 3:58 PM UTC

dnate wrote: post #32

For those not ready to completely delete their facebook account yet, I recommend: 1. deleting the app 2. Using a custom facebook style (like this one [1]) which deactivates the news feed. That way you can still use it to check your messages occasionally and have to actively make the decision to scroll through the news feed by deactivating the extension. 3. Deleting messenger once you have told all relevant people tha…

Which extension is this?

Re: A “gold standard” study finds deleting Facebook is great for your mental health

#35

Post by RankingMember » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 3:58 PM UTC

Brigadirk wrote: post #4

I quite liked facebook. I don't have the urge to constantly check it, nor post much on it, but it was useful for events, casually keeping up with life events of acquaintances, and keeping a rolodex of semi-friends (e.g. people I met on holiday and would like to run into again). I deleted it because the company seems thoroughly evil and doesn't respect my privacy. But if anyone comes up with a privacy-respecting alter…

The problem with the alternatives is they don't have the budget and installed user base Facebook has. Sure, you'll get techie people to jump on board at first (remember Google+?), but all the family members who don't know a Twitter from an Amazon will stick with Facebook because the constant negative Facebook press isn't enough to get them to leave and no longer see pictures of their baby grandson. I'm not sure what the solution to this is.

Re: A “gold standard” study finds deleting Facebook is great for your mental health

#36

Post by cntlzw » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 3:58 PM UTC

Can confirm. Deleted FB half a year ago. Nothing really happened. I still feel in the loop with all my friends and even remember their birthdays. Checking FB was just a noise that kept me distracted during the day.

Re: A “gold standard” study finds deleting Facebook is great for your mental health

#37

Post by yotamoron » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 3:58 PM UTC

I deleted my fb account 4 years ago. My only regret? Not doing it sooner.

Re: A “gold standard” study finds deleting Facebook is great for your mental health

#38

Post by dekhn » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 3:59 PM UTC

It's not accurate to call a study gold standard it fits randomized but the patients can see which arm of the study they ended up in

Re: A “gold standard” study finds deleting Facebook is great for your mental health

#39

Post by SketchySeaBeast » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 4:00 PM UTC

wccrawford wrote: post #24

brightball wrote: post #14

I can confirm. I deleted the FB app, and deactivated my account for months and it was pretty fantastic. The problem for me now is that I'm a Clemson alum and Clemson is doing awesome right now...so I reactivated my Facebook just to celebrate everything with all my friends from college. I ended up finding a fairly happy medium of unfollowing every person who posts anything even remotely political (even if I agree with…

So it was fantastic, right up until the point that it wasn't? That's the whole point. Most people feel a need for Facebook for some reason or other.

> So it was fantastic, right up until the point that it wasn't?

They seem to have found a happy medium with Facebook, which seems to be the key with social media - stay in contact, but don't let it rule your life. That, as well as pretty much everything else requires finding a balance. Things that fit that "great until it's not" description:

- Eating Chocolate Cake - Sex - Programming - Driving - Fasting - Being Awake - Sleeping - Not Working

Re: A “gold standard” study finds deleting Facebook is great for your mental health

#40

Post by DanHulton » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 4:00 PM UTC

dnate wrote: post #32

For those not ready to completely delete their facebook account yet, I recommend: 1. deleting the app 2. Using a custom facebook style (like this one [1]) which deactivates the news feed. That way you can still use it to check your messages occasionally and have to actively make the decision to scroll through the news feed by deactivating the extension. 3. Deleting messenger once you have told all relevant people tha…

Same. I've been using "News Feed Eradicator for Facebook": https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/news-feed-eradicat...

I still keep my FB account for messages and events, since my friends and family won't all delete Facebook en masse, but this has removed a whole bunch of wasted time.