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

    (www.nber.org)
    506 points imakwana | 12 comments | 21 Apr 25 04:24 UTC | HN request time: 2.403s | source | bottom
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    8s2ngy ◴[21 Apr 25 05:47 UTC] No.43748792[source]▶
    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 stay connected with my school friends, college friends, and distant family without having to see irrelevant posts, like some stupid remark from a politician halfway around the world or influencers doing something outrageous just for attention.
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    1. mikewarot ◴[21 Apr 25 07:35 UTC] No.43749275[source]▶
    I read Facebook with the special URL[1] that gives a traditional reverse chronological feed (plus ads, of course), but it's all my friends and family.

    Unfortunately, some of my family post insane political views, usually about now in the early AM. Being told that a King of the USA and the elimination of due process are good things doesn't help my mental health.

    [1] https://www.facebook.com/?sk=h_chr

    replies(3): >>43749335 #>>43749370 #>>43749758 #
    2. lloeki ◴[21 Apr 25 07:46 UTC] No.43749335[source]▶
    > some of my family post insane political views

    Would they still if any such poster's feed would strictly only be viewable by families and friends?

    (I have no idea)

    replies(2): >>43749350 #>>43750111 #
    3. RadiozRadioz ◴[21 Apr 25 07:48 UTC] No.43749350[source]▶
    Yes. Crazy political people are crazy political people and think the issue they care about is the most important thing ever.
    replies(1): >>43749525 #
    4. avhception ◴[21 Apr 25 07:51 UTC] No.43749370[source]▶
    While there will always be unhinged relatives, maybe the problem would be less pronounced without the polarization that comes with the networks pushing polarizing posts into their faces in their never ending quest for more "engagement" by users.
    replies(1): >>43754966 #
    5. pbhjpbhj ◴[21 Apr 25 08:22 UTC] No.43749525{3}[source]▶
    The issue they've been told is important, right? For example it was vital in the minds of some in USA to put import taxes (tariffs) >100% on all Chinese goods.

    They would have seemed to care about that, until Trump got told that wasn't working (or, as likely, the market had been swung far enough) and did a 180 removing tariffs on what the public were told were the most vital things to tariff...

    All those people didn't change their mind at the exact moment it was needed to swing the stock market back and for you mate the oligarchs money - just Musk et al. have built a brainwash machine at a national level.

    It's an important distinction - when interviewed it seems barely any of those being manipulated can form a coherent thought about "the issue they care about".

    replies(1): >>43749668 #
    6. pjc50 ◴[21 Apr 25 08:46 UTC] No.43749668{4}[source]▶
    But remember that this is supported by traditional media (Fox news). It's not just social media.
    replies(1): >>43750687 #
    7. Sammi ◴[21 Apr 25 09:00 UTC] No.43749758[source]▶
    I unfollow quickly and swiftly if I don't enjoy your posts. I don't care how close family you are or how long I've known you.
    8. whstl ◴[21 Apr 25 09:57 UTC] No.43750111[source]▶
    Group chats say that: yes, they do.

    Also socializing becomes impossible. I once went to a birthday party only to have it ruined by a friend of the host. Said friend only wanted to talk partisan politics non-stop.

    9. tomrod ◴[21 Apr 25 11:28 UTC] No.43750687{5}[source]▶
    Correct. The term for these type of unreliable sources in support of an ideology is propaganda.
    replies(1): >>43753751 #
    10. lupusreal ◴[21 Apr 25 16:27 UTC] No.43753751{6}[source]▶
    That's a good definition of propaganda. The way it's usually taught in schools is that propaganda is all lies, but propaganda is any communication intended to promote a cause or agenda and opportunistically uses both truth and lies, choosing whichever align with the agenda. Unreliable captured this neatly.
    replies(1): >>43754378 #
    11. kjkjadksj ◴[21 Apr 25 17:32 UTC] No.43754378{7}[source]▶
    We were taught in school that what they choose to cover is as important as what they don’t choose to cover. Of course I am realizing I had better critical media analysis sort of education than most.
    12. dfxm12 ◴[21 Apr 25 18:30 UTC] No.43754966[source]▶
    It's important to note that this is not a new or unique feature of social media. At least in our lifetimes, conservative moguls have always had a habit of buying up as many media outlets as possible and polarizing the constituency with unhinged stories. Before social media (everything I don't like is woke), it was cable news (Obamacare means death panels for your grandmother, stay tuned), before that it was talk radio (Rush Limbaugh calling Bill Clinton an extreme leftist), before that, it was the papers (get a load of this nerd Dukakis in a tank, in this op ed...). Today, it's all of the above.

    If anything is different today, it's not that social media makes things easier or faster, because we've always had 24/7 talking heads on TV or the radio, we had dailies with evening editions, etc. It's that consolidation is even more prevalent today.