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

#471

Post by weatherlite » Wed, May 18, 2022, 3:32 PM UTC

abnercoimbre wrote: post #469

weatherlite wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

envy: "a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else's possessions, qualities, or luck" So it's just a feeling. What you do with it (actions) is up to you, most people don't act upon those feelings in any noticeable way. But if we are being honest with ourselves constant feelings of envy often do lead to a deteriorating relationship (usually in the form of the person feeling envious choosing…

This is a profound insight. What do you do if you know someone is distancing themselves from you out of envy? (And what do you do if you're the one with the envy?) Is the answer generally just "it is what it is?" That's so dark.

Some people deal with these feelings better than others. Also - if for example you are much richer than average you can still live a humble life. You dont have to drive a Porsche. That's all I have...

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

#472

Post by Clubber » Wed, May 18, 2022, 4:36 PM UTC

cush wrote: post #466

Clubber wrote: post #458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 cur…

Yeah you might want to brush up on the current state of affairs. A lot has happened in the last 9 years.

So have you ever been duped into believing something stupid from reading social media?

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

#473

Post by abnercoimbre » Wed, May 18, 2022, 6:40 PM UTC

weatherlite wrote: post #471

abnercoimbre wrote: post #469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a profound insight. What do you do if you know someone is distancing themselves from you out of envy? (And what do you do if you're the one with the envy?) Is the answer generally just "it is what it is?" That's so dark.

Some people deal with these feelings better than others. Also - if for example you are much richer than average you can still live a humble life. You dont have to drive a Porsche. That's all I have...

Basically mindfulness and humility... thank you.

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

#474

Post by ellopoppit » Wed, May 18, 2022, 7:04 PM UTC

digisign wrote: post #146

impjohn wrote: post #141

I've been away from facebook and instagram for about 4 years. Never caught the tik-tok or snapchat train, so the only consumption i do is light reddit and hackernews. The weirdest thing for others is that I can sit indefinitely without having to look at my phone and actually get lost in thoughts or even get bored. The downside is that it can isolate you. Where I live, if you're not on instagram you don't exist. My gi…

I'd say it is better to know a few people well than skim the updates of hundreds.

Indeed, this is how humans have lived for their entire history, up until extremely recently.

Our brains are not wired for it

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

#475

Post by robswc » Thu, May 19, 2022, 6:55 AM UTC

coffeeblack wrote: post #228

Gigachad wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of the problem is I do get sucked in to the drama really. There is nothing really of value on twitter other than drama.

Twitter is great if you are interested in breaking news on specific topics. Most people aren’t though. Twitter is terrible for discussions, so there I agree with Joe Rogan: “never look at the comments”.

I used to think this was silly advice but every day I only agree with it more and more.

Something about online comments (twitter in particular) gives off the vibe that they're more reactions than well thought out comments.

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

#476

Post by lavascornedoven » Thu, May 19, 2022, 6:58 AM UTC

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'…

What is presented on social media is recognized as profile building by prof. Mueller, a recently developed phenomenom that he named profilicity in his book "You and your profile". I've always found all the shining social media accounts as inauthentic and distateful, but the book helped me realize how I developed profiles for myself and also how to recognize them by others. The end result: now I see the profiles just as highly currated expression of one's identity and don't stress at all about it.

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

#477

Post by Clubber » Thu, May 19, 2022, 12:34 PM UTC

system16 wrote: post #366

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?

Roughly 50% of the population in the US have an absolute distrust of the media, election results, and science. But wrap something up in a meme and post in on Facebook and it's treated like Gospel.

Here's something that's extremely disturbing to me.

"Republicans have become the purveyors of misinformation, and when our two-party system is broken like that, democracy is seriously in trouble. The president acknowledged that it's time to actually start doing things and maybe taking some names and putting people in jail."

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2022/05/17/carl_came...

I would say jailing press for printing things the government doesn't like is way more obvious a threat to democracy than the information they publish. This is no longer a slippery slope if this guy would even consider uttering this on national TV. We would be going into pretty blatant authoritarianism.

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

#478

Post by cush » Thu, May 19, 2022, 3:00 PM UTC

Clubber wrote: post #472

cush wrote: post #466

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah you might want to brush up on the current state of affairs. A lot has happened in the last 9 years.

So have you ever been duped into believing something stupid from reading social media?

It might be worth your time to explore outside the realm of singular, anecdotal, HN comments and dive a bit into the history and research. Good luck to you, friend!

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

#479

Post by coffeeblack » Thu, May 19, 2022, 3:40 PM UTC

MikePlacid wrote: post #405

coffeeblack wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was one president recently who didn’t start a new war (first president in 40 years) but I was told that he was “dangerous”.

True. But looking back - was that rather unusual change in politics, including no new wars started, something that “most impacted your life”?

No idea what you are trying to say or ask.

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

#480

Post by Clubber » Thu, May 19, 2022, 4:45 PM UTC

cush wrote: post #478

Clubber wrote: post #472

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So have you ever been duped into believing something stupid from reading social media?

It might be worth your time to explore outside the realm of singular, anecdotal, HN comments and dive a bit into the history and research. Good luck to you, friend!

>It might be worth your time to explore outside the realm of singular, anecdotal, HN comments and dive a bit into the history and research. Good luck to you, friend!

I don't buy the statement that social media is a threat to democracy. I think it's a political football and used hyperbolically in an attempt to normalize further censorship of people and press. I was hoping for at least one reasonable example of how social media is literally a threat to democracy to ease my mind, but I have yet to see a convincing one. I would say if anything, government censoring press and citizens is significantly more of a threat to democracy than garbage people post on social media that most people can see through.