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UK survey of 14-24-year-olds indicates social networks harm mental health
- 1ba9115454 9y agoI've seen a group of English girls around a table in the old square in Prague, one of the most beautiful places in the world for people watching. All of them were not speaking to each other just scrolling through Instagram.
- TeMPOraL 9y agoThere's only so much time you can spend enjoying a sightseeing spot before it gets boring.
- sosodaft 9y agoOnline photos of oneself in foreign countries have become a fashion accessory. Bonus points if you spent cash to travel to help the poor in a developing country instead of donating it to people who could use it more effectively.
- dualogy 9y ago> instead of donating it to people who could use it more effectively Having lived in Cambodia for 2.5 years, consistently marvelling at the mansions, SUVs, and lunch/dinner habits of the overwhelming majority of the non-profits and charities and NGOs etc sitting it all out very fatly there.. hope you had someone else in mind ;)
- eeZah7Ux 9y agoCare to elaborate?
- tnzn 9y agoNon-profit, charities and NGO often is a actually a lucrative business when it comes to helping the poor there. Also, it may be that the westerners who work there are paid Western wages and live in countries in which life is cheaper.
- postsantum 9y agoJust google "volunteer abroad scams". https://holeinthedonut.com/2011/02/21/scam-volunteer-charity-programs/ https://holeinthedonut.com/2011/02/21/scam-volunteer-charity...
- sosodaft 9y agoI'm an effective altruist ;) https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/ https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/
- morgante 9y agoThat's why you research the effectiveness of charities before donating. (Personally I follow GiveWell's recommendations.)
- ryanlol 9y agoTo be fair, the rent on a nice compound in Cambodia is what... 3k a month? Not necessarily much of a cost.
- tnzn 9y agoI donate to Médecins Sans Frontières but more than half my money goes to a company that makes profit off recruiting donators, sooo.
- smcl 9y agoIt's entirely possible you bumped into a group of young girls who've had a busy, interesting and stimulating trip through a cool country and who wanted to stop for a quick coffee and a bit of free wifi. Please don't jump to conclusions and judge people like this.
- matwood 9y agoI've sat in that square and people watched, and played on my phone (looked at days pics, whatever), and talked to friends, and people watched some more. It's Prague, one of the most crowded, touristy places you can go to, and arguably fits the selfie generation perfectly.
- jerrylives 9y agoYou mean the super touristy section where everything is really gimmicky and there's bums everywhere begging for money? God forbid they check their phones for something else to do than wander around one of the most trafficked sites in all of Europe. Gosh next thing you know you'll tell me some people went to Paris and didn't even spend the whole time staring at the Eiffel Tower!
- voidz 9y agoUsed to be the same with newspapers, before the rise of mobile phones. Sometimes ppl enjoy to come together to spend some time by themselves, together. No biggie.
- romanovcode 9y agoInstagram has so much "hidden" advertisement it's just pathetic.
- josefresco 9y agoInstagram is full of "lifestyle" or "aspirational" marketing. After years of pragmatic search engine marketing it's an entirely new way of thinking about selling your product or service. Instead of "our product does x, y and z" it's "here's my wonderful life with this product, don't you want it (the life) to be yours?"
- filereaper 9y ago"People don't buy products, they buy better versions of themselves." There's a sibling thread about this on HN right now.
- oblio 9y agoLifestyle advertising is not new: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepsi_Generation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepsi_Generation.
- coldtea 9y agoIt's not that old, historically speaking, either.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- beager 9y ago* for young people age 18-24 Whereas I'm 33 and Instagram is the only social network that I use anymore, because the product prioritizes sharing a human experience rather than a political article or an opinion. Snapchat is the same, but I never got into it (cf. my age).
- Eric_WVGG 9y agoI'd like to see some of these studies that correlate for nature-of-following. It seems like the people who are put off be Instagram follow a lot of celebrities and lifestyle porn. I follow my friends and it's always nice to see what they're up to. I don't recall ever seeing an ad on Instagram. Must have something to do with the sort of accounts one follows.
- pjc50 9y agoHave you ever seen anyone holding a suspiciously prominently placed product? I guess if you really only follow people you know personally this entire problem goes away.
- ngcazz 9y agoVery true! I'm still on FB, but I do like how Instagram doesn't force you to show your current online status, or how it doesn't rat out your likes or comments...
- stephenc_c_ 9y agoInstagram does rat out your likes, comments and follows. Check the "Following" tab on the notifications view to see them for those you're following. It's just down to chance whether the people following you see it, based on how many they're following and how much recent activity there has been with their followings.
- ngcazz 9y agoOh, bah. Can't believe I never came across that. Guess I'm a very basic user... Thanks.
- cylinder 9y agoI follow places / landscapes / design, wife follows friends (their highlight reel life) and "influencers." It is complete garbage what these people are peddling (for money).
- dovdovdov 9y agoYou mean the infinite subliminal billboard of our generation?
- ebbv 9y agoI've become convinced all social media is detrimental to mental health. I've stopped using any of it and am feeling a lot better, with no real downsides. My Twitter account is the only one I haven't deleted yet only because I have a four letter username on there which you can't get anymore, but I think I will probably delete it anyway soon.
- louhike 9y agoBut don't you consider HN as social media?
- ebbv 9y agoNope. It's just a specialized news feed. I don't make friends on here or really even talk to people most of the time. I only read informative comments, I rarely even note people's usernames.
