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Facebook proven to negatively impact mental health
101–110 of 263 posts
Re: Facebook proven to negatively impact mental health
#102This was studying Facebook circa 2004-2006. That version of Facebook was laughably basic at that point. If I remember right it was a chronological list of posts on your wall. There was no algorithmic feed. Hell, the news feed at all was only launched in late 2006. There was no video. There were no ads. Nobody made content hoping to get rich and outrage didn’t sell. If only we could go back to such an innocent time.
Re: Facebook proven to negatively impact mental health
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder how people can continue to post questions like this to HN, when there are billions of people who happily use Facebook. I would think it's our responsibility to look outside of our narrow information bubble.
If the original claim is that 'facebook is damaging to (and beyond) its users', then the response 'but it has _many_ users' isn't much of a defense..
I think the original claim is that "facebook is damaging to some users". You could say the same about salt. People still work in salt mines.
Re: Facebook proven to negatively impact mental health
#104As a manager of a large page (several million reach per day), I often feel uncomfortable. On the one hand, Facebook is the best platform to reach many people. On the other hand, I think it is unethical to encourage people to stay on the platform. I also think that if I were to close the page, the void would be filled by the next person.
My ego tells me that since I'm aware of these problems, I can do my best to keep my page from turning into a doomscrolling experience. Yet, once again, the algorithm doesn't display my posts in their natural order, only the controversial ones, so the doomscrolling happens anyway.
I often keep up at night to think about it and I feel like there is no good answer.
Re: Facebook proven to negatively impact mental health
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right, engagement at all cost it is, but there is a fundamental difference. Television required professionals where even wrestling and reality TV is scripted: it requires some sort of willful ignorance from the viewer to engage with it. Social media pushes the illusion that you are not engaging with professionals but peers, and the dominant signals (how many views, likes, comments, etc.) of this day and age were not…
Facebook brought us in with the promise of keeping in touch with friends, but the incentives are to "engagement at all costs". I'm hoping that if we can offer an alternative that lets people keep up with their friends without the engagememt incentive then we could greatly improve societal mental health. Thats why I build Haven[1] as open source and self hosted, along with several 3rd party hosting providers. No centr…
This is a tragedy of the commons situation because people cannot help themselves.
What we are actually seeing is users going to TikTok because it is even more engaging.
People may say they want to keep up with their friends, but they will choose the more engaging activity.
There is no regulating or out-competing it.
Governments should provide identification, communication, community, payments, etc platforms for their citizens, but entertainment is always going to look like this unless stoicism is somehow engrained into our culture.
Entertainment itself is measured by engagement, so it will end with unlimited personalized ai generated content that will be almost impossible to put down.
Re: Facebook proven to negatively impact mental health
#106IDK... I know Facebook feeds are different for each person but for me there are basically zero posts from people I know on Facebook anymore, it's just ads and videos of random TikTok style videos.
I have started "hitting block all from [whoever created the meme/video]". It makes a difference, but only a small one. the other thing I do is after blocking 2 I close facebook. I hope more people do this - I want it to start showing up in statistics that shared memes and videos is harming engagement numbers, while friends and family sharing their life is helping. Thus encouraging whatever change they need to make to give me more of that.
I still have a number of distance friends/family who share their life of facebook so there is value to remain there. Facebook is a great way to see my daughter singing "baby shark" - if you don't personally know me you don't want to see that, but if you know me you want to see it.
Re: Facebook proven to negatively impact mental health
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right, engagement at all cost it is, but there is a fundamental difference. Television required professionals where even wrestling and reality TV is scripted: it requires some sort of willful ignorance from the viewer to engage with it. Social media pushes the illusion that you are not engaging with professionals but peers, and the dominant signals (how many views, likes, comments, etc.) of this day and age were not…
Facebook brought us in with the promise of keeping in touch with friends, but the incentives are to "engagement at all costs". I'm hoping that if we can offer an alternative that lets people keep up with their friends without the engagememt incentive then we could greatly improve societal mental health. Thats why I build Haven[1] as open source and self hosted, along with several 3rd party hosting providers. No centr…
I never used Friendster, and thought that everyone spending so much time on MySpace was just wasting time. However, I'd love for socials to be back to just MySpace levels of people engaging with each other, sharing music, etc vs the ad engagement driven by ads instead of common interests.
Re: Facebook proven to negatively impact mental health
#108As with all studies in the social sciences, one of two principles apply. First, if the conclusions are counterintuitive or unexpected, then when you look closer, you will find that the methodology is garbage and that it does not support the conclusions given. Second, if the conclusions reflect things that you believe are true, when you look closer, you will find that the methodology is garbage and that it does not su…
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Re: Facebook proven to negatively impact mental health
#109We shouldn't encourage this type of reporting of academic results.
A better headline: "Evidence towards causal relations between mental health issues and Facebook use for some College students in 2004". If this doesn't look newsworthy, it's because it isn't. Single academic result is almost never newsworthy.
Re: Facebook proven to negatively impact mental health
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Facebook brought us in with the promise of keeping in touch with friends, but the incentives are to "engagement at all costs". I'm hoping that if we can offer an alternative that lets people keep up with their friends without the engagememt incentive then we could greatly improve societal mental health. Thats why I build Haven[1] as open source and self hosted, along with several 3rd party hosting providers. No centr…
This is a tragedy of the commons situation because people cannot help themselves. What we are actually seeing is users going to TikTok because it is even more engaging. People may say they want to keep up with their friends, but they will choose the more engaging activity. There is no regulating or out-competing it. Governments should provide identification, communication, community, payments, etc platforms for their…
>This is a tragedy of the commons situation because people cannot help themselves.
SOME people cannot help themselves. I spend 0 minutes on social platforms. I can help myself just fine. Some people have much more addictive personality traits than others. Please, don't paint everyone with the same broad brush. It doesn't help the conversation in a meaningful manner