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That's just absurd. Maybe people with underlying psychological issues are somehow damaged by Facebook, but in my experience the majority of users (at the very l

That's just absurd. Maybe people with underlying psychological issues are somehow damaged by Facebook, but in my experience the majority of users (at the very least the people I know who use it) just see it as a convenient way to keep up with what friends are up to and share interesting jokes/memes, it's certainly not destroying their mental health. If someone suffers when they see other people doing well, because their self-worth is based on comparing themselves to others, that's a character flaw. It's going to keep making their lives miserable until they learn to address it, without or without Facebook around. People blaming Facebook seems like a classic case of addressing the symptoms not the disease; some people are so unwilling to make any effort to grow and better themselves that they'll do whatever they can to find an external source of blame for the effects of their unhealthy thinking patterns. It's so much easier to think "Facebook is evil" than to think "It's not healthy for me to judge myself in comparisons to others, I should work to learn to be happy at their success".

ekianjo 8y ago
> but in my experience the majority of users (at the very least the people I know who use it) just see it as a convenient way to keep up with what friends are up to and share interesting jokes/memes, it's certainly not destroying their mental health. It's a distraction. And a lot of people are addicted by it, so much they feel they need to "share" what they are doing or what they are thinking at least once a day. This focus on the Self and the ubiquity of social networks makes for a phenomenon that did not exist before. As for whether it is positive or negative, well it's a net loss of time (and mental attention since social networks tend to disrupt you the whole time with notifications) that could be spent somewhere else, and it's difficult to argue with that. Are there emotional benefits? Sure. Are such benefits more rewarding than the ones you would get from real-life networking and real-life activities? That should be the proper benchmark to use to make a judgment. For people who have lived before social networks existed, such evaluation could take the form of a simple question "has Facebook made your life any better?".
- matz1 8y ago
  Like any other thing in live, facebook can made your life better for some people, can make your life worse for some other. It what you make of it.
  - ekianjo 8y ago
    I was not suggesting a positive or negative answer. Merely a question to consider at the individual level.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
  - emeraldbird 8y ago
    If we are right now discussing whether something is actually causing more harm than good, this statement seems to avoid the core of the issue. Does it usually help people to be and stay happy? If it does not make them happy - why do they use it?
emeraldbird 8y ago
I do not agree. Some things are clearly addictive and it is much easier to stay away from them. Maybe it is a character flaw that I do not think I will avoid to become addicted if I start smoking, but the fact is that smoking is so addictive that most people become addicted in very short time. There are other things less addictive but more damaging when you become addicted. Drugs like Meth or crocodile do exist, and they cause horrible things. I do not think that Facebook addiction is as bad as these, but when I see parents with babies on their street which pay much more attention to their phone than to their baby, I cannot see how this is going to cause something good.

ekianjo 8y ago

> but in my experience the majority of users (at the very least the people I know who use it) just see it as a convenient way to keep up with what friends are up to and share interesting jokes/memes, it's certainly not destroying their mental health. It's a distraction. And a lot of people are addicted by it, so much they feel they need to "share" what they are doing or what they are thinking at least once a day. This focus on the Self and the ubiquity of social networks makes for a phenomenon that did not exist before. As for whether it is positive or negative, well it's a net loss of time (and mental attention since social networks tend to disrupt you the whole time with notifications) that could be spent somewhere else, and it's difficult to argue with that. Are there emotional benefits? Sure. Are such benefits more rewarding than the ones you would get from real-life networking and real-life activities? That should be the proper benchmark to use to make a judgment. For people who have lived before social networks existed, such evaluation could take the form of a simple question "has Facebook made your life any better?".

matz1 8y ago
Like any other thing in live, facebook can made your life better for some people, can make your life worse for some other. It what you make of it.
- ekianjo 8y ago
  I was not suggesting a positive or negative answer. Merely a question to consider at the individual level.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- emeraldbird 8y ago
  If we are right now discussing whether something is actually causing more harm than good, this statement seems to avoid the core of the issue. Does it usually help people to be and stay happy? If it does not make them happy - why do they use it?

emeraldbird 8y ago

I do not agree. Some things are clearly addictive and it is much easier to stay away from them. Maybe it is a character flaw that I do not think I will avoid to become addicted if I start smoking, but the fact is that smoking is so addictive that most people become addicted in very short time. There are other things less addictive but more damaging when you become addicted. Drugs like Meth or crocodile do exist, and they cause horrible things. I do not think that Facebook addiction is as bad as these, but when I see parents with babies on their street which pay much more attention to their phone than to their baby, I cannot see how this is going to cause something good.