Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

nber.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

371–380 of 527 posts

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

#371

Post by flkiwi »

I'm distinctly happier since I ditched Facebook and Twitter. It's not a radical change, because the world kinda sucks in general. And I'm a little sad that a few of my older family members are effectively invisible since they only communicate on Facebook, but, honestly, I didn't talk to my mother's first cousins pre-Facebook anyway so, net, I haven't actually lost very much.

I was never on Instagram or TikTok, but neither seems to be "social" media as much as a communal fire hose anyway.

I was on Bluesky for a minute, but it was 99.9% people trying to one-up each other with witty or ironic one-liners for clout, with most of the rest being ex-Twitter people trying to keep Twitter combat alive in an arena (blessedly) free of the people who have made Twitter unbearable. I got tired of witnessing a neverending improv open mic while being randomly assaulted by people I agreed with.

So now I'm just living my life, aware of the challenges of the world, but not bathing in them.

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

#372

Post by kube-system »

dansimco wrote: post #367
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 is where I want to see legislation. Required opt-out ability for algorithmic timelines.

That will work just as well as requiring Philip Morris to allow one to opt out of nicotine in their cigarettes.

The addictive properties are the reason for the prevalence of the product.

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

#373

Post by lupusreal »

tomrod wrote: post #266
pjc50 wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But remember that this is supported by traditional media (Fox news). It's not just social media.

Correct. The term for these type of unreliable sources in support of an ideology is propaganda.

That's a good definition of propaganda. The way it's usually taught in schools is that propaganda is all lies, but propaganda is any communication intended to promote a cause or agenda and opportunistically uses both truth and lies, choosing whichever align with the agenda. Unreliable captured this neatly.

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

#374

Post by zeroonetwothree »

potato3732842 wrote: post #259
bigbacaloa wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These percentages are similar to those that one sees for alcohol consumption or problematic gambling. The business model of the casinos and the drug dealers and the alcohol venders is the same - you need a huge pool of unproblematic recreational users to find the problematic users who generate the bulk of your profits. The same model works for video games and social media.

I really hate this projecting of the software gaming industry's behavior back into the "original" vices. The casino, liquor store and drug dealer all make the same margin regardless of who they're selling to. If anything the problem users are more likely to cause problems for them so they'd rather make the money on casual users and scale. Having your whole operation be basically a wash except for all the money from a…

The top 10% of drinkers consume the majority of alcohol. Their average consumption is over 10 drinks per day, which I think clearly suggestions a problem. I think it's hard to imagine that losing >50% of revenue wouldn't matter to sellers.

Gambling is also very skewed. Studies place it something like 5% of in person gamblers accounting for 50% of profits or 1% for online gambling. I would guess for sports betting it's similar.

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

#375

Post by jpc0 »

bowsamic wrote: post #157
milesrout wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If she tried to reduce it she wouldn't do it. Nobody is holding a gun to her head. She does it because she wants to do it. Until she takes responsibility for her actions she will not change.

Yeah this is how all therapy works. It’s about learning what change you can make and taking responsibility and making that change. Not sure why you’re being downvoted but likely because there’s an idea floating around now that all such issues are purely externally imposed by a defect in society, and that it has nothing to do with the actions of the individual who is portrayed as helpless. I think that is a deeply dep…

Because wanting to change is the first step.

If there is no external stimuli to push a desire to change it is unlikely a person will even want to change in the first place.

Hence the other comments, well done you just solved all drug dependency, just stop doing drugs.

Therapy isn't just about how to take responsibility and making changes. It's about learning how to build a support network and the mental resolve to actually go through with the change in the long term.

Blaming the person in addiction doesn't help much without actually taking steps to improve. But it's all too common to believe you have brought an issue to an addicts attention but it didn't quite sink in to them.

Sometimes a phrase like "this is a problem and if you don't seek help I am going to have to take action by doing x" can be a decent wake up call. But if it comes over as aggressive or happens during a fight of some sort you will still not get the response you were looking for.

Inter personal relationships are hard, sometimes it is beneficial for the person's effected be someone else addiction to seek therapy at the same time or even before the addict seeks therapy.

