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

Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression

guilfordjournals.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 153 posts

Re: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression

#81

Post by kopo »

SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #37
kopo wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN and Reddit arent that different from other social media sites. All of them in my mind are "All You Can Eat" info buffet tables. This is just the current approach we have of dealing with a new world overloaded by info. It will change as we learn more and more about how it effects people. In the real world nobody healthy visits an "All You Can Eat" buffet everyday. Same thing will eventually happen with information.

Agreed that HN and Reddit are basically just replacements for Facebook. Former becoming more and more like the latter. I disagree it’s “information”. The article is usually wrapped in opinion, and you’re in the opinion section now. Maybe the appeal is that when the opinion is from some you know (a “friend”) you feel obligated to acknowledge it and on an anonymous forum you can more easily ignore it? Reddit vs Faceboo…

>> obligated to acknowledge opinion

lol thats a nice way of putting it. It's an interesting point about why we are all so attracted to opinion. It doesn't require much mental energy or something I suppose.

Plus in an info overloaded world where even the experts have doubts about a lot of things it allows us to butt into debates where we would never be allowed to enter in the real world.

Re: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression

#82

Post by prolikewh0a »

I've been off social media for years now, entirely, and I'm back to a point where the rest of my friends and just society itself are so fully entrenched into some sort of social media that I'm getting very lonely and depressed. I've actually thought about making a Facebook or Instagram account again and just placing strict rules on it, but even that really creeps me out.

My friends are always telling me about cool events on Facebook, their Instagram stories at the really fun and cool places they work non-profit, all of these cool groups. I feel super detached from even my best friends, and feel like I don't get a full friend experience. While our relationships are strong and have been for years, they're kinda dull because they use social media so much. They understand why I don't use it and don't give me a hard time (anymore), but always bother me to come back.

Re: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression

#84

Post by wu-ikkyu »

schindlabua wrote: post #51

My policy is to decrease on push notifications as far as possible. WhatsApp and Telegram still have the privilege but that's it. I feel like by seeking out information rather than it coming to me, I at least am making a conscious decision to waste time on social media. Interestingly, implementing that had the effect of me now spending hardly any time on there at all. Funny how that works!

I've turned off all push notifications except calls and texts as well. It seems the internet has become way too much "push" and not enough "pull"

Re: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression

#85

Post by drewmate »

prolikewh0a wrote: post #82

I've been off social media for years now, entirely, and I'm back to a point where the rest of my friends and just society itself are so fully entrenched into some sort of social media that I'm getting very lonely and depressed. I've actually thought about making a Facebook or Instagram account again and just placing strict rules on it, but even that really creeps me out. My friends are always telling me about cool ev…

I'm kind of in the same boat. I assumed that I would be able to participate in normal friendships without social media (the way people did for generations before me). Instead, I think people just assume I'm ignoring them on facebook because I'm anti-social.

I've learned to be more proactive in maintaining relationships, but it often feels very one-sided since many other people are used to just getting passive status updates and feeling 'connected' to their friends.

Re: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression

#86

Post by bt4u »

prolikewh0a wrote: post #82

I've been off social media for years now, entirely, and I'm back to a point where the rest of my friends and just society itself are so fully entrenched into some sort of social media that I'm getting very lonely and depressed. I've actually thought about making a Facebook or Instagram account again and just placing strict rules on it, but even that really creeps me out. My friends are always telling me about cool ev…

How can you say you've been off social media entirely? This comment section is a social media

Re: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression

#87

Post by Nasrudith »

ben_w wrote: post #45
octosphere wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bulk of the problem is the linear-thinking brain. If we could devise a way for the brain to think exponentially (something computers are good at) - then we have a suitable way to deal with information overload. My only gripe with augmented brain capacity is that it could spiral away from us, and then lose touch with our original linear thought patterns. Something we have to eventually come to terms with.

