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Facebook quitters report more life satisfaction, less depression and anxiety

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Re: Facebook quitters report more life satisfaction, less depression and anxiety

#11

Can relate, I haven’t missed it a bit.

Ditto. From my experience and assumptions by many media I've seen, people tend to post the best of what is going on in their lives to social media. Subsequently, not seeing the bad or mundane in comparison to oneself, causes anxiety. There are many other aspects to the social media that might affect life satisfaction. Time spent on the platform rather than being productive is one that comes to mind.

Re: Facebook quitters report more life satisfaction, less depression and anxiety

#12
post #9

I wonder, have fb quitters stopped using all social media? Have they also stopped visiting news websites? My point is, is Facebook the only negativity inducing platform? I know for me it isn't. The question is how do you deal with the rest of them? Do you balance news intake against the impact on your mental health or you stop consuming news entirely, because in the end whatever it's set to happen will happen regardl…

Not me. Just FB. Removing just that is a big improvement. I'm still on IG. I don't look into Twitter much anymore, because it's not too different from FB.

Social media isn't news. Most of what we call news isn't. There's very little useful news out there. I read "The Information Diet: A Case for Conscious Consumption" by Clay Johnson which covered the topic quite well.

Re: Facebook quitters report more life satisfaction, less depression and anxiety

#13
post #5

the new is interesting however the article is just a quote from another article and a study. It ends up not pointing out any valuable information, like what are the underlying mechanisms. Basically a copycat to get free visitors traffic. Questions I wish there were answered: is it about anxious browsing? anxious goshipping? compare oneself to others? compulsive procrastination? does it apply to other social networks,…

> "stronger leisure activities"

I would be curious about this part, namely in sporting activities where the participants are considered "lower-performers". I would also like to see some connection to other psychological studies like Fixed/Growth Mindsets. Someone with a fixed mindset may show more life satisfaction quitting than a growth mindset person.

Re: Facebook quitters report more life satisfaction, less depression and anxiety

#16
post #9

I wonder, have fb quitters stopped using all social media? Have they also stopped visiting news websites? My point is, is Facebook the only negativity inducing platform? I know for me it isn't. The question is how do you deal with the rest of them? Do you balance news intake against the impact on your mental health or you stop consuming news entirely, because in the end whatever it's set to happen will happen regardl…

I can't speak for others...but Facebook was my social media gateway drug in 2006. Maybe unsurprisingly, it was also the catalyst which led to me quitting most social media platforms (Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others). Soon after, I made a commitment to only consume news on Saturday mornings. The combination of all of these things has helped immensely, and I honestly feel like I'm missing very little.

Re: Facebook quitters report more life satisfaction, less depression and anxiety

#17
post #9

I wonder, have fb quitters stopped using all social media? Have they also stopped visiting news websites? My point is, is Facebook the only negativity inducing platform? I know for me it isn't. The question is how do you deal with the rest of them? Do you balance news intake against the impact on your mental health or you stop consuming news entirely, because in the end whatever it's set to happen will happen regardl…

I haven't hard quit anything but vastly reduced all of these things. Yes, I have vastly reduced my visits to news websites, Twitter, etc. I have increased my consumption of monthly periodicals, books, and movies.

Re: Facebook quitters report more life satisfaction, less depression and anxiety

#18
I open facebook for 2 minutes a week and scroll through my relatives' baby and pet pictures. I don't get how the site is such a specter of misery for some people

Twitter I would understand a little better. It's such a tar pit of negative energy, insults, rage bait, etc

Re: Facebook quitters report more life satisfaction, less depression and anxiety

#19
Rather than going cold turkey on Social Media, I’ve found it more effective to reduce the amount of content I’m exposed to e.g. for Facebook unfollowing all groups, turning off all notifications, reducing friends; for Instagram unfollowing almost all accounts And turning off all notifications etc.

This has the effect that when I DO inevitably visit these sites, I spend far less time there and it’s much less entertaining since I reach the “bottom” much quicker.

Over time I’ve been able to wean myself off.

Re: Facebook quitters report more life satisfaction, less depression and anxiety

#20

I open facebook for 2 minutes a week and scroll through my relatives' baby and pet pictures. I don't get how the site is such a specter of misery for some people Twitter I would understand a little better. It's such a tar pit of negative energy, insults, rage bait, etc

Yeah I'm really confused by the whole "my life got so much better when I got off FB" trope. I don't spend a lot of time on Facebook, but my time spent there is generally pretty positive - I really enjoy getting updates from my friends and family and seeing their photos.
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