It's not just Facebook, it's social media in general. More precisely, it's infinite scroll, which has become a ubiquitous design decision across social media. I recently finally succeeded in developing a healthy relationship to social media, and it involved disabling infinite scroll where I could (using Hackernews, moving to old Reddit) and quitting the social media sites where I couldn't (mostly Youtube). I'm scared to touch Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter because the infinite scroll mechanism is so addictive.
Facebook is an addiction treadmill most may never be able to quit
131–140 of 274 posts
Re: Facebook is an addiction treadmill most may never be able to quit
#132I used to think so, now I'm living a more nomadic life. It's a convenient way to text and call people when you don't have a set phone number.
Re: Facebook is an addiction treadmill most may never be able to quit
#133At least it's not as bad as opioids, actual smoking, gun violence and sugar. Real problems that are neglected in America.
Re: Facebook is an addiction treadmill most may never be able to quit
#134I want to thank my insufferable American aunt who did nothing but spin every post and comment into being about her. Made it very easy to quit about eight years ago.
Twitter is trickier. I actually enjoy the discourse (once I figured out how to filter the loud angry idiots).
Re: Facebook is an addiction treadmill most may never be able to quit
#135"Most may never be able to quit" I completely doubt that...
Re: Facebook is an addiction treadmill most may never be able to quit
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
For people with severe anxiety or depression, meditation can actually aggravate the situation and do significant harm. Letting one's mind run wild in that situation leads to more anxiety, suicide planning, etc. But, I'll amend my statement: facebook is less boring than a blank screen.
That's absurd. There is no scientific basis that would support your assertion. In fact, increased social media activity leads to a higher chance of suffering from depressive episodes. Meditation has been shown to to actually combat symptoms of depression. If you can't sit still with your own thoughts for 60 seconds without spiraling, then you shouldn't even be remotely near social media.
> That's absurd. There is no scientific basis that would support your assertion.
Why are you so confident in that? Have you done your research? I learned that from a licensed psychologist, and know several people who have had severely negative reactions to "mindfulness" training, but it only took 30 seconds to find these two links:
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210202-how-mindfulnes...
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2251840-mindfulness-and...
> If you can't sit still with your own thoughts for 60 seconds without spiraling, then you shouldn't even be remotely near social media.
Not exactly disagreeing with you here, but neither is meditation necessarily better. Therapy is probably the best thing, but social media is "free." And, note that I'm not in favor of social media, merely explaining the cost-benefit analysis that people in this hole use. Reasoning from your high horse will result in different cost-benefit analysis, which won't make any sense to the people whose lives you might like to improve.
Re: Facebook is an addiction treadmill most may never be able to quit
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Twitter has by far become a more egregious platform for society I'm always surprised that Reddit gets a free pass in these discussions. Reddit has been home to some of the most egregious bad communities and misinformation hives. Their invisible-hand moderation system allows a small number of moderators to completely control the conversation in a subreddit. Banning dissenters and removing comments that don't agree w…
I hate Reddit mostly for its hive mind. For example: There is a video of someone blasting music and neighbor clearly being upset. The offender calls the lady Karen. Then, all the comments are bashing so called "Karen". Even though many places in the US have laws in place to prevent people from blasting music all day. Stating this brings many down votes. I had an awful neighbor in an area where houses are close apart.…
reddit is better if you unsub from all and just add back the things you are interested in
Re: Facebook is an addiction treadmill most may never be able to quit
#138I have no interest in supporting Facebook, but this article takes a bunch of generals ideas and opinions and states them as fact with little attribution in the context of each statement.
Re: Facebook is an addiction treadmill most may never be able to quit
#139That "Facebook" we always speak of is never the same thing for everyone. Every Page "like", every "friendship", will change what one sees in their social bubble.
I, for one, am glad that my social bubble is utterly boring and un-engaging, and my level of engagement with Facebook is inversely proportional to my engagement/passion in life as such.
Re: Facebook is an addiction treadmill most may never be able to quit
#140I find the premise ridiculous. I mean yes, there are people who are addicted to it. There are people who are addicted to lots of things, from playing video games to climbing ice-covered mountains. But the idea that it's harder to quit facebook than to get rid of, say, opioid dependency - which literally rewires your body's biochemistry - sounds like complete BS. Of course, if your life is so empty you have nothing to…
> if your life is so empty you have nothing to do but browse facebook, sure it's hard to quit, but it's not because of the strength of the addiction, it's because of the weakness of the alternative.
"Weakness of the alternative" is a large reason people get addicted to things in the first place. It goes hand in hand.