Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health • Hacker News Board

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#81

Post by 6gvONxR4sf7o » Fri, Oct 15, 2021, 5:32 PM UTC

cronix wrote: post #67

I'm getting kind of tired of the narrative that "x is evil/bad/harmful, but I'm too weak (we won't admit addiction) to not use x. Everyone I know uses x. Government needs to regulate x (so I don't have to change my ways)." I deleted my account over a year ago now, because I do view them as evil and do cause overall societal harm. It's not life ending. You'll adjust and then wonder why you didn't do it sooner. I made…

I'd take that further. When I felt lonely sometimes, I'd boot up social media and see what people are up to. Now, without social media, when I feel lonely I'll text friends. Unsurprisingly, it's more healthy. And when I reach out more, they reach out more. And instead of getting a button click invitation, people will text or call with an invitation and we'll actually talk a bit too. Turns out them telling me a thing and me telling them I like it is more fulfilling than facebook telling me they did a thing, and me clicking a like button.

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#82

Post by munk-a » Fri, Oct 15, 2021, 5:32 PM UTC

cronix wrote: post #67

I'm getting kind of tired of the narrative that "x is evil/bad/harmful, but I'm too weak (we won't admit addiction) to not use x. Everyone I know uses x. Government needs to regulate x (so I don't have to change my ways)." I deleted my account over a year ago now, because I do view them as evil and do cause overall societal harm. It's not life ending. You'll adjust and then wonder why you didn't do it sooner. I made…

The issue is primarily that some folks have moved all of their online connections onto facebook - they've put all of their eggs in that basket. If you want to keep up with them at all you need to at least have the bearest presence on the platform.

This is less about that dude from highschool and more about your cousin.

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#83

Post by greenail » Fri, Oct 15, 2021, 5:33 PM UTC

SavantIdiot wrote: post #74

greenail wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You're looking at this from a western perspective. Some non-western countries are entirely linked by Facebook products. When Facebook went down last week, some people couldn't access their BANKS. You OK with that? I'm not ok with that at all however I would guess that those decisions are being reevaluated as we speak! >That's what Facebook wants: to become something you simply MUST use to survive. But if you choose…

> But if you choose not to use the platform they will never have the power It is far too late for that. Facebook is too big. I'm guessing you don't know that there are countries in the world where Facebook is the only internet, am I right? Free Basic is a service that they offered with free internet in poor countries, but Facebook is the only internet. It has changed a little as governments have realized this is a pr…

>You are assuming Facebook and the government are the same thing. (US I presume.) They are not the same. A government isn't a corporation. This is a totally different discussion.

I'm saying that social media is a form of power. If you take control from Facebook and regulate it (give the power to the government) you are simply just shift the power from one potential abuser to another.

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#84

Post by colinmhayes » Fri, Oct 15, 2021, 5:34 PM UTC

cronix wrote: post #67

I'm getting kind of tired of the narrative that "x is evil/bad/harmful, but I'm too weak (we won't admit addiction) to not use x. Everyone I know uses x. Government needs to regulate x (so I don't have to change my ways)." I deleted my account over a year ago now, because I do view them as evil and do cause overall societal harm. It's not life ending. You'll adjust and then wonder why you didn't do it sooner. I made…

The problem is that you can't stop other people from using X and their choices affect you.

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#85

Post by munk-a » Fri, Oct 15, 2021, 5:35 PM UTC

bjt2n3904 wrote: post #79

cronix wrote: post #67

I'm getting kind of tired of the narrative that "x is evil/bad/harmful, but I'm too weak (we won't admit addiction) to not use x. Everyone I know uses x. Government needs to regulate x (so I don't have to change my ways)." I deleted my account over a year ago now, because I do view them as evil and do cause overall societal harm. It's not life ending. You'll adjust and then wonder why you didn't do it sooner. I made…

Slight nitpick. The argument isn't, "so I don't have to change my behaviors." The argument is, OTHER people are too weak to change their behaviors, so we need to have the government regulate THEIR behavior. (The greater good.) It's bad enough to be lazy and want someone else to fix your problems. It's almost worse to decide you know what other people's problems are, and decide what needs to happen for them. (Or phras…

No - since this is a social network this isn't all about personal responsibility. People hate-use facebook because everyone hate-uses facebook. There is no sane alternative because everyone needs to hate-use the same platform to be on it with everyone else.

