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“Really good friends” aren’t the only friends worth staying in touch with.

• emptysongglass 5y ago
  My life is rich in social engagements and I don't need Facebook to do it. And now that I'm off Facebook, the friendships I do have have grown immeasurably in closeness. My overall stress has plummeted. I strongly believe that platforms like Facebook and Twitter are extremely harmful to social cohesion and mental health.
  • chii 5y ago
    > My life is rich in social engagements i don't care what or how your life is - this discussion is about the general case. Not everyone has a rich social life, and these messaging apps/services do help people engage with others which would otherwise have not. And to change can be disruptive - casually dismissing these concerns is not the way to solve the problem connected with these platforms.
    • emptysongglass 5y ago
      > i don't care what or how your life is Please try and be a little kinder. I'm not dismissing these concerns. The social harms of these platforms far outweigh whatever gains are wrung from them. They are a net negative to society and to public discourse, full stop. The longer we defend the legitimate reasons people have to stay netizens of these platforms, the darker their shadow weighs over our consciousness. My country has a former prime minister on Facebook's oversight board because everyone here uses Facebook. That's not in anyone's interest but Facebook's because now it's convinced us that it can be brought to heel, as if it was Facebook, the company, that was the problem. That's a treacherous misdiagnosis: the issue is the platform itself. It must be dismantled if society is going to heal from the psychic traumas unknowingly and knowingly caused by our participation.