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Taking a break from social media makes you happier and less anxious

• Melatonic 4y ago
  You know what's better than a break? A FOREVER break! So glad I got off Facebook so many years ago. Other social media sites can for sure be addictive or have negative outcomes but Facebook just always seemed to be the most toxic.
• rektide 4y ago
  There's some real things I want to appreciate & root into here, but as a geek growing up, one of my greatest & most persistence annoyances was how easy & happy it was for so many around me to pick being so ignorant, so blind, so insular. Heck yes ignoring the world & big matters makes you happier. Heck yes keeping blinders on & seeing less is safer, more secure, simpler. But fuck that. Fuck ignorance. Face things, see the scope of things. I hated the choice of ignorance then. Today I can at least accept that there's validity in multiple paths. But when we dock the people opting into the world for the real emption, empathy, & pain they experiemce for trying to see more? This is a modern mind-poison. There's so little to be said for being aware, for caring, by any measurable form. But we should. Boiling everything down to what is good for the individual is insufficient to maintain a society & this view will keep going on and on and on and it's so gross, so deeply deeply inadequate & shit. Edit: there's a lot of very very sorry followups with people with really shitty social feeds & want-anxiety. Yes, that is some people's experience. But it hasnt been what I've seen. It hasnt been what people I know experince. Some of the greater hazards I've seen have been a kind of para-societal living-in-the-event that some people have, without any real stake, but I generally dont see anywhere near the level of Fear Uncertainty or Doubt the social-network-panic comments widely want to freak us out about. There is a knowing, real, & reasonable wokeness & solidarity, and so little of the negative pressures in my feeds that others tout, the people everywhere around me from so many decades & places are so much more nuanced & in tune & multifaceted in their view of the affairs & goings on than the media. This demonization of social media is a panic I simply dont see, anywhere. I think society has warped itself into an unjustified & unreasonable frenzie against something that is far less scary than we & especially the media make it out to be.
  • sergiotapia 4y ago
    And you learned of reality, and what did you do to change it. What did you personally gain? What did you personally contribute to the collective?
  • virtue3 4y ago
    I think the nuance here might be in keeping your head still in the general news of the world but avoiding the things that cause "tribal syndrome" or anything with "keeping up with the joneses".
  • drekk 4y ago
    Social media isn't the world, or a big matter. One can still read/engage with the news without having to deal with as many dark patterns. We don't have a public digital square, but I'm not going to help Zuckerberg et al further privatize it at my own mental expense.
    • tayo42 4y ago
      idk about that, a lot of news sources feel like they're optimizing for clicks too. where is some boring neutral news? then am i to broken to even stick with something like at this point lol maybe i need the clickbait i agree with the main point, social media isnt the world. i think people forget that
      • mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
        They are, because they're competing for people's attention through social media. And so, Facebook's dark patterns to some extent poison everything.
      • jfim 4y ago
        There are some news sources that are less click baity and partisan, such as Axios, DW, or Reuters. If you can read French, courrier international is decent too.
        • 4y ago
• gnarbarian 4y ago
  Consume media like you consume food Don't just eat whatever tastes good. Use self-discipline to cultivate a state of mind like you would cultivate a healthy body.
  • madiator 4y ago
    A different mental model I like and use is to treat your brain as a walled garden. Be selective and picky about what you sow.
  • nomilk 4y ago
    Junk food's a great analogy. When encountering delicious junk food we're biologically compulsed to gorge. And just like we learn to moderate our junk food intake, it's easy enough to learn the warning signs of doom scrolling and put an end to it (just takes awareness and discipline). Side note: I do the same when I (through force of habit) start a game of bullet chess, there's about 5 seconds before the game starts - just enough time to quickly cancel! (if I play 1 bullet chess game, I'll probably play 5 more right after, so quickly escaping when I shouldn't be playing is a huge benefit).
• qiskit 4y ago
  Taking a break from all media makes you happier and less anxious. Especially if you are overconsuming media like many people are.
• Calvin02 4y ago
  Does this include HN? Asking for a friend. Snark aside, why is this a recurring obsession of HN posters?
  • igorstellar 4y ago
    This is a real struggle for a lot of people, myself included. Hence the hype.
