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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

#261

Post by nhumrich »

rconti wrote: post #236
wronglebowski wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I’ve changed to leveraging social media to pursue my work and some specific interests. No friends or family. HN for stay current in my industry. A very curated Twitter via a third party client for following specific tech creators. No FB, IG or Reddit. No keeping up with the Jones’s or lusting after others lives. If I want to talk to someone I make a habit of doing it regularly. I text friends and family at…

This seems backwards to me. FB is exclusively friends and family. Those are people I am close to. Why would that drive "keeping up with the Joneses"? Wouldn't following some celebrity or athlete or something drive jealousy more than following friends? On Twitter, I've attempted to follow industry experts and "special interests" but it seems exclusively about people who I thought would provide insight into that specia…

> wouldnt following a celebrity drive more jealousy?

No. The whole premise for the keeping up with Joneses are that you know them well. They love in your neighborhood, they have similar jobs, etc. The phycological lie is that based on some things you should be able to keep up. Whereas with celebreties, you know that what they have in unachievable. They have so much you dont. The joneses are just like you, but with that one new thing. And then the next thing. Etc.

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

#262

Post by darkmighty »

ixtli wrote: post #226
powowowow wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is virtually no nuance in the reporting. If you want to read ad-supported news, then you will be stuck with news that is intended to have the lowest possible production costs, and garner the most possible eyeballs. This business does not support nuance, because nuance is expensive and less audacious. Nuanced reporting exists on essentially every topic that it is possible to care about, but it is often in smal…

the issue with the "i dislike mainstream media" argument is that its usually made by people who have a simultaneous and unspoken desire to have the "correct" information and opinions gift wrapped and personally delivered to them.

I think mainstream media is very dislikeable, and this "correct" information exists and can be gift wrapped to an extent. The only problem is that it's not so easy: if you want true education, get books on the matter (e.g. middle east history and current affairs). Vastly more valuable than trying to grasp the torrent of sensationalist news snippets. Not everyone has the commitment to do so. I'm not sure in that case if it's better to read no news at all or only read news (and no detailed reporting); I'm inclined to think no news is better. If you're not willing to question, contextualize and integrate information that's offered, better not take it, waste of time (or worse when it is skewed).

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

#263

Post by skokage »

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?

>But part of me feels an obligation to be informed to hold those in power accountable.

I'm curious though, how does the average citizen hold those in power accountable? OK so you vote, but tons of other people vote and are often uninformed about what is going on or are completely apathetic. The recent news about Roger Stone's sentencing to me proves how little power we as average citizens have in actually holding others accountable, especially when those in power have ties to other rich, powerful, and well connected people.

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

#264

Post by [deleted] »

Angostura wrote: post #200
sykick wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem as I see it is that it is almost impossible to be informed enough to hold people accountable. In the U.S. at least the news is almost always of the form: “ Person from party A (which you are a member of) destroys person from Party B”. Or, “Party B seeks to destroy Issue C”. There is virtually no nuance in the reporting. There’s no dissection. For example, the situation with Syria is quite complicated as T…

So read something like The Economist or the paper version of the NYT?

[deleted]

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

#265

Post by [deleted] »

sjtindell wrote: post #211
Angostura wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So read something like The Economist or the paper version of the NYT?

The NYT I definitely now class with all the rest. In my opinion The Economist stands alone as the only publication I can trust to be nuanced and informative.

[deleted]

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

#266

Post by treebornfrog »

whatshisface wrote: post #116
izzydata wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having the privilege to live in complete ignorant bliss is nice I guess. What could go wrong?

If something goes seriously wrong I will hear it via word of mouth. I would also notice something change in stock prices, gas prices, and many other vital signs of the hyper-connected global economy that I interact with every day. I guess if everyone I ever talk to follows me in quitting the news, I will consider checking it occasionally.

I don't watch the news. Stopped 4 years ago.

If something is important enough, someone within my circle will inform me of it.

Most things on the news is terrible for you, why? Because the majority of stuff you can't actually action and your brain processes it as a threat I.e war in the middle east.

Think globally, act locally.

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

#267

Post by hnaa »

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…

The "choose one" meme, but with "stay informed" and "stay sane."

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

#268

Post by quickthrowman »

IIAOPSW wrote: post #242
sjtindell wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The NYT I definitely now class with all the rest. In my opinion The Economist stands alone as the only publication I can trust to be nuanced and informative.

I'd say the Economist, Bloomberg, Bellingcat, and fivethirtyeight all have good signal to noise ratios.

Bloomberg (the website) is garbage, FT is far better. Bloomberg journalists are compensated for stories that “move markets”. Ridiculous.

I would really like a free Bloomberg terminal tho

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

#269

Post by pier25 »

vaylian wrote: post #132
Cytobit wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is HN not social media?

That's debatable. Where is the social element? If you stretch the definition of social media long enough you could also call the usenet, mailing lists or Wikipedia social media. HN isn't really about human connections or personal interactions. We might discuss them, but HN isn't designed or usually used for creating them.

> Where is the social element?

Right here in the comments.

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

#270

Post by lizardking »

skokage wrote: post #263
anderber wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

>But part of me feels an obligation to be informed to hold those in power accountable. I'm curious though, how does the average citizen hold those in power accountable? OK so you vote, but tons of other people vote and are often uninformed about what is going on or are completely apathetic. The recent news about Roger Stone's sentencing to me proves how little power we as average citizens have in actually holding oth…

What direction your outrage on that story points is a function of what media you consume. This is of course just the outrage du jour, there’s nothing unique about the Stone story in this regard.
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