Social networking companies seem more like tobacco companies every day.
Researchers, lawmakers want Facebook's mental health research
111–120 of 231 posts
Re: Researchers, lawmakers want Facebook's mental health research
#112It'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…
Facebook is much much larger than its competitors, which is probably why it's targeted... for most people it is social media. It's the head of the beast.
Re: Researchers, lawmakers want Facebook's mental health research
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
What is "social media as a whole"? Does HN count as social media? Where do you draw the line?
Sites where you can peek into other people's lives, or at least what you think is. To me HN is nothing more innocent than a virtual programming club.
I sometimes spend hours after work browsing HN and reading articles about tech, trying to keep up with new frameworks or concepts. Seeing everyone understanding stuff in comments is sometimes very depressing as I feel under pressure to match up to what others seem to grok so easily.
So, it can be quite the same as Instagram. The comments on HN are often similar in nature to the Instagram posts in that they only show people at their best, in the sense that they generally wouldn't post if they didn't have something smart to add. But there are so many folks in tech that don't necessarily understand everything.
I am exaggerating a bit here for the sake of argument. There is certainly a difference, but the core reason is often identified as comparing yourself with unrealistic representations of what life, abilities, looks, etc. of others is like. And that can happen in any forum.
Re: Researchers, lawmakers want Facebook's mental health research
#114> "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…
Correlation does not deny causation, either. It's reasonable to postulate that it's a cause, and then study further to learn more.
Re: Researchers, lawmakers want Facebook's mental health research
#115will we live to see the day of wanting to 'work for a faang' as seeming as morally repugnant as wanting to work for monsanto, blackwater, etc? i guess nobody cares _really_ because everyone is addicted to their products, and no one wants to stop using the products because of fear of missing out. they should look into seeing if this stuff is actually making people depressed
Amazon, Apple, Netflix or Google are not even in the same ballpark of evil and destructive to humanity as Facebook. Facebook literally adds nothing enriching to our lives other than just being a vampire hanging over everyone's head. I'd have no problem working for any of the other faangs (as a matter of fact I did work for one of them until a couple of years ago) but I'd never consider working at Facebook.
Unpopular opinion but I think some parts of Facebook like creating events, groups (to some extent) and messaging are super useful. The problem is that the newsfeed (which is arguably the most damaging part) is what Facebook pushes the most because that's where all the ads are.
Re: Researchers, lawmakers want Facebook's mental health research
#116The only useful stat in the graphic is the bottom one "were injured in a suicide attempt that had to be treated by a doctor or nurse", which seems easily quantifiable and interpretable. Sadly, since they don't show longer term context it's hard to know the significance of a change from 1.9% to 2.5% (is this stat historically variable across years?). Language and what is acceptable to talk about change so much over time that the rest of the stats are useless.
Re: Researchers, lawmakers want Facebook's mental health research
#117Note 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 that is true than that just makes me despise the current state of liability and corporate communications even further. We are so far away from letting people speak the truth, or even just their mind, it is scary.
Instead we get all this flowery ultra-inclusive PR nonsense that makes dealing with tech far more cringe-worthy than it should be
Smile, while social media milks you like the cash cow that you are! We'll throw in a cute mascot, a curvy font, and a bunch of highly diverse group photos if that makes you feel better! Oh, does this attitude make you feel worse, not better? Well maybe the studies you're reading are wrong! Chin up, suckers, we have more ads for you to consume!
Re: Researchers, lawmakers want Facebook's mental health research
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
> IDK how to explain, I don't even have any friends on there I follow. Social media is best used for keeping in touch with friends and family. If you're just browsing popular photos from people you don't know, it's basically an interactive and targeted version of watching TV. We all grew up understanding that endless TV consumption is an unhealthy activity that we should minimize, but it has taken a while for the sam…
> Being addicted to anything is a massive trigger for depression, especially when it displaces productive activities and replaces them with sedentary consumption. If you can't use something without becoming addicted, it's best to not use it at all. I know it sounds trite but I feel like social media today (or maybe all forms of media honestly) makes the barrier to ill-will extremely easy. If you were a young adult (a…
> How can I as an individual compete with billion dollar companies that literally hire neuroscientists/psychologists to make something as addictive as possible?
If someone can't moderate their own consumption of something despite their best efforts, abstinence works.
Similar story with alcohol: Plenty of people have no problem moderating their consumption, but a small percentage of people really struggle with limiting their intake. For the latter group, not drinking any alcohol at all is a great solution.
I think this defeatist concept that social media is too addictive to resist sets a lot of people up for failure. It's not only possible to use social media without getting addicted, but it's the norm for the vast majority of people who use social media. If you're in the minority of people who can't moderate your own usage, then abstaining completely might be the best choice. But don't assume that addiction or uncontrolled doom-scrolling is inevitable.
Re: Researchers, lawmakers want Facebook's mental health research
#119will we live to see the day of wanting to 'work for a faang' as seeming as morally repugnant as wanting to work for monsanto, blackwater, etc? i guess nobody cares _really_ because everyone is addicted to their products, and no one wants to stop using the products because of fear of missing out. they should look into seeing if this stuff is actually making people depressed
Amazon, Apple, Netflix or Google are not even in the same ballpark of evil and destructive to humanity as Facebook. Facebook literally adds nothing enriching to our lives other than just being a vampire hanging over everyone's head. I'd have no problem working for any of the other faangs (as a matter of fact I did work for one of them until a couple of years ago) but I'd never consider working at Facebook.
I don't know. Do you remember the Foxconn due to the low pay and abuse they were getting to make Apple products? Or how Apple is trying to restrict our software freedoms with walled gardens and lawsuits? Everything they do is about controlling the narrative, the market, the ecosystem. If they had beat Microsoft in the 1990s, we'd be in a very different dystopia right now. Seems worse than a company that makes optional ad-supported social networking products.
Re: Researchers, lawmakers want Facebook's mental health research
#120> "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?
Do you really think that's the only thing that changed in the world in that period?
I agree that smartphones could play a role and they are easy to point to as a new way to consume media (Was there a similar rise in depression when TVs were becoming common? When newspapers or tabloids became common?), but since the early 00s a lot went for the worse in terms of future outlook and expectations on what a happy life is or can be, not to forget wars, and economic depression, which all would maybe not immediately have an effect on mental depression statistics and slowly caused a rise from 2008.
But let's say it was the smartphone, then I'd still argue that the emergence of the smartphone (and the iPad) as a whole is likely more at fault than Facebook itself. Many many more people started to spend time looking at small screens doing all kinds of things as a distraction, including people who never had a computer or played games or browsed the web before for leisure.
I'm sure Facebook and Instagram were factors as common places where that time is spent, but there's also so much more than social media, for instance the fact that people are more connected in general via chat Apps and chat groups, where they also share photos or have discussions, though it's not really falling under the "social media" umbrella.