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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

#431

Post by ivanhoe »

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…

It affects you a lot less once you realize that nothing of that pictures a real, complete story of those peoples' lives, but just a cherry picked show-off moments and emotional venting...

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

#432

Post by Clubber »

antiframe wrote: post #414
Clubber wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>while simultaneously threatening ... democracy This seems to be the latest topic from the outrage machine. Can you explain how social media is an actual threat to the democracy or democratic process to a reasonable person?

> Can you explain how social media is an actual threat to the democracy or democratic process to a reasonable person? The best explanation I've read of this is Tim Urban's "The Story of Us" series [1]. It builds up a model from individual behavior to societal behavior and how it's changed over the decades due to how online interactions have shifted behavior (both individual and societal). I don't know whether it's th…

I read that series when it first came out, so it's been a while. Forgive me if it's hazy. I completely understand the political divide and how it started in the late 80s. Limbaugh was really the frontrunner of our modern version of it. Fox took his model and applied it to TV. Many traditional news companies adopted that model for the left, and here we are. Social media is really just an extension of that.

I'm not sure how it's a threat to democracy though. I certainly don't believe it originated on social media either. People on both sides repeat some really dumb shit, but that's always been the case.

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

#433

Post by BhavdeepSethi »

colpabar wrote: post #428
sharadov wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it does not bother me. I am one of those people who feels happy when something good is happening in other people's lives. That other person who got that job put time into it and achieved it. Good for them. Someone lost a shit ton of weight and looks ripped. That's motivation for me to lift too and eat better. It comes down to you, are you using that as fuel to motivate you or are you seething inside and burning w…

> It comes down to you, are you using that as fuel to motivate you or are you seething inside and burning with envy? > I honestly believe that envy is the thief of joy and if you allow it to consume you it will destroy you. It's nice that you are able to do this, but most don't use social media this way. They see successful, beautiful people doing interesting things and they feel sad that they can't do the same. Can'…

So true. It's almost ironic how they mention they feel good when something good happens to someone else, but when not everyone may feel the same, then it's their problem.

"Why can't this be happening to me?" is considered envy, but "Why are you not happy for others like me?" is considered moral high ground.

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

#434

Post by bell-cot »

ycombinete wrote: post #197
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.

I once heard someone say, "nothing in life hurts more than the success of a friend"

If true, it seems easy to optimize for your own happiness (or lack of hurt) by replacing more-likely-to-succeed friends with less-likely-to-succeed ones...

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

#435

Post by the_gipsy »

MikePlacid wrote: post #404
the_gipsy wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know what country you're based on, but in my country there are huge differences in legislation between legislatures of right or left parties. Regarding impact, no, you individually have not changed a single thing. A single person in a protest or a single vote simply has no impact. Changing country is one way to take control, but I would argue that the politics itself are unaffected.

> in my country there are huge differences in legislation between legislatures of right or left parties. Really? Somewhere in Europe? But I still doubt that these differences are something that “most impacts your life”. Let’s compare with the stock price of the company you are working in, e.g.

Yes Europe. Yea maybe that's true, and you also have almost zero impact on that, unless you're CEO or something :)

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

#436

Post by ben174 »

colpabar wrote: post #428
sharadov wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it does not bother me. I am one of those people who feels happy when something good is happening in other people's lives. That other person who got that job put time into it and achieved it. Good for them. Someone lost a shit ton of weight and looks ripped. That's motivation for me to lift too and eat better. It comes down to you, are you using that as fuel to motivate you or are you seething inside and burning w…

> It comes down to you, are you using that as fuel to motivate you or are you seething inside and burning with envy? > I honestly believe that envy is the thief of joy and if you allow it to consume you it will destroy you. It's nice that you are able to do this, but most don't use social media this way. They see successful, beautiful people doing interesting things and they feel sad that they can't do the same. Can'…

(not op) Empathize yes, but I would encourage people to try as much as they possibly can to change their viewpoint from envy to joy. I think that's a healthier solution than hiding from it.

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

#438

Post by cush »

Clubber wrote: post #352
cush wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's much worse than tobacco. At least tobacco only kills people when they're older, whereas social media robs young people of their mental health while simultaneously threatening truth and democracy

>while simultaneously threatening ... democracy This seems to be the latest topic from the outrage machine. Can you explain how social media is an actual threat to the democracy or democratic process to a reasonable person?

When you say reasonable person, do you mean layman? If so, watch the Social Dilemma. There was Cambridge Analytica and other countless misinformation campaign examples

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

#439

Post by Karawebnetwork »

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 significant other has a news app "addiction". A lot of them now mimic the feeds of social medias. She went up to spending 6 hours a day scrolling down the infinite scroll until we noticed the issue.

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

#440

Post by akira2501 »

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…

Your describing social media as something that happens _to_ you.

You should probably make it something you _choose_ to use. Too political rant? Skip it. Video of nothing relevant? Skip it. Your cousins photos? If you know they're not for you, why are you consuming them every time they drop?

You choose to take your hands of the wheel, of course your going to be taken for a ride.

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