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Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

theglobeandmail.com

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Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#11

Post by chickenfries »

macksd wrote: post #7

As a side note, I'm a little saddened when I see friends apologize for their posts. There's such a reaction to "influencer culture" that people feel like foodgrams and humblebrags are a terrible thing, and in excess they certainly can be, but I think from most people it's a billion times better than strawman political arguments and manipulative media that is far worse for our mental health than just comparing ourselv…

I agree with you that I wish social media was full of more posts like this, but foodgrams and humble brags as you put it are also one of the reasons I avoid social media these days. Seeing a feed of the best moments of other peoples lives leaves me feeling depressed. "Comparison is the thief of joy." I'm happy for my friends, but seeing it all collected in one place makes my own life feel inadequate. I'm much happier when I avoid social media.

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#12

Post by dylan604 »

zepto wrote: post #3
vadfa wrote: post #2

If it's over 50% then it's no problem, they can just quit it without fearing network effects. There will be enough users in the new platform.

What new platform? Why won’t the new platform be just as bad? Switching brand of cigarettes doesn’t protect your lungs.

Don't worry, we've switched to clean coal because it's better for the environment

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#13

Post by cblconfederate »

distortedsignal wrote: post #8

Most important paragraph, IMO: > Conducted Oct. 8 to 10, the online poll surveyed 1,545 Canadians and cannot be assigned a margin of error because internet-based polls are not considered random samples. It's a pretty good sample-size, but we don't get error bars. I don't remember if there was anything FB-critical happening that week (when did the study about teen mental health come out?), but the timeframe could also…

it 's not just missing error bars, this is not a sample, period. so it's not something reliable.

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#14

Post by dylan604 »

rtoway wrote: post #9

Last I checked, studies on the issue of social media and mental health are pretty mixed and inconclusive. But it is a popular belief regardless

It's easy to click the button for the response you think people want to hear. Polls mean nothing except for the people being paid to run them.

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#15

Post by neogodless »

macksd wrote: post #7

As a side note, I'm a little saddened when I see friends apologize for their posts. There's such a reaction to "influencer culture" that people feel like foodgrams and humblebrags are a terrible thing, and in excess they certainly can be, but I think from most people it's a billion times better than strawman political arguments and manipulative media that is far worse for our mental health than just comparing ourselv…

In essence, the algorithms created to give each user the feed they want has, in fact, given every user the feed the masses want.

That is to say, some people want real, individual, original and ultimately personal content. But the overwhelming activity and reactions to content has driven that out, and left us only with "mass appeal" - the things that get reactions and shares.

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#16

Post by iamdbtoo »

vadfa wrote: post #2

If it's over 50% then it's no problem, they can just quit it without fearing network effects. There will be enough users in the new platform.

The "they can just quit it" part is directly at odds with the "harms their mental health" part. Not being able to quit something that is harming you is at the core of addiction.

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#17

Post by darkerside »

chickenfries wrote: post #11
macksd wrote: post #7

As a side note, I'm a little saddened when I see friends apologize for their posts. There's such a reaction to "influencer culture" that people feel like foodgrams and humblebrags are a terrible thing, and in excess they certainly can be, but I think from most people it's a billion times better than strawman political arguments and manipulative media that is far worse for our mental health than just comparing ourselv…

I agree with you that I wish social media was full of more posts like this, but foodgrams and humble brags as you put it are also one of the reasons I avoid social media these days. Seeing a feed of the best moments of other peoples lives leaves me feeling depressed. "Comparison is the thief of joy." I'm happy for my friends, but seeing it all collected in one place makes my own life feel inadequate. I'm much happier…

It's strange... I thought we were wired as a species to live vicariously, to feel joy when others are blessed, and feel pain when they suffer. You're not the only one that doesn't get that out of Facebook... Why? Is it the quantity? The format? What turns it into a place of covetousness and bitterness?

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#18

Post by jszymborski »

zepto wrote: post #3
vadfa wrote: post #2

If it's over 50% then it's no problem, they can just quit it without fearing network effects. There will be enough users in the new platform.

What new platform? Why won’t the new platform be just as bad? Switching brand of cigarettes doesn’t protect your lungs.

I think that's a fair point, but I wonder if I can probe HNs brain on what a "healthy" online social network would look like.

Here are some thoughts I have:

1) The platform does not have a user-engagement incentive.

2) Personal network sizes are restricted. You can't be "friends" with everyone. Adding friends perhaps comes at some cost or is just strictly capped.

3) Sharing outside your friends network from the platform is not possible. This platform is for sharing with your friends, not the world.

4) Trust in the platform and how it shares your data. The easiest way to trust the server is if everything is E2EE, but we all know that's not trivial. Perhaps the limits in scaling E2EE can work synergistically with (2) and (3)

(1) seems to be the hardest thing here in my mind.

Anybody have thoughts on what could make a social network "healthy"?

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#19

Post by flycaliguy »

Yeah, I mean, this is among Canadians willing to fill out a survey online. Frankly it feels like another push in the media world to shift blame to FB.

As far as specifically Canadian factors, maybe don’t survey us in October when the days are getting noticeably shorter? I feel like we are all a little melancholy right now preparing for our lightless morning commutes.

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