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

Evidence Grows That Online Social Networks Have Negative Effects

technologyreview.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 46 posts

Re: Evidence Grows That Online Social Networks Have Negative Effects

#31

Post by walru »

When all you do is view everyone's best moments from that day it's no wonder it leads to a certain kind of depression. I saw it in spades in my ex-gf who is a lawyer working 10-12hrs/day. She would get so depressed looking at 'everyone playing outside' while she was stuck inside working that she would inevitably take it out on me.

Facebook is the Billy Mays of interacting with your friends. The sooner one steps away from the herd they realize the toxicity of the life that's being sold.

Disclaimer: I 'deactivated' my account a month ago and feel fantastic!

Re: Evidence Grows That Online Social Networks Have Negative Effects

#32

Post by tim333 »

Reading the paper the article is based on (http://arxiv.org/pdf/1408.3550v1.pdf)- the evidence seems pretty weak:

"Subjective well-being is observed through the answers to the question “How satisfied are you with your life as a whole nowadays?”. Answers range on a scale from 0 (extremely dissatisfied) to 10 (extremely satisfied)"

The average results are about 7 ( between 7.25 and 7.76 in the North, 7.02 and 7.21 in the Center and 6.85 and 7.26 in the South)

And for social networking sites "the total net effect is negative and amounts to about -0.15%."

So that's a change of like 7.25 down to 7.24 approx

Which seems a pretty marginal result to me. I know they've tried to correct for spurious correlations and the like but it's an inexact science. I mean the change is 1/40 of that of moving from north Italy to the south for example.

Re: Evidence Grows That Online Social Networks Have Negative Effects

#33

Post by Stefanrio »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #30
serf wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that people don't whine, it's that when they whine they are always in the right (obviously untrue). It's a part of the creation of an image that the participants want to portray to other participants, just like the cherry-picked photos and favorite media. A person who strongly follows particular trends and styles on facebook is much more likely to share the same favorite medias as those facebook participants…

> Ever wonder how your friends found the time to read through A Brief History of Time and GEB without you ever knowing of their interests in science and math, or ever having caught them reading a book? Or maybe you just didn't know they were interested in the first place. I actually discovered thanks to Facebook that I share interests with many of the people who I didn't ever suspect on being interested in the same t…

It troubles me that there actually are people who think like you.

I'm pretty sure your definition of a friend is different than most people. I'd label your "friends" as people who are in the same social circles as you because of their socioeconomic status. You, as the hollow facebook drone who has never actually experienced friendship, think that real people socialize by posting pictures of themselves online to boost their image, they don't.

Your life must be lonely and sad, but hey, as long as 500+ people know what you had at that new sushi place last night, who cares, right? #culture #sushi #nightout #selfie #misusedhashtags

Re: Evidence Grows That Online Social Networks Have Negative Effects

#35

Post by nextweek2 »

kreutz wrote: post #5

Relevant: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-defining-decade/2012...

This is the reason I don't use social networks. So many people are comparing each other and only seeing highlights.

Where is the balance and objectivity? Where is the truth in our relationships when viewed through a filter?

Re: Evidence Grows That Online Social Networks Have Negative Effects

#36

Post by nextweek2 »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #30
serf wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that people don't whine, it's that when they whine they are always in the right (obviously untrue). It's a part of the creation of an image that the participants want to portray to other participants, just like the cherry-picked photos and favorite media. A person who strongly follows particular trends and styles on facebook is much more likely to share the same favorite medias as those facebook participants…

> Ever wonder how your friends found the time to read through A Brief History of Time and GEB without you ever knowing of their interests in science and math, or ever having caught them reading a book? Or maybe you just didn't know they were interested in the first place. I actually discovered thanks to Facebook that I share interests with many of the people who I didn't ever suspect on being interested in the same t…

I am willing to bet you've only spoken to less than 10 people who you call friends in the last 7 days. Family doesn't count.

Re: Evidence Grows That Online Social Networks Have Negative Effects

#37

Post by TeMPOraL »

nextweek2 wrote: post #36
TeMPOraL wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ever wonder how your friends found the time to read through A Brief History of Time and GEB without you ever knowing of their interests in science and math, or ever having caught them reading a book? Or maybe you just didn't know they were interested in the first place. I actually discovered thanks to Facebook that I share interests with many of the people who I didn't ever suspect on being interested in the same t…

I am willing to bet you've only spoken to less than 10 people who you call friends in the last 7 days. Family doesn't count.

What do you call as "spoken"? Does IRC count? If so, than yes, I did. I would have spoken to all of them face-to-face, but I missed last social gathering we have because I'm working on my thesis.

Does IMs like Hangouts/Facebook Messenger count? If yes, then again, I did.

If they don't count, then please explain to me the qualitative difference between talking on IM, texting, talking on the phone, e-mailing, writing letters and speaking face to face as form of thought exchange.

EDIT: now that I think about this... I guess instead of writing this comment I should have just taken your bet :).

