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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

#201

Post by k_sze »

laputan_machine wrote: post #187
eafkuor wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If other people find their ideal job, have a tropical vacation, etc. it makes me feel... good? Those are good things in general, although the tropical vacation might make me also feel concerned about the climate. If this would be your genuine reaction, congratulations. You belong to the 0.001% of the population that would feel this way.

If a friend gets a great job or starts to live a healthy life you don't feel great for them? I don't believe that puts me in the minority of people, not a chance.

One could be “happy”* for a friend and also feel shitty about themself.

“Damn. Matthew has changed jobs 3 times in the past 5 years already, each time to a better paying job. Look at you. You’re still stuck in this shitty job because you suck.”

This is literally the kind of thought I have had in the past.

[*] Are you “happy” in a polite way? Or are you genuinely happy?

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

#202

Post by emteycz »

tdudzik wrote: post #199
laputan_machine wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a friend gets a great job or starts to live a healthy life you don't feel great for them? I don't believe that puts me in the minority of people, not a chance.

I think you can feel great for them and bad for yourself at the same time

But why would I? It's not like they took something from me. I am the lord of my destiny.

And how is it in any way different from the same people telling me this stuff at a pub? I don't think social media has anything to do with this.

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

#203

Post by coldtea »

id wrote: post #168
charstacker wrote: post #149

Consider the following scenario: You're pleased and content one minute, thinking your life is going fine the next. You have a few minutes to kill, so you log onto Facebook and begin scrolling... First, you notice a friend's post stating that she has accepted her ideal job. Then you read a coworker's too political rant. You continue browsing and see a video of your neighbour enjoying a fantastic tropical vacation. And…

If other people find their ideal job, have a tropical vacation, etc. it makes me feel... good? Those are good things in general, although the tropical vacation might make me also feel concerned about the climate. The problems I have with social media are that - it steals a lot of time - a lot of content gets me by evoking negative emotion - it's taxing to get exposed to so many different ideas, clips, heated discussi…

>If other people find their ideal job, have a tropical vacation, etc. it makes me feel... good?

As if regular people don't compare themselves with others and just enjoy the success of everybody, without considering if they are falling behind or not?

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

#204

Post by [deleted] »

charstacker wrote: post #149

Consider the following scenario: You're pleased and content one minute, thinking your life is going fine the next. You have a few minutes to kill, so you log onto Facebook and begin scrolling... First, you notice a friend's post stating that she has accepted her ideal job. Then you read a coworker's too political rant. You continue browsing and see a video of your neighbour enjoying a fantastic tropical vacation. And…

[deleted]

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

#205

Post by wccrawford »

MezzoDelCammin wrote: post #178

Is HN considered "social media"? Because in many ways (at least for me), there's a resemblance - the never disappearing timeline, the comments that sometimes show the trenches of the good old culture wars... It's definitely no Facebook. I guess HN (or HN admins, to be precise) is doing a better job at limiting the disagreements from "Petersburg troll-farm vitriol" to "occasionally sarcastic". But the social media eff…

Despite what so many others are going to say, yes, it's social media.

It aggregates great things that others are doing along with other posts designed to elicit extreme emotions and feeds them to you with an algorithm designed to encourage engagement. (I had originally written "maximize", but HN's algorithm does at least try to prevent flamewars.)

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

#206

Post by k_sze »

emteycz wrote: post #202
tdudzik wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you can feel great for them and bad for yourself at the same time

But why would I? It's not like they took something from me. I am the lord of my destiny. And how is it in any way different from the same people telling me this stuff at a pub? I don't think social media has anything to do with this.

Maybe you’re lucky to not be plagued by inferiority complex and/or impostor syndrome.

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

#207

Post by emteycz »

k_sze wrote: post #206
emteycz wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why would I? It's not like they took something from me. I am the lord of my destiny. And how is it in any way different from the same people telling me this stuff at a pub? I don't think social media has anything to do with this.

Maybe you’re lucky to not be plagued by inferiority complex and/or impostor syndrome.

Perhaps, but then why blame social media and not these disorders?

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

#208

Post by coldtea »

emteycz wrote: post #202
tdudzik wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you can feel great for them and bad for yourself at the same time

But why would I? It's not like they took something from me. I am the lord of my destiny. And how is it in any way different from the same people telling me this stuff at a pub? I don't think social media has anything to do with this.

Social status and the satisfaction (or lack thereof) derived from it are relative. This has been studied and hammered on again and again, not to mention the entirety of human history (and tons of lucrative rackets) attest to it.

And being "the lord of your destiny" is already not applicable to most people, except in an abstract, meaningless sense that a person can always decide for themselves. That doesn't mean they can wish reality away. (E.g. "Yeah, I have $200K in student debt, no job prospects after looking for 10 months, and my spouse got sick, but I can do whatever I decide").

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

#209

Post by coffeeblack »

Gigachad wrote: post #55
cute_boi wrote: post #47

Earlier 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.

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.

Simply mute people who post the crap. Or use more localized social media.

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

#210

Post by emteycz »

coldtea wrote: post #208
emteycz wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why would I? It's not like they took something from me. I am the lord of my destiny. And how is it in any way different from the same people telling me this stuff at a pub? I don't think social media has anything to do with this.

Social status and the satisfaction (or lack thereof) derived from it are relative. This has been studied and hammered on again and again, not to mention the entirety of human history (and tons of lucrative rackets) attest to it. And being "the lord of your destiny" is already not applicable to most people, except in an abstract, meaningless sense that a person can always decide for themselves. That doesn't mean they…

If these people think they're the only ones with problems and other people's lives are problem-free, well that's the issue. Not even the most accomplished person has a smooth ride.
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