Biggest takeaway: a therapy is typically 2x$100 an hour sessions per week. Quitting Facebook provides 25-40% of the effect?
Facebook is free? Not even close.
Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook
101–110 of 167 posts
Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook
#102I 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 find that I mostly watch Youtube edu-tainment channels like EEVblog.
Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have never understood why people claim reading is a more worthy use of time than watching tv. Love island probably teaches people more about the human condition than fifty shades does, so pick your poison
most books that have been published in the past 100 years will disappear because they aren't worth the e-/paper they're written on. What makes reading more valuable for your brain is that it requires active engagement. films might be valuable too (I love films such as sci-fi, crime and comedy) - but binging 6 hrs on movies/shows every days is sure not as valuable as reading 6 hrs every day. It becomes even more damag…
> binging 6 hrs on movies/shows every days is sure not as valuable as reading 6 hrs every day.
Citation needed
All reading is not inherently valuable, in the same way all television is not. I don't get any more socialisation from reading a book, and indeed unlike e.g. watching TV with housemates/family it's an entirely isolated non-social activity.
Now, if we're talking solely about _children_ then i will give the act of reading additional value due to reading comprehension being a key skill that they need to improve! But mine isn't getting any better at this point, certainly not by reading the same old trash I always do.
"TV bad, Books good" is just a weird generalisation that sticks in my craw and I've never seen a believable piece of evidence for it
Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook
#104Sometimes I feel like I have a "genetic advantage" to not be attracted by social media. I have a Twitter account that I rarely use (mostly for API-access for NLP research), I check into my Facebook account maybe once a month and have never used Instagram. I watch some things on Youtube (usually recorded lectures or tech talks or board game videos) but rarely ever "drift" towards recommended videos and the like.
I used to be on IRC a lot back in the day but quit it completely, I used to frequent specialized forums, especially when I was an online poker player but also have quit those completely.
Don't have a Reddit account and am not really following that. I guess my HN account is the most used social media right now.
I also don't feel the urge to post and share pictures which I notice a lot in my friends. Sometimes it feels like a moment doesn't exist for them unless they can capture it in a picture (whereas for me it actually disturbs the enjoyment of the moment to stop and take a picture).
I instant message but am notorious for "answering late" and keep getting complaints that I don't check everything immediately. I usually put my phone on the charger when I get back to work and only look at it every now and then, sometimes not at all until I go to bed.
Interestingly, I am very interested in how social media works technologically and have also been an early adopter of many technologies. However I feel like I'm fairly "results oriented" when it comes to social media so I expect some sort of benefit from using them vs. the time spent.
I've also noticed that I'd probably test well on my ability to delay gratification and I feel like this might be correlated with social media consumption in some way (maybe there's studies on this?).
Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook
#105For 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- AliExpr…
You could add RSS 2006-2018
Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow, I typically only get that question from people way older then 70 years... That feels weird, to read this on HN. No, sorry, I don't need a TV just to get a few news bites daily. There are other ways to stay up to date.
> There are other ways to stay up to date. Right, that was the question. What do you use to stay informed?
I have my alarm set to a high quality radio station at the time their morning news show starts.
This is a 5 minute news show that condenses the essential things of the day. If I feel like I need to know more about a specific event, I typically browse a news site with my phone while walking to work.
That is enough to be able to follow the typical smalltalk once I hit the workplace.
Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook
#107Sometimes I feel like I have a "genetic advantage" to not be attracted by social media. I have a Twitter account that I rarely use (mostly for API-access for NLP research), I check into my Facebook account maybe once a month and have never used Instagram. I watch some things on Youtube (usually recorded lectures or tech talks or board game videos) but rarely ever "drift" towards recommended videos and the like. I use…
Well u still take the time to write lengthy stories in HackerNews, so maybe you're not 100% immune to this?
Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook
#108I wonder if selecting your population via people who respond to a Facebook ad about studying quitting social media introduces any bias. (I can't see the article so I don't know what their ad actually was) I worry that the correct takeaway is people who are interested in the idea of taking a break from social media probably should. Maybe the study was sufficiently well compensated that people who feel positively about social media still felt participation was worthwhile?
Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook
#109For 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…
I never understood the value of Twitter. It looked to me like a few people machine gun blasting personal details to the world. Why anybody would do that or even read it was bizarre to me. I guess some people just crave attention.
Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook
#110I 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…
Facebook, like many other things in our society, is a Clan-thing. "My clan vs your clan" is a game that humans play very very well.
Their initial reaction is just "oh, you are not one of us". If you talk about the details, they might agree with you, but they still fall for the "not one of my clan"-thing initially.
Same happens with many things.
Linux vs Windows vs Mac OS
Android vs iOS
Left vs Right
Vegetarian vs meat-eater
vaxxination vs anti-vaxx
choose your poison.