Re: Evidence Grows That Online Social Networks Have Negative Effects

#38

Post by notastartup »

Stefanrio wrote: post #33
TeMPOraL wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ever wonder how your friends found the time to read through A Brief History of Time and GEB without you ever knowing of their interests in science and math, or ever having caught them reading a book? Or maybe you just didn't know they were interested in the first place. I actually discovered thanks to Facebook that I share interests with many of the people who I didn't ever suspect on being interested in the same t…

It troubles me that there actually are people who think like you. I'm pretty sure your definition of a friend is different than most people. I'd label your "friends" as people who are in the same social circles as you because of their socioeconomic status. You, as the hollow facebook drone who has never actually experienced friendship, think that real people socialize by posting pictures of themselves online to boost…

What's worse is when people take pictures of the receipt from a sushi restaurant to show off how much money they blew but they will not post anything negative that happens afterwards. #mercurypoisoining #yolo #expensivesushi

I see such people with 500+ even in some cases 1000+ friends on facebook. When talking with them in real life, you can feel that these type of people are social butterflies, placing quantity over quality of relationships. Not placing judgement on this style but when you have so many people on on facebook, it'd be a wonder how one can keep up with all of them, they probably don't. They probably constantly place people in different levels of relationship, far more often than someone with average or little friends on facebook, to filter out the social noise.

It's so easy now to make connection with someone you barely knew in university or college. It's suddenly overwhelming when you like someone's post and he/she has never been close to you. A constant battle for likes, as many as possible, from whoever possible. It's like highschool but you interat with each other with a yearbook only in separate rooms.

I can't even talk to 500 customers in one week by myself, if it was just through email by email basis with carefully thought out custom messages tailored to each individual written on the spot, it would take forever. 500 people alone is a staggering figure, I just don't know how people keep in contact with all 500 people with all the time. It must be exhausting.

Re: Evidence Grows That Online Social Networks Have Negative Effects

#39

Post by TeMPOraL »

Stefanrio wrote: post #33
TeMPOraL wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ever wonder how your friends found the time to read through A Brief History of Time and GEB without you ever knowing of their interests in science and math, or ever having caught them reading a book? Or maybe you just didn't know they were interested in the first place. I actually discovered thanks to Facebook that I share interests with many of the people who I didn't ever suspect on being interested in the same t…

It troubles me that there actually are people who think like you. I'm pretty sure your definition of a friend is different than most people. I'd label your "friends" as people who are in the same social circles as you because of their socioeconomic status. You, as the hollow facebook drone who has never actually experienced friendship, think that real people socialize by posting pictures of themselves online to boost…

I can't believe what I'm reading. I'm flagging you for all those insults directet towards me, because you don't know anything about me at all, and honestly, what the fuck.

Still, to satisfy the curiosity of others who might be wondering about how my Facebook interactions work: I have 500+ friends, around half of them are people who I interact with every couple of months. Call it "weak ties", those are basically people I had fun talking to in real life on various events, conferences, meetups, friendly local Starbucks baristas, grocery store clerks, etc. I sometimes end up helping them with some real-life tasks if I can.

The other half of the people, my real-life friends, family and co-workers, are people who I interact all the time in all the spheres of life. For many of us (myself included), there's no difference between Facebook posts, Twitter, talking on IRC or meeting face to face (which we do regularly). We choose the form of communication that is most efficient at the moment, and we do so fluidly.

Believe or not, there are people who find their lives vastly improved by the pletora of digital communication tools available. Not only I am able to keep contact with many of my weak ties (who sometimes advance to the level of closer friends), conveniently exchange thoughts with my real-life friends who live many kilometers away from me, I also appreciate the fact that there are many scenarios, where textual communication is superior to spoken word.

Even as I write this comment right now, on another browser tab I'm using Facebook to facilitate a new set of workshops for kids for the local Hackerspace; I got introduced to my interlocutor by a common Facebook friend of ours.

Re: Evidence Grows That Online Social Networks Have Negative Effects

#40

Post by TeMPOraL »

notastartup wrote: post #38
Stefanrio wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It troubles me that there actually are people who think like you. I'm pretty sure your definition of a friend is different than most people. I'd label your "friends" as people who are in the same social circles as you because of their socioeconomic status. You, as the hollow facebook drone who has never actually experienced friendship, think that real people socialize by posting pictures of themselves online to boost…

What's worse is when people take pictures of the receipt from a sushi restaurant to show off how much money they blew but they will not post anything negative that happens afterwards. #mercurypoisoining #yolo #expensivesushi I see such people with 500+ even in some cases 1000+ friends on facebook. When talking with them in real life, you can feel that these type of people are social butterflies, placing quantity over…

You sound like someone who's not a Facebook regular ;).

Facebook for people like me is a kind of glorified address book. You don't interact with all your 500+ friends all the time. But it helps you keep in touch with various "weak ties"; people who you don't interact with on a daily basis, but you might want to talk to every couple of months. That cool barista from Starbucks you used to chat with before she changed her job. This guy with interesting ideas about technology you met on some conference. A person you used to borrow homework from in your high school. Etc.

Think of it as a big party for 500 people who all met each other at least once before. People naturally form small groups and talk within those groups. But every now and then, someone overhears an interesting conversation from the other group, so he might join them for few moments, and sometimes maybe a few groups get together to have a conversation on a common topic. It's how Facebook feels, except "to overhear" means "an interesting post from one of your 'weak ties' somehow ended up in your news feed".

Post reply on HN