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

(www.nber.org)
506 points imakwana | 5 comments | 21 Apr 25 04:24 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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ryandrake ◴[21 Apr 25 05:33 UTC] No.43748740[source]▶
50 years from now, we are going to be looking back at Social Media and Smartphone addiction like we currently look at smoking. “How insane were we to have allowed it and allowed it to be promoted?” our grandchildren will rightly ask!
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milesrout ◴[21 Apr 25 06:54 UTC] No.43749071[source]▶
No. It is like alcohol: perfectly fine in reasonable doses, but harmful to people that get addicted.
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polar8 ◴[21 Apr 25 07:02 UTC] No.43749112[source]▶
“Perfectly fine” is a bit of a stretch. No amount of alcohol is good for health. WHO now say even small amounts increase risk of cancer and liver disease.
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CuriouslyC ◴[21 Apr 25 07:10 UTC] No.43749146{3}[source]▶
I'd argue that small amounts of alcohol facilitate relaxation and socialization, which probably saves a lot more lives from preventing homicide and suicide than it costs in cancer and liver disease.
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1. polar8 ◴[21 Apr 25 07:22 UTC] No.43749214{4}[source]▶
After socialization comes drunk driving which alone kills a quarter million people annually.
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2. scrollaway ◴[21 Apr 25 08:19 UTC] No.43749511[source]▶
It's deeply fascinating to many europeans living in cities that one would need to drive to go to a bar.

My closest bar is 100 meters away. If I'm willing to walk 20 minutes, the radius can probably hit around 100 different ones.

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3. polar8 ◴[21 Apr 25 08:32 UTC] No.43749578[source]▶
I’m European and live in a city. There are still plenty of drunk driving fatalities here.
4. CuriouslyC ◴[21 Apr 25 11:09 UTC] No.43750559[source]▶
That's why I specified a small amount, there's a strong inverted U curve for alcohol for sure.
5. jpc0 ◴[21 Apr 25 16:17 UTC] No.43753654[source]▶
Here the legal limit is approximately 2 440ml cans or a draft of beer.

If you are drinking more than that across an evening I would argue it's a bit more than socialising. Maybe where you are from people are heavy drinkers and are not responsible enough to not slow down a fee hours before you know you will be driving but I feel like the quarter a million annually is quite overrepresented by heavy drinkers.

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