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Facebook is an addiction treadmill most may never be able to quit

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Re: Facebook is an addiction treadmill most may never be able to quit

#221

Post by gnicholas »

btown wrote: post #187
khazhoux wrote: post #183

For everyone here who --like me-- has never bought into Facebook, and never gotten hooked on it, congratulations. We are free of the Facebook dopamine dispenser, unlike our poor friends and family. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go refresh the HN front page for the 10th time today, and after checking how many upvotes I got on my latest comments, don't mind if I jump back over to reddit for a while, and then b…

Can you imagine if Facebook had like karma? Global GDP would almost immediately take a nosedive!

Isn't that what follower counts are, effectively? In some ways, follower count is even more powerful than karma because it affects how many people see your posts/comments.

Re: Facebook is an addiction treadmill most may never be able to quit

#222

Post by SamoyedFurFluff »

sandworm101 wrote: post #216
khazhoux wrote: post #183

For everyone here who --like me-- has never bought into Facebook, and never gotten hooked on it, congratulations. We are free of the Facebook dopamine dispenser, unlike our poor friends and family. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go refresh the HN front page for the 10th time today, and after checking how many upvotes I got on my latest comments, don't mind if I jump back over to reddit for a while, and then b…

Except that on HN I have actually learned a things or two. I have been connected to useful articles on topics that have solved many of my tech problems in recent years. Nobody has ever gotten anything useful from a facebook news feed. The core difference is that while Facebook seeks to keep our eyes on facebook, places like HN actively encourage people to post links to material outside the core service. HN doesn't tr…

> Nobody has ever gotten anything useful from a facebook news feed.

This might be far too broad. Facebook feeds have been really useful for me when I use it for obscure hobbies or to buy/sell used expensive things (think college furniture) based on region.

Re: Facebook is an addiction treadmill most may never be able to quit

#223

Post by smsm42 »

barbs wrote: post #140
smsm42 wrote: post #26

I 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.

Of course. But the addiction supported by physiological mechanisms (like opiates, alcohol, nicotine, barbiturates, etc.) or powerful psychological one (gambling, risk) is much stronger than just "I am bored, why don't I browse Facebook".

Re: Facebook is an addiction treadmill most may never be able to quit

#224

Post by smsm42 »

betwixthewires wrote: post #53
smsm42 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you ever heard about Maslow hierarchy, the status is way towards the top. Things like hunger, safety and not being in pain is much lower. So I highly doubt many people would forgo food and agree to be in constant excruciating pain just to be able to access facebook.

Have you ever met a nutrient deficient heroin, crack or meth addict? I'd be willing to bet those habits are closer to the top than food, but they seem to forego it and take that as far as they can without dying. We are talking about addiction here after all.

Those are physiological addictions that literally rewire your body chemistry and how your brain perceives reality. There's addiction and there's addiction.

Re: Facebook is an addiction treadmill most may never be able to quit

#225

Post by gnicholas »

63 wrote: post #215
pedroma wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody quits that website. I've tried a few times. Meanwhile I was able to quit FB in one evening and haven't been back.

I quit the website some years ago, though I never posted or commented very often to begin with. Once I managed to get off it for long enough, going back became shocking. Seeing /b/ with fresh eyes made me never want to go back, and I haven't. There are better places. I have a similar story with Reddit, though that addiction was more recent and harder to break. Facebook was easy. I refuse to use Twitter or Tiktok beca…

> I don't think my HN problem is quite bad enough to want to quit entirely, but I do want to read it less

For me, social media is a problem when I'm pulling out my phone to use it when I'm on vacation or in the presence of other people.

I have no problem going weeks without checking HN if I'm on vacation, and I don't think I've ever checked HN while at lunch with friends.

By contrast, I check FB more when I'm around other people — it's as if there's a social element to it, and some popularity signaling. If everyone else around the table is checking their notifications, then it makes me look like I've got nothing going on if I'm not checking my notifications also.

Re: Facebook is an addiction treadmill most may never be able to quit

#226

Post by anonuser123456 »

lurquer wrote: post #212
khazhoux wrote: post #183

For everyone here who --like me-- has never bought into Facebook, and never gotten hooked on it, congratulations. We are free of the Facebook dopamine dispenser, unlike our poor friends and family. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go refresh the HN front page for the 10th time today, and after checking how many upvotes I got on my latest comments, don't mind if I jump back over to reddit for a while, and then b…

I’m just waiting till I reach 1000. I’m at 995... I get up to 999, and then I fuck up and make an anti-vaccine post and plummet back to the 980’s. Once I hit 1000, I’m outa here. Promise.

You mean 1024 right?

Re: Facebook is an addiction treadmill most may never be able to quit

#227

Post by klyrs »

devit wrote: post #149
ferrumfist wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Well, if you do "meditation" (or "do nothing") in a way that results in shutting down all thoughts except the depressive ones, then it's going to make things worse. In that case, you might be (temporarily) better off adding some very powerful and addictive thoughts or feelings to cover up the depressive ones; I think this might be in fact one of the main uses of social media and videogames.

Yep, even something mindless like candy crush is probably better than social media. But... what's actually missing for a lot of people is actual community. So many of us live in tiny bubbles in big cities, we crave human interaction... so the lure of social media is powerful. It's actually a miasma of drama (if my family is indication) that appears to shatter actual community, both on and offline, sending people further into their increasingly socially inept bubbles. I wish I had solutions to offer. It's a goddamn mess.

Re: Facebook is an addiction treadmill most may never be able to quit

#228

Post by danjac »

khazhoux wrote: post #183

For everyone here who --like me-- has never bought into Facebook, and never gotten hooked on it, congratulations. We are free of the Facebook dopamine dispenser, unlike our poor friends and family. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go refresh the HN front page for the 10th time today, and after checking how many upvotes I got on my latest comments, don't mind if I jump back over to reddit for a while, and then b…

I know a lot of immigrants/expats and Facebook is pretty much the one thing they have to keep in touch with family and friends back home.

Personally I loathe the company and would be happy if some fatal DNS or other issue took it down for good or if it were legislated out of existence by the EU/US. But we also need to be aware of the value it provides other than as a bullhorn for anti-vaxxers and other nutjobs and perhaps think of how to build a safer and more ethical alternative.

Re: Facebook is an addiction treadmill most may never be able to quit

#229

Post by whyihowi »

I try to use HN or Reddit or whatever on occasion, but I never get any points to speak of, never feel like part of a community in the slightest, and...

whenever I see something that I want to comment on, it'll be from 19 hours ago, or three days ago. And if you don't get there in the first two hours by hanging out there ALL DAY LONG, no one will ever know you exist. But I somehow can't bear to hang out all day long in hope of something coming along that I have anything I wish to speak my piece on.

Edit: I see that I got distracted in my thinking based on how everyone was talking about HN addiction, etc. and didn't even mention the topic, Facebook. But I've never had an account. So.

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