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Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression

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Re: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression

#121

Post by dangwu »

prolikewh0a wrote: post #97
abledon wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you program for a living or have a job that requires lots of human interaction? I find coder jobs amplify the unbalancing nature of loneliness. On the other hand , loneliness is just a symptom of the human not knowing how to be alone and remain content. If only we were born with the user manual around our neck

I have a tech job that requires a lot of non face-to-face human interaction through slack, with people I never build relationships with. Still super lonely :D Dating is also near impossible because I don't want to use social media.

1. Stop working remotely. If you’re in an office, talk face to face more. 2. Theres “anti-social media” and there’s “maybe I’ll just use social media minimally so I can use dating apps and not die alone.”

Re: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression

#122

Post by SlowRobotAhead »

moorhosj wrote: post #54
SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea? Have a pro-gun discussion on HackerNews and tell me how it’s so much better than Reddit. HN has its own problems. For one, there is a growing discontent for different opinions (downvote happy), and two, there is one “channel”, so it’s mob rule for opinion.

I don’t think that people disagreeing with you is a failure of social media. If you walk into a bar in an area where HN readers tend to live (San Fran, NYC, Seattle, Austin, Denver, Chicago) you would likely get a similar response.

It has nothing to do with disagreement. It’s that downvotes are used to silence people.

You can make an argument counter to someone else’s without mini-censorship, but that’s hard, you need knowledge and experience for that.

Whats easy is just to try and hide anyone else from seeing a counter argument at all.

Re: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression

#123

Post by [deleted] »

prolikewh0a wrote: post #82

I've been off social media for years now, entirely, and I'm back to a point where the rest of my friends and just society itself are so fully entrenched into some sort of social media that I'm getting very lonely and depressed. I've actually thought about making a Facebook or Instagram account again and just placing strict rules on it, but even that really creeps me out. My friends are always telling me about cool ev…

[deleted]

Re: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression

#124

Post by pasbesoin »

prolikewh0a wrote: post #82

I've been off social media for years now, entirely, and I'm back to a point where the rest of my friends and just society itself are so fully entrenched into some sort of social media that I'm getting very lonely and depressed. I've actually thought about making a Facebook or Instagram account again and just placing strict rules on it, but even that really creeps me out. My friends are always telling me about cool ev…

Try some real world events. Particularly outdoors, keeping your body busy ones. Maybe daytrips to canoe or kayak, or just hike. Maybe also indoor events, crafts or even computing, radio, maybe some maker things.

You'll run into other people who are keeping social media in its place. Something I've found this year, via a friend who works at the local community college.

I don't mean to sound prescriptive nor like I have "the answer". Just to comment, that circumstances brought me into the orbits of such people, a bit, and I'm enjoying it.

The interactions are much more satisfying and "complete", whether it's a standing friendship or just a chance conversation.

P.S. I have an LL Bean store in my area, and while I was in there buying some trousers, the friendly and helpful clerk told me that the store arranges outings. Itself, or in affiliation with a local group -- I'm not sure. Anyway, they said to check out the Bean website for their location, for details on what was coming up. IIRC.

So, community college, local retailer (I'm thinking also of a paddlesports business up in Madison, WI), non-profit groups. There may be more avenues to finding good groups and outings, than one would expect.

Just go as yourself and with no particular expectations, other than to learn and to participate/contribute in the group's having a good time.

And be prepared to listen. Most everyone has an interesting story, if you're paying attention.

Best wishes!

P.P.S. And if you have a state or national park in the area, check their calendar. Or local public parks and organizations.

Re: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression

#125

Post by anoncoward111 »

SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #38
anoncoward111 wrote: post #33

Social media is literally my only hobby and has kept me very happy and safe-feeling for years now. I love browsing and discovering random things. Interacting with people in person can be very taxing after a long day of work, aka, interacting with people.

Is it a concern that you don’t consider social media usage as “interacting with people”? If you were browsing wikipedia I’d understand. But your in the comment section talking to me, believe it or not, a real person.

It's easier for me to interact with your statements via text than it is for me to engage with you emotionally, politically, physically etc like how workplaces inevitably are ://

Re: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression

#126

Post by moorhosj »

SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #122
moorhosj wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think that people disagreeing with you is a failure of social media. If you walk into a bar in an area where HN readers tend to live (San Fran, NYC, Seattle, Austin, Denver, Chicago) you would likely get a similar response.

It has nothing to do with disagreement. It’s that downvotes are used to silence people. You can make an argument counter to someone else’s without mini-censorship, but that’s hard, you need knowledge and experience for that. Whats easy is just to try and hide anyone else from seeing a counter argument at all.

Maybe people downvote because they think it violates the HN commenting rule below?

==Please don't use Hacker News primarily for political or ideological battle. This destroys intellectual curiosity, so we ban accounts that do it.==

Re: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression

#127

Post by rtpg »

eric_h wrote: post #102
rtpg wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I... think it's important to know what's up. It especially helps to give a reason to participate in the electoral process. But soooooo much political reporting nowadays is basically gossip columns. They talk a lot of inside baseball and completely neglect the "the thing happening is actually bad!" aspect. Instead of debating policy, people want to debate the optics of policies. Cable news is awful about this, but I t…

If I hadn’t gotten mildly addicted to Twitter (with my fairly well curated list of people I’m following) I’d not have spent the ~700 bucks to start my naturalization process so that I will finally have the right to vote after 34 years living here as a permanent resident (well it’ll be 35 since naturalization takes a while). I realized that my running joke of the last 18 years: “I can’t vote, but at least I don’t have…

Yeah I think that Twitter has been a major gateway drug to remember that Politics Matter.

But after you've reached that point, Twitter becomes the place where you read the same take 20 times over. Then you get the push notification from whatever news app you have installed on your phone.

There's a huge amount of diminishing returns to following journalists on Twitter if you're already convinced that stuff is important. But it sure helped to establish the feeling that everything is on fire (and.... kind of always have been but right now's not great)

Re: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression

#128

Post by winningcontinue »

prolikewh0a wrote: post #82

I've been off social media for years now, entirely, and I'm back to a point where the rest of my friends and just society itself are so fully entrenched into some sort of social media that I'm getting very lonely and depressed. I've actually thought about making a Facebook or Instagram account again and just placing strict rules on it, but even that really creeps me out. My friends are always telling me about cool ev…

This is the most accurate description of how I felt dropping out of social media, although to a much less strict degree. I don't spend almost any time looking at other people's lives but I still wonder. That's fine, I let the mystery linger and I think it's been an overall positive. Close friends and regular occuring events, I still attend. The ones that have to schedule, I need someone to contact me directly or vice versa so I lose out on some events. On balance I think I gained more than I lost.

Re: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression

#129

Post by nercht12 »

I joined Meetup.com, and now I have a growing number of friends every week.

It helps to have an interest that other people can join you in. You could start a tech group, a language group, a movie group. Find a place to have a discussion, a small conference, or give a presentation.

The fact is, social media isn't going to satisfy your craving with feeling connected. The digital world isn't a substitute for face-to-face conversation, so it's sad to see people resort to text-messaging the person in front of them. However, you CAN look for events for where to connect to people. That said, Meetup.com is a huge blessing.

Re: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression

#130

Post by jeromebaek »

I think social media is fine as a way to connect, it just shouldn't be the only or even major way to connect. In particular I think News Feed is a horrible way to "connect" with anyone.

So I unfollowed every one of my friends on Facebook and keep a pristine blank news feed. If I want to know what someone's up to, I message them or visit their profile. It makes social media usage a lot more deliberate.

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