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The effect of deactivating Facebook and Instagram on users' emotional state

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Re: The effect of deactivating Facebook and Instagram on users' emotional state

#241

Post by Zambyte »

milesrout wrote: post #103
xyzal wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the EU should flex their regulatory muscle and forbid algorithmic feeds on by default unless the networks break european society as the US is broken.

The result of a purely chronological feed is that you have to scroll through 10 posts from the same person and never see anything from people that post good content rarely. Plenty of people like and enjoy "algorithmic feeds". I can enjoy occasionally scrolling through a feed. Banning it is like banning alcohol because there are alcoholics in society. If you can't handle it, switch it off.

> The result of a purely chronological feed is that you have to scroll through 10 posts from the same person and never see anything from people that post good content rarely.

I follow over 700 accounts on Bluesky and strictly use the following feed, and this is not my experience.

Re: The effect of deactivating Facebook and Instagram on users' emotional state

#242

Post by whstl »

lloeki wrote: post #162
mikewarot wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read Facebook with the special URL[1] that gives a traditional reverse chronological feed (plus ads, of course), but it's all my friends and family. Unfortunately, some of my family post insane political views, usually about now in the early AM. Being told that a King of the USA and the elimination of due process are good things doesn't help my mental health. [1] https://www.facebook.com/?sk=h_chr

> some of my family post insane political views Would they still if any such poster's feed would strictly only be viewable by families and friends? (I have no idea)

Group chats say that: yes, they do.

Also socializing becomes impossible. I once went to a birthday party only to have it ruined by a friend of the host. Said friend only wanted to talk partisan politics non-stop.

Re: The effect of deactivating Facebook and Instagram on users' emotional state

#244

Post by taurath »

Hadi-Khan wrote: post #138
donatj wrote: post #111

Before its fall, I had over 700 followers on Twitter. I could post any random thought and within minutes be having an interesting conversation with some rando about it. For example I pondered why phone manufacturers didn't use a p2p protocol for distributing updates and had an enlightening conversation with a person who worked for a major telco chiming in as to why that would be problematic for their infrastructure.…

I think Substack fills that gap for me. If you haven't already explored it then by the sounds of it I think you'd like it. It functions more as a platform for blogs, but if you use the app there are blog-specific group chats, you can follow people, and the home page contains 'notes' that are pretty tweet-like in format. Once you have a collection of say 15-20 blogs that your subscribed to I found that the notes I got…

It’s funny, because I took the suggestion and went thru the substack sign up process (which wanted email, phone number, contacts, and interests.. not exactly lightweight).

The first thing they show you is a feed, a never ending scroller.

I don’t get an intro to any channel - it seems like Twitter for writers. Half the stuff I subscribed to (you can’t peek in the onboarding) was absolutely written by ChatGPT, emoji headers and all.

I’m sure there’s interesting stuff happening on there, but it’s a scroller just like Reddit, and it’s pretty disappointing how much apps like these don’t respect a single user need - only the needs of the platform to engage engage engage.

Also holy shit, there’s no option to not send emails - only “prefer push”. You can’t turn it off. There’s zero respect for users, their inboxes, or their attention here whatsoever.

Re: The effect of deactivating Facebook and Instagram on users' emotional state

#245

Post by TriangleEdge »

I remember having a conversation with my friend some 15 years ago when FB only allow .edu accounts. I argued that the incentives for the company cannot be to connect people because that in itself isn't profitable. I signed up maybe 10 years ago for 6 months or so and never tried again. I think this has isolated me in some ways, but I'm quite comfortable with the friends I currently have.

Hypothesis: people who regularly use social media score higher then the average population in narcissic personality trait.

Re: The effect of deactivating Facebook and Instagram on users' emotional state

#246

Post by misja111 »

designerarvid wrote: post #79
8s2ngy wrote: post #41

I believe many of the problems in our current social media landscape could be solved by eliminating the "feed" and instead displaying posts, updates, and pictures from friends, family, and those we know in real life. This approach might conflict with the profit models of big tech social media and could go against what most people have become accustomed to. Personally, I would love a smaller social network where I can…

Intellectually many want this. But the feed shortcuts our reptile brain and gains more engagement minutes / day. As you say, the algorithmic feed is superior for creators wanting reach, and more importantly, advertisers who want eyeballs on their ads. Due to network effects, it is likely impossible to get friends and family to join a boring and non-profit alternative. Instead of pausing social media altogether, I rec…

No, to my brain, reptile or not, these FB feed suggestions are a constant source of irritation.

I use FB only because I'm member of a couple of groups relevant to my hobby, and the stuff posted in those is worth following. Unfortunately there is currently no alternative for those, otherwise I would happily ditch FB.

I don't even care about posts from family and friends anymore because nowadays those are mostly about bragging about their fancy dinner/holiday/social life etc.

Re: The effect of deactivating Facebook and Instagram on users' emotional state

#247

Post by baxuz »

veunes wrote: post #227
donatj wrote: post #111

Before its fall, I had over 700 followers on Twitter. I could post any random thought and within minutes be having an interesting conversation with some rando about it. For example I pondered why phone manufacturers didn't use a p2p protocol for distributing updates and had an enlightening conversation with a person who worked for a major telco chiming in as to why that would be problematic for their infrastructure.…

That era of Twitter where you could toss out a random thought and instantly end up in a rabbit hole with strangers who knew stuff...

That was the era before bots and normies made up the majority of the accounts, and before social media was weaponized.

It was the same for reddit, and honestly even 4chan in the early 2000s.

Hacker news kinda fills that gap now.

Re: The effect of deactivating Facebook and Instagram on users' emotional state

#248

Post by RicoElectrico »

8s2ngy wrote: post #41

I believe many of the problems in our current social media landscape could be solved by eliminating the "feed" and instead displaying posts, updates, and pictures from friends, family, and those we know in real life. This approach might conflict with the profit models of big tech social media and could go against what most people have become accustomed to. Personally, I would love a smaller social network where I can…

There's a spectrum; when it comes to short videos on YT and IG merely ditching the slide-down-for-next video for a thumbnail grid gives some agency - and liberally using "don't recommend" (which I think most normies never notice is there) cleans it up further.

Re: The effect of deactivating Facebook and Instagram on users' emotional state

#249

Post by _7acn »

As someone who hasn't used these things for a long time, I can say that my well-being is excellent. However, it might be easier for me due to my age (43) and the lack of need to please peers or friends.

I also use a browser plugin that blocks LinkedIn feed. This is because I can't stand seeing the nonsense that seemingly serious people post there.

Re: The effect of deactivating Facebook and Instagram on users' emotional state

#250

Post by theaussiestew »

Hmm shameless plug but I recognised this specific phenomena a long time ago and I made a Chrome extension to selectively hide negative content on feeds and the general web. Because I still get value from feeds, just not certain types of content.

https://filtrum-seven.vercel.app/

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