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

71–80 of 164 posts

Re: Facebook addiction increases depression severity among already depressed people

#71

Post by deebosong »

deanmoriarty wrote: post #7
buran77 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might even be "sitting inside, looking through the window at other people sitting inside but surely having a better time than you" . Social media is for presenting the highlights of your life. For a lot of depressed or even just gullible people it is easy to generalize from that. I have acquaintances who blew up their personal lives in a search for that elusive "perfect life".

> I have acquaintances who blew up their personal lives in a search for that elusive "perfect life". Is this in the typical sense of spending beyond their means, or do you have other anecdotes? I am a highly compensated tech worker at a FAANG who overcame US immigration and other challenges to get here, and many people would trade their spot with mine. Yet, I am so unhappy and burned out by work that I don’t think ab…

Sounds like you're doing the wise thing by starting therapy. Maybe you already know this but it might take a bit of trying out a few therapists/ counselors before you land on one that seems a good fit.

As to the voice in your head and the wants you're identifying, it sounds like you don't necessarily want to quit, or that you even want an idyllic rustic lifestyle. But more so that you wanna address where the feeling of being burnt-out and stuck is coming from. Like... I'm just a rando/ stranger from the internet, so take what I say with a grain of salt (and why a counselor will be way better to talk to than me and others here on this forum), but it seems like you want escape/ relief from your current life (in the form of just feeling peace that kinda looks like spending time outdoors), but there's a real pressure and possibly fear of feeling like if you seek this kinda peace, you are sabotaging yourself in the form of undoing all that you worked hard for, which translates to money, career, etc.

Just to give some perspective, it's possible to have a career while having a deep, settled feeling of peace in the core of who you are. This isn't easy. And it won't look the same for everyone. But it doesn't necessarily have to be an either-or thing.

But I get the sense it's going to be a longer journey – if not life-long in some sense – to find and maintain this sense of deep peace. It's not necessarily like a pill you pop or a light switch you turn on that changes everything in an instant, but a slow discovery that dawns upon you. I don't mean to sound so woo-woo, but just wanted to provide some perspective.

Re: Facebook addiction increases depression severity among already depressed people

#73

Post by qroolen »

oldsklgdfth wrote: post #40
JumpinJack_Cash wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> > doesn't offer anything How can you say that? Have you ever smoked one after sex? What about alcohol or binging Netflix shows or even sex itself? Life is all about tradeoffs. Tobacco has a place in the trillions of tradeoffs combinations that each human can generate with their own lives, and so does alcohol, Netflix and social media.

I say this as someone that has failed a bunch of time to quit smoking. Every time I smoke, I rationally know it's doing nothing for me, but can't help myself. It's not that good IMO. Not as clear a trade-off as alcohol. I think it's mostly a romantic image I have in my head.

i think we should not look at the end of the spectrum and conclude stuff for everyone... maybe there is a ton of people who will not get negatively effected by social media, as well people who will smoke a cigarette every 3 months in a party

Re: Facebook addiction increases depression severity among already depressed people

#74

Post by oldsklgdfth »

A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #65
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 ciga…

> I want there to be a choice.

I agree. To be more nuanced, I think I want it to be a deliberate choice. Something someone stopped, thought about and said "yes, I want to do this". Because, they have made the tradeoff for themselves.

The issue for me is that it's ubiquitous. When something is ubiquitous it becomes the default. I am privileged enough to function outside of social media. But for most, I think it's basically a requisite to function in society.

Re: Facebook addiction increases depression severity among already depressed people

#75

Post by deanmoriarty »

deebosong wrote: post #71
deanmoriarty wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have acquaintances who blew up their personal lives in a search for that elusive "perfect life". Is this in the typical sense of spending beyond their means, or do you have other anecdotes? I am a highly compensated tech worker at a FAANG who overcame US immigration and other challenges to get here, and many people would trade their spot with mine. Yet, I am so unhappy and burned out by work that I don’t think ab…

Sounds like you're doing the wise thing by starting therapy. Maybe you already know this but it might take a bit of trying out a few therapists/ counselors before you land on one that seems a good fit. As to the voice in your head and the wants you're identifying, it sounds like you don't necessarily want to quit, or that you even want an idyllic rustic lifestyle. But more so that you wanna address where the feeling…

Thanks. All you say is accurate and the tension between doing the right thing vs sabotaging is real.