- monk_e_boy 9y ago> I only read informative comments Um. How do you know that they are informative before you've read them?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- ebbv 9y agoHN has a cool system where comments get up-voted if they are good or down-voted if they are bad. That really makes it easy to sort the good ones from the bad ones.
- sosuke 9y agoI think it is because HN does not have "features" like being able to follow other users. I'm thankful of this I don't get Twitter like emails saying "ebbv" liked a post on HN!
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- franciscop 9y agoWhy was "Instagram" removed from the title? It is in the linked article and in the body it's explained that Instagram is the worst of them all, so I would say it's highly relevant for the title.
- dang 9y agoA moderator changed the original title to less baity language from the article (in accordance with the HN guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html), but couldn't figure out how to fit Instagram in. Since other reports on the same survey single out other social networks (e.g. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/may/19/popular-social-media-sites-harm-young-peoples-mental-health https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/may/19/popular-soci...) it doesn't seem essential.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- _pmf_ 9y agoDoes it make them blind like masturbation or just turn them into sociopathic murderers like Rock and roll?
- wcummings 9y agoPhone diets will be the next health fad IMO. Can't happen fast enough for me.
- ashark 9y agoGetting everything set up so I can efficiently Internet diet 6-6.75 days a week—not just phone diet—is one of the things on my todo list that I'm not getting done because I'm doing other stuff on the Internet all the time, haha.
- igitur 9y agoFrom what I gather this found only some correlation, not causation. So I might as well postulate that people with mental health problems are more likely to be on social media. That's not too difficult to believe.
- e12e 9y agoFrom the report: "One in six young people will experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives and identified rates of anxiety and depression in young people have increased by 70% over the past 25 years. Our own research has shown that young people themselves say four of the five most used social media platforms actually make their feelings of anxiety worse (See YHM survey - page 18)" [my emphasis ] But you're right insofar as this doesn't appear to be a longitudinal study with a control group. But such a study would probably be pretty hard to pull off. Maybe ESS[1] could help here if questions about social media habits were added - but we'd not see results until a few years hence, obviously. [1] http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/ http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/
- igitur 9y agoI put really little value on what surveyees think causes their anxiety. Epitome of anecdotal data.
- e12e 9y agoIf what you're trying to measure is how someone feels, it might be necessary to ask them how they feel - and what they feel influence that. If one person thinks job stress make them unhappy, that might be anecdotal - if seven hundred of a thousand say work makes them unhappy - that might be more towards the "data" end of the spectrum?
- LeeHwang 9y agoNot surprised. Scanning my own personal feed, it seems like everyone is successful and happy. It makes me depressed even though I know the feed is biased.
- wackro 9y agoFrom the report's webpage (https://www.rsph.org.uk/our-work/policy/social-media-and-young-people-s-mental-health-and-wellbeing.html https://www.rsph.org.uk/our-work/policy/social-media-and-you...): > Follow the Young Health Movement on Instagram Irony is never lost.
- ihaveahadron 9y agoMaybe they harm mental health with no cell phones. Cell phones arent replacing talking as the means of being social. But, not using some form of computer as at least a partial means of socializing is now, itself, a behavior of poor mental health. Maybe you could get by being mentally healthy and not using a smartphone 5 years ago. Today its impossible, no matter what your age if you arent at least using your cellphone for some form of socializing, (not counting talking meaning instagram facebook gmail texting etc), you have at least some form of mental health impairment.
- overcast 9y agoThis is why I removed myself from every social media site within the last few years. Instagram is the only one that sticks around for business purposes, and even that is very addicting. I've setup comment section blocking plugins on all browsers. And I've turned off ALL notifications, except for incoming phone calls on my phone. The smartphone, while an amazing and life changing invention, will be the death of us. Too much constant consumption. All these applications do is show you the very best slices of everyone's lives. When added up, it makes it appear everyone is living the greatest lives ever, and makes yours seem mundane at best.
- doubleplusgood 9y agoAbsolutely agree with this, I've come to realize I was addicted to the feed. It took, and still does, a significant effort to control the effect (mostly by regulating access on a scheduled basis).
- h1e2l3l4o 9y agoJust as an aside. I discovered recently that Instagram's web interface (at least on mobile) allows you to upload images. It's a pretty basic offering, but it suits my needs and I've unistalled the app as a result.
- overcast 9y agoUnfortunately I need to stay on the app itself quite a bit, respond to queries etc. A bit of a side marketing/promotion business that is taking off.
- joelrunyon 9y agoDo you have instructions on this? I've never seen it before + can't reproduce it?
- h1e2l3l4o 9y agoHere's what I see when I'm logged into their website on IOS The camera icon in the centre (much like the app) is what you tap to start the process of uploading your image. https://postimg.org/gallery/ctpt4i50/ https://postimg.org/gallery/ctpt4i50/
- awkwardtortoise 9y agoThey write the same shit every year, every generation. People said the same thing about newspapers. The same thing about radio. The same thing about rock 'n roll. The same thing about rap/hip-hop. The same thing about TV ( IDIOT BOX ). They said the same thing about myspace 10 years ago. They said the same thing about porn. I'm sure in 10 years, they'll say the same thing about VR because people need to sell ads and justify their paychecks.
- inimino 9y agoThat doesn't make it wrong.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]