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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

#141

Post by turtletontine »

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…

I agree that from a scientific standpoint, of course correlation isn't causation and more evidence is needed.

But emphasizing this point feels uselessly contrarian. There's not a doubt in my mind that social media is a disaster for mental health, especially in kids growing up with it, especially on platforms like Instagram that emphasize projecting an image of a perfect trendy life. It's ridiculous to ask to wait for more evidence instead of figuring out how to act now.

Social media profits from being addictive and divisive, and is therefore incentived to hurt mental health. Facebook's R&D budget is larger than the NSF, I'm sure they have tons of internal knowledge about exactly how they manipulate users' mental health, and I doubt much of it is good.

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

#143

Post by whereis »

SrslyJosh wrote: post #135
whereis wrote: post #122

Back in 1997, I briefly hung around a criminal who ran a crew known to the feds. I'd drive around with him on non-crime stuff related to his "day job" (front). I've been dealing with various forms of stalking, hacking, harassment and targeting since, almost certainly tied back in large part to that brief association in 1997. Last spring (2020), this man who I haven't seen or communicated with since the late 1990's, w…

GDPR data request?

usa

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

#144

Post by Permit »

skhr0680 wrote: post #37
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’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking everyone else’s life is perfect because they are always posting photos of the best moments

This is often repeated and I think it's probably true, but I wonder if there's even more to it than this.

Presumably there is some subset of the population that *really is* having much better lives than another subset of the population. I don't think anyone here would deny this, but it must feel different to know this fact in an abstract sense than it is to actually see it.

The topic of meritocracy comes up here from time to time. I don't think such a society could exist, but if it did, wouldn't it be an absolute nightmare for the bottom 20% (50%?) of the population?

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

#145

Post by Kranar »

mdorazio wrote: post #139
Kranar wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, let's say I don't believe you and I have made a good faith effort to look into this subject and have found no evidence that anyone has ever been sued for causing depression, do you have any evidence or way to substantiate your claim and demonstrate to me that you are correct? I am aware of emotional distress lawsuits, but what's being claimed here is quite different. Do I have no choice but to take you at your…

I would say your effort wasn't very high then. Keywords to search for are "Mental anguish" and "Emotional distress". "Depression" is not a thing you can really sue for, but mental harm associated with it definitely is.

Given your response that you think emotional distress could in anyway be applicable here, I am fairly confident at this point that few people are properly informed to discuss the legality of this with the degree of certainty and authority that is being expressed. For one, as per White v. Monsanto [1] mental anguish and emotional distress requires "conduct that is heinous and beyond the standards of civilized decency or utterly intolerable in a civilized society."

I think at this point it's quite clear that people are just speaking from a very superficial understanding or outright just making things up about this topic but are doing so as if they are subject matter experts and while this is a open discussion forum and you can say whatever you want, I suppose I expected better.

[1] https://scholar.google.ca/scholar_case?case=1620366536753369...

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

#146

Post by dang »

f430 wrote: post #104
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…

You are using it wrong. I use it to scout models and vulnerable insecure girls

Ok, that's enough. Since we've asked you repeatedly to stop posting flamebait and you haven't, I've banned the account.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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

#147

Post by connorlay »

Back in college I enrolled in a human-computer interaction course as part of a double major I was pursing at the time. A large body of newly-published research at the time, in 2016, was finding statistically significant positive correlations between the use of social media and rates of self-reported depression.

As someone who has struggled with depression their entire life, 2016 was the year I deleted my Facebook account. I have absolutely no regrets doing so and I encourage everyone to consider breaking free.

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

#148

Post by open0 »

Kranar wrote: post #128
zepto wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally, admitting that your product causes a medical problem makes it easy for people to sue you over it. You’re right that they could be sued even if they don’t admit it, but then they would have a defense which would be far weaker if they had already admitted it.

Okay, let's say I don't believe you and I have made a good faith effort to look into this subject and have found no evidence that anyone has ever been sued for causing depression, do you have any evidence or way to substantiate your claim and demonstrate to me that you are correct? I am aware of emotional distress lawsuits, but what's being claimed here is quite different. Do I have no choice but to take you at your…

> From my uninformed point of view

Due to the tone of your over-confident first post, initially I thought you were a lawyer on Facebook's payroll making a deceitful argument.

You really think Facebook's lawyers would advise disclosing a link between Facebook usage and depression found in their internal studies? Do you really think that Facebook would even ever allow for that conclusion to be reached in this particular internal study? Come on.

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

#149

Post by minikites »

azemetre wrote: post #102
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #65

Earlier 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?

You can't, which is the reason we need government regulation. This clearly isn't self-regulating (like most things) and the purpose of government is to act in these matters on behalf of society.

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

#150

Post by xyzelement »

In 2021, it's hard to argue that any use of social media (and to a large extent, allowing technology to permeate your daily life) is desirable, and quite easy to argue that it's to your detriment.

Funny, a bunch of years ago I'd look at groups like the Amish or religious Jews, whose ways naturally kept them out of these trends - as somewhat backwards, and missing out. But now it seems like their ways shield and protect them from these things in a way that may soon be the envy of most others.

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