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Taking a break from social media makes you happier and less anxious

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Re: Taking a break from social media makes you happier and less anxious

#51

Post by davidhay »

Hamuko wrote: post #38
openknot wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on the news source. There is a noticeable difference between Tweets and unverified Facebook posts, news media from Buzzfeed or Salon, articles from a local newspaper, articles from The New York Times/Washington Post, and articles from the Financial Times or The Wall Street Journal. Not all news is designed for outrage. Several publications publish in-depth articles in a neutral way, where you can actually lea…

> Not all news is designed for outrage. I don't think I get anxiety from content "designed for outrage". But if I go to the front page of the Washington Post, here's what I see: > Buffalo shooting suspect wrote of plans months ago, online messages show > Only 22 saw the Buffalo shooting live. Millions have seen it since. > A barrage of ‘never-ending gunshots’: Inside the Buffalo massacre > Ukraine ends bloody battle…

Exactly. Also, Major news outlets A/B test their headlines, just like advertisers, which has clearly show that anxiety provoking headlines get clicks.

Re: Taking a break from social media makes you happier and less anxious

#52

Post by rektide »

Calvin02 wrote: post #11

Does this include HN? Asking for a friend. Snark aside, why is this a recurring obsession of HN posters?

Society's opinion of social media is by far the biggest boldest new pop-culture gazing-at-itself and snake-eating-it's-tale opportunity of the century. This is a cultural fixation, and one we've already largely convinced ourselves is awful & terrible & the source of great suffering. That it happens to be some pretty delinquent not great companies running the show is a great fuel for the bonfire, cause for pyrophilia.

Re: Taking a break from social media makes you happier and less anxious

#53

Post by rilezg »

rektide wrote: post #2

There's some real things I want to appreciate & root into here, but as a geek growing up, one of my greatest & most persistence annoyances was how easy & happy it was for so many around me to pick being so ignorant, so blind, so insular. Heck yes ignoring the world & big matters makes you happier. Heck yes keeping blinders on & seeing less is safer, more secure, simpler. But fuck that. Fuck ignorance. Face things, se…

I would say that interacting with the physical world/people is much richer and more fulfilling than social media (or any other media). Being aware of 'the world & big matters' does not make a person good or interesting. What really matters is not what media a person consumes (or does not consume), but what they do.

Re: Taking a break from social media makes you happier and less anxious

#54

Post by em500 »

Hamuko wrote: post #38
openknot wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on the news source. There is a noticeable difference between Tweets and unverified Facebook posts, news media from Buzzfeed or Salon, articles from a local newspaper, articles from The New York Times/Washington Post, and articles from the Financial Times or The Wall Street Journal. Not all news is designed for outrage. Several publications publish in-depth articles in a neutral way, where you can actually lea…

> Not all news is designed for outrage. I don't think I get anxiety from content "designed for outrage". But if I go to the front page of the Washington Post, here's what I see: > Buffalo shooting suspect wrote of plans months ago, online messages show > Only 22 saw the Buffalo shooting live. Millions have seen it since. > A barrage of ‘never-ending gunshots’: Inside the Buffalo massacre > Ukraine ends bloody battle…

Maybe try FT. Currently the Most Read headlines are:

- Bitcoin has no future as a payments network, says FTX chief

- Putin signals acceptance of Finland and Sweden joining Nato

- China’s economic activity plummets as Covid lockdowns hit growth

- "Russia learns a hard lesson about the folly of war"

- Harrow Beijing school loses its hallowed British branding

Or Wikipedia's Current events Portal:

- Hassan Sheikh Mohamud (pictured) is elected as President of Somalia.

- In the United States, ten people are killed in a mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.

- Ukraine, represented by Kalush Orchestra with the song "Stefania", wins the Eurovision Song Contest.

- Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan inherits the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and becomes President of the United Arab Emirates after the death of Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Re: Taking a break from social media makes you happier and less anxious

#55

Post by Gigachad »

cute_boi wrote: post #47
parasti wrote: post #36

For me, I've found that social media doesn't affect my level of happiness and/or anxiety directly. What it does do, is take up a lot of my time almost imperceptibly - leaving less time for other, more meaningful activities. It makes me feel like I'm running out of time every day, which in turn causes a feeling of anxiety.

Yes, few people probably aren't affected by social media just like smoking & drinking. But from my personal experience many people really feel jealous/unhappy/lonely when they look on false reality. And, those influencer really makes everything worst.

For me it’s not the fake people showing off, it’s all the news, drama and doom. And arguably it’s all irrelevant anyway. As an Australian, if I had known nothing about Ukraine, BLM protests, Trump, Kyle Rittenhouse, etc, my life would be no bit worse or less informed. It would probably be a bit better. But if I check social media it’s just a non stop stream of crap.

Re: Taking a break from social media makes you happier and less anxious

#56

Post by fleetwoodsnack »

jdavis703 wrote: post #20
shoeshoeshoey wrote: post #13

At Facebook / Meta, employees often questioned Mark Zuckerberg whenever a study like this came out. Zuckerberg noted that the same held true for news media. Reporters do not like to mention this.

