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Researchers, lawmakers want Facebook's mental health research

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Re: Researchers, lawmakers want Facebook's mental health research

#71

Post by detaro »

goldcd wrote: post #50
treeman79 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Watching a happy and polite teenage daughter become horrifically depressed and nasty when on social media is a gut punch. Several years of off of it for multiple months. Very happy. On it for a couple of months. Depressed and nasty. Every single time. We were always the bad guys for restricting. She’s moved out and married now. Now talks about how depressed she gets on it.

Yes. It must be social media. Teenagers were previously well known for being bundles of joy. And for thanking their parents for imposing rules. Still, good to know that you were right and she knows this now.

fwiw, this comment also isn't really in the spirit of the "open discussion" you miss.

Re: Researchers, lawmakers want Facebook's mental health research

#72

Post by mastrsushi »

It's pretty tiring to see activists and researchers targeting big bad Facebook when clearly the issue is social media as a whole.

An app where the user watches a 5 second video of some rich 18 year old from LA making smoothie bowls. Then the user swipes up to a video of some 22 year old lifting half the weight of an economy sized car. The fact that this isn't obviously depression inducing is concerning.

I know by posting on this site, I'm contributing very little. But there needs to be a campaign against social media. Something that tells the world, this is mood altering and unnaturally over-stimulating. That we weren't meant to lay down slide up at our screens like brain dead slugs watching 5 second clips for 5 hours after work.

Maybe I've become too programmer minded, but we were meant to make things, read books, listen to music, even watching TV shows is more meaningful.

Re: Researchers, lawmakers want Facebook's mental health research

#73

Post by fnord77 »

ipnon wrote: post #12

Note that Facebook does not have the choice to agree. To do so would be to open Facebook to unimaginable legal liability. So Facebook's opinion in the matter is moot. There are practically no inputs to this function that will change its behavior.

if they have internal documents that confirm links to depression, they're open to legal liability anyway. It does not matter what their PR says.

Re: Researchers, lawmakers want Facebook's mental health research

#75

Post by yumraj »

munk-a wrote: post #21
yumraj wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because its revenues are dependent on users being addicted to its service. Your question is akin to asking why are crack dealers not worried about the health of their customers.

Well crack dealers all want their customers to be immortal customers - but they'd prefer it if their customers were customers for longer compared to alive for longer.

It’s not about longevity, it’s about LTV.

If the consumption, and hence value, is high, the LTV can be maximized even if the lifetime is low.

Re: Researchers, lawmakers want Facebook's mental health research

#76

Post by standardUser »

azemetre wrote: post #52

It's very odd, I use to use Instagram and it would make me depressed. IDK how to explain, I don't even have any friends on there I follow. Just something about seeing everyone at their best 100% of the time, doing amazing things 100% of the time, never facing adversity 100% of the time. I know it's not realistic but it still gets to your head. I uninstalled it from my phone I feel better about myself after a few week…

That was not Instagram but rather the set of accounts you chose to follow on Instagram.

Choose to follow all dumb meme accounts and you would never have had that experience. Choose to follow all stand-up comedy accounts (or nature or music or comic books) and you would again have an entirely different experience.

It's not social media that is creating those problems, it's the way users choose to use social media. Though I'd readily admit that the proprietors do everything they can to make the initial experience as painfully addictive as possible.

Re: Researchers, lawmakers want Facebook's mental health research

#77

Post by WesleyHale »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #51

> "The correlational evidence showing that there is a link between social media use and depression is pretty definitive at this point," said Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University. "The largest and most well-conducted studies that we have all show that teens who spend more time on social media are more likely to be depressed or unhappy." > Correlation is not causation, and one area of furth…

it's true that correlation doesn't equal causation as the article itself pointed out.

Is there another event besides the releasing of the first smart phone in conjunction with social media that we is a possible contributor to the rise of suicide and depression from 2009 - 2015?

Re: Researchers, lawmakers want Facebook's mental health research

#78

Post by conradev »

standardUser wrote: post #76
azemetre wrote: post #52

It's very odd, I use to use Instagram and it would make me depressed. IDK how to explain, I don't even have any friends on there I follow. Just something about seeing everyone at their best 100% of the time, doing amazing things 100% of the time, never facing adversity 100% of the time. I know it's not realistic but it still gets to your head. I uninstalled it from my phone I feel better about myself after a few week…

That was not Instagram but rather the set of accounts you chose to follow on Instagram. Choose to follow all dumb meme accounts and you would never have had that experience. Choose to follow all stand-up comedy accounts (or nature or music or comic books) and you would again have an entirely different experience. It's not social media that is creating those problems, it's the way users choose to use social media. Tho…

Even for something as subtle as following a nature account – chances are that when you see it, you'll be in bed or on the toilet or at work and not in nature. You could still feel like you're missing out :(

Re: Researchers, lawmakers want Facebook's mental health research

#79

Post by pier25 »

mastrsushi wrote: post #72

It's pretty tiring to see activists and researchers targeting big bad Facebook when clearly the issue is social media as a whole. An app where the user watches a 5 second video of some rich 18 year old from LA making smoothie bowls. Then the user swipes up to a video of some 22 year old lifting half the weight of an economy sized car. The fact that this isn't obviously depression inducing is concerning. I know by pos…

What is "social media as a whole"?

Does HN count as social media?

Where do you draw the line?

Re: Researchers, lawmakers want Facebook's mental health research

#80

Post by 29athrowaway »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #61
tunesmith wrote: post #26

Has there been any further detail on what about social media is linked to depression? For instance, with Facebook, is it more because of the ads? Or is it more because of the engagement algorithms? Or, would it happen even if Facebook were just a reverse-chronological feed, populated only by your chosen friends, with zero advertising?

It appears that screen time in general is linked to depression, with or without Facebook. Example study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5574844/ Binging TV shows, binging Facebook, and binging internet usage in general are all highly correlated with depression. With correlation, it's important to remember that causation doesn't necessarily flow in only one direction. It's likely that depression causes i…

Is excessive screen time the cause, the symptom, or it is unrelated?

Some people can become addicted to food, shopping, television, etc. Does that mean that each person that eats food will become addicted? No.

People who become addicted are often people with issues in their dopamine or endorphine systems, and a common way to end up that way is by having a difficult childhood.

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