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Evidence Grows That Online Social Networks Have Negative Effects

technologyreview.com

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Re: Evidence Grows That Online Social Networks Have Negative Effects

#41
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Spending time on social networks doesn't cause unhapiness > And the more you time you spend on it, the worse you feel about your life These two statements directly contradict each other. If something gives you a brief jolt of happiness and "the more time you spend on it, the worse you feel about your life", it's only superficially true that it gives you happiness, and it's much much more correct to say that it caus…

Because you're taking it out of context

Or perhaps you're just misunderstanding my complaint. The comment taken as a whole ("in context", if you prefer) proposes that social networks provide a brief jolt of happiness in the short-term, but its net result is making unhappy people feel more unhappy in the long-term. Under those assumptions[1], only the most committed pedant would claim that it's incorrect to say that "social networks don't cause unhappiness" is true.

[1] This is the reason I clarified that I was limiting myself to your comment, because the question of whether your assumptions are true is another one entirely.

Re: Evidence Grows That Online Social Networks Have Negative Effects

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Spending time on social networks doesn't cause unhapiness > And the more you time you spend on it, the worse you feel about your life These two statements directly contradict each other. If something gives you a brief jolt of happiness and "the more time you spend on it, the worse you feel about your life", it's only superficially true that it gives you happiness, and it's much much more correct to say that it caus…

They don't contradict each other. It's "correlation does not imply causation" framed differently.

I think you're misreading his comment. His latter proposition pretty clearly implies causation: "The more time you spend on it, the worse you feel [if you're already unhappy]". It certainly limits the domain, but that's about as clear about causation as one can be when speaking colloquially.

Re: Evidence Grows That Online Social Networks Have Negative Effects

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ever wonder how your friends found the time to read through A Brief History of Time and GEB without you ever knowing of their interests in science and math, or ever having caught them reading a book? Or maybe you just didn't know they were interested in the first place. I actually discovered thanks to Facebook that I share interests with many of the people who I didn't ever suspect on being interested in the same t…

I am willing to bet you've only spoken to less than 10 people who you call friends in the last 7 days. Family doesn't count.

Assuming for a second we mean friend the way you're thinking why does it matter how frequently or recently he spoke with anyone he considers a friend? Are you telling me you have people you no longer consider a friend because you haven't chatted with them in X days?

More importantly though is that when people refer to Facebook "friends" they're using Facebook's noun for a connection. I'm sure it wouldn't bother you if he said he had 500 followers on Twitter, or was connected to 500 people on LinkedIn.

Re: Evidence Grows That Online Social Networks Have Negative Effects

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ever wonder how your friends found the time to read through A Brief History of Time and GEB without you ever knowing of their interests in science and math, or ever having caught them reading a book? Or maybe you just didn't know they were interested in the first place. I actually discovered thanks to Facebook that I share interests with many of the people who I didn't ever suspect on being interested in the same t…

It troubles me that there actually are people who think like you. I'm pretty sure your definition of a friend is different than most people. I'd label your "friends" as people who are in the same social circles as you because of their socioeconomic status. You, as the hollow facebook drone who has never actually experienced friendship, think that real people socialize by posting pictures of themselves online to boost…

You should probably take a look at HN's guidelines[1], particularly the In Comments section.

[1]https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Evidence Grows That Online Social Networks Have Negative Effects

#45
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The faults you are identifying are not related to the article. The implication of the article is broader. It would seem to imply that the statement Online social networks are fine on a conceptual level...beautiful even. may not be true. Of course, this topic needs further study.

I agree. This comment seems off-topic. Not sure why it's the top comment.

Off-topic indeed & for that I apologize - was just mighty annoyed at the time & the semi related headline trigger a reaction.

>Not sure why it's the top comment.

The new FB app is universally hated - see app store ratings. I wasn't specifically aiming at that but looking back it makes sense that my angry comment resonated widely despite off-topic.

Anyway - sorry for the derail.

Re: Evidence Grows That Online Social Networks Have Negative Effects

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am willing to bet you've only spoken to less than 10 people who you call friends in the last 7 days. Family doesn't count.

What do you call as "spoken"? Does IRC count? If so, than yes, I did. I would have spoken to all of them face-to-face, but I missed last social gathering we have because I'm working on my thesis. Does IMs like Hangouts/Facebook Messenger count? If yes, then again, I did. If they don't count, then please explain to me the qualitative difference between talking on IM, texting, talking on the phone, e-mailing, writing l…

> EDIT: now that I think about this... I guess instead of writing this comment I should have just taken your bet :).

I up voted you for this, you are operating against the norms to which I was hedging my bets.

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