Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Facebook addiction increases depression severity among already depressed people

psypost.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 164 posts

Re: Facebook addiction increases depression severity among already depressed people

#61

Post by gibspaulding »

oldsklgdfth wrote: post #27

A cynical comment about regulation or curtailing this. Everyone agrees smoking causes health problems, is costly and doesn't offer anything. Smoking is regulated (taxes, labels, etc), but cigarettes are readily available everywhere - gas stations, convenience stores, etc. You would imagine that something so universally recognized as detrimental would cease to exist (either outlaws or society would just abandon it com…

Warning: This product is known by the state of California to be associated with an increased incidence of depression, anxiety, anti-social behavior, suicide, poor spending decisions, and political extremism.

[I accept the risks] [Go back to safety]

Re: Facebook addiction increases depression severity among already depressed people

#62

Post by jvm___ »

Facebook is a tool.

I used Facebook to find a local running group and added Facebook friends from my city for the first time in 17 years of living here.

So for me, Facebook was a way to get out of depression.

I have a "slap you in the Facebook" rule. If you didn't get an opportunity to smack someone in the face in the last 365 days, you probably shouldn't follow them on Facebook.

Re: Facebook addiction increases depression severity among already depressed people

#63

Post by the_gipsy »

oldsklgdfth wrote: post #27

A cynical comment about regulation or curtailing this. Everyone agrees smoking causes health problems, is costly and doesn't offer anything. Smoking is regulated (taxes, labels, etc), but cigarettes are readily available everywhere - gas stations, convenience stores, etc. You would imagine that something so universally recognized as detrimental would cease to exist (either outlaws or society would just abandon it com…

Nee Zealand just banned sale of cigarettes for future generations (born after e.g. 2005 cannot buy).

Re: Facebook addiction increases depression severity among already depressed people

#64

Post by warning26 »

sokz wrote: post #60

This post made me finally uninstall Instagram from my phone. Though the network effects makes it difficult to completely chuck it from my life. The exodus of my peer group from fb made it possible for me to delete it completely from my life and don't need it anymore. I hope something like that happens for instagram too. It was not for the lack of trying. I tried hard to transfer my friends and family to Signal and wa…

Realistically though, even if you had succeeded in getting your friends to use Signal, wouldn’t you have the same social media problem as before? They’ll still be posting stories and you’d still be addicted to checking it.

Re: Facebook addiction increases depression severity among already depressed people

#65

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0 »

oldsklgdfth wrote: post #27

A cynical comment about regulation or curtailing this. Everyone agrees smoking causes health problems, is costly and doesn't offer anything. Smoking is regulated (taxes, labels, etc), but cigarettes are readily available everywhere - gas stations, convenience stores, etc. You would imagine that something so universally recognized as detrimental would cease to exist (either outlaws or society would just abandon it com…

I think you are mostly right. Still, I would like for my kid to be raised in an environment, where screen stimulation is not constant. While I do have control over that in my house ( and currently she is too young to be properly addicted by feedback loops yet ), in its current state, I am at a loss for what to do when goes to school and this problem is not solved yet.

I want there to be a choice ( just like with cigarettes ) and I just hope it will somehow become less popular for one reason or another. Right now.. the only thing that changes is the app name. Anecdotally, my wife's cousin proudly proclaimed she does not use FB, but only Insta and TikTok. I was happily buzzed at that point and I did not want to start an argument so I just took another shot.

edit: typos

Re: Facebook addiction increases depression severity among already depressed people

#66

Post by hnaddict »

oldsklgdfth wrote: post #27

A cynical comment about regulation or curtailing this. Everyone agrees smoking causes health problems, is costly and doesn't offer anything. Smoking is regulated (taxes, labels, etc), but cigarettes are readily available everywhere - gas stations, convenience stores, etc. You would imagine that something so universally recognized as detrimental would cease to exist (either outlaws or society would just abandon it com…

Everyone's piling on FB and TikTok (and yes, they are designed for engagement/addiction).

I think there's something more fundamental to it, though. I'm pretty sure the same mechanisms hold here on HN and on web forums and that its inherent in asynchronous online social fora.

Other commenters so far seem to be overlooking this. I can't imagine any regulation that would address the root cause of the problem without completely destroying the good aspects of the web and the internet.

Fundamentally we as individuals need to learn how to engage in a healthy way and be self-aware.

Re: Facebook addiction increases depression severity among already depressed people

#67

Post by agumonkey »

ethbr0 wrote: post #29

Depressed people without a life outside Facebook are Facebook's whales, whether it admits it or not. Endlessly clicking through content, viewing ads, and bumping engagement numbers up. Ergo, any systemic effort to boost engagement will eventually encourage actions with the end result of "Make more people depressed, so they consume more Facebook." It's a crime that we don't regulate engagement methods at a government…

Makes me wonder how much metrics are skewed. Views from people in this state are not views from someone a bit more balanced and happy. Yet society likes to throw bland numbers around.

Re: Facebook addiction increases depression severity among already depressed people

#68

Post by vorpalhex »

oldsklgdfth wrote: post #47
maxfurman wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not defending smoking, but > costly Cigarettes are really cheap in places that don't heavily tax them > doesn't offer anything Human brains like nicotine. It is mildly effective as a mood stabilizer. I think we both agree that the bad health effects are not worth it, but it's not accurate to say there's nothing on the other side of that equation.

I've heard of nicotine as nootropic and I've been meaning to get the gum. Also, I believe it's about the only thing in cigarettes that is not carcinogenic.

Nicotine is an anxiolytic. It helps anxiety.

That can seem like a nootropic (some definitions even explicitly include them) especially if you have anxiety.

The con of this is nicotine addiction.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, exercise and meditation all beat nicotine in effectiveness as anxiolytics and in strength of effect.

Re: Facebook addiction increases depression severity among already depressed people

#69

Post by ethbr0 »

agumonkey wrote: post #67
ethbr0 wrote: post #29

Depressed people without a life outside Facebook are Facebook's whales, whether it admits it or not. Endlessly clicking through content, viewing ads, and bumping engagement numbers up. Ergo, any systemic effort to boost engagement will eventually encourage actions with the end result of "Make more people depressed, so they consume more Facebook." It's a crime that we don't regulate engagement methods at a government…

Makes me wonder how much metrics are skewed. Views from people in this state are not views from someone a bit more balanced and happy. Yet society likes to throw bland numbers around.

I would love to see a frequency distribution for Facebook's engagement metrics...

Re: Facebook addiction increases depression severity among already depressed people

#70

Post by piggybox »

rendall wrote: post #59

Any research on Hacker News addiction? Asking for a friend.

LOL, let me give it a try.

HN addiction increases depression severity among already depressed developers because of all the fancy cool new stuffs others are playing around while they are stuck with outdated tech stack in day jobs just for money.

Post reply on HN