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Heavy social media use associated with lower mental health in adolescents

bbc.com

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Re: Heavy social media use associated with lower mental health in adolescents

#351

Post by Xelbair »

tzs wrote: post #145
Xelbair wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The size is just the symptom. Those services match you, with other who share similar views/preferences - putting you inside a bubble. Before social media radical views\moronic opinions etc. wouldn't spread so far- because others would point out flaws in your reasoning or outright laugh at it. Now? you have permanent access to enabling group - group who share views, and support each other - entrenching it. Flatearther…

The usual counterargument I see offered to that is that sure, it is great if we can impede the spread of some completely stupid belief like flat Earth, but sometimes those things that are crazy by conventional wisdom turn out to be true. At that point, they usually mention Galileo and maybe some others, and they ask how do we avoid squashing the next Galileo with our measures to limit the spread of flat Earth theorie…

Yeah, it is mostly about, vitally speaking, infection rate.

On a side note I would like to remind everyone that Galileo's theories weren't fitting the observations of the world, it was step in right direction but he was also being a dick about it.

It took quite some time for us to develop better lenses, and to use elliptical instead of spherical orbits.

Re: Heavy social media use associated with lower mental health in adolescents

#352

Post by loughnane »

jjice wrote: post #278

I was addicted to Twitter in high school. I spent hours on it at night, getting no sleep. I spent so much time and mental bandwidth thinking of funny things to say or memes to make to get more likes. I was addicted to the likes and keeping up with everyone I knew. First semester of college, I stopped using Twitter. My sleep got better, I had more free time, and I was noticeably happier and freer. I no longer spent ti…

I’ve got great mileage out of RSS feeds from Reddit and HN. I have them run once a day for the subreddits I find interesting and cruise those in the morning. Then that’s it. No more checking multiple times per day

That way I can engage in a topic if I really want to.

Re: Heavy social media use associated with lower mental health in adolescents

#353

Post by AlwaysRock »

gabereiser wrote: post #333
AlwaysRock wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can echo this. I'm social media lite. I have very few social media platforms and that ones I have are limited or automated so I don't interact with them often. I had to be deliberate about telling people I'm not going to see their post about xyz so they would have to text or call me if they want to invite me. Sure I probably miss some events but the ones I go to I know I'm wanted at. Socializing passively at a gym…

I’d like to echo the socializing part. Granted it’s hard right now because of covid restrictions, but if you’ve deleted your social media you have to get yourself out there and socialize the analog way. Don’t be shy to say hi to people. Ask them what they are doing. Socialize at your regular routine stops. Reach out to that person you only kinda know from that thing one time and see if they want to come to something…

Oh sure. Talking to strangers, those strangers turning into acquaintances, and those acquaintances turning into friends is an art that seems to be lost. It's much more common in smaller towns where you only have so many people to choose from and see the same people over and over.

Re: Heavy social media use associated with lower mental health in adolescents

#354

Post by waterhouse »

TeaDrunk wrote: post #329
mtippett wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You got one too eh? tw sh / tw ed?

I don't know what this means; I don't have children if that's what you're asking.

I think the "sh" and "ed" decode to "self-harm" and "eating disorder". The "tw" might be "trigger warning". Given that, the "you got one too?" might mean "you have an eating disorder too?", although it doesn't make grammatical sense as "you have a self-harm too?", although that could be interpreted as "you have a self-harm disorder too?". But I don't really know.

Re: Heavy social media use associated with lower mental health in adolescents

#355

Post by jp555 »

mtippett wrote: post #223
jp555 wrote: post #45

doesn't that headline essentially say "teenagers damage teenagers' mental health"? Don't most teenagers spend most of their time socializing with other teenagers? My pre-internet teenage "social networking" was full of traumatic times. Has that not been the case of teenagers forever? I guess this study is reporting an measurable increase above the "normal" amount? That seems like it would be very hard to measure.

No they don't. The toxic communities that exist have a mixture of no-clue 11 year olds with minimal parental supervision (or parental supervision that's failing) through to young adults who found a community that can reflect their feelings back. Eg: the proana/edtwt communities are clearly children just working things out to young adults getting followings and interaction with a community. It sickens me to see a post…

How do you know this to be true?

