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Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

theglobeandmail.com

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Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#131

Post by Pxtl »

johnchristopher wrote: post #65
macksd wrote: post #7

As a side note, I'm a little saddened when I see friends apologize for their posts. There's such a reaction to "influencer culture" that people feel like foodgrams and humblebrags are a terrible thing, and in excess they certainly can be, but I think from most people it's a billion times better than strawman political arguments and manipulative media that is far worse for our mental health than just comparing ourselv…

I really do believe there's a solution for that. We need whatsapp/telegram/signal to display a feed based on user's status and nothing more. It's almost free, frictionless and free from ads (for now). But sharing without the widest audience (just to the social graph of your contacts). It could bring back Google+'s circles so you don't share the same stuff with colleagues and friends and family, but your feed page wou…

Imho, the big toxic thing on Facebook wasn't the "news", it was "your friend liked this" and "your friend commented on this". That's where we get inundated with awfulness. My friends don't post/share terrible stuff, but they do occasionally interact with terrible stuff.

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#132

Post by bena »

pzo wrote: post #124
bena wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5 & 6 just means multiple accounts per person. 7 means some sort of paywall. You either collect from the users themselves, or collect from people who want access to those users.

I just only added features that IMO would make a healthier social network. It's different problem how to implement in a way to avoid people try to game it. Maybe it's not even possible and only utopia.

The only problem is how to implement it in a way to avoid people gaming it.

You didn't "add features", you made a wish list.

What's your "solution" for online advertising? Ads that are noticeable but unobtrusive? Now all we got to do is get the nerds down in R&D to make it happen. It's a miracle no one has thought of this before.

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#133

Post by sysadm1n »

cameronperot wrote: post #101
sysadm1n wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stick to messenger apps. It's tough, I know, because of network effects, but I managed to convert about 20 friends of mine to use Signal. I deliberately avoid Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp since they can be intercepted easily, and if you're caught making a joke about ISIS, the Whatsapp police can unencrypt your messages which kinda sucks. Instant messages are more personal and you're not broadcasting your life to 5…

> if you're caught making a joke about ISIS, the Whatsapp police can unencrypt your messages Would you please clarify this? I know that messages flagged by the recipient can be read by moderators [1], but I'm not exactly sure what you're getting at here. I'm not defending WhatsApp (I've advocated for Signal since the days of TextSecure), but AFAIK the messages are encrypted using the Signal protocol, so I'm not sure…

Yes I was referring to this when I meant the `Whatsapp police`. I actually tried to dig up the article to backup my claims, but was at a loss, since I didn't bookmark it.

So in this case we have Whatsapp users essentially snitching on each other and getting posts flagged for the purposes of law enforcement, and having those message unencrypted. Whilst this is largely helpful, there is the potential for false positives (e.g a meme about ISIS getting flagged as 'extremist' and 'violent')

It's a tricky one, because although the feature may help save lives and such, I am just uncomfortable with it, since the E2E encryption is slightly broken because of this mechanism in place.

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#134

Post by whimsicalism »

cm2187 wrote: post #125
cronix wrote: post #67

I'm getting kind of tired of the narrative that "x is evil/bad/harmful, but I'm too weak (we won't admit addiction) to not use x. Everyone I know uses x. Government needs to regulate x (so I don't have to change my ways)." I deleted my account over a year ago now, because I do view them as evil and do cause overall societal harm. It's not life ending. You'll adjust and then wonder why you didn't do it sooner. I made…

In fact I don't know anyone in my close or more distant friend circles who haven't abbandonned facebook in one way or another. I am puzzled by facebook still being the centre of attention (for this, control of news, influence on elections, influence on vaccination).

and Instagram?

I find this "I don't know anyone who uses FB anymore" line to often be disingenuous when it's uttered by someone in their 20s or early 30s.

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#135

Post by stemlord »

munk-a wrote: post #104
cronix wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you want to keep up with them at all you need to at least have the bearest presence on the platform. So, if you texted "Hey cousin, it's been awhile, how's it going?" you wouldn't get a reply?