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#86

Post by rndmind » Fri, Oct 15, 2021, 5:37 PM UTC

na85 wrote: post #43

keewee7 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I don't understand is the selective outrage against Facebook/Instagram. Why not Twitter, YouTube, reddit and TikTok?

Twitter, Youtube, Reddit, and TikTok don't have megalomaniac CEOs who got rich selling out their users to advertisers while spending that money on PR messages like "privacy is dead" and then turning around to buy all the mansions around theirs so that they can protect their privacy. Also there's that little itty bitty issue where Facebook was purposely manipulating people's timeline feeds to see if they could produce…

Don't forget the hostile attempts at monopolizing information access in India and 3rd world countries with INTERNET.org that was so nefarious I was very scared, fortunately india thwarted facebook, inc's malicious plan and rejected it... but internet.org still went on to poison other 3rd world countries like the philippines and indonesia, before their nescient tech industry even had a chance to stop it.

In addition, the nefarious bribery of brazilian telcoms to allow whatsapp to have unlimited and free network bandwidth, so as to out-muscle any competitors.

Indeed, fb did push out PR messages like privacy is dead, although I'd love to cite some source on that... all I want to say is, Privacy isn't dead facebook, you're dead!

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#87

Post by greenail » Fri, Oct 15, 2021, 5:38 PM UTC

pzo wrote: post #78

Minor49er wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You're looking at this from a western perspective. Some non-western countries are entirely linked by Facebook products. When Facebook went down last week, some people couldn't access their BANKS. You OK with that? Wasn't this because DNS servers were effectively DDoS'd when applications overwhelmed them with requests looking for Facebook without caching the response? Or are there actually banks out there that requi…

So many people these days instead of creating separate account to some websites (login/password) the use instead integrated Login via Facebook button. I tried to educate friends and family not to use this feature even for the reason that if their FB account will be blocked they will loose access to many other websites. However many people give up because it's not so convenient as to just clicking one FB button.

I agree that single sign on takes advantage of people not understanding what they give up when they choose FB/Google for SSO. What government policy could fix that? The fallback seems to be that people just re-use their email address in all their accounts.

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#88

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Oct 15, 2021, 5:38 PM UTC

cronix wrote: post #67

I'm getting kind of tired of the narrative that "x is evil/bad/harmful, but I'm too weak (we won't admit addiction) to not use x. Everyone I know uses x. Government needs to regulate x (so I don't have to change my ways)." I deleted my account over a year ago now, because I do view them as evil and do cause overall societal harm. It's not life ending. You'll adjust and then wonder why you didn't do it sooner. I made…

[deleted]

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#89

Post by munk-a » Fri, Oct 15, 2021, 5:40 PM UTC

heurisko wrote: post #76

legitster wrote: post #30

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…

I think twitter is the most toxic. I have been uncomfortable on twitter to find enclaves where people are mentally ill, and have found others to exacerbate their behaviour and thinking.

Twitter, at least, is utterly worthless and entirely voluntary. Nobody uses the platform to announce or coordinate family events or to reach out to loved ones when they need help. I have a mostly inactive facebook account in case family messages me on there and I need to help out - I don't have a twitter account because I don't find brigading to be a worthwhile activity. I'd say with a moderate level of confidence that nothing that's announced on twitter has ever been vital to know - if Whirlpool is forced to recall a certain dishwasher brand they'll send out emails and potentially physical letters - no government agent is going to watch them tweet and say "Yup - you just informed the public in a responsible manner".

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#90

Post by tombert » Fri, Oct 15, 2021, 5:41 PM UTC

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…

While I don't really follow any food social media, I've certainly sent pictures of strange food I've bought or made to my wife or parents. Food is literally one of the most universal things on earth, so it can be interesting if I go to a country and try a dish I've never had before, and to send pictures in the process.

I never really understood shitting on people posting food pics. How exactly is it hurting anyone?