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

(www.nber.org)
506 points imakwana | 3 comments | 21 Apr 25 04:24 UTC | HN request time: 0.425s | source
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physicsguy ◴[21 Apr 25 07:33 UTC] No.43749267[source]▶
Facebook can be hard to get rid of if you actually have hobbies and things because so much gets organised via it. I tried to get rid but my Running club exclusively posts stuff on Facebook.

For Instagram with you needing to log in to view pages, you find that you can’t find opening times for restaurants etc because many places use it to advertise that they’re open/closed at short notice.

replies(2): >>43749403 #>>43753255 #
1. PaulRobinson ◴[21 Apr 25 07:59 UTC] No.43749403[source]▶
If you really value your running club, why not help them set something else up?

You could offer to help the people who do all that posting to get it onto an email list or some other platform away from Facebook. A small indie website somewhere, even a blog.

I know this sounds like work, and you just want to enjoy your running club, but if it gets sticky, the people who are currently posting everything on FB will eventually realise there's value elsewhere and they'll keep it ticking over.

replies(2): >>43753284 #>>43770495 #
2. jjulius ◴[21 Apr 25 15:47 UTC] No.43753284[source]▶
>I know this sounds like work...

Yup! At the risk of being flippant, all healthy relationships require work.

3. physicsguy ◴[23 Apr 25 10:32 UTC] No.43770495[source]▶
They have a website, which is actually quite good, but it's the social aspects - lift sharing to races, posting about races that people are going to, etc. that the social media is actually useful for. Nobody is signing up to a forum in 2025 to do this sort of thing, and WhatsApp groups which seems to be the alternative are way too noisy for my liking.