Re: Heavy social media use associated with lower mental health in adolescents

#356

Post by johnfn »

grahamburger wrote: post #341
johnfn wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, sometimes they get things right, like (only stretching slightly) alcohol, which is not great in excess. You have to consider these things individually rather than trying to draw generalizations like "all puritan backlash is wrong."

My argument isn't really "they said these things were bad and they're not," it's more like "these things are actually kinda bad in some circumstances, but mostly we all turned out ok anyway, and things wouldn't really be much different or better if rock music were more heavily regulated when we were kids."

Really? How is rock music bad in some circumstances?

I think I just got hung up on a technicality in your argument.

Re: Heavy social media use associated with lower mental health in adolescents

#357

Post by foobarian »

sibeliuss wrote: post #313
jjice wrote: post #278

I was addicted to Twitter in high school. I spent hours on it at night, getting no sleep. I spent so much time and mental bandwidth thinking of funny things to say or memes to make to get more likes. I was addicted to the likes and keeping up with everyone I knew. First semester of college, I stopped using Twitter. My sleep got better, I had more free time, and I was noticeably happier and freer. I no longer spent ti…

Getting off of Facebook and Twitter was the best thing I ever did - I can't believe how much more mental space I have now that I'm no longer stuck in conversation loops with strangers. Interestingly, it was a mushroom trip that did it. The mushroom spirit (or whatever you want to call it) lucidly explained how I was wasting my life on those websites. The next day I quit, and its been years now, though I def felt with…

I am an old fart so when Twitter came around the UI was just confusing enough for me and at the same time I cared just a bit less than needed to overcome the activation energy that I still never figured out how to use it. Any time I read about the anxiety of being on Twitter I am fascinated anew at how isolated that community is and how little it all matters in the grand scheme of things.

Re: Heavy social media use associated with lower mental health in adolescents

#358

Post by foobarian »

jtr1 wrote: post #331
sibeliuss wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting off of Facebook and Twitter was the best thing I ever did - I can't believe how much more mental space I have now that I'm no longer stuck in conversation loops with strangers. Interestingly, it was a mushroom trip that did it. The mushroom spirit (or whatever you want to call it) lucidly explained how I was wasting my life on those websites. The next day I quit, and its been years now, though I def felt with…

Glad you're getting some space from them. I'm doing the same myself. Not sure how much I blame parents, though. These sites are designed like slot machines, which means there are a number of professionals and executives out there who consciously sought to addict people to their platforms. Shame on them.

I played the Diablo games addictively for a while in the early-mid 2000s. Later when I got to doing some adulting I ended up in Las Vegas trying out some slot machines when it hit me what was happening any time a named boss died. The games lost all the magic after that.

Re: Heavy social media use associated with lower mental health in adolescents

#359

Post by esja »

pitspotter wrote: post #343
esja wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN has the same problem with upvotes. It would be healthier not to display karma scores at all, even privately. Use them for ranking etc but hide the numbers completely.

My view right from the start of the internet has been to make quarrelling exact a cost, just as it does in real life. Thus downvoting should cost equal karma...

That’s a great idea.

Re: Heavy social media use associated with lower mental health in adolescents

#360

Post by Hendrikto »

skratlo wrote: post #289
Hendrikto wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just finished writing a paper on this. Here are some upsides: Studies have shown that disclosing information about oneself is an intrinsically rewarding experience [0]. Social media offerings provide a platform for sharing information easily with a large audience, which activates reward mechanisms in the brain. People use social media because it makes them feel good, which is probably the reason for their explosive…

> Social media platforms are one of the most accessible forms of long-distance communication E-mail? Have you heard of it? Signal? Other IM platforms. And you continue on selling social media as means of friendly communication which is not true. There's gazillion alternatives but those were all eaten up by the giants. All those use cases and people that you mentioned used mailing lists before and were doing just fine…

It says “one of” the most accessible, which is undeniable.

> And you continue on selling social media as means of friendly communication which is not true.

No, I do not. The section about negative effects is much longer, and the conclusion drawn at the end also damns social media. In a scientific paper, you have to present both sides.

I just included the positive effects section here, because somebody asked.

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