Proving that Facebook "causes" depression seems like a pretty high bar. Showing that Facebook contributes to or exacerbates an underlying propensity for depression seems to have strong support in the current research. The more interesting question is how does Facebook amplify this as an underlying tendency of social media in general (or even what we euphemistically refer to as "being online")? Who's more depressed, Facebook users or Twitter users? Why is that?
Researchers, lawmakers want Facebook's mental health research
151–160 of 231 posts
Re: Researchers, lawmakers want Facebook's mental health research
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
> How can I as an individual compete with billion dollar companies that literally hire neuroscientists/psychologists to make something as addictive as possible? If someone can't moderate their own consumption of something despite their best efforts, abstinence works. Similar story with alcohol: Plenty of people have no problem moderating their consumption, but a small percentage of people really struggle with limitin…
> If someone can't moderate their own consumption of something despite their best efforts, abstinence works. No, if someone can’t moderate their own consumption, abstinence usually fails . If a person finds something both easily resistable without immediate past use and hard to moderate immediately after use, abstinence works, but that’s not a super common response. People who have trouble moderating use immediately…
Not saying you are wrong, because I wouldn’t know,
But like, how are you able to tell that generally people would have difficulty moderating their use of something shortly after they first begin to use it, generally tend to also have difficulty not beginning use?
That seems like it would be hard to measure/observe ?
Re: Researchers, lawmakers want Facebook's mental health research
#153It's very odd, I use to use Instagram and it would make me depressed. IDK how to explain, I don't even have any friends on there I follow. Just something about seeing everyone at their best 100% of the time, doing amazing things 100% of the time, never facing adversity 100% of the time. I know it's not realistic but it still gets to your head. I uninstalled it from my phone I feel better about myself after a few week…
It's admittedly an extreme case, but I've been seeing Instagram fairly directly harm a friend's mental health. She is repeatedly seeing people on Instagram doing elaborate things - decoration, cooking, parenting, etc., and it's giving her unrealistic expectations about what standards she should be upholding in everything she does, be it cooking or crafting or interior décor or parenting or whatever. She isn't just tr…
This is a huge issue with social media and Instagram in particular. I see it a lot on YouTube as well. It’s like the Joneses suddenly became EVEN further ahead of everyone because the internet has such wide reach and only selects for the best of the best.
It destroyed my marriage personally. My ex became obsessed with being the “BEST”. Went as far as creating multiple accounts in Instagram to highlight achievements in multiple areas. The obsession resulted in us no longer knowing each other. We spent essentially no time together and time spent together was spent obsessing over one of the accounts.
When I noticed how it was changing us I deleted it. I hope my ex finds happiness in some way some day. For me, I know I’m a much happier person not being wrapped up in that constant game of comparison against people I simply cannot compare to because my life situation is different.
Re: Researchers, lawmakers want Facebook's mental health research
#154It's very odd, I use to use Instagram and it would make me depressed. IDK how to explain, I don't even have any friends on there I follow. Just something about seeing everyone at their best 100% of the time, doing amazing things 100% of the time, never facing adversity 100% of the time. I know it's not realistic but it still gets to your head. I uninstalled it from my phone I feel better about myself after a few week…
> I uninstalled it from my phone I feel better about myself after a few weeks.
Next step: stop watching the news and feel even better
Re: Researchers, lawmakers want Facebook's mental health research
#155It's very odd, I use to use Instagram and it would make me depressed. IDK how to explain, I don't even have any friends on there I follow. Just something about seeing everyone at their best 100% of the time, doing amazing things 100% of the time, never facing adversity 100% of the time. I know it's not realistic but it still gets to your head. I uninstalled it from my phone I feel better about myself after a few week…
I have a very different experience with Instagram in particular. I have a very tightly controlled machinist and woodworker account that has taught me innumerable little things, connected me with people who have helped on all kinds of problems and only given me positive reinforcement. There are other communities I've dipped a toe in that are far more toxic, but I have made the choice to stop engaging in those communit…
I tried unfollowing everyone who posted politics back in 2016. I ended up with an empty news feed. I simply had unfollowed every active person in my friends list. Eventually that was the catalyst for me deleting my Facebook account.
