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Facebook proven to negatively impact mental health

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Re: Facebook proven to negatively impact mental health

#201

Post by lostgame »

stickfigure wrote: post #103
hhmc wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

LMFAO...yeah, you could say the same about Heroin. And Heroin is actually damaging to users.

You can pick any random thing, compare it to any other random thing, and get similar or opposing results - or anything in between, because those things aren't correlated or comparable in any way. :P

Re: Facebook proven to negatively impact mental health

#202

Post by dr_dshiv »

PuppyTailWags wrote: post #182
deltarholamda wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a really weird comment, because Limbaugh was almost entirely radio. His TV show was short-lived and not really popular, as he wasn't comfortable in the medium and it showed. He got his start in radio as a DJ, and went on to basically remake the AM band from farm reports and local sports talk to talk radio as we now know it. This is really basic bio stuff about Limbaugh, and it doesn't speak well of your other…

Hey, thanks for correcting me. You're right that the issue was Limbaugh's radio program, not his TV. I apologize for getting my example wrong, but I think my overall point is still a valid one (that just because social media is more effective at spewing bad rhetoric doesn't mean bad rhetoric is ineffective in other media).

Your point was valid but your example was creepily wrong.

Re: Facebook proven to negatively impact mental health

#203

Post by oblib »

sbf501 wrote: post #13

I'd like to see similar study about the original gateway drug: "24-hour News Channels", which was followed by "24-hour Outrage-News Channels". Seems like we've been building toward this, the interactivity of the internet was the paradigm shift (to use a 90's term). EDIT: I realize it isn't news messing with youths' self-esteem (well, in some cases it is), but it is related in that the media is custom-made to drive en…

>>I'd like to see similar study about the original gateway drug: "24-hour News Channels"

Back in the early 80s I was living in LA and I'd grab some food on the way home from work and the "News" on an independent station. They had 3 half hour News show back to back. They started out with "Local News", then moved on to "National News", and finally "World News".

At first it didn't seem much different than the big 3 Networks. Everyday I'd come home from work feeling fine but after a few months of doing that I realized by the end of the last broadcast I was very depressed.

It finally occurred to me, after a few months, that the station was gathering every tragedy they could find, rapes, robberies, murders, wars, airplane and auto crashes, etc. So I decided to stop watching it and immediately went back to my normal, happy, content self.

Since I've learned to monitor the "News" as opposed to consuming it and that's much easier to do when we can pick and choose what to consume and ignore it with just a click or tap. And since then I've had quite a few friends and relatives who're happy and content before and are now in a constant state of rage because they're pretty much addicted to watching FOX/CNN/MSNBC, etc.

That said, I would love to see a serious study on this because it's grown into a serious and national mental heath problem here in the U.S.

Re: Facebook proven to negatively impact mental health

#204

Post by dr_dshiv »

ch4s3 wrote: post #198
pyuser583 wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why stop there? Why not Fr. Coughlin or William Jennings Bryan?

Why stop there Girolamo Savonarola was doing it in the 15th century, or Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus.

> Savonarola

Love that the Catholic Church burned him at the stake for being too conservative. Really! Go Renaissance Popery!!

Re: Facebook proven to negatively impact mental health

#205

Post by MattSayar »

I started checking Facebook only on the computer and only when it organically comes up in my daily browsing (like now!). As it happens, I check Facebook about 3-4 times a week now, and it's basically just to Mark as Read my notifications (which are largely useless).

Re: Facebook proven to negatively impact mental health

#206

Post by stickfigure »

ziddoap wrote: post #160
stickfigure wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm not really able to wrap my head around your argument. If it's damaging to some percentage of users, having more users means it damages more people. Is your argument that this is okay because some people also put their health at risk being salt miners?

Can you name something that is not damaging to someone? Excessive salt consumption is linked over a million annual deaths worldwide. Even water kills thousands of people per year (drowning).

If your rule is "we can't have things that may hurt some people" then you're going to live in a pretty bland world. Gonna be especially tough without water.

Re: Facebook proven to negatively impact mental health

#208

Post by stickfigure »

lostgame wrote: post #200
stickfigure wrote: post #64

Earlier 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.

That's, uh...pretty ignorant of the fact that most of the people in the IT world are infinitely more aware of how damaging FB and most social media sites are than the average person. Come on .

Please tell me about the medical and sociological research you do in your IT job.

Re: Facebook proven to negatively impact mental health

#209

Post by UnpossibleJim »

lavventura wrote: post #199
inamberclad wrote: post #57

I wonder how people continue to work at Facebook. I know they tend to have the highest salaries from the FAANG groups, but still. We, as engineers and builders, have the responsibility to think critically about how the things we are working on will be used.

Playing video games or trading have similiar effects or worse. Engineers who build those platforms should question themselves too.

That depends on the video game:

https://www.verywellmind.com/video-games-could-treat-mental-...

https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/mental-health-benefits-o...

https://english.umd.edu/research-innovation/journals/interpo...

EDIT: formatting

Re: Facebook proven to negatively impact mental health

#210

Post by ch4s3 »

dr_dshiv wrote: post #204
ch4s3 wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why stop there Girolamo Savonarola was doing it in the 15th century, or Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus.

> Savonarola Love that the Catholic Church burned him at the stake for being too conservative. Really! Go Renaissance Popery!!

Well, heresy and schism officially. But he was more of a populist than conservative and also weirdly sided with the invading French king which kind of pissed off the pope.
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