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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

#21

Post by renewiltord »

I actually used to use Instagram quite a lot because it brought me quite a bit of happiness seeing what my friends were up to and IG had defensive measures to protect me:

- The “you’re all caught up” screen that stops me from scrolling

- The fact that stories signify whether they’re watched

- The fact that my posts feed only contained followed stuff plus ads

So there was the sense of “I’m caught up with my friends’ lives”. Anyway, they’ve changed it:

- They now place random stuff below the list of my friends’ posts

- They place people I don’t follow into the ad slots for stories

Anyway, I use it much less now and we just end up sharing photos in group chats.

Does anyone know of what a true IG replacement is? Like something for your friends and you.

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#22

Post by pmontra »

darkerside wrote: post #17
chickenfries wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Maybe the distance and the volume? I belong to some whatsapp and Telegram groups with people I know and I meet with at least every few months. We share stuff, even foodgrams. It's ok to hear from them. I can't just cope with all the stuff posted by some people I know but I didn't meet with for years. There are too many of them. I need time to live my life so I gave up Facebook, downsized my network and do things with people I meet.

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#23

Post by kebman »

I make a conscious effort to not get sucked into Facebook. One rule I have is to never browse past the first ad unless I've got the day off. That minimizes a lot of the time I spend there. Unfortunately I am involved in a few special interest groups in there, but at least the information we share serves a purpose. For everything else, I simply use the standalone Messenger app. That way I can still keep in touch with my friends, without having to scroll through mostly pointless Fb posts and ads.

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#24

Post by notsureaboutpg »

darkerside wrote: post #17
chickenfries wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Why would we be hardwired for that? People for milennia have understood human beings are hardwired to "sin" and to be covetous and deceitful and it was through exercise (spiritual, mental, whatever you call it) and discipline and fear of being held accountable for our actions in this life that we would overcome our base (called base for a reason) desires.

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#25

Post by dr-detroit »

flycaliguy wrote: post #19

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.

If you love being exploited by the ultra rich why dont you just move to Russia and let the rest of us at least try to avoid the social media brainscramble.

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#26

Post by xdavidliu »

cblconfederate wrote: post #13
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.

it is a sample. It's just not an unbiased sample [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sample_(statistics)#Kinds_of_s...

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#27

Post by mumblemumble »

darkerside wrote: post #17
chickenfries wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Facebook isn't doing anything new. This sort of phenomenon is something of a universal human experience. For example, "Keeping up with the Joneses" is a phrase that's been in the English language for at least a century. All social media does is crank its input gain as high as it will go.

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#29

Post by version_five »

AzzieElbab wrote: post #20

what do most canadians think about the globe and mail?

Yeah that was the first thing that went through my mind too. There are few traditional news outlets that don't try and incite rage driven attention. The globe and mail is not a tabloid (last I checked, I'm 10 years into a boycott) but it still tries to bait people into viewing its stories in a way that's tailored to its readership.

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#30

Post by legitster »

I know Facebook is the great evil, but we really need to start looking at the mental health impacts of all social media. The unhappiest people I know are not on Facebook - they are religiously devoted to Twitter and Reddit. Heck, I'd like to know what sort of damage this post right here is doing to me.

This is our generation's smoking but everyone only wants to know how harmful Marlboros are.

Edit: Please upvote this more. I need to feel like my views are validated.

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