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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

#461

Post by 9rx »

LtWorf wrote: post #448
9rx wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "Friends" tab (sometimes "Feed" instead; the A/B testing on this one seems strong) only shows the posts of people you know. Events is still there as well. But in both cases the rate of creation has dropped dramatically since the time you remember, making these nearly useless. That's why the social media services have had to focus on content created by professional content creators instead. The outcome was inevita…

What's the point of posting stuff if nobody will see it because facebook decided so?

Why would nobody see it? "Friends"/"Feed" is a chronological view of all your friend posts. Unless their friends are posting so much that they can't keep up, which is completely unrealistic these days, your posts are going to pretty hard to miss.

But, in practice, nowadays people who have something to share with those they care about will do so through some sort of messaging application, including Facebook Messenger, so posting really only ends up being for the sake of the casual acquaintances you've accumulated as Facebook friends over the years. What, exactly, do you want to let them know?

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

#462

Post by Thorrez »

UnreachableCode wrote: post #83
designerarvid wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> it is likely impossible to get friends and family to join a boring and non-profit alternative. Isn’t this just WhatsApp now though? The addition of Statuses, Following and now Communities almost confirms this. People are dropping Facebook and IG, but can’t give up WhatsApp (yet).

WhatsApp isn't non-profit.

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

#463

Post by martin82 »

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…

You can easily do that?!

On Twitter, don't follow anyone, put everyone in a list, only read that list - you get a feed of chronological posts from only the people on the list, no algorithmic bullshit.

Or use Nostr. Definitely zero algorithm nonsense over there.

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

#464

Post by Timwi »

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…

You can already get that with Mastodon.

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

#465

Post by mc3301 »

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.

This worked for me in a similar situation, and you gotta do the same: Make 2 or 3 rules and remind each other of them.

No phones in the bedroom. No phones at meals. No phones at the park. (Something like that)

Or even a "let's go out for dinner without our phones!"

I also made a little "Phone jail." It is essentially a shoebox on top of the fridge. I announce when I am putting my phone in "jail" as a way to show my kids that I am trying to have a healthy relationship with screens.

My wife and I have both reduced our screen time (though ew aren't perfect.)

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

#466

Post by quinnirill »

johnisgood wrote: post #414
projectazorian wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've gotten in the habit of straight out calling out these people, including throwing them out of my house when they start down this road. They tend to have some form of serious mental illness and/or a major substance problem they're not interested in addressing, which leads to emotional dysregulation. So not exactly great people to have around anyway. Have I lost friends over it? Yes. But that's fine, having no frie…

I would not punish them for having a mental illness, I am understanding of it as I have, too, but it is completely fine if you, yourself, do not want to handle or deal with it. I tend to call people out, too. I keep the ones that take it gracefully. Quality > quantity. :)

It’s not necessarily punishment, e.g. leaving an abusive partner is in most cases about self-preservation, and if intended as a punishment, very ineffective at that. That said, I think a lot of people who end up at the receiving end of it do tend to try to spin it as a punishment due to self-centered thinking and in order to frame themselves as the victim.

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

#467

Post by Timwi »

aaronbaugher wrote: post #338
rubicon33 wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything you’ve described is exactly what forums are for. We didn’t need social media, we had everything we needed with the old PHP forums

Even better, Usenet, which is what the web-based forums were a poor replacement for.

I've used both Usenet and web-based forums side by side in the 90s–2000s and I thought they were both perfectly adequate.

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

#468

Post by Thorrez »

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…

>share all of my communications (and pictures) with Meta.

WhatsApp is E2E encrypted, right? Can you go into more detail about what you suspect Meta is doing or will do?

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

#469

Post by LtWorf »

9rx wrote: post #461
LtWorf wrote: post #448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the point of posting stuff if nobody will see it because facebook decided so?

Why would nobody see it? "Friends"/"Feed" is a chronological view of all your friend posts. Unless their friends are posting so much that they can't keep up, which is completely unrealistic these days, your posts are going to pretty hard to miss. But, in practice, nowadays people who have something to share with those they care about will do so through some sort of messaging application, including Facebook Messenger,…

It's not the default, nobody knows it exists.

Also the way it works, for some reason it decides 2-3 people are my besties (they are not) and just shows me what they post, ignoring what everyone else is posting, so it's still useless.

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