Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

calnewport.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 167 posts

Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

#61

Post by tyfon »

mlang23 wrote: post #27

I totally quit television about a year ago, and it had a very noticeable positive impact on me. I also mostly quit Facebook with the end of last year. I say mostly, because I still use its event calendar, and occasionally check my stream. But I significantly reduced the amount of comments I leave on that platform. I feel like, while the criticism of FaceBook, Twitter, Reddit and co is pretty much warranted, we manage…

I stopped watching regular TV around 2005 due to the influx of "reality-tv" and other crappy formats. What I used to watch before was real documentaries on discovery and it's family of channels.

Now I just watch Festival of Science or Royal Institution lectures on YouTube and some anime on wakanim :)

There are also a lot of real in-class lectures filmed on various topic on YouTube that I find very nice.

I don't miss regular TV at all.

I quit facebook around 2012 (deleted and purged the accont by waiting 6 months) and I don't miss that either. I still have contact with the friends that I care about via phone, I just don't look at their fake lives on facebook anymore.

Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

#63

Post by anonsivalley652 »

For me:

Newspaper: late 70's-2002

Friendster: 2003-2005

TV: late 70's-2006

Myspace: 2004-2006

Orkut: 2005-2006

Facebook: 2003-2007

/.: 2004-2007

Flickr: 2004-2010

Radio: late 70's-2011

Twitter: 2008-2013

Quora: 2009-2013

Snap: 2012-2013

Meat agriculture & palm kernel oil (yeah, yeah no stupid comments): late 70's-2014

Reddit: 2017-2020

LinkedIn: 2004-2020

IRC: 1996-

Craigslist: 2000-

eBay: 2001-

Amazon: 2001-

AliExpress: 2016-

Wish: 2019-

Addicted to materialism, I guess.

Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

#64

Post by tyfon »

saagarjha wrote: post #8
Calvin02 wrote: post #7

HN's Facebook obsession is so unproductive. Let it go already. Focus on building your own thing. Yes, people use Facebook. No, you don't have to. Edit: yes, please downvote this comment. Let the HN naval gazing continue.

People who use Facebook often ask you to use Facebook, too…

Not only that, they put events for our kids activities on facebook.

I have to ask to be emailed about these events and often I get a screenshot of their facebook post!

You should not have to be on a platform to participate and luckily everyone that I explained this problem to understands it and do send me the email with events. But it creates enormous pressure to be on the platform.

Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

#65

Post by GekkePrutser »

jsmonkey wrote: post #21
mastazi wrote: post #15

For me the greatest improvement came from stopping using Twitter and Reddit rather than Facebook or Instagram (I quit using all four within the last year, Youtube is the only social media service that I'm still regularly consuming, I'd like to quit that too), of course this is based on my personal situation and the way I personally use all of those media. In my specific case I have the impression that Twitter and Red…

Same here. At least in Facebook you mostly communicate with people you've chosen to accept as friends, and know who they really are. Reddit and Twitter on the other hand show all the bad sides of anonymity to the fullest. Way too much blind tribalism and conflict seeking, few adults actually capable of real discussion. So it's not only a waste of time, but one that gives you a bad mood as well.

I actually like Reddit for this. Not being locked in the same circle with the same baby pictures etc.

Of course it depends a lot which subreddits you use. Some are toxic. The more technically oriented ones are fine in my experience.

Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

#66

Post by anonsivalley652 »

Santosh83 wrote: post #5

Facebook is moderately useful for keeping in touch with people you want to hear from and who just won't use email/Mastadon or whatever, and for interest-based groups and events. That is all. And as long as you strictly restrict yourself to using only the website through a browser and eschew their apps and carefully go over the privacy settings and tune them to your needs you should be okay. As for endlessly scrolling…

The internally-inconsistent premise FB is based on, keeping in touch with friends, ultimately leaves nothing new and no mystery to talk about.. and no point to ever meet, effectively creating distance from and losing friends. Isn't that an awesome technology?

Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

#67

Post by GekkePrutser »

I wonder if people will ever quit Facebook.. I mean after all the stuff that's happened and they still haven't.

We had a discussion about this recently in my Spanish class. Someone asked me for my facebook and when I said I closed it long ago they were all like "eeewww privacy freak".

So I explained my reasons, the abuse of personal data, the manipulation of the masses (Cambridge Analytica) and the others immediately sprang to life saying how horrible it all is. And turned out to have good knowledge of the facts. But yeah, it's so easy to stay in touch with friends.. Well yes I know, as an expat it's not easy without it.

Still, their initial "ewww" reaction really surprises me considering their apprehension at Facebook's practices.

Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

#68

Post by karimmaassen »

I still use Reddit, Youtube and Twitter on a daily basis. I get to choose what to follow, how and for that, it's informative (and a time-passing activity for sure) and useful.

Facebook, on the other hand, is an all or nothing app in my opinion. It's difficult to distinguish between who to friend and who not. Close friends and family members, I keep in touch with through WhatsApp, text and whatnot.

As an entertainment (or informative) platform, Facebook is even worse. Sensationalism and misinformation is rampant, or you're bombarded with ads. And you're not really allowed to interact or disagree without getting into a de-railed discussion.

On top of that, you're comparing your life with those of others (' highlights). It's a useless and depressing timesink (which Instagram is as well for those exact same reasons).

I'm glad I quit Facebook (for 99%).

Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

#70

Post by DyslexicAtheist »

mlang23 wrote: post #60
DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

time spent in a way that made you feel good isn't wasted. maybe it had no economic output but that isn't a waste. But the long term benefit of TV/Video isn't a diet that's good for you. Consider all the things you could do (not "achieve") if you'd use it for reading books, travel, learning a language or art. What this medium robs you of is boredom, which maybe feels great in the short run, but is hugely damaging to y…

> time spent in a way that made you feel good isn't wasted I am not sure this sentence is universally true. I'd like to remind you about the experiment with mice that got a button to trigger their own happiness center... They end up pressing that button, until they die from lack of food.

true. also drugs usually feel great. there seems to be a cost for feeling great, e.g. you can't have feeling great/happy without sometimes feeling down/sad. how would one even understand the concept of happiness or being fulfilled if they have never experienced the other side.
Post reply on HN