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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

#101

Post by anderber »

INTPenis wrote: post #89

What gave me the most satisfaction is quitting the news. Incidentally I don't have or use any social media either. Except imgur and sometimes among the funny memes I get news. But I'm afraid for people I meet who always remind me of all the awful things they've seen in the news. I'm aware of none of this until someone tells me. And yet my life is the same as everyone elses. Not knowing what is going on, living in a c…

I absolutely understand what you're saying. But part of me feels an obligation to be informed to hold those in power accountable. If everyone follows the advice of avoiding the news, what effect would that have in our Govenment?

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

#102

Post by mindcrime »

yingw787 wrote: post #97
mindcrime wrote: post #93

I'm fairly well convinced that I'm going to quit FB soon'ish. The main thing stopping me is that either A. the replacement "thing" I want doesn't exist yet, or B. it does, and I'm just not aware of it. Given that I have some pretty specific ideas in mind regarding what I want to use instead of FB (think "self hosted blog" but with some very particular details) I don't know that the exact thing I want exists yet, and…

Have you considered just using FB messenger @ messenger.com? You can log in with your email address instead of your Facebook account. You can also use it while your Facebook account is deactivated (I deactivated mine). No news feed, no ads, just conversations. Not associated with Facebook, just a happy Messenger user.

Not really, because I have an ideological aversion to closed off / walled-garden protocols like that. Part of what my switch away from the whole FB/Twitter/Etc. thing is going to be going back to mainly using XMPP for chat. And anybody who can't, or won't, join an XMPP network and use an XMPP client is somebody I don't need to chat with.

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

#103

Post by downerending »

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.

Damn. Alcohol helped me some, but it's rather difficult to recommend that.

Simply accepting that it's going to be part of my life forever has helped some as well. I look for small pleasures, and it takes my life off of my thoughts for a while.

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

#105

Post by minikites »

INTPenis wrote: post #89

What gave me the most satisfaction is quitting the news. Incidentally I don't have or use any social media either. Except imgur and sometimes among the funny memes I get news. But I'm afraid for people I meet who always remind me of all the awful things they've seen in the news. I'm aware of none of this until someone tells me. And yet my life is the same as everyone elses. Not knowing what is going on, living in a c…

>And yet my life is the same as everyone elses. Not knowing what is going on, living in a country with a high standard of living and personal safety, doesn't affect me at all.

The fact that it doesn't affect you means you're in an incredibly privileged position in your country, your life is not the same as everyone else's.

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

#106

Post by veb »

yingw787 wrote: post #97
mindcrime wrote: post #93

I'm fairly well convinced that I'm going to quit FB soon'ish. The main thing stopping me is that either A. the replacement "thing" I want doesn't exist yet, or B. it does, and I'm just not aware of it. Given that I have some pretty specific ideas in mind regarding what I want to use instead of FB (think "self hosted blog" but with some very particular details) I don't know that the exact thing I want exists yet, and…

Have you considered just using FB messenger @ messenger.com? You can log in with your email address instead of your Facebook account. You can also use it while your Facebook account is deactivated (I deactivated mine). No news feed, no ads, just conversations. Not associated with Facebook, just a happy Messenger user.

This is exactly what I do.

I haven't deactivated my Facebook profile, but I have not visited it in six months or so. I can't be bothered, my news feed became too commercial. However I use messenger.com to talk to my real life friends and family. I also use Messenger Lite on my phone.

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

#107

Post by arrow7000 »

jariel wrote: post #69
varenc wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similarly: Alcohol quitters report more life satisfaction, less depression, and anxiety

Actually, those who drink in moderation are more successful and happy than those who quit.

So what you're saying is people without an addiction are happier than people who are addicted? Shocking stuff

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

#108

Post by j-c-hewitt »

anderber wrote: post #101
INTPenis wrote: post #89

What gave me the most satisfaction is quitting the news. Incidentally I don't have or use any social media either. Except imgur and sometimes among the funny memes I get news. But I'm afraid for people I meet who always remind me of all the awful things they've seen in the news. I'm aware of none of this until someone tells me. And yet my life is the same as everyone elses. Not knowing what is going on, living in a c…

I absolutely understand what you're saying. But part of me feels an obligation to be informed to hold those in power accountable. If everyone follows the advice of avoiding the news, what effect would that have in our Govenment?

You can delegate your concern to a political party, which is essentially all you are able to do as a citizen in a country like the US particularly if you live in a state that does not have a lot of referenda.

If you want to learn more you can spend more time on researching the issues. Otherwise you could vote on a single issue, or just pick the party that is supposed to represent people like you with a similar hierarchy of values.

The US also doesn't have mandatory voting, so declining to vote just signals that you have delegated concern over civic issues to other people who are willing to make that (sometimes significant) sacrifice of time, energy, and money.

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

#109

Post by veb »

mindcrime wrote: post #102
yingw787 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered just using FB messenger @ messenger.com? You can log in with your email address instead of your Facebook account. You can also use it while your Facebook account is deactivated (I deactivated mine). No news feed, no ads, just conversations. Not associated with Facebook, just a happy Messenger user.

Not really, because I have an ideological aversion to closed off / walled-garden protocols like that. Part of what my switch away from the whole FB/Twitter/Etc. thing is going to be going back to mainly using XMPP for chat. And anybody who can't, or won't, join an XMPP network and use an XMPP client is somebody I don't need to chat with.

You might like PixelFed (https://pixelfed.social/) it's a completely open sourced project based on federation.

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

#110

Post by izzydata »

INTPenis wrote: post #89

What gave me the most satisfaction is quitting the news. Incidentally I don't have or use any social media either. Except imgur and sometimes among the funny memes I get news. But I'm afraid for people I meet who always remind me of all the awful things they've seen in the news. I'm aware of none of this until someone tells me. And yet my life is the same as everyone elses. Not knowing what is going on, living in a c…

Having the privilege to live in complete ignorant bliss is nice I guess.

What could go wrong?

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