Facebook quitters report more life satisfaction, less depression and anxiety • Hacker News Board

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

#431

Post by eru » Sun, Feb 16, 2020, 10:36 AM UTC

pbourke wrote: post #359

eru wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If everyone follows the advice of avoiding the news, what effect would that have in our Govenment? Probably not much. Lots of information that people get from the news is misleading at best anyway. And you can do simple retrospective voting without reading the news: did I do well in the last four years? Then re-elect the party in power. Things are going badly? Then vote for an opposition party.

> did I do well in the last four years? As in you did you personally do well financially or what have you? So you're voting as the ethical equivalent of a four year old? The rule of law is threatened by a subtle erosion of norms in the administration of justice, but your 401k's up, so let's vote the incumbents back in?

If you want a vote that actual changes things, vote with your feet.

That vote has an enormous impact on your own life. Bigger than any ballot box.

But it also has a comparatively big impact on the place you leave behind and the place you are joining. Just your tax revenue alone will be so much more impactful than your marginal vote was.

> As in you did you personally do well financially or what have you? So you're voting as the ethical equivalent of a four year old?

Yes. But that's not because I think it's a particularly good way to vote; I just think that it would be an improvement on what people are doing de facto. See eg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Myth_of_the_Rational_Voter

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

#432

Post by rblion » Sun, Feb 16, 2020, 9:40 PM UTC

I deactivated my Facebook, don't use Messenger, barely use Instagram. Snapchat is just an archive for old photos/videos. Twitter is a few times a week. Reddit is a few times a day.

Notice more contentment, more focus, less anxiety, less noise. Technology is great for creativity, productivity, learning and entertainment. I prefer to hang out with people, be out in nature or explore a new city.

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

#433

Post by samplatt » Mon, Feb 17, 2020, 2:50 AM UTC

defterGoose wrote: post #372

samplatt wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe, maybe not. There's a theory that fungi that breaks down plant matter today didn't exist during the Mesozoic - it's possible that subsequent civilisations (if any) aren't going to be able to turn to fossil fuels for cheap energy. Not to mention that the goldilocks zone doesn't last forever, and the impending runaway-greenhouse-effect is something unprecedented in Earth's history. I'm being hyperbolic here, but…

| the incredible biodiversity of life we had a few hundred years ago. I've been thinking a lot recently about the biblical creation story in the context of trying to understand how I can effectively communicate regarding climate change with those around me who are religious. Some Christians are amenable to the concept of human destruction of the environment being sinful, but even then, I sometimes wonder if their ten…

You write well, your musings there were enjoyable to read.

All of the Old Testament is interpretive metaphor, so the original Fall story can work equally well as both prophecy and prologue.

The Fall deals with loss of innocence and the acceptance of consequences, which is a parable that has the remarkable flexibility to work at any level. Every decade for the last 100 years, we could safely say that civilisation as a whole was less innocent than the decade before it, in that we were more aware of ourselves and our impact on each other and the environment. With each generation of awareness we are imbued with more responsibility to take care of ourselves and our world, but we don't do it because those that pushed the innocence-lost envelope are also the ones emotionally capable of externalising the costs of doing so.

The thing about civilisation is that we can't really envisage an END to it - we can easily imagine ourselves amongst the stars, continuing to lose innocence the further we go... I often wonder if it's possible to progress AT ALL without our cancerous approach stomping a steel heeled boot on our environment and on other people.

Is progress possible without suffering? That's a question for bigger minds than mine, i think. I need an economist, a sociologist, and a philosopher, stat!