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

How 30 days without social media changed my life

stevecorona.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 111 posts

Re: How 30 days without social media changed my life

#61

Post by mycodebreaks »

sigkill wrote: post #51
mycodebreaks wrote: post #18

I understand the urge to keep away from facebook or twitter. However, Hacker News is very important resource for career and personal development IMHO. Since I came to know about Hacker News, my life has changed. Not only I stay away from social media such as facebook, twitter, but also I am away from news websites such as cnn and bbc.And, let me say, it is very good for mind and body to not consume so much news.

My sarcasm meter is faulty. Are you being sarcastic, or genuinely serious?

I am genuinely serious. You can trust your judgement that your sarcasm meter is faulty. :-)

Re: How 30 days without social media changed my life

#62

Post by graue »

Swizec wrote: post #44
physcab wrote: post #20

I stopped using Facebook last November. It's been a fantastic experience. Whether you realize it or not, FB changes your emotional health. FB used to make me oddly depressed. Its like sitting in front of the TV and feasting on Sour Patch Kids for two hours. I would sit there staring at how awesome people's lives were and wonder why I wasn't doing such awesome things myself. I heard about the passing of family members…

I don't understand this at all. FB (and social media in general) is the only thing I've found that enables me to organize going out for drinks with more than 2 people at once. Also the only thing that lets me post "Hey, anyone wanna go out for ice cream tomorrow evening?" and actually having 5 people come. Three of which are completely new outside twitter/facebook. It's really quite awesome. Hell, I have very scatter…

When I signed up for Facebook, that was my dream. That I would post stuff like "who wants to get ice cream tomorrow night?" and, just like that, people would take me up on it.

Never happened.

On the contrary, people I met would "friend" me, but still keep me out of their real-world cliques. Example: A guy invited everyone to a party at his house. Everyone else who responded knew where he lived. I sent a message asking. He ignored me.

I had an experience like the GP's. Facebook was an opiate, making me think I was keeping up with friends, when it was really pointless chatter. After I quit, I emailed an overseas friend and we had a far more meaningful exchange than anything during the year we were connected on Facebook.

I guess it depends who you know. Most of my close, in-town friends use FB minimally or not at all. So they weren't the same people I was talking to on FB.

Re: How 30 days without social media changed my life

#63

Post by Karunamon »

ams6110 wrote: post #55
digitalsushi wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ditched facebook about 2 years ago, for 14 months. I learned that I never made enough of an impression for any of my friends to inquire where I was. It was incredibly depressing because I exposed a lie to myself, that I had close friends. I guess it's been neat, knowing the truth, but it was an expensive trade to obtain it. I've been back on there for a few months again, and sadly, even knowing none of those people…

If your main interaction with a person is via facebook, they are not a close friend.

That's a heck of a generalization.

Re: How 30 days without social media changed my life

#64

Post by physcab »

Swizec wrote: post #44
physcab wrote: post #20

I stopped using Facebook last November. It's been a fantastic experience. Whether you realize it or not, FB changes your emotional health. FB used to make me oddly depressed. Its like sitting in front of the TV and feasting on Sour Patch Kids for two hours. I would sit there staring at how awesome people's lives were and wonder why I wasn't doing such awesome things myself. I heard about the passing of family members…

I don't understand this at all. FB (and social media in general) is the only thing I've found that enables me to organize going out for drinks with more than 2 people at once. Also the only thing that lets me post "Hey, anyone wanna go out for ice cream tomorrow evening?" and actually having 5 people come. Three of which are completely new outside twitter/facebook. It's really quite awesome. Hell, I have very scatter…

I have phone numbers for all my close friends. If I wanted to contact them, I'd just call. The beauty of it is that it isn't all at once :)

Re: How 30 days without social media changed my life

#65

Post by graue »

mtgx wrote: post #39
physcab wrote: post #20

I stopped using Facebook last November. It's been a fantastic experience. Whether you realize it or not, FB changes your emotional health. FB used to make me oddly depressed. Its like sitting in front of the TV and feasting on Sour Patch Kids for two hours. I would sit there staring at how awesome people's lives were and wonder why I wasn't doing such awesome things myself. I heard about the passing of family members…

I think this whole "social networking" thing will start to fade soon, as people increasingly realize that it's not "cool" anymore, and that they don't really need it, other perhaps than checking their accounts twice a year. So this whole discussion about whether Google+ or other company can beat Facebook or not might be irrelevant, if the whole social networking "industry" collapses in the next 5 years.

