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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

#191

Post by kuu »

nineplay wrote: post #108

Possibly there's more out there, but the evidence presented in the article is frankly pretty poor. I'd call it "inconclusive" if they asked me. A couple of studies referenced https://news.uark.edu/articles/55480/increased-social-media-... This one is not limited to Facebook it includes reddit on the list of "social media" sites. I think reddit's one of the most depressing places on the internet so I wouldn't be quick…

The article is basically saying that the research is pretty poor because Facebook is not sharing the information or creating articles that blurry the actual conclusions.

The article, precisely, asks for more research

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

#192

Post by TeMPOraL »

nlh wrote: post #133
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…

My experience and $0.02: If you use Instagram the way "normal" people do, it's a path to sadness. Selfies, one-upmanship, parties, perfect cakes, perfect gardens, exotic vacations, etc. All the badness. It's just human nature and it's what the platform has become. Bleh. If, however, you go into Instagram and aggressively curate your feed to be hyper-specific to a (visual) niche you're interested in, it can be really,…

> Ps - no matter what your main feed is, stay far far away from the "Explore" tab. That is brain poison. It's like pure algorithmic dopamine generation and it's the root of all evil on that platform.

Makes sense that an app built pretty much entirely around this feature is the hottest new thing in social media in 2020s.

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

#193

Post by thaumasiotes »

dragonwriter wrote: post #125
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 limitin…

> If someone can't moderate their own consumption of something despite their best efforts, abstinence works. No, if someone can’t moderate their own consumption, abstinence usually fails . If a person finds something both easily resistable without immediate past use and hard to moderate immediately after use, abstinence works, but that’s not a super common response. People who have trouble moderating use immediately…

It works because it's easy to understand. Simple rules for a complex world.

If the rule is "don't do it", you know whether or not you're supposed to do it in any given case. That's not true if the rule is "be reasonable". If the first beer was reasonable, so is the second. One additional beer never really changes how reasonable your total consumption has been, even though the total range of reasonability is quite wide.

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

#194

Post by skc »

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…

Heh, it helps if you're cynical by nature. From the very beginning I always sort of "known" that social media gave a very idealized view of people's lives.

I remember once, I was sat outside at a burger joint watching a lady take literally 5 whole minutes taking pictures of her food at a specific table, while another gentleman (who was NOT with her) patiently stood waiting with a plate of his own food in his hands.

Turns out the light hit that specific table so perfectly that these people were ok with letting their food get cold to get the perfect shot before they ate it.

Of course, they could have been food writers but I've seen this type of scenario play out often enough that I tend to look at a lot of social media as a parody of real life.

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

#195

Post by sneak »

akomtu wrote: post #156
sneak wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> will 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? Unlikely; I still see resumes with Palantir on them and they're taken seriously in SV companies even outside of the military-industrial complex. Ultimately most people don't have the energy or economic incentive to care as long as their $15k paychecks show up every month.

50k, but I see your point.

RSUs aren't part of the paycheck.

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

#196

Post by lrvick »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #118
azemetre wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 limitin…

If you abstain from alcohol you can always have a soda in hand and usually still stay socially connected with most if not all friends and family.

If you abstain from meat, vegan options are seemingly everywhere now and everyone can sit at the same table.

If you choose abstain from addictive profit motivated proprietary software, good luck keeping any connection with friends and family. You just stop existing in their universes, and they can't be bothered to try a different communication tool to respect your preference to not have your data exploited to manipulate and addict you.

Ask me how I know.

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

#197

Post by Gene_Parmesan »

anonu wrote: post #124
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…

I've stopped using Facebook, IG, etc.. What worked for me is to not completely disconnect. Instead, remove the apps from your phone and turn off all forms of notifications. These apps want your attention. But you should only give it to them when you want. Not when they tell you.

Yeah exactly. I had been noticing Reddit was really depressing and aggravating me; there was stuff on there that I would see and get angry about it, and the anger was what kept me coming back. When I realized that I uninstalled my reddit app from my phone that very night.

It was a fantastic decision. I still have my account, but I only engage with it when I'm sitting at a desktop computer and have a specific community I'm engaging with. I'm a huge Formula 1 fan so on a race weekend, I'll check out some of the posts on /r/formula1, for instance. But no more /all, and most importantly, no more scrolling endlessly for hours. It's been a really great change.

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

#198

Post by smallnamespace »

lrvick wrote: post #196
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 limitin…

If you abstain from alcohol you can always have a soda in hand and usually still stay socially connected with most if not all friends and family. If you abstain from meat, vegan options are seemingly everywhere now and everyone can sit at the same table. If you choose abstain from addictive profit motivated proprietary software, good luck keeping any connection with friends and family. You just stop existing in their…

Do your friends and family ignore direct text messages?

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

#199

Post by hnbad »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #118
azemetre wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 limitin…

The problem isn't that social media is too addictive to abstain. The addictiveness is what keeps you hooked, not what gets you into it.

The problem is that social media is too addictive and also very difficult to avoid.

For many jobs, social media has become if not integral then at least an implicit requirement ("please retweet our press release about new feature X"). It has also become a major news source, especially for niche or specialty topics (HN and reddit are "social media" too btw).

Companies like Facebook (and to less success, Google) are trying everything to create onramps to their social media platforms wherever possible. In many places Facebook is used by municipality governments to post news updates, restaurants to post their opening hours and menu updates, and so on.

"Social media abstinence" is not possible for everyone, difficult enough as it is once you've already been using social media.

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

#200

Post by Cthulhu_ »

Forge36 wrote: post #129
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…

I had to unfollow a couple of people. There's "having a good time" and there's "constant idyllic life". If you aren't careful it turns from "keeping up with x" to "comparing against x".

That's actually an issue with e.g. Facebook as well that goes back for as long as it's been around - people only post the good stuff, like vacations, parties, etc. Even if they're not intentionally trying to sell this lifestyle that a lot of Instagram influencers do, they are inadvertently causing the same problem. And on the receiving end, the reader of those wants to post those fun things as well, making it a self-reinforcing cycle.
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