  • nomilk 4y ago
    > why is this a recurring obsession of HN posters? Most of us would have doom scrolled in one form or another, many do it regularly, which can be hugely detrimental to life satisfaction in the same way any addiction could be, and can also increase anxiety. It's also in the interest of app makers to encourage these mostly destructive habits.
    • antupis 4y ago
      Yeah I would say doomscrolling and content which milk strong emotional reactions are culprits.
  • Syonyk 4y ago
    I'd argue that it can include HN, but HN is not designed to be nearly as toxic, and actually goes out of the way to be "as not-toxic as possible without breaking the concept of what it's trying to be." I've spent a while thinking through "What makes social media evil?" - I've read a number of studies, I grew up with the first wave of what we might call "social media" (never used MySpace but was quite familiar with it from friends, extensively used LiveJournal, etc). And my conclusion is that once you go away from "global state" to "individualized algorithmic feeds," it's probably gone evil. HN, as far as I can tell, has a global state. There may be some replication delays (if it's hosted on multiple servers, which I simply don't know - I can't imagine it requires much in terms of resources to host), but "I see what you see what a non-logged in user sees," with only very, very few differences (flagged/dead posts, mostly). It's not reordering the state based on what it knows about me - it's reordering, globally, for all users, based on the consensus. The same was true of LJ - you had your own feed, but outside permission related differences, if I looked at a community and you did, we both saw the same thing. This global state also means that there's no "slot machine" behavior of "pull the slider and see what's new." You refresh. It's the same stuff. Maybe two things switched positions. Go away, because it's simply not going to change that fast for you. HN also doesn't go with the endless scrolling. There's a bottom of the first page. You have to make a deliberate decision to see beyond it, and that's something that historically was just "how things worked," but has been replaced with the bottomless bowl approach. We know that people, given a bottomless bowl of soup, eat more. And given that every ad revenue based social media company has gone to that model, clearly people consume more. Humans are vulnerable to "metricification" quirks, and you see that with a lot of social medias too. HN only shows your up/down votes, and you can't see anything else. There's a demetrificator extension for it, though I would like the option to turn the metrics off in my profile. And, finally, HN is "pull" - I have to go to the site, vs it reaching out with notifications to try and drag me back in. Plus, there's the noprocrast setting. It gives you the tools to make it a nuisance to use too much. So, while HN can be somewhat addictive if you let it, the lack of any "weaponization of psychology" tricks and the very active "No, really, you've been looking at it too long, go away" coding means that I don't consider it particularly toxic, and certainly not in the same style as FB/Twitter/etc. Why it's a recurring obsession? Probably because a lot of us have been in the tech industry, have seen how it works, have (probably) been addicted at some point, have watched the whole concept go from "Huh, this is kind of a neat way to connect with people I'd never talk to otherwise!" to "Braaaaaaiiiiiinss... via eeeeeyyyyyeeebaaaallllssss!" in the past 10-15 years, and really want no part of it anymore, and want to help ensure other people see it for the vile, human-toxic trash it is. It'll destroy your ability to focus, make you less emotionally unstable, warp your view of reality in one of a variety of ways, suck basically all the time you let it, try with every trick in the book to addict you. And in exchange, some tech billionaires get another couple feet on their yachts. Yay?
• shoeshoeshoey 4y ago
  At Facebook / Meta, employees often questioned Mark Zuckerberg whenever a study like this came out. Zuckerberg noted that the same held true for news media. Reporters do not like to mention this.
  • jdavis703 4y ago
    My Twitter feed is basically the news. The first 4 of 5 posts are from established news organizations or about current events. Social media vs news media is a distinction without a difference.
    • nomilk 4y ago
      I think of it the other way around, that "news" sites have become social media aggregators.
    • fleetwoodsnack 4y ago
      Well no, not legally. Social media platforms have certain legal protections against litigation for their content while news organizations do not. The distinctions are actually fairly profound and include established practices and professional norms concerning information sourcing, verification/due diligence, and editorial discretion. This is all before the agent-principal relationship, contractual obligations, and regulatory oversight to which news organizations are subject. I understand why Zuckerberg needs to make the false equivalence, but we don’t (necessarily) share his profit motive and can be more objective here.
