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> IDK how to explain, I don't even have any friends on there I follow. Social media is best used for keeping in touch with friends and family. If you're just b

> IDK how to explain, I don't even have any friends on there I follow. Social media is best used for keeping in touch with friends and family. If you're just browsing popular photos from people you don't know, it's basically an interactive and targeted version of watching TV. We all grew up understanding that endless TV consumption is an unhealthy activity that we should minimize, but it has taken a while for the same sentiment to be applied to social media. I don't bother with the discover tab in Instagram and I mostly follow people I know. I can usually catch up on everything in 5-10 minutes per day at most, including some comments on friends' photos. > I'm slowly trying to ween myself off but it is so meticulously addictive. Being addicted to anything is a massive trigger for depression, especially when it displaces productive activities and replaces them with sedentary consumption. If you can't use something without becoming addicted, it's best to not use it at all.

sildur 5y ago
> Social media is best used for keeping in touch with friends and family. Not even that... Facebook can show you the worst of your friends and family. Doesn't feel healthy.
tomc1985 5y ago
Instagram is making this style of usage more and more difficult, most recently by burying seen posts behind a link and feeding you discovery crap after that
azemetre 5y ago
> Being addicted to anything is a massive trigger for depression, especially when it displaces productive activities and replaces them with sedentary consumption. If you can't use something without becoming addicted, it's best to not use it at all. I know it sounds trite but I feel like social media today (or maybe all forms of media honestly) makes the barrier to ill-will extremely easy. If you were a young adult (at least from what I'm told) in the 50s/60s/70s it was hard to be addicted to TV because it would literally go off the air at 11 pm (or midnight?). What happens after I watch a show on Netflix? It immediately plays the next one. You couldn't get lost in extreme opinions because in order to see those extreme opinions you've had to of met an extreme person (on a soapbox with xeroxes so I've been told), you wouldn't run into 100s of them as you do when going onto FB, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, tik tok, etc. How can I as an individual compete with billion dollar companies that literally hire neuroscientists/psychologists to make something as addictive as possible?
- minikites 5y ago
  >How can I as an individual compete with billion dollar companies that literally hire neuroscientists/psychologists to make something as addictive as possible? You can't, which is the reason we need government regulation. This clearly isn't self-regulating (like most things) and the purpose of government is to act in these matters on behalf of society.
  - reedjosh 5y ago
    I quit. I self regulated. I don't like these companies, and I think they're evil. I still don't think it's the government's job.
    - cycomanic 5y ago
      Do you believe the government should regulate if alcohol should be sold (and advertised) to children/teenagers? What about other drugs?
- PragmaticPulp 5y ago
  > How can I as an individual compete with billion dollar companies that literally hire neuroscientists/psychologists to make something as addictive as possible? If someone can't moderate their own consumption of something despite their best efforts, abstinence works. Similar story with alcohol: Plenty of people have no problem moderating their consumption, but a small percentage of people really struggle with limiting their intake. For the latter group, not drinking any alcohol at all is a great solution. I think this defeatist concept that social media is too addictive to resist sets a lot of people up for failure. It's not only possible to use social media without getting addicted, but it's the norm for the vast majority of people who use social media. If you're in the minority of people who can't moderate your own usage, then abstaining completely might be the best choice. But don't assume that addiction or uncontrolled doom-scrolling is inevitable.
  - dragonwriter 5y ago
    > If someone can't moderate their own consumption of something despite their best efforts, abstinence works. No, if someone can’t moderate their own consumption, abstinence usually fails. If a person finds something both easily resistable without immediate past use and hard to moderate immediately after use, abstinence works, but that’s not a super common response. People who have trouble moderating use immediately after a prior use also usually have problems resisting initial use.
teclordphrack2 5y ago
> Social media is best used for keeping in touch with friends and family. None fake friends and family. Got a handful of fam that are so fake with what they post. Act like they do it all and now one helps them. Turns out they are narcissistic users.
- jfengel 5y ago
  Question: what does "fake" mean here? I've seen it a lot, and it's clearly negative, but I don't know exactly what makes somebody "fake". Is it that they tell a lot of lies? Or that they're not trustworthy friends? Or just that they're not very good people?
throwawayboise 5y ago
> Social media is best used for keeping in touch with friends and family. And we already had a good solution for that: email.

sildur 5y ago

> Social media is best used for keeping in touch with friends and family. Not even that... Facebook can show you the worst of your friends and family. Doesn't feel healthy.

tomc1985 5y ago

Instagram is making this style of usage more and more difficult, most recently by burying seen posts behind a link and feeding you discovery crap after that

azemetre 5y ago

> Being addicted to anything is a massive trigger for depression, especially when it displaces productive activities and replaces them with sedentary consumption. If you can't use something without becoming addicted, it's best to not use it at all. I know it sounds trite but I feel like social media today (or maybe all forms of media honestly) makes the barrier to ill-will extremely easy. If you were a young adult (at least from what I'm told) in the 50s/60s/70s it was hard to be addicted to TV because it would literally go off the air at 11 pm (or midnight?). What happens after I watch a show on Netflix? It immediately plays the next one. You couldn't get lost in extreme opinions because in order to see those extreme opinions you've had to of met an extreme person (on a soapbox with xeroxes so I've been told), you wouldn't run into 100s of them as you do when going onto FB, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, tik tok, etc. How can I as an individual compete with billion dollar companies that literally hire neuroscientists/psychologists to make something as addictive as possible?

minikites 5y ago
>How can I as an individual compete with billion dollar companies that literally hire neuroscientists/psychologists to make something as addictive as possible? You can't, which is the reason we need government regulation. This clearly isn't self-regulating (like most things) and the purpose of government is to act in these matters on behalf of society.
- reedjosh 5y ago
  I quit. I self regulated. I don't like these companies, and I think they're evil. I still don't think it's the government's job.
  - cycomanic 5y ago
    Do you believe the government should regulate if alcohol should be sold (and advertised) to children/teenagers? What about other drugs?
PragmaticPulp 5y ago
> How can I as an individual compete with billion dollar companies that literally hire neuroscientists/psychologists to make something as addictive as possible? If someone can't moderate their own consumption of something despite their best efforts, abstinence works. Similar story with alcohol: Plenty of people have no problem moderating their consumption, but a small percentage of people really struggle with limiting their intake. For the latter group, not drinking any alcohol at all is a great solution. I think this defeatist concept that social media is too addictive to resist sets a lot of people up for failure. It's not only possible to use social media without getting addicted, but it's the norm for the vast majority of people who use social media. If you're in the minority of people who can't moderate your own usage, then abstaining completely might be the best choice. But don't assume that addiction or uncontrolled doom-scrolling is inevitable.
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  > If someone can't moderate their own consumption of something despite their best efforts, abstinence works. No, if someone can’t moderate their own consumption, abstinence usually fails. If a person finds something both easily resistable without immediate past use and hard to moderate immediately after use, abstinence works, but that’s not a super common response. People who have trouble moderating use immediately after a prior use also usually have problems resisting initial use.

teclordphrack2 5y ago

> Social media is best used for keeping in touch with friends and family. None fake friends and family. Got a handful of fam that are so fake with what they post. Act like they do it all and now one helps them. Turns out they are narcissistic users.

jfengel 5y ago
Question: what does "fake" mean here? I've seen it a lot, and it's clearly negative, but I don't know exactly what makes somebody "fake". Is it that they tell a lot of lies? Or that they're not trustworthy friends? Or just that they're not very good people?

throwawayboise 5y ago

> Social media is best used for keeping in touch with friends and family. And we already had a good solution for that: email.