←back to thread

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

(www.nber.org)
506 points imakwana | 4 comments | 21 Apr 25 04:24 UTC | HN request time: 0.919s | 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 #
smelendez ◴[21 Apr 25 06:39 UTC] No.43748997[source]▶
This has moved heavily into group chats and I’m not sure it’s coming back.

Group chats are basically the Circles that Google+ saw the need for but could never get fully set up. A lot of people don’t want to share personal updates and photos to a broad swath of friends and acquaintances.

Meanwhile Instagram and Facebook keep evolving. Facebook is turning into a weird Reddit for older people. Instagram is turning into a hipper LinkedIn, where artists, musicians, and local businesses share career and business updates and advertise their wares.

replies(14): >>43749044 #>>43749126 #>>43749251 #>>43749477 #>>43749516 #>>43750401 #>>43750840 #>>43750856 #>>43751684 #>>43751697 #>>43752193 #>>43763125 #>>43765764 #>>43780924 #
noduerme ◴[21 Apr 25 10:49 UTC] No.43750401[source]▶
Any way you cut it, "feeds" are more addictive. Your family and friends only post a couple times a day, but you have all day at work to look for some quick stimulation.

I watch my girlfriend devolve into this stuff. Waking up and scrolling endless feeds from reddit and insta; it's her entertainment. It's not so much worse than me waking up and scrolling Google News...maybe it's better, in that she gets less depressed about it. But it's fake. It's all fake.

In real life, it took me a whole year to figure out that the people at one particular local pub actually hate me and talk shit about me whenever I'm not around. I only figured out why they were so hostile because the people at my other pub told me. (It's that I'm Jewish, with Israeli family. Ironically, the nice people at the other pub who told me are Lebanese. We get along a lot better than I do with my old antifa "friends") This was a hard-to-get real world experience in how fucked up people can be for no reason. It's not something you can understand properly, ever, on any kind of social media. The media format just gets in the way of understanding other people as people; of understanding truth and factual reality; of differentiating between opinion and fact.

Feeds are garbage, optimized for chaos.

replies(7): >>43750547 #>>43750647 #>>43754816 #>>43755514 #>>43763177 #>>43769240 #>>43832965 #
johnisgood ◴[21 Apr 25 11:21 UTC] No.43750647[source]▶
> actually hate me and talk shit about me whenever I'm not around.

This happens virtually everywhere. It is extremely rampant. I have yet to find a place where there are humans and it does not happen, excl. friend circles.

replies(2): >>43750931 #>>43751520 #
1. noduerme ◴[21 Apr 25 12:00 UTC] No.43750931[source]▶
Yeh, I know. It's a kinda sad fact about humans. You can handle it a few ways. The most tempting and easiest is to compete on the same level, sniping at other people. More difficult but similar is to take it a step further and be the biggest guy at the pub, deal some drugs, fuck more girls, act like a friend and then talk shit. Every bar has one... it's just a method. They learned it from the internet, or possibly from being abused as a child. My method in all cases, everywhere, is to be extremely honest and see what comes out of people. What I find respectable is someone who tells you honestly what they think, even if they're not your friend. The people who tell you the unfiltered truth as they see it. Those are the good humans. Making other people reveal themselves, so you know what you're dealing with. That's actually understanding the world.
replies(1): >>43750970 #
2. johnisgood ◴[21 Apr 25 12:05 UTC] No.43750970[source]▶
I am mostly just a listener, and at times a mediator. It worked well for me in cases where I was liked by most. Sadly it does not work well even when it comes to family, they talk shit about me behind my back to people and so forth.

> What I find respectable is someone who tells you honestly what they think

Agreed.

replies(1): >>43751220 #
3. noduerme ◴[21 Apr 25 12:31 UTC] No.43751220[source]▶
I think. Hear me out. To be a good mediator is also to be brutally honest with everyone. And your takeaway isn't them liking you. If either side liked you, you'd be a shit mediator. lol

The good news is they'll respect you for something they can't get anywhere else.

replies(1): >>43753426 #
4. johnisgood ◴[21 Apr 25 15:58 UTC] No.43753426{3}[source]▶
I try to keep quiet when they trashtalk each other. :D