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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

#41

Post by snarf21 »

coderunner wrote: post #29

As an aside, if anyone has any unusual things that you have done that have helped with depression, please mention them. I've done the usual route of therapy and meds but that didn't help with my depression or suicidal thoughts. Thanks in advance.

Continue to see a licensed professional but one thing I've learned is that people tend to be happier when there is something to look forward to. If everything pending in your life is a dread, it can be a downward spiral. The best approach is to find that thing for you. It could be volunteering or a hobby. It doesn't have to be the perfect thing but just pick one. Learn how to take photographs and how to use a camera with f-stops. Learn how to bake pastries. Join civic clubs or church clubs or hiking clubs. Join a gym and get in shape. If you don't like it, try something else. Search on meetup.com or other similar. Most of these things have an impassioned group of people who will talk about the group's focus for hours on end. It creates anecdotes and funny stories and events to look forward to. It creates a sense of accomplishment even if you only get better at thing X very very slowly. You make progress and improve.

"My own sense is that –certainly for males, and maybe for anybody, having a certain amount of fitness and strength makes you proud, and being proud is the most reliable source of happiness that I know." - Stewart Brand

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

#42

Post by cs702 »

eindiran wrote: post #32
cs702 wrote: post #6

I'm predisposed to believe this is true... But I can't find a link to any evidence or research in the OP, which is a fluffy piece with little actual content. I'm flagging the OP unless someone posts a link to either evidence or higher quality content.

The first link mistakenly pointed to the Bloomberg article when it was meant to point to this: https://web.stanford.edu/~gentzkow/research/facebook.pdf Some takeaways: Deactivation reduced (political) polarization: "The Treatment group was less likely to say they follow news about politics or the President, and less able to correctly answer factual questions about recent news events. Our overall index of news knowled…

Thank you. That link should be the OP. Mods?

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

#43

Post by 4ec0755f5522 »

FB is mostly a tool for evil but it's got some amazing parenting resources. On the evil side you have the anti-vax nutters but you also have supportive parent groups for whatever weird disorder/issue/disease/problem your kid might have where the evidence-based stuff is winning out. Global scale organizing of these resources is a net benefit for sure.

I suppose 10 years ago they would have been on yahoo groups. 10 years before that, mailing lists. Now they're on FB and I guess that's alright if you don't mind FB knowing everything about your kids problems.

So yeah FB still evil warmongers against privacy but its power to organize moms does some little bit of good in this world.

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

#44

Post by bitwize »

papreclip wrote: post #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

I think if you have basic bitch-ass friend who are always posting about "living their #bestlife" and/or are at risk of starting drama, you're in for a shitty time on Facebook. More so if you're like this yourself.

People with lives to lead off social media have fewer of these problems.

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

#45

Post by s_y_n_t_a_x »

new2628 wrote: post #38
papreclip wrote: post #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

I drink one glass of fine red wine once a week while having a nice conversation with a good friend. On other occasions I have a shot of strong brandy before stepping out on a cold winter evening. I don't get how alcohol is such a specter of misery for some people.

You're comparing social media usage to alcoholism?

One is physically dependent, one is a fucking website.

Ignore posts from people that cause you stress, or just don't scroll through the website.

I keep mine to keep in touch with people, but I don't view other people's stupid thoughts. Of course that's not going to be fun.

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

#46

Post by Andrew_nenakhov »

I confirm. Facebook stopped properly working for me today: I use it mostly on a smartphone via a mobile Firefox, and it stopped showing more than 4 lines of text in every post, drawing a non-working 'more' link at the end of line four. So, I decided not to report the issue because I feel myself much happier without Facebook.

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

#47

Post by tareqak »

s_y_n_t_a_x wrote: post #45
new2628 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I drink one glass of fine red wine once a week while having a nice conversation with a good friend. On other occasions I have a shot of strong brandy before stepping out on a cold winter evening. I don't get how alcohol is such a specter of misery for some people.

You're comparing social media usage to alcoholism? One is physically dependent, one is a fucking website. Ignore posts from people that cause you stress, or just don't scroll through the website. I keep mine to keep in touch with people, but I don't view other people's stupid thoughts. Of course that's not going to be fun.

Both can be addictions whose severity range can range from inconsequential, to minor, to debilitating, to life-ending.

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

#48

Post by whytaka »

s_y_n_t_a_x wrote: post #45
new2628 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I drink one glass of fine red wine once a week while having a nice conversation with a good friend. On other occasions I have a shot of strong brandy before stepping out on a cold winter evening. I don't get how alcohol is such a specter of misery for some people.

You're comparing social media usage to alcoholism? One is physically dependent, one is a fucking website. Ignore posts from people that cause you stress, or just don't scroll through the website. I keep mine to keep in touch with people, but I don't view other people's stupid thoughts. Of course that's not going to be fun.

Almost everyone has uncontrollable mental patterns. Some are more self destructive than others.

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

#49

Post by graeme »

banana_giraffe wrote: post #37
papreclip wrote: post #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

I'm very happy that there are those that can interact with Facebook without negative side effects. If you're in that category, I hope the site adds value to you and you enjoy it. I can't. Yes, it's a failure on me, but my experience is better without Facebook in my life. You mention negativity, and that's part of it. I saw a steady stream of "the world's on fire" type posts. The other side, the rosy view of my friend…

It sounds like your two feeds are very different. I didn’t like facebook, then unfollowed everyone except immediate family. It’s nice now! Not distracting, occasional baby pictures.

One of facebook’s worst long run mistakes was optimizing for engagement vs. enjoyment. It boosts metrics but makes people quit or go cold turkey.

Instagram has never felt like that.

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

#50

Post by GcVmvNhBsU »

s_y_n_t_a_x wrote: post #45
new2628 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I drink one glass of fine red wine once a week while having a nice conversation with a good friend. On other occasions I have a shot of strong brandy before stepping out on a cold winter evening. I don't get how alcohol is such a specter of misery for some people.

You're comparing social media usage to alcoholism? One is physically dependent, one is a fucking website. Ignore posts from people that cause you stress, or just don't scroll through the website. I keep mine to keep in touch with people, but I don't view other people's stupid thoughts. Of course that's not going to be fun.

One is a physical dependence, the other is a psychological dependence.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3480687/

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