To what number? The one they have now or the one they switch to without telling anyone in a few months?

People don't change numbers that often. Unless your cousin is a drug dealer in which case you were only on their burner phone, meaning you must have just been a customer to them, and not even an important one.

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#136

Post by uDontKnowMe »

legitster wrote: post #58
ferdowsi wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit is an interesting one. Since it's an anonymous experience, I guess it'd be the same issues with any internet community. It can be stressful to see seemingly abhorrent viewpoints in such concentrated numbers. And it can be stressful when you feel a community is turning against you, even if your connections to that community are extremely tendentious.

I think Reddit is uniquely harmful to its users in several ways, maybe even moreso than Facebook: - Users get an intense, one-sided parasocial relationship but with no upside of even communicating directly with each other - The hivemind effect is very real, and using Reddit often gives people a very false sense of superiority of their knowledge on any given topics - Misinformation is rife. Even outside of the conspir…

It's interesting you call relationships on Reddit para-social, I don't know if that quite fits the word because Reddit is more of a two-way reciprocal relationship between commenters. Perhaps Twitter fits that description better since you get a lot of power users like Trump and other celebrities which broadcast out to their followers but don't typically respond to normies.

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#137

Post by nafix »

filoleg wrote: post #107
iamdbtoo wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "they can just quit it" part is directly at odds with the "harms their mental health" part. Not being able to quit something that is harming you is at the core of addiction.

We don't ban alcohol, videogames, twitter, tv shows, or buying excessive amounts of food, despite a giant number of people in the US suffering from addiction to those. War on drugs was a failure. At some point, you have to draw a line at where you take personal responsibility. The utility to those who can use those things I listed above responsibly outweighs the potential danger and plies of those who use "addiction"…

Exactly. How is this even an argument point? If you support banning Facebook because of addictive potential, then add about 50 other things to the list to ban as well. If it's to regulate Facebook more, what exact kind of regulation would make it OK again? Age limit, as in 18+ to use? Don't porn sites use that and children still have no issues logging onto those sites.

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#138

Post by whimsicalism »

heurisko wrote: post #76
legitster wrote: post #30

I know Facebook is the great evil, but we really need to start looking at the mental health impacts of all social media. The unhappiest people I know are not on Facebook - they are religiously devoted to Twitter and Reddit. Heck, I'd like to know what sort of damage this post right here is doing to me. This is our generation's smoking but everyone only wants to know how harmful Marlboros are. Edit: Please upvote this…

I think twitter is the most toxic. I have been uncomfortable on twitter to find enclaves where people are mentally ill, and have found others to exacerbate their behaviour and thinking.

This also exists on FB. If anything, the only reason people are aware of it on twitter is because it's not as much of an enclave as it is on FB.

See, for instance, "cryptic pregnancy" communities on FB, which are definitely hotbeds of mental illness.

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#139

Post by whimsicalism »

RealityVoid wrote: post #50

I used to think, untill recently, that Facebook was just a tool and all this hatred was overblown. After all, I modulated my use of it just fine. My usage is sparse, and I use messenger to talk with people I know, it kept us together. I can see how community and bringing old friends together is precious. But, recently, I realized someone I used to be very close has mental problems. Undiagnosed, but there is no other…

I think FB is probably bad, but I've also noticed that people have a tendency to blame delusional mental illnesses on whatever a person was going through/up to at the time it onset when it is often more like a timer went off.

Re: Most Canadians believe Facebook harms their mental health

#140

Post by osigurdson »

cronix wrote: post #67

I'm getting kind of tired of the narrative that "x is evil/bad/harmful, but I'm too weak (we won't admit addiction) to not use x. Everyone I know uses x. Government needs to regulate x (so I don't have to change my ways)." I deleted my account over a year ago now, because I do view them as evil and do cause overall societal harm. It's not life ending. You'll adjust and then wonder why you didn't do it sooner. I made…

Completely agree. If you don't like a service, stop using it.
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