In this case it's even more true, a long term relationship with children is the one place you really do want all the support you can get to ensure the person that needs help gets it and the family as a whole doesn't suffer more than needed.

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

#376

Post by krunck »

kleiba wrote: post #166

I'm certainly an anomaly but since to me the downsides of social media have always been quite prominent and seemed to outweigh the benefits by a margin, I never jumped on the social media train. But I've got to say, it's getting harder and harder to keep that up. As our kids get older especially, almost all of their social activities are somehow tied to social media one way or the other: no matter what they're joinin…

Another problem is the social fragmentation caused by electronic social interaction being split among so many different platforms: Facebook, WhatsApp, Viber, iMessage, SMS, etc.

Even the device platform you choose segregates you. There are a few neighbor families our family is close to. They(neighbors and my family) all talk on iMessage. I've got an Android/eOS device so I am excluded from the chats. At least my wife shares them with me.

There was a time that people set standards for (landline) telephone communications for the sake of interoperability. We need the same for other technologies. I'm sick of trying to be social in corporate controlled gated communities surrounded by impassible walls.

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

#377

Post by zeroonetwothree »

potato3732842 wrote: post #259
bigbacaloa wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These percentages are similar to those that one sees for alcohol consumption or problematic gambling. The business model of the casinos and the drug dealers and the alcohol venders is the same - you need a huge pool of unproblematic recreational users to find the problematic users who generate the bulk of your profits. The same model works for video games and social media.

I really hate this projecting of the software gaming industry's behavior back into the "original" vices. The casino, liquor store and drug dealer all make the same margin regardless of who they're selling to. If anything the problem users are more likely to cause problems for them so they'd rather make the money on casual users and scale. Having your whole operation be basically a wash except for all the money from a…

Of course it's not even really specific to vices, the top 10% of travelers take around 50% of flights, and you see similar effects in pretty much every area of consumption.

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

#378

Post by zeroonetwothree »

thinkingemote wrote: post #78
nomilk wrote: post #56

The surprise here is how little of an effect it has. Deactivating facebook makes you only 1/16th of one standard deviation happier. And instagram even less. And this was measured during elections, when the effect is likely to be greatest. Kinda crazy that the magnitude is so small! (my next [admittedly rather cynical] thought is "who funded this?")

Removing one dopamine addicting and cortisol antagonising source might just be replaced by more of all the other sources that are being consumed. Perhaps they just watched TV news more, for example? But perhaps the study shows that the effect works in the right direction even if small and even when replaced by any other behaviours that cause unhappiness, depression and anxiety.

It's like if you ask people to quit drinking beer but then they just drink wine instead. It might be a tiny bit healthier but it doesn't get at the underlying problem. And it wouldn't be fair to fault beer by itself for their negative experiences.

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

#379

Post by 91bananas »

Phlebsy wrote: post #60
noncoml wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The number of replies I cut & paste to my notes archive far exceeds the amount of posts I actually make. I still find it valuable to work through my own thoughts to better prepare myself to have the same conversations in more impactful circumstances, but there are some things I just don't care enough about persuading the other person - or believe the other person is actually going to consider the words as carefully a…

This is so true and cathartic, and it has me wondering if sites are collecting the angry data I type in to inputs but don't submit. I'd LOVEEE to know what the stats are on posts that almost got posted.

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

#380

Post by zeroonetwothree »

grumple wrote: post #278
nomilk wrote: post #56

The surprise here is how little of an effect it has. Deactivating facebook makes you only 1/16th of one standard deviation happier. And instagram even less. And this was measured during elections, when the effect is likely to be greatest. Kinda crazy that the magnitude is so small! (my next [admittedly rather cynical] thought is "who funded this?")

I think the below poster got it right. Cutting out Facebook certainly improved my life; cutting out instagram later was an additive improvement. Now I’m left with HN (which generally avoids the bad parts of social media) and Reddit (which has plenty of brain rot). It also took a lot more than 6 weeks to get acclimated to it. You get psychological withdrawal. It took months for it to feel normal. My income went up a l…

I find Reddit (and HN to a lesser extent) even worse than Facebook. There is a lot more content, for one thing, and so it's easier to waste even more time :(. I wish I could quit...
Post reply on HN