I do see value in things like marketplace but my experience when I left was so negative that I find it difficult to go back.
Re: Researchers, lawmakers want Facebook's mental health research
#156will we live to see the day of wanting to 'work for a faang' as seeming as morally repugnant as wanting to work for monsanto, blackwater, etc? i guess nobody cares _really_ because everyone is addicted to their products, and no one wants to stop using the products because of fear of missing out. they should look into seeing if this stuff is actually making people depressed
> will we live to see the day of wanting to 'work for a faang' as seeming as morally repugnant as wanting to work for monsanto, blackwater, etc? Unlikely; I still see resumes with Palantir on them and they're taken seriously in SV companies even outside of the military-industrial complex. Ultimately most people don't have the energy or economic incentive to care as long as their $15k paychecks show up every month.
50k, but I see your point.
Re: Researchers, lawmakers want Facebook's mental health research
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would say your effort wasn't very high then. Keywords to search for are "Mental anguish" and "Emotional distress". "Depression" is not a thing you can really sue for, but mental harm associated with it definitely is.
Given your response that you think emotional distress could in anyway be applicable here, I am fairly confident at this point that few people are properly informed to discuss the legality of this with the degree of certainty and authority that is being expressed. For one, as per White v. Monsanto [1] mental anguish and emotional distress requires "conduct that is heinous and beyond the standards of civilized decency…
Does Facebook actually need to inflict the distress or just be complicit? Cause I have little doubt that "conduct that is heinous and beyond the standards of civilized decency or utterly intolerable in a civilized society" takes place on social media - after all, high schoolers use social media.
Re: Researchers, lawmakers want Facebook's mental health research
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
Okay, let's say I don't believe you and I have made a good faith effort to look into this subject and have found no evidence that anyone has ever been sued for causing depression, do you have any evidence or way to substantiate your claim and demonstrate to me that you are correct? I am aware of emotional distress lawsuits, but what's being claimed here is quite different. Do I have no choice but to take you at your…
> From my uninformed point of view Due to the tone of your over-confident first post, initially I thought you were a lawyer on Facebook's payroll making a deceitful argument. You really think Facebook's lawyers would advise disclosing a link between Facebook usage and depression found in their internal studies? Do you really think that Facebook would even ever allow for that conclusion to be reached in this particula…
Those are different questions than what OP got at with "If they did admit a link it would open Facebook to unimaginable legal liability"
Admitting to this fact could just be bad PR. Or bad for their growth and retention metrics, while not changing their legal liability.
Re: Researchers, lawmakers want Facebook's mental health research
#159Many people I know are simply addicted to the dopamine that IG and FB gives. It's designed this way. I struggle with it too sometimes but I deactivated my FB this week, still have IG. At least that one adds some value to my life.
We will one day look back at social media like we did at cigarettes and soft drinks. The Internet is still developing, it's a shame most people I know simply accept 'this is the way it is' instead of doing something about it.
Re: Researchers, lawmakers want Facebook's mental health research
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
> How can I as an individual compete with billion dollar companies that literally hire neuroscientists/psychologists to make something as addictive as possible? If someone can't moderate their own consumption of something despite their best efforts, abstinence works. Similar story with alcohol: Plenty of people have no problem moderating their consumption, but a small percentage of people really struggle with limitin…
>If someone can't moderate their own consumption of something despite their best efforts, abstinence works. It doesn't work for sex ed and I don't see why it would work for this.
I assume this is thinly-veiled political sniping?
Just seems like anyone posting here would notice the bleeding obvious - that sex ed happens in a very narrow age band not noted for self-knowledge, gratification delay or self control, compared with people with an addictive tendency across the age and self-control spectrum.