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Facebook proven to negatively impact mental health

english.tau.ac.il

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Re: Facebook proven to negatively impact mental health

#221

Post by OJFord »

randomdata wrote: post #176
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.

No doubt they do think hard about how their product will be used and ensure that the customer is as happy as possible. Money is on the line. It is production of the product that produces undesirable externalities. Frankly, how does anyone continue to work in any job? They all bring undesirable externalities of some sort. As a farmer, I'm one of the most evil people on the planet, or so they say, due to the externalit…

> Frankly, how does anyone continue to work in any job? They all bring undesirable externalities of some sort. As a farmer, I'm one of the most evil people on the planet

Oh God, I write software that helps farmers do a better job!

Re: Facebook proven to negatively impact mental health

#222

Post by therealdrag0 »

jon_richards wrote: post #217
therealdrag0 wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the harm really on that level? What is the magnitude of harm?

Yeah, let’s just keep smoking cigarettes, using leaded gasoline, and spewing carbon into the air until we know for sure how bad it is.

I’ll admit some things are cut n dry. Will you admit some things are not cut n dry?

You’re forcing a direct comparison with one category, but how do I know that’s the correct comparison?

I won’t claim to follow it closely but every one of these I’ve seen shows a small impact to a small subset of vulnerable users. That’s a far cry from other things that are universally damaging.

Re: Facebook proven to negatively impact mental health

#225

Post by mzs »

matai_kolila wrote: post #31

IDK... 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 use this link, it's just what you liked in reverse chronological order woth some ads: https://www.facebook.com/?sk=h_chr

I unfriend and unsubscribe from everything/anyone annoying.

Re: Facebook proven to negatively impact mental health

#226

Post by tomjakubowski »

rconti wrote: post #184
giuliomagnifico wrote: post #2

> They found a statistically significant worsening in mental health symptoms, especially depression and anxiety, after the arrival of Facebook: 7% increase in number of students who reported having suffering, at least once during the preceding year, depression so severe that it was difficult for them to function 20% increase in number of students who reported anxiety disorders 2% increase in number of students expect…

I am suspicious of the methodology because of how quickly Facebook rolled out across most colleges/Universities. I want to say within a year. It feels unlikely that the data would be granular enough (and the survey given frequently enough at each University) to reach these sorts of conclusions.

Facebook was also an entirely different site in that time.

> Quickly spreading to other colleges in and outside the US, the network was made available to the general public in the US and beyond in September 2006

Facebook didn't even have a news feed feature until September 2006. The students studied here were using a site that was nothing like it is today.

Re: Facebook proven to negatively impact mental health

#229

Post by oyashirochama »

dr_dshiv wrote: post #202
PuppyTailWags wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

People remember him for his TV program but get the effects from his radio program, not exactly a creepy mistake just association mistake which happens to anyone.

Re: Facebook proven to negatively impact mental health

#230

Post by nequo »

rconti wrote: post #184
giuliomagnifico wrote: post #2

> They found a statistically significant worsening in mental health symptoms, especially depression and anxiety, after the arrival of Facebook: 7% increase in number of students who reported having suffering, at least once during the preceding year, depression so severe that it was difficult for them to function 20% increase in number of students who reported anxiety disorders 2% increase in number of students expect…

I am suspicious of the methodology because of how quickly Facebook rolled out across most colleges/Universities. I want to say within a year. It feels unlikely that the data would be granular enough (and the survey given frequently enough at each University) to reach these sorts of conclusions.

You are right, and Facebook's roll-out is discussed in Section 2.2 of the paper.[1] The data sources are discussed in Section 3.1. They use the National College Health Assessment which surveyed students each semester.

[1] https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/256787/1/1801812535....

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