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Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

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Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

#151

Post by blaser-waffle »

a3n wrote: post #112
tyfon wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I vaguely think I stopped watching TV, modulo Netflix, around the same time as you. Now when I see it in a trucker's break room or similar, it strikes me as shockingly vacuous, and so filled with commercials. And now I'm living the irony, driving a truck and hauling all that stuff that the TV is waving in front of us. Just as some of you are living the irony, spending your hard earned educations building the infrastr…

> I vaguely think I stopped watching TV, modulo Netflix, around the same time as you. Now when I see it in a trucker's break room or similar, it strikes me as shockingly vacuous, and so filled with commercials.

Third'd. I cut the cord years back mostly as a consequence of doing the digital nomad thing. I agree with the shocking vicious part. It reminds me of getting crab cakes on the east coast -- in the 90s it was mostly lumps of tasty crab with a little bread, and now it's mostly bread with a little crumb of crab. TV feels the same -- mostly BS with a few shrinking nuggets of entertainment. No wonder Netflix and other streaming services are going strong.

Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

#152

Post by jvagner »

tyfon wrote: post #61
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…

Here's how I've managed my social:

* Deleted Facebook. Don't miss it one bit.

* Deleted Reddit. I open the app every once in a while, scan what's popular. But not a lot.

* Pruned twitter. I don't follow anyone on Twitter anymore, save my partner. I deleted all my posts, going back to the beginning. I don't read it anymore, but I've preserved my username.

* Kept Instagram. I like following certain people in places around the world I have a travel connection too. And certain athletes in sports I follow.

And so... If there's no benefit to posting -- there's very little inclination to consume. No arguing, no triggering, no pavlov-ian itch.

I post to Instagram, I post a little bit here on YC. This leveling keeps the "push for pellet", or "pull down for more content" habits very minimal.

Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

#153

Post by vidanay »

Minor49er wrote: post #132
dageshi wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People have said this about every media since the book was invented.

Is it wrong, though? If you spend all day doing nothing but reading books, you're not using the time to apply anything that you have read in a book

That's how I feel about programming books.

Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

#154

Post by jfengel »

oklol123 wrote: post #96
xivzgrev wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally don’t find TV a time waster. If you enjoy it, as I do, then do it, guilt-free. However if you find yourself addicted ie you want to do other things but you keep getting “sucked in” then by all means stop - it will have a noticeably positive impact.

I don’t agree. Watching tv and browsing social media just temporarily heightens the mood, but then tampers of very quickly. That time could be spend doing something useful like following a hobby, because that increases overall happiness.

Both function much like a drug: pleasant in small quantities, but easily creating a feedback loop that results in it dominating your behavior. Some people appear to be more susceptible to it than others.

The neural mechanisms have a lot in common. Video games, I would note, also share that mechanism.

Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

#155

Post by dr-detroit »

GekkePrutser wrote: post #67

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…

[dead]

Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

#156

Post by RichardCA »

VLM wrote: post #139
Ntrails wrote: post #33

Earlier 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

For TV, a large number of people are paid enormous amounts of money and put huge efforts into the best result a bland corporate team can produce to increase ad sales by encouraging consumerism. "Love Island" does NOT exist to teach people about the human condition, its only goal is to increase hair spray sales, any other positive effect is simply a happy accident. Even "non profit" TV like PBS mostly exist to enterta…

> TV like PBS mostly exist to entertain the egos and virtue signalling of a small number of major monetary donors.

There was a time in the past when you could find true educational content.

Imagine randomly channel surfing and running into this.

https://youtu.be/feBT0Anpg4A

But I agree with your point. You can watch PBS mindlessly. I used to geek out on the obscure, ephemeral nature of all the educational films they used to show. It was a guilty pleasure.

Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

#157

Post by _lacroix »

Ntrails wrote: post #33
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…

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

At this point I consider both reading and TV, and especially movies because they don't encourage bingeing, more worthwhile than internet use of any kind - mainly because they require sustained concentration and don't encourage the tab-jumping, notification-checking, infinite-scrolling content addiction that I feel myself falling into when I'm on the internet. There's something to be said for sustained focus on one piece of content, even if that content is Love Island.

Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

#158

Post by _lacroix »

kriro wrote: post #104

Sometimes 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…

Do you find that you tend to get sucked into to ANYTHING in your life? Content, substances, activities? I find that I have a very addictive personality across the board - once something feels good it's very hard to stop even when I consciously want to or it's making me feel bad. This happens to me with social media, TV, alcohol, drugs, and occasionally even reading or a new hobby I'm really into. Rather than the ability to delay gratification, I'd imagine social media consumption is correlated to whatever it is about the brain's dopamine pathways that leads some people to get addicted to things more easily than others.

Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

#159

Post by everdrive »

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 ended up finding youtube even more addicting than regular TV or netflix. This shouldn't be surprising, but I had to take steps to mitigate my Youtube intake all the same.

Re: Economists study what happens when people stop using Facebook

#160

Post by kristopolous »

cairo_x wrote: post #80
kristopolous wrote: post #58

Use a time tracker browser plugin for a week. Look back at the results, decide if it's how you want to spend your time.

> time tracker browser plugin Any recommendations?

I use https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/webtime-tracker/pp...

seems to be fine.

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