Taking a break from social media makes you happier and less anxious • Hacker News Board

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

#451

Post by krnlpnc » Tue, May 17, 2022, 8:23 PM UTC

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…

> First, you notice a friend's post stating that she has accepted her ideal job.

> You continue browsing and see a video of your neighbour enjoying a fantastic tropical vacation.

> And now your cousin has uploaded a before and after photo that makes you want to hide your thighs for the rest of your life.

Sorry to say, but if a person shares a positive thing that's happened to them, and their "friend" makes that about themself in a negative way, the problem isn't really the delivery mechanism (social media)

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

#452

Post by krnlpnc » Tue, May 17, 2022, 8:27 PM UTC

maximus-decimus wrote: post #307

weatherlite wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thought experiment - let's say you are the poorest person in your neighborhood. Would talking to your neighbors daily about their salaries really make you feel better? I mean them having money, even if more than you is a good thing according to you what you said.

Yes because it lets me know I can probably make more money?

And helps build a personal network that could possibly help

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

#453

Post by OOPMan » Tue, May 17, 2022, 9:20 PM UTC

xtracto wrote: post #450

colpabar wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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'…

This made me think: Back in the 90s when I was a teen there were several magazines here in Mexico (ERES, Tú) and the "socials" section in the local newspaper which dedicated to show you the amazing life of socialtes and other famous (or not so famous) people. Teenage girls and boys used to buy and "read" those magazines to get up to speed on the latest gossip, but also just to see what these people were doing. Do you…

I think there is a pretty key difference which is pretty obvious.

Said obvious difference being the near real-time interactive nature of social media.

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

#454

Post by sys_64738 » Tue, May 17, 2022, 10:13 PM UTC

Facebook's primary aim is to get you to stay so keeping your attention is key to getting you to look at more ads. You feel depressed by looking at other people's Facebook webpages which look positive and happy so you compare it to you own sad, miserable life. Reality is folk mostly post positive reinforcing stories, not the crap in their lives that you'd miss otherwise. The best way to deal with social media is to stop using it completely. Life is too short to waste your precious minutes on this planet using Facebook.

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

#455

Post by Unearned5161 » Tue, May 17, 2022, 10:29 PM UTC

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?

I was originally going to write a whole drawn out thing, but I realized it wasn't necessary.

One interesting aspect to think about on how social media affects democracy is the aspect of education. I can't find the video right now, but I remember seeing or maybe reading a post that said how you watch all these videos on all these topics ranging from math to economics to civil engineering etc, and you build this false perception of "oh yeah I know this shit", but really you don't, you know one summary that was presented to you.

Those channels: Tom Scott, Johnny Harris, 3B1B, etc. Are all amazing in the time they spend learning their material and then producing such high quality instruction, but even if you watched an hour long video on econ you still wouldn't be an economist. A lot of us know this, but there are a lot of us that don't, and we then go to vote on bills and politicians thinking we know the implications of our actions and how it might affect the country when we really don't.

Of course this isn't just a conversation about social media and it can devolve into a conversation about the dangers of an uneducated democracy overall. But I feel that social media definitely contributes to this false sense of educated that a lot of people have, pair that with echo chambers, misinformation, and an addictive formula and you've got a troublesome future.

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

#456

Post by cush » Tue, May 17, 2022, 11:04 PM UTC

Clubber wrote: post #432

antiframe wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 sur…

> Social media is really just an extension of that

This is true, however extensions are by their very nature different than the thing they're extending.

Social media is an extension to traditional media at a scale, speed, and attack vector (friends, family, community) which humans are much more vulnerable to

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

#457

Post by sizzle » Tue, May 17, 2022, 11:11 PM UTC

xtracto wrote: post #450

colpabar wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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'…

This made me think: Back in the 90s when I was a teen there were several magazines here in Mexico (ERES, Tú) and the "socials" section in the local newspaper which dedicated to show you the amazing life of socialtes and other famous (or not so famous) people. Teenage girls and boys used to buy and "read" those magazines to get up to speed on the latest gossip, but also just to see what these people were doing. Do you…

compare reading a monthly magazine back then to today where it takes milliseconds to doom scroll through your unlimited, hyper-optimized for engagement “happiness highlight reel” social media newsfeed in the palm of your hand with 24/7 availability… yes it’s much much worse for kids today and both psychologically and behaviorally.

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

#458

Post by Clubber » Tue, May 17, 2022, 11:43 PM UTC

cush wrote: post #456

Clubber wrote: post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 sur…

> Social media is really just an extension of that This is true, however extensions are by their very nature different than the thing they're extending. Social media is an extension to traditional media at a scale, speed, and attack vector (friends, family, community) which humans are much more vulnerable to

People are pretty vulnerable to the garbage that passes for news in the last 20+ years. I'm not so sure "fixing" (read censoring) social media will solve any of this, even if it was possible. The outrage machine will still exist in traditional news media, but they won't have to worry about new technologies unseating them. I'm not sure that is a good thing. Social media, to me, seems like just a comment section to current events, most of which are presented from traditional media.

FWIW, I haven't used social media since Snowden, so I don't know what it looks like today compared to 9 or so years ago.

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

#459

Post by NoPicklez » Tue, May 17, 2022, 11:51 PM UTC

sharadov wrote: post #417

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…

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…

I think it's normal to be happy for others. But that doesn't mean it doesn't leave us performing a little introspection with regards to our own lives.

Of which we think, why aren't I losing weight? Why aren't I getting married yet? Hmm why haven't I been able to go on a vacation yet? Oh because I might not be overly happy in my job, but I just saw my friend start what they think is their dream career.

You can be left questioning our own place when you are constantly being shown the highlights of others lives.

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

#460

Post by NoPicklez » Tue, May 17, 2022, 11:51 PM UTC

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…

I think it's normal to be happy for others. But that doesn't mean it doesn't leave us performing a little introspection with regards to our own lives.

Of which we think, why aren't I losing weight? Why aren't I getting married yet? Hmm why haven't I been able to go on a vacation yet? Oh because I might not be overly happy in my job, but I just saw my friend start what they think is their dream career.

You can be left questioning our own place when you are constantly being shown the highlights of others lives.