I’ve been basically living all my adult life like a frugal college student so that I could amass millions of dollars to get out of the rat race. However, it seems like the burnout is getting so bad that I might not be able to continue with this accumulation strategy.

At the core of it is (1) my inability to effectively deal with work pressure (2) a strong sense of impostor syndrome, which FAANG makes it even worse (3) my extremely introvert personality, being in a senior technical position at work I have to constantly interact with other people and I hate every minute of it, despite still doing it.

My ideal life is one where I have enough passive income to keep me afloat in perpetuity (working on it), and spend my time trying to build low-pressure solo online businesses that allow me to cultivate programming at my own pace without having to talk to other people except my family. Even just writing it out sounds idyllic.

Re: Facebook addiction increases depression severity among already depressed people

#76

Post by oldsklgdfth »

qroolen wrote: post #73
oldsklgdfth wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I say this as someone that has failed a bunch of time to quit smoking. Every time I smoke, I rationally know it's doing nothing for me, but can't help myself. It's not that good IMO. Not as clear a trade-off as alcohol. I think it's mostly a romantic image I have in my head.

i think we should not look at the end of the spectrum and conclude stuff for everyone... maybe there is a ton of people who will not get negatively effected by social media, as well people who will smoke a cigarette every 3 months in a party

You make a good point here.

As with everything there are winners and losers. Some built careers and companies by leveraging social media. That's in the pros column.

When I drill down into it, I think the potency is what draws me in. I sometimes feel this way on HN. "Let me check the comments". But FB, reddit, et al. are high octane versions.

Re: Facebook addiction increases depression severity among already depressed people

#77

Post by curiousllama »

ethbr0 wrote: post #69
agumonkey wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

I mean it’s probably just a power law distribution, right?

Re: Facebook addiction increases depression severity among already depressed people

#78

Post by astrange »

chaosbolt wrote: post #19
rockbruno wrote: post #4

I was surprised that the study doesn't mention that these apps are _intentionally_ designed to get you addicted to the point where something like this happen. This psychology-oriented design atrocity is leaking into other industries[0], and I can't see a future where this is not strongly regulated against like how gambling is today. It took me months of using screen time apps to revert the bad habits these apps try t…

Except the kids born in the 2010's got their whole reward system fried by this, imagine a 4 year old being stimulated as much as a gambler because his parents gave him a tablet. The issue is that those companies know how much their products affect people in a negative way yet still make them, we would be shocked if it was some chemical company making medication but psychological health is as important as physical hea…

You got any evidence for that one?

Re: Facebook addiction increases depression severity among already depressed people

#79

Post by darawk »

vorpalhex wrote: post #68
oldsklgdfth wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

But not in effort to benefit ratio, excluding the downsides of nicotine. Chewing nicotine is cheap and easy, cognitive behavioral therapy, exercise, and meditation, all take significant amounts of time at the very least.

Not arguing for the use of nicotine, but there are reasons people like taking pills (or chewing gum, as the case may be).

Re: Facebook addiction increases depression severity among already depressed people

#80

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0 »

hnaddict wrote: post #66
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 com…

Overall, yes to your post, but it does not touch several related aspects that is driving the piling on ( and you do not expand on the fact that they are designed for addiction, which translated means that they are made to tailor made for any individual to be addicted to it ).

I honestly question that assertion. I would venture to say that most people here are well aware of how social media operates and how general population responds to it.

This is admittedly the hard part, but I can absolutely imagine appropriate regulation should social media get to the point it is actually destructive to the fabric of society. I am willing to sacrifice some of the internet for it too given how much of a cesspool it has become.

It may not be the time yet, but I suppose the weird geopolitical constellation now may actually provide a conduit for just such change. I am not celebrating, because as always, it will likely be the worst of both worlds.

Yes, but ideally without making an attempt to go viral in the process. I would argue this is not a healthy way to do this.

Post reply on HN