  • openknot 4y ago
    Depends on the news source. There is a noticeable difference between Tweets and unverified Facebook posts, news media from Buzzfeed or Salon, articles from a local newspaper, articles from The New York Times/Washington Post, and articles from the Financial Times or The Wall Street Journal. Not all news is designed for outrage. Several publications publish in-depth articles in a neutral way, where you can actually learn something. Investigations are also often genuinely useful for a better society. Zuckerberg's position therefore doesn't hold true for all news media. Separately, depending on how your social media feed is set up, you can be feel jealous/lesser due to seeing the high points of the lives of people you know (depending on your personality type), seeing news on your feed, or seeing neither due to subscribing to accounts in niche fields.
• Hamuko 4y ago
  I feel like most of my anxiety has nothing to do with social media, so I'm not so sure if I'd feel better just because I stopped reading Twitter.
• gigatexal 4y ago
  I did the same for Twitter. I turned off notifications. And I check it only when I feel like it. Read up on some things. Comment. And then go away. It’s been amazing. I read more. I have much more time to spend doing other more social things in meat space. It’s been amazing to just turn off and the notification thing was the key: turning them off allowed me to control when I used the app and not the other way around (because a red notification counter triggers me to check it out etc.).
• ggm 4y ago
  I stopped reading twitter and the boredom is only helping me find more interesting things to read (Kindle mainly) But I miss being snarky with a small circuit of online acquaintances. It was ego fulfilling, dropping one liners on almost-famous people (in context) and getting some degree of recognition. I'm getting some flak from family glued on, who want to know "where I went" but thats survivable. On the whole, agree with the premise. Its trash. USENET pre great-re-org was slow trash, ML are trashy only in very minor ways. Fast trash is worserer. HN is not that bad. I think it goes to moderation (Good job Dan!) which is done carefully. A blog I like has the byline "my blog my rules" and you know, for anything short of speakers corner I think this is fine: its not the commons. Elon and Donald can play there all they like.
• parasti 4y ago
  For me, I've found that social media doesn't affect my level of happiness and/or anxiety directly. What it does do, is take up a lot of my time almost imperceptibly - leaving less time for other, more meaningful activities. It makes me feel like I'm running out of time every day, which in turn causes a feeling of anxiety.
  • cute_boi 4y ago
    Yes, few people probably aren't affected by social media just like smoking & drinking. But from my personal experience many people really feel jealous/unhappy/lonely when they look on false reality. And, those influencer really makes everything worst.
    • Gigachad 4y ago
      For me it’s not the fake people showing off, it’s all the news, drama and doom. And arguably it’s all irrelevant anyway. As an Australian, if I had known nothing about Ukraine, BLM protests, Trump, Kyle Rittenhouse, etc, my life would be no bit worse or less informed. It would probably be a bit better. But if I check social media it’s just a non stop stream of crap.
      • mongol 4y ago
        That's a weird mix of contemporary events to mention together.
        • Gigachad 4y ago
          This is the kind of stuff that ends up filling my news feed. None of it has ever had any real effect on my life but it all seems to get equal feed real estate on reddit/twitter
          • mongol 4y ago
            Unsure about that.. I don't think Australia has been isolated from the rippling effects of price increases of grain and energy, that is one effect of the war in Ukraine. Probably not as much affected as many other countries, but I think you would still import products from countries where these effects are significant, and which have had to raise their prices due to it.
• xcambar 4y ago
  I quit social media entirely many years ago: it felt like quitting smoking, just less difficult but the same level of benefits. I also shifted how I get news: I don't read or watch "event-oriented" journalism (aka, reporting) and shifted entirely to analysis (through radio and press). The biggest win is that the timeframe is different, as analysis requires perspective, opposite to reporting which only focuses on the now. I feel like I have a better, deeper, understanding of the world now, and with a slower pace, allowing a quieter perspective (which does not prevent from objective worry wrt current events).
  • seizethecheese 4y ago
    This is social media. (Not to detract entirely from your statement with my pendantics.)
    • xcambar 4y ago
      I was expecting this comment, tbh :) This is true to some extent. Yet the scale and mechanics of HN are (vastly?) different from your typical social media. Also, brands are mostly absent, except for the YC specific posts. In my opinion, HN relates more to a good ol' forum rather than typical social media, as defined nowadays.
      • tjr225 4y ago
        Old school forums were still social media, they just hadn’t been labeled as such yet. Some of my most toxic moments as a teenager/young adult occurred on forums. I had to leave them entirely. Praise the lord I left them when I did because some of my old friends said some rather stupid stuff on forums and are paying for it now.