Facebook has over 900 million monthly active users (google it and you can easily confirm this from multiple sources). It may not be "cool", but the time when you could proclaim it a fad has long since passed. That's like saying TV's not cool.

Re: How 30 days without social media changed my life

#66

Post by wmboy »

adrianhoward wrote: post #32
physcab wrote: post #20

I stopped using Facebook last November. It's been a fantastic experience. Whether you realize it or not, FB changes your emotional health. FB used to make me oddly depressed. Its like sitting in front of the TV and feasting on Sour Patch Kids for two hours. I would sit there staring at how awesome people's lives were and wonder why I wasn't doing such awesome things myself. I heard about the passing of family members…

Not attempting to dissuade anybody from dumping Facebook - but to present another option. I use FB once a day. I treat it like a newspaper. A once-a-day update on friends lives that I poke at over a coffee, then throw away until the next day. I find this a nice balance between having a "real" life, and maintaining some connections with folk that I otherwise wouldn't see socially very often. Works for me. YMMV.

Yeah, I'm thinking of deleting the FB app on my phone. It's just a temptation to constantly check what's happening and stop being present with whoever I'm around.

Re: How 30 days without social media changed my life

#67

Post by rwallace »

pixie_ wrote: post #50

It's funny how he couldn't do any of these things before while using social media. This is BS. I knew even before clicking the link exactly what it would say. Incredibly cliche. Someone should write an article - Moderation. How does it work?

> It's funny how he couldn't do any of these things before while using social media.

Yes, almost as if our brains evolved in an environment where social media didn't exist, such that social media constitute an exploit for a security vulnerability in our motivation systems. Oh wait, they do.

> Incredibly cliche.

So is "don't take drugs". Sometimes something is a cliche because it's both true and worth repeating.

> Moderation. How does it work?

Step one is to be lucky in the genetic lottery. Seriously, there are people who can indefinitely maintain a moderate habit with cookies, whiskey, cigarettes, cocaine, poker, television and Facebook; and there are people who can't, and need to go cold turkey. As it happens I'm one of the former (well I haven't tried it with cocaine, but I can do the others), but that doesn't make me a better person than the people who can't, just luckier.

It's also worth noting some people have found going cold turkey for a while, was enough to break the addiction such that they could then go back cautiously, in moderation.

Re: How 30 days without social media changed my life

#68

Post by khyryk »

Karunamon wrote: post #63
ams6110 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your main interaction with a person is via facebook, they are not a close friend.

That's a heck of a generalization.

It can still be a more-true-than-false generalization. Most of what we can claim is limited to generalizing.

Re: How 30 days without social media changed my life

#69

Post by [deleted] »

Swizec wrote: post #44
physcab wrote: post #20

I stopped using Facebook last November. It's been a fantastic experience. Whether you realize it or not, FB changes your emotional health. FB used to make me oddly depressed. Its like sitting in front of the TV and feasting on Sour Patch Kids for two hours. I would sit there staring at how awesome people's lives were and wonder why I wasn't doing such awesome things myself. I heard about the passing of family members…

I don't understand this at all. FB (and social media in general) is the only thing I've found that enables me to organize going out for drinks with more than 2 people at once. Also the only thing that lets me post "Hey, anyone wanna go out for ice cream tomorrow evening?" and actually having 5 people come. Three of which are completely new outside twitter/facebook. It's really quite awesome. Hell, I have very scatter…

[deleted]

Re: How 30 days without social media changed my life

#70

Post by davegauer »

drivebyacct2 wrote: post #41

Does anyone else spend like 20 seconds 5 times a day on Facebook or are we all really only capable of none or 3 hours a day?

Ha ha. I actually have a running joke now. I log into Facebook about once a day with a hearty, "time to check Facebook!" About 30-40 seconds later when I've skimmed the latest posts, I quit with a boisterous, "well, that was great!"

I'm assuming that anyone who can spend more than ten minutes on Facebook has way more friends than I do, and/or those friends are much more prolific than mine.

Post reply on HN