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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

#211

Post by Forge36 »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #200
Forge36 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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-…

It's an issue with most curated sites, I unfollowed everyone on Facebook. For me, it comes down to "who do i talk to" if I'm not taking to someone I try to unfollow.

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

#212

Post by tiborsaas »

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…

Besides people I know, I follow my interests on Instagram: generative art, architecture, interior design, music gear and some other niche stuff. I did the same on Twitter years ago, before that it didn't really resonate with me.

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

#213

Post by alickz »

mastrsushi wrote: post #87
pier25 wrote: post #79

Earlier 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.

Seeing some of the cool stuff people on HN get to work on, and how much they get paid to do it, can make me quite depressed sometimes.

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

#214

Post by emteycz »

whitehouse3 wrote: post #210
emteycz wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mine don't but it's always me who has to send them. I don't mind but I can imagine people can feel forgotten.

I don’t see how social media changes this. Life is filled with people who don’t reach out first. It’s not like instagram changes them. The number of direct, meaningful messages between you and them is probably the same, independent of the platform. Social media facilitates indirect interaction (seeing posts from one another) but it won’t make “Han shoot first” more often. Stated another way: if you long for others to…

Right, but before social media other people made direct contact (phone, ICQ, Skype...) just as much as I did - now they feel it's enough to post on social media, and if you don't participate in that then you must make the contact.

My grandmother gets 2-5 random calls from her friends daily, the last unexpected call I received from a friend was in 2013 as we all switched to social media posting/commenting then.

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

#215

Post by minikites »

throwawayboise wrote: post #175
minikites wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If someone can't moderate their own consumption of something despite their best efforts, abstinence works. It doesn't work for sex ed and I don't see why it would work for this.

I don't know any alcoholics who transitioned back to casual/social drinking. The ones who beat alcoholism stopped drinking altogether. You just have to admit to yourself it's something you can't control, and avoid it.

It sounds like you're talking about adults. This article (and therefore my comparison) are about teenagers.

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

#216

Post by whitehouse3 »

emteycz wrote: post #214
whitehouse3 wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t see how social media changes this. Life is filled with people who don’t reach out first. It’s not like instagram changes them. The number of direct, meaningful messages between you and them is probably the same, independent of the platform. Social media facilitates indirect interaction (seeing posts from one another) but it won’t make “Han shoot first” more often. Stated another way: if you long for others to…

Right, but before social media other people made direct contact (phone, ICQ, Skype...) just as much as I did - now they feel it's enough to post on social media, and if you don't participate in that then you must make the contact. My grandmother gets 2-5 random calls from her friends daily, the last unexpected call I received from a friend was in 2013 as we all switched to social media posting/commenting then.

This is a fair point.

Somewhat disagreeing with my previous comment: but I’ve definitely seen this effect between iMessage / Whatsapp vs SMS. I’m more likely to interact with people one-on-one through those platforms instead of SMS because of the link/image/gif handling. My android friends without whatsapp/telegram/signal don’t hear from me as much because of that added friction.

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

#217

Post by zepto »

nl wrote: post #188
zepto wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So given that I know that discussions in my area of expertise on this site is full of misinformation, I have now come to doubt the quality and reliability of conversations on this site on some other topics that tend to attract a lot of assertive discussion. Not just misinformation, but active disinformation. > physics, math, machine learning, things where I trust there are enough experts here that no one would make…

It's worth noting that in this case (and in most discussions around non-IP law) the consensus HN view is usually what an informed person thinks the law should be based on something they heard on the news once and extended to try to generalise to some new situation that has never been tested in court. Kranar is basically right here. It isn't at all clear that FB would be liable, and there isn't even a particularly str…

This may be true, in the sense that they cannot be sued at the drop of a hat, however it doesn’t mean this kind of research can’t cause legal problems for them over time. Torts are not the only problem for them to worry about. Regulation and legislation are also legal risks for them.

The general argument that it’s a bad idea for them to admit this still holds.

Generically moaning about how people are speaking from a position of being uninformed, especially when one is also uninformed, is a useless behavior here.

Bringing information or asking questions is the only way to solve that.

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

#218

Post by pnutjam »

hnbad wrote: post #199
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…

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, especiall…

My kids schools make announcements on social media before sending alerts using the official SMS and email alerts I signed up for. Some discussions can only be done on facebook.

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

#219

Post by decide »

fnord77 wrote: post #73
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.

Their PR just helps delay when those documents are discovered

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

#220

Post by [deleted] »

open0 wrote: post #148
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…

> 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 particula…

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