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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: 1.593s | source
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nomilk ◴[21 Apr 25 05:58 UTC] No.43748834[source]▶
The surprise here is how little of an effect it has. Deactivating facebook makes you only 1/16th of one standard deviation happier. And instagram even less. And this was measured during elections, when the effect is likely to be greatest.

Kinda crazy that the magnitude is so small! (my next [admittedly rather cynical] thought is "who funded this?")

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1. grumple ◴[21 Apr 25 11:56 UTC] No.43750904[source]▶
I think the below poster got it right. Cutting out Facebook certainly improved my life; cutting out instagram later was an additive improvement. Now I’m left with HN (which generally avoids the bad parts of social media) and Reddit (which has plenty of brain rot).

It also took a lot more than 6 weeks to get acclimated to it. You get psychological withdrawal. It took months for it to feel normal. My income went up a lot in the years after as well (in part due to more time to focus on finding a new job), so that also contributed to my happiness.

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2. zeroonetwothree ◴[21 Apr 25 16:31 UTC] No.43753795[source]▶
I find Reddit (and HN to a lesser extent) even worse than Facebook. There is a lot more content, for one thing, and so it's easier to waste even more time :(. I wish I could quit...