The effect of deactivating Facebook and Instagram on users' emotional state • Hacker News Board

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

#321

Post by dylan604 » Mon, Apr 21, 2025, 2:04 PM UTC

alistairSH wrote: post #273

smelendez wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has moved heavily into group chats and I’m not sure it’s coming back. Group chats are basically the Circles that Google+ saw the need for but could never get fully set up. A lot of people don’t want to share personal updates and photos to a broad swath of friends and acquaintances. Meanwhile Instagram and Facebook keep evolving. Facebook is turning into a weird Reddit for older people. Instagram is turning into…

The problem with Insta as a “hip LinkedIn” is I can’t even browse it properly without an account. Say I find an interesting business elsewhere and Ggogle them; their primary web presence is Insta; I find their page, but cannot browse their photos/posts. So, it’s a pretty shit tool for a business to share what it’s about.

If there's a link to an Insta page that I'm actually interested in, I turn on the devtools and hide their modal pop up about logging in. That allows me to continue to scroll the page. Then instead of clicking on the item of interest directly, I use the browser's copy link which I then paste into a new tab. This avoids their attempt at getting you to login again. They'll let you land on any post without throttling the number of direct loads. It's a total pain in the ass, so I only do it for the rare account that actually looks interesting. After a couple of posts, I quickly realize that the account isn't actually worth all of that, and just close and move on.

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

#322

Post by erkt » Mon, Apr 21, 2025, 2:07 PM UTC

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…

>solved by eliminating the "feed" and instead displaying posts, updates, and pictures from friends, family, and those we know in real life.

This is what Facebook was when we all signed up almost two decades ago. No one ever wanted a feed of people they didn't know. Free social media is inherently corrupt as they chase profits abusing the user base.

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

#323

Post by aaronbaugher » Mon, Apr 21, 2025, 2:08 PM UTC

perching_aix wrote: post #177

NitpickLawyer wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Depends on what you do on Reddit. I agree to some extent, but even highly specialised / niche topics on dedicated subs are getting slammed by the "hivemind". I guess it's more apparent for non-us users, as we're not the target audience, but the political brigading is showing even on subs like space and ML related. Reddit is now very similar to ~2015-16 reddit when the-donald and other subs really peaked, just the o…

I don't think the hivemind thing can be solved so long as people can see each others' comments. But then it's difficult to have a social media site without that.

The biggest problem on reddit is having both up- and down-votes. That allows the majority to effectively eliminate dissenting opinions on any topic it cares about by down-voting them to oblivion, and then pat itself on the back for the fact that everyone apparently agrees with it. Since it's possible to do that, some see it as an obligation and go at it with gusto, making it hard to have a conversation that strays outside the current-year party line.

Systems which only have up-votes/likes have their own issues, but at least not that one.

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

#324

Post by JauntTrooper » Mon, Apr 21, 2025, 2:09 PM UTC

smelendez wrote: post #90

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…

This has moved heavily into group chats and I’m not sure it’s coming back. Group chats are basically the Circles that Google+ saw the need for but could never get fully set up. A lot of people don’t want to share personal updates and photos to a broad swath of friends and acquaintances. Meanwhile Instagram and Facebook keep evolving. Facebook is turning into a weird Reddit for older people. Instagram is turning into…

WhatsApp has really taken on this role for me, now that mention it.

I have a channel for my neighborhood, another for the parents at my children's school, another for my extended family, another for work colleagues and another for a few friends.

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

#325

Post by kccqzy » Mon, Apr 21, 2025, 2:16 PM UTC

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…

I cannot agree more. It's amazing that WeChat, a Chinese app, has figured this out years ago; its Moments feature had no ads, no influencers, only posts by contacts. It even suppresses comments made by people you don't know, even if the subject of a comment is a post by people you do know.

Of course there are other Chinese apps that operate entirely based on feeds. What I found interesting is that on Rednote it tried to suppress your posts from what it infers to be your friends in real life.

I think it is a great approach. There are sometimes I just want to see updates from friends and family. There are other times when I only want to see something interesting to me without necessarily telling all my friends what I'm interested in. These are two entirely different categories of social media and it is a good thing to require users to switch apps.

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

#326

Post by zpeti » Mon, Apr 21, 2025, 2:18 PM UTC

erkt wrote: post #322

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…

>solved by eliminating the "feed" and instead displaying posts, updates, and pictures from friends, family, and those we know in real life. This is what Facebook was when we all signed up almost two decades ago. No one ever wanted a feed of people they didn't know. Free social media is inherently corrupt as they chase profits abusing the user base.

I think this is what your conscious mind thinks but your actual desires don’t.

Facebook was refocusing on friend and family content before TikTok came along. But they had to adjust to the TikTok trend otherwise they would have lost market share or potentially lost the entire market.

You might think you want friend and family content, but actually you don’t. Not as much as you want engaging content.

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

#327

Post by pizzafeelsright » Mon, Apr 21, 2025, 2:19 PM UTC

Kozmik1 wrote: post #73

Weird. There is little that depresses me more than watching my wife sit at the table for hours a day slowly scrolling Facebook while ignoring me and the kids. We have talked about it and she's tried to reduce it to no avail.

Take a photo of her and send it while on a walk with your kids.

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

#328

Post by aaronbaugher » Mon, Apr 21, 2025, 2:19 PM UTC

baq wrote: post #58

noncoml wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same with stopping replyhing to HN. I just downvote and upvote. Emotional stress significantly reduced.

There’s a few things that help: - do not engage with the technically correct but missing the point people - don’t check your threads if you posted something that the groupthink disagrees with - don’t try to win arguments if you know you’re right

Along with don't check your threads, don't check your votes. I'm always struck by people saying "I don't know why I was downvoted for such-and-such." Where do they find the time to go back and check the votes on comments they made? I say the things I say and move on.

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

#329

Post by svnt » Mon, Apr 21, 2025, 2:19 PM UTC

erkt wrote: post #322

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…

>solved by eliminating the "feed" and instead displaying posts, updates, and pictures from friends, family, and those we know in real life. This is what Facebook was when we all signed up almost two decades ago. No one ever wanted a feed of people they didn't know. Free social media is inherently corrupt as they chase profits abusing the user base.

Maybe just phrasing but free social media isn’t the problem.

VC-backed corporations masquerading as public services to gain user networks they can later monetize is the problem.

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

#330

Post by svnt » Mon, Apr 21, 2025, 2:21 PM UTC

zpeti wrote: post #326

erkt wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>solved by eliminating the "feed" and instead displaying posts, updates, and pictures from friends, family, and those we know in real life. This is what Facebook was when we all signed up almost two decades ago. No one ever wanted a feed of people they didn't know. Free social media is inherently corrupt as they chase profits abusing the user base.

I think this is what your conscious mind thinks but your actual desires don’t. Facebook was refocusing on friend and family content before TikTok came along. But they had to adjust to the TikTok trend otherwise they would have lost market share or potentially lost the entire market. You might think you want friend and family content, but actually you don’t. Not as much as you want engaging content.

This is slightly inaccurate.

You might want friend and family content, but engaging content will increase your dwell time and profitability as a user, often against your will.