My Twitter feed is basically the news. The first 4 of 5 posts are from established news organizations or about current events. Social media vs news media is a distinction without a difference.

Well no, not legally. Social media platforms have certain legal protections against litigation for their content while news organizations do not.

The distinctions are actually fairly profound and include established practices and professional norms concerning information sourcing, verification/due diligence, and editorial discretion. This is all before the agent-principal relationship, contractual obligations, and regulatory oversight to which news organizations are subject.

I understand why Zuckerberg needs to make the false equivalence, but we don’t (necessarily) share his profit motive and can be more objective here.

Re: Taking a break from social media makes you happier and less anxious

#57

Post by Gigachad »

nonbirithm wrote: post #49
Calvin02 wrote: post #11

Does this include HN? Asking for a friend. Snark aside, why is this a recurring obsession of HN posters?

In my opinion, yes. HN has been a significant contributor to my cynicism. There have been enough submissions in the past where I already knew what to expect from the comments section, especially in cases where my stance on the matter is already firm/obvious (such as with tech regulation, climate change, complaints about Twitter threads being reposted to HN, articles about social media dooming us like this one). My re…

Every time I see a Firefox announcement of any kind I know the top comment will be a link to bugzilla showing some 15 year old bug that the commenter thinks is absolutely critical or something about the CEOs pay.

Maybe if you are lucky, page 2 has comments about the actual article.

Re: Taking a break from social media makes you happier and less anxious

#58

Post by zoul »

forgingahead wrote: post #31
shoeshoeshoey wrote: post #13

At Facebook / Meta, employees often questioned Mark Zuckerberg whenever a study like this came out. Zuckerberg noted that the same held true for news media. Reporters do not like to mention this.

Yes, the correct headline and takeaway should be: "Taking a break from ALL media makes you happier", or rather, "go outside and spend time with real people".

While that’s true, it misses the point – which is that Facebook is consciously and painstankingly designed you keep to “engaged”. Sure, everyone wants to keep their website visitors, but what Facebook does is a different level. (And many media consider their readers to be their customers, not the goods being sold. That’s a huge difference.)

Re: Taking a break from social media makes you happier and less anxious

#59

Post by greggman3 »

openknot wrote: post #26
shoeshoeshoey wrote: post #13

At Facebook / Meta, employees often questioned Mark Zuckerberg whenever a study like this came out. Zuckerberg noted that the same held true for news media. Reporters do not like to mention this.

Depends on the news source. There is a noticeable difference between Tweets and unverified Facebook posts, news media from Buzzfeed or Salon, articles from a local newspaper, articles from The New York Times/Washington Post, and articles from the Financial Times or The Wall Street Journal. Not all news is designed for outrage. Several publications publish in-depth articles in a neutral way, where you can actually lea…

And you could say the same about social media. I'm on facebook. I get no outrage. I unfollowed anyone who posts it and FB doesn't insert any. As an example right now my FB feed is:

> Picture of a the blood moon eclipse a friend took

> A Picture of a CD cover of a song a friend is listing too

> Pictures from my sister visiting her best friend in another state.

> A funny gif from a friend making fun of crypto crashing

> A poster of the new Japanese Ultraman movie and a friend saying he saw it and really enjoyed it and is looking forward to the Masked Rider movie.

> More pictures from my sister

> A collection of doodles from an artist friend

> A picture of my sister with 2 x-neighbors I haven't seen in 35 years

> A friend saying he loved the video game "The Final Station"

> More pics from my sister

> A friend posting a link to a music video she loves

> A friend posting about a game they made at a game jam

> A friend saying he started doing trip planning for families going to Disneyland.

> My aunt posting a picture of flowers my uncle bought her.

> A friend posting about a show he went to in Argentina

> My sister posting a words of wisdom type picture

> A friend posting he can't believe he's had the same job he loves for 8yrs already

> A friend posting an artist concept drawing of Cassini taking a picture of Saturn

> A friend who makes one off dresses on etsy posting her latest creations

> A friend posting he likes "Picard" but it should have had a "Shut up, Wesley" scene.

No outrage in my feed.

To put it another way, social media is what you make of it. If you don't want the outrage the stop following the outrage.

Re: Taking a break from social media makes you happier and less anxious

#60

Post by em500 »

tayo42 wrote: post #8
drekk wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Social media isn't the world, or a big matter. One can still read/engage with the news without having to deal with as many dark patterns. We don't have a public digital square, but I'm not going to help Zuckerberg et al further privatize it at my own mental expense.

idk about that, a lot of news sources feel like they're optimizing for clicks too. where is some boring neutral news? then am i to broken to even stick with something like at this point lol maybe i need the clickbait i agree with the main point, social media isnt the world. i think people forget that

> where is some boring neutral news?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events

(And to a much lesser extend, https://text.npr.org/)

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