        • xcambar 4y ago
          FWIW, I'm not objecting HN or forums are not social media. Rather that nowadays, social media have more mechanics that are typical: * presence of brands * influencers * algorithmic bubble filters * attention hoarding Of course, forums and HN are social media and can be toxic as well. I may he wrong and I'm happy to read more, but I hope I clarified where I draw the line with what (I think) is typical and expected of social media, from a business/industry perspective.
• ur-whale 4y ago
  Does HN count as social media?
• agumonkey 4y ago
  Social networks were never social. Human interactions are complex and chatting online is just a glimpse, it distorts biological needs.
• minroot 4y ago
  Social media doesn't affect my mental health. I use social media (e.g. Twitter) to get information on what my peers and the people whose work am interested in are doing. They don't post a lot, but when they do it's worth reading nearly always. I visit it 2 or 3 times a week
  • is-is-odd 4y ago
    Good for you?
  • hackernewds 4y ago
    Good that it doesn't in moderation. But what you're implying is anecdata, and better phrased that you do not have evidence if social media affects your health - since you don't use it as often. Bit pedantic, but important to state as not being counterpoint to the article presented in context :)
• unixhero 4y ago
  Does Reddit and Hacker News count?
  • FrozenVoid 4y ago
    Easy way to discern if site is social Cookie Clicker: 1.Does it provide a rating/score for content. 2.Does it reward users with larger rating/score? 3.Does it limit users with lower rating/score? If all three question are positive, then it is optimizing for content-score engagement type of users, pushing the lever for extra dopamine hits.
  • env123 4y ago
    Yes, I only visit reddit when I have only have something curious about, I don't actively scroll through it, maybe a few minutes when I'm on it. That's healthy boundary. As for Hacker News, there is https://hackernewsletter.com/ https://hackernewsletter.com/ that sends you mail of the best articles on startups, technology, programming, and more. All links are curated by hand from Hacker News. Join 60,000+ other subscribers and don't miss another week. They also offer daily mails, but I'd say avoid it.
• lazyjones 4y ago
  Are we meant to be happy through ignorance? I'd rather be anxious and motivated to improve my life by fixing the issues that upset me, even in a "hyper-competitive" environment like social media... There's nothing wrong with trying to get a Lamborghini because some celebrity is showing off his.
• blinded 4y ago
  I run a local resolver on my home network and I block most social media for 23~ hours of the day. Definitely also helps with productivity. See yourself abusing time on a site? blackhole it via dns.
• tjr225 4y ago
  You don’t say.
• Zenst 4y ago
  Whilst I've taken breaks, indeed quit social media years ago it does somewhat pain me that many services needed are accesable via such platforms and you can send a tweet to the local council all public and they will respond. Send an email - maybe, eventualy, though often not as gets bounced about and phone calls, well they embraced work from home as given my local council opertunity to sell the crown jewls (aka historic building they base out of). So it sadly does seem somewhat a neccesary evil. FOr me social media needs the ability to censor and filter placed into the hands of the user and let them decide what offends them or not and give them to tools to filter that for their own comfort. Sadly that is kinda lacking and you get the social media's flavout of censoring, which can be biased to the stage of fueling issues. One question though - has anybody ever taken a break from Hacker News due to content? Me - nope, and doubt many if any who have been that way due to content/engagements. The level of docurum and interactions upon this social media format does attract and enforce a more civil and factual level of discourse that trancends anything your twitters or facebooks etc offer. So thank you once again Dang for keeping things real.
• zwilliamson 4y ago
  Cal Newport's time-block planner saved my career. At the beginning of the pandemic I was struggling to focus at work, like many others. His time-block planner got me back into action and feeling more productive. https://www.timeblockplanner.com https://www.timeblockplanner.com This video covers how the planner works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eff9h1WYxSo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eff9h1WYxSo I love the quick "Shutdown" routine at the end of each day, so I can easily switch back to life outside of work without dragging work thoughts with me.
• blenderdt 4y ago
  For people who struggle: a first step is to turn off all notifications. This doesn't work in the beginning but I noticed that over time this is giving more and more rest and makes you rething social media usage.
  • testingwaters4 4y ago
    For me I found this made me check