←back to thread

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

(www.nber.org)
506 points imakwana | 2 comments | 21 Apr 25 04:24 UTC | HN request time: 0.419s | source
Show context
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.
replies(44): >>43748823 #>>43748874 #>>43748878 #>>43748882 #>>43748912 #>>43748946 #>>43748985 #>>43748997 #>>43749037 #>>43749040 #>>43749043 #>>43749061 #>>43749129 #>>43749163 #>>43749264 #>>43749275 #>>43749625 #>>43749722 #>>43749867 #>>43750208 #>>43750767 #>>43750813 #>>43750966 #>>43751755 #>>43751799 #>>43751999 #>>43752008 #>>43752105 #>>43752184 #>>43752274 #>>43752423 #>>43752817 #>>43753125 #>>43753208 #>>43753655 #>>43753915 #>>43753930 #>>43753949 #>>43754346 #>>43759071 #>>43759189 #>>43766213 #>>43773772 #>>43828684 #
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 #
1. 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 #
2. 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.