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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

#251

Post by SamoyedFurFluff »

confidantlake wrote: post #209
klyrs wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.newscienti…

Is there any evidence that therapy is helpful? Haven't seen any evidence supporting it but I might not be searching correctly.

Have you looked at Google scholar? Less than 5 minutes of “effectiveness therapy anxiety” gave me multiple pages of results going back decades.

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

#252

Post by thedailymail »

I joined in 2011 and hard--deleted my account in 2012. I was working on public critiques of a well-funded scam industry at at the time, and concerned about peopple using FB to harrass my family. But I was also inspired to leave by a quick series of unilateral anti-user changes to TOS implemented with no warning or opt out by Br'er Zuck et al. I still use some surveillance media platforms for news aggregation and hobby purposes, but the whole FB ecosystem is dead to me and I feel fine

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

#253

Post by denton-scratch »

scrapcode wrote: post #175
speedybird wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If quitting facebook is framed as impossible, then those who want to quit will feel helpless. Posts like the one above are helpful because they tell people that there is hope. You can quit facebook. Should we tell alcoholics that they'll never quit and their plight is hopeless? Or do we amplify the voices of those who succeeded in quitting, in the hopes that others may find inspiration to do the same? I'll do the lat…

I grew up in "Small Town America" in a large family and was really one of the "few" to ever move away (if any). The "problem" for me is that there really isn't an alternative to Facebook for sharing pictures and videos of my son and family for my close family to be a part of. I could have a personal blog, gallery, etc, but my grandparents that are on facebook (my son's great grandparents) don't get to see how much al…

> there really isn't an alternative to Facebook for sharing pictures and videos

I seem to manage; I use email and a website. These technologies have been working fine since around 1996.

The only "social media" account I've ever had is this one; and I'm pretty new here.

Consider teaching your rels to use straightforward technology that's been around for forty years (maybe since before they were born).

There's nothing special about Faceache; it's just a website with a messaging service (and an "app"). The only thing going for it is people who continue to use it, because they have "friends" who want to live in a Faceache bubble.

Look, that's cool; if you and your friends and rels think it's a good service, then you don't need any "alternative". I'm not going to beat you up for relying on Faceache.

But your ongoing use of Faceache, which you explain in terms of network effects ("but my grandparents that are on facebook") makes you part of the problem you yourself are complaining about.

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

#254

Post by slothtrop »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #239
paganel wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but I actually rarely visit HN’s homepage, I really like the HN front-page, it gives me a sensation of comfort (so to speak), of how the Internet should have been but unfortunately it is not: very fast-loading page, all text, a basic color-scheme that hasn't changed in a while.

HN is what SlashDot was 15-20 years ago.

spot on

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

#255

Post by gotostatement »

smsm42 wrote: post #218
gotostatement wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has the same energy as the cigarette lobbyist in congress who talked about how smoking lettuce has the same health effects as smoking tobacco

This comment makes absolutely no sense. It looks like you are just seeking to associate me with something you consider bad (e.g. tobacco lobbyists) by something like "tobacco lobbyists are arguing they are right, this guy argues he's right, therefore clearly they are the same". Could you address the content of my argument instead?

The cigarette lobbyist is making a specious argument comparing cigarettes to lettuce in order to exonerate cigarettes, despite that noone smokes lettuce, lettuce is not addictive, and it's just totally different altogether.

Similarly, your comment is trying to exonerate Facebook by comparing addictive Facebook use to... regular, "addictive" participation in healthy, fun physical activities? Despite the fact that it is a completely different situation: Facebook deliberately tries to be addictive, there are numerous studies about the negative effects of excess Facebook use, there are no physical health benefits, etc.

So I was just saying that your argument is as specious and nonsequitur as the tobacco lobbyist.

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

#256

Post by raxxorrax »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #239
paganel wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but I actually rarely visit HN’s homepage, I really like the HN front-page, it gives me a sensation of comfort (so to speak), of how the Internet should have been but unfortunately it is not: very fast-loading page, all text, a basic color-scheme that hasn't changed in a while.

HN is what SlashDot was 15-20 years ago.

I still cannot really recapitulate what made me leave, but tech journalism in general became quite insufferable. It all read like scam and advertising at some point. It went from "stuff that matters" to something else.

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

#257

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

raxxorrax wrote: post #256
TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN is what SlashDot was 15-20 years ago.

I still cannot really recapitulate what made me leave, but tech journalism in general became quite insufferable. It all read like scam and advertising at some point. It went from "stuff that matters" to something else.

True. But the comments and community is what i meant, too.

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

#258

Post by stillbourne »

It was really hard to quit for me for sure. Near the end I kept telling my friends it feels like posting to FB is just slapping the feeder button in a rat cage, or that I feel like I'm suffering for outrage burnout. I quit just before the lead up to the 2016 election because my feed was becoming a warzone and it was really upsetting. I didn't like seeing family who I loved turning into raging assholes. It was one of the best decisions I've ever made but in some ways it was almost like when I was trying to quit smoking. I'd go away for a week and come back, tell myself I quit again and come back again in one to two week cycles. The only thing that got me to finally leave was backing up all my account assets and actually deleting it. I've never looked back. I feel like I made the right choice especially seeing things like /r/hermancainaward and seeing how polarizing the effects of social media are still accelerating discourse. I think the worse thing is seeing dialogue by meme becoming the most prevalent method of sharing ideas. Taking a complex idea shaving it down to 5 to 10 words with funny image in the background is not the way to have an argument, changes no minds, and seems to have hypnotized entire demographics into ideological mania.

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

#259

Post by pickle-wizard »

captainmuon wrote: post #14

Are they taking about the same Facebook? I find it utterly boring and only use it for messenger anymore. It used to be addictive, before social media, when it was a social network. You were interacting with real people, you could meet new people, "stalk" people you know IRL, share stuff about yourself or find out stuff about others. You would try to find your crush on FB and check see if you have common acquaintances…

In the early days of Facebook, I really liked it. Like you said it was nice to see what everyone was up to. Then it changed, and the signal to noise ratio went to about 0. I had to unfollow so many people because I got tried of all the political stuff (from both sides). Anymore my feed is just ads.

I don't see how people enjoy it anymore. Guess they like all the doom scrolling.

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

#260

Post by raxxorrax »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #257
raxxorrax wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still cannot really recapitulate what made me leave, but tech journalism in general became quite insufferable. It all read like scam and advertising at some point. It went from "stuff that matters" to something else.

True. But the comments and community is what i meant, too.

Yeah, that changed too. But I think the reason for that is that many left.
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