We don’t think linearly (we’re extremely parallel) and computers don’t think exponentially (just quickly, ironically enough that’s because it was easier to run ten times faster than on ten things at once).

To get more pedantic technically doing things in parallel is easy - coordinating them is a pain with overhead - especially if you want them to keep their speed. I know back decades ago even cars went with plenty of microcontrollers to do what technically could be controlled by one since it was easier and better to be independent apparently - and auto companies are all about shaving nickels of expenses for profits.

Re: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression

#88

Post by dbeuwhf »

yyww wrote: post #59

This is probably true, but I don't know what else to do (counting HN as social media) - I don't really have any friends or interesting activities. Basically go to work, do work, go home, repeat. Anyone have any suggestions on how I could live a more interesting life and/or have friends? Sorta pathetic to be posting this here but since every other comment is talking out eliminating social media use, maybe some comment…

A lot of the advice here is "find a hobby". But if it were that simple youd have one already.

My advice is to be bored. Get rid of all distractions (facebook, tv) and go to a quiet room or on a long walk. Be alone with your thoughts. Slowly forget about work and daily concerns. Where does your mind go when it has nothing else in the way?

Hopefully that gives you a clue where to look for hobbies you enjoy. But you also have to make the effort and try different things out. Start researching and go to events. Youre not gonna like all of it and thats ok. And its not always comfortable.

Definitely start up a conversation with the people you meet along the way. Friends are important. Theres more to it than i can fit in this post.

If that doesnt work, try thinking back to when you were a kid. What were you interested in before you put your life on hold for school and work?

I hope this helps yoi in some way. All i know is it worked for me. No reason to feel ashamed. Many people have this problem.

Re: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression

#89

Post by mockingbirdy »

prolikewh0a wrote: post #82

I've been off social media for years now, entirely, and I'm back to a point where the rest of my friends and just society itself are so fully entrenched into some sort of social media that I'm getting very lonely and depressed. I've actually thought about making a Facebook or Instagram account again and just placing strict rules on it, but even that really creeps me out. My friends are always telling me about cool ev…

I know that they work hard to make it addictive, but isolating yourself because of a fear of a lack of self-discipline is not a solution IMO. Use it to your advantage and have the strength to withstand its negative aspects.

Ignoring the newsfeed can be enough if you're susceptible to comparison with others (which is one of the big reasons that social media is bad for people). There are browser extensions to hide it [1].

I use events, groups and the birthday reminder. Facebook definitely has a lot of features that are very useful e.g. I can see which events happen in my surroundings and which friends attend them. Without this, I wouldn't hear about these events (except when those friends explicitly invite their friends). Instead of denial, use technology to your advantage and minimize its bad effects on your mental health.

[1]: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/news-feed-eradicat...

edit: I know that many people in tech despise social media and there are a ton of studies that show its negative effects. But OP talks about negative effects of not using social media. A moderate usage can be better for him/her than simply refusing to use it. Please explain your arguments instead of simply downvoting so I know the reasons behind the reactions.

Re: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression

#90

Post by beachy »

lettergram wrote: post #53
kopo wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN and Reddit arent that different from other social media sites. All of them in my mind are "All You Can Eat" info buffet tables. This is just the current approach we have of dealing with a new world overloaded by info. It will change as we learn more and more about how it effects people. In the real world nobody healthy visits an "All You Can Eat" buffet everyday. Same thing will eventually happen with information.

I think it's a bit different, on HN and Reddit it's much less about sharing ones life (there are subreddits for this, but in general, no). It's more about sharing interesting discussion and insight around content. More than that, it's semi-anonymous, meaning it's not so much the relationship between people it's the relationship between content (or topics). This is a dramatic difference because it's harder to get into…

These are well observed and key differences between social networks.

The power of these small changes is disproportionately strong too. On HN, your username is very subtly rendered, and that possibly hella people focus on the content, rather than the individual who posted it.

On Reddit by contrast the username sticks out, can have flair added etc.

The result is imo more personality based repartee.

Post reply on HN