For people who struggle: a first step is to turn off all notifications.
This doesn't work in the beginning but I noticed that over time this is giving more and more rest and makes you rething social media usage.
Taking a break from social media makes you happier and less anxious
91–100 of 486 posts
Re: Taking a break from social media makes you happier and less anxious
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the kind of stuff that ends up filling my news feed. None of it has ever had any real effect on my life but it all seems to get equal feed real estate on reddit/twitter
Unsure about that.. I don't think Australia has been isolated from the rippling effects of price increases of grain and energy, that is one effect of the war in Ukraine. Probably not as much affected as many other countries, but I think you would still import products from countries where these effects are significant, and which have had to raise their prices due to it.
As someone out of Asia, the information the previous poster mentioned has near zero relevance to me. Barely any ripples from the events happening with the topics mentioned.
But still for some reason my feed is flooded with that news and it feels like there is a lot pressure to take a stand on topics I neither understand nor care about.
Social Media feels suffocating at times, it is like teenage peer pressure multiplied by a factor of 100.
Re: Taking a break from social media makes you happier and less anxious
#93I pretty much live in a box (apt no land). Always on the computer. I work a lot/work on projects. But then I hit that point where I can't do logical things/can't write more code. I can switch to physical projects or go to the park. But I really have been isolated from people I think since 2014 or so. I had a roommate for a few years after that then he moved out. I briefly worked jobs where you interacted with people day to day that helps with comradery.
Lately though I'm getting tired of the scrolling/point driven life. I still can't make the jump yet (get property so I can spend most of my free time outside). Still social media is nice to pass the time and along with YT/TV, to fill that social void. In the past I've found it weird to be around people like I don't know what is normal and usually can't stand the slowness of the moment. Then it's super weird when you're in a crowded place ha (usually freaks me out).
This is why when the internet dies I can't stand it... I remember my life how it's constantly using the internet to be in that state of motion. I'm not saying internet bad. Idk I'm like 3/10 of the way through life so far, I gotta see what is considered worth still.
Re: Taking a break from social media makes you happier and less anxious
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unsure about that.. I don't think Australia has been isolated from the rippling effects of price increases of grain and energy, that is one effect of the war in Ukraine. Probably not as much affected as many other countries, but I think you would still import products from countries where these effects are significant, and which have had to raise their prices due to it.
But none of that is likely to be actionable information for them. It's like hearing that meteor is going to kill us all tomorrow and there is nothing you can do. Sure, it's going to affect you, but your life isn't going to be any better if you know. It's just pointless anxiety.
Certainly, if you only want to hear about actionable information, you can strike out most of news all together. You can pick up a history book in 30 years to read up on what was happening in the world. Perhaps you will be happier for it, I don't know.
Re: Taking a break from social media makes you happier and less anxious
#95For 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, I have seen the same pattern with myself. Tiktok makes me happy in moderation. But when it starts to displace too much of my life and I get less social interaction, exercise, etc, then I start to have some depressive symptoms. This would be more of an indirect cause.
I think there are also a lot of people for whom social media is a direct cause of anxiety, especially young women.
Re: Taking a break from social media makes you happier and less anxious
#96For 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.
I've discovered that internet arguments use up a decent chunk of my daily mental capacity, which would've been otherwise spent on work.
I figured I would fight fire with fire and last week got into a few particularly ridiculous flamewars on different platforms and... it worked.
Re: Taking a break from social media makes you happier and less anxious
#97For people who struggle: a first step is to turn off all notifications. This doesn't work in the beginning but I noticed that over time this is giving more and more rest and makes you rething social media usage.
For me I found this made me check them more, as I would be thinking "well maybe someone has sent me a message since I last checked" and it might be true. It's a tricky one! I found uninstalling the apps and logging out on the web after each session helps a bit, as then there is some friction in having to check what's going on since I have to log in every time.
Re: Taking a break from social media makes you happier and less anxious
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Tabloid magazines that only talk about the rich and celebrities have always been super popular which also makes people depressed. I think this is nothing new with social media.
A printed magazine doesn't have the doomscrolling ability of social media apps. The same effect, but a magnitude smaller dosage.
Re: Taking a break from social media makes you happier and less anxious
#99At 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.
That appears to be a disingenuous argument. Firstly, traditional news media’s intrusion is not as severe or wide ranging. To give one example, the surge in teenage mental health problems that Facebook and Instagram in particular seem likely to have caused. Second, there is a very large qualitative difference between social media and traditional media. Social media is monitoring your every action, and adapting to it,…
> Social media is monitoring your every action, and adapting to it, and creates a tight feedback loop where you are manipulated into staying engaged and consuming more adverts. That personalised real-time feedback loop, based on giant datasets that are very invasive, is incomparable to traditional media.
I just want to add here that YouTube, while not exactly a social medium and not a traditional medium, also has a tight and instantly adaptive feedback loop. With this argument, staying off YouTube should be similarly relieving than staying off at least TikTok. At least, the hours you can waste are comparable.
Re: Taking a break from social media makes you happier and less anxious
#100I took a break from social media for a year; it was excellent. Briefly after my return, I found out an extended family member passed away. Nobody would have told me otherwise. People will assume you're on there and in-the-loop even if you aren't. It's hard to navigate any social environment where that's an implicit given of others.