I'd say most sane people don't only believe that social media in general is unhealthy, they know it. Some might push for regulation but I would just suggest these people quit it all. I did so a few years ago (well I guess with the exception of HN) and haven't looked back. Sure I might not learn about a high school acquaintance's new baby or the like but the people I truly care about know how to get in touch with me and vice versa.
Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health
181–190 of 273 posts
Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health
#182I've been hearing this for over 5 years now, but social media is still booming, and most people are still on Facebook, and similar apps, and spending more time than ever.
It feels weird as if everyone agrees, and knows that smoking kills but continue to smokes more and more.
Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health
#183As 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 see friends apologize for their posts.
Canadians?
Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
The formula for error bars under the traditional Binomial assumption is: +/- sqrt(p * (1-p) / N) So the errors are around +/- 1% for most values of p in this article. The article (rightly) points out that the binomial assumption is not reasonable given the survey method. https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/29641/standard-err...
The traditional binomial assumption assumes independence of the samples, as the accepted answer states. The authors are acknowledging that this assumption does not hold.
It's an odd disclaimer. If it's a quota-based sample then the performance in terms of nominal coverage is going to look similar to a probabilistic sample (especially given the current environment for probabilistic samples, which is quite poor). Probabilistic samples don't report design effects or adjust MOEs to reflect them either, the norm is just to report a classical normal approximate binomial confidence interval (e.g. +/- 1/sqrt(n)) even when a real design effect exists.
My guess is the reason for this disclaimer is that it's not a quota sample, it's just literally a completely undirected opt-in survey and there's no reason to believe this is anything resembling a representative sample, probabilistic or not.
Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
We don't ban alcohol, videogames, twitter, tv shows, or buying excessive amounts of food, despite a giant number of people in the US suffering from addiction to those. War on drugs was a failure. At some point, you have to draw a line at where you take personal responsibility. The utility to those who can use those things I listed above responsibly outweighs the potential danger and plies of those who use "addiction"…
I never suggested banning anything. I was merely pointing out that those two points are contradictory.
The way you talk about addiction, however, makes me think you don't really understand how it works and seemingly view any addiction that isn't physical as invalid and that is not how it works.
Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
We don't ban alcohol, videogames, twitter, tv shows, or buying excessive amounts of food, despite a giant number of people in the US suffering from addiction to those. War on drugs was a failure. At some point, you have to draw a line at where you take personal responsibility. The utility to those who can use those things I listed above responsibly outweighs the potential danger and plies of those who use "addiction"…
Exactly. How is this even an argument point? If you support banning Facebook because of addictive potential, then add about 50 other things to the list to ban as well. If it's to regulate Facebook more, what exact kind of regulation would make it OK again? Age limit, as in 18+ to use? Don't porn sites use that and children still have no issues logging onto those sites.
I never said anything about banning anything.
Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health
#187I've been hearing this for over 5 years now, but social media is still booming, and most people are still on Facebook, and similar apps, and spending more time than ever. It feels weird as if everyone agrees, and knows that smoking kills but continue to smokes more and more.
Almost as if there are exploitable addictive properties that can be analyzed, maximized, monetized.
To KNOW is not gonna change anything much. It's the nature of the beast.
Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health
#188I've been hearing this for over 5 years now, but social media is still booming, and most people are still on Facebook, and similar apps, and spending more time than ever. It feels weird as if everyone agrees, and knows that smoking kills but continue to smokes more and more.
I’ve asked this question to a few non-tech friends. They definitely know and recognize the harms of using social media, but for many them just struggle to quit. They don’t even know how to put their addictions into words.
There were a few who also used it because it’s easy to keep up with family or friends who might live far away (which is a really valid use case!) and have no problem quitting it or never checking.
These products are designed to be addicting. My hypothesis is that folks might recognize the harm but since the downside is reducing the quality of your mental state (FB doesn’t increase your risk of cancer ala smoking). It’s just not a priority to fix the addiction.
Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
We don't ban alcohol, videogames, twitter, tv shows, or buying excessive amounts of food, despite a giant number of people in the US suffering from addiction to those. War on drugs was a failure. At some point, you have to draw a line at where you take personal responsibility. The utility to those who can use those things I listed above responsibly outweighs the potential danger and plies of those who use "addiction"…
I never suggested banning anything. I was merely pointing out that those two points are contradictory. The way you talk about addiction, however, makes me think you don't really understand how it works and seemingly view any addiction that isn't physical as invalid and that is not how it works.
>The way you talk about addiction, however, makes me think you don't really understand how it works and seemingly view any addiction that isn't physical as invalid and that is not how it works.
Poor assumption. Psychological addictions are just as valid as physical, and I've never claimed otherwise. I just believe that you cannot legislate the sources of psychological addictions like you can with sources of physical ones. Primarily because literally anything can be a source of psychological addiction, depending on the flavor of the month.
Cannabis has a strong psychological addiction component, and yet people tend to conveniently forget about it when it comes to legalizing it recreationally (I am in full support of the legalization btw).
Why? I think we know why, it is because people decided that it is the responsibility of an individual to not abuse something that doesn't have a physical addiction component. But if they end up getting psychologically addicted and need help, then sure, I am all in favor of supporting those people and helping them to get out of the addiction rut they are in.
Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health
#190The title is falsified within a few sentences of the story, where it becomes clear that:
Most Canadians believe that Facebook harms the mental health of others; their own use of Facebook is healthy and fine.
Facebook issues are everyone else's problem, not mine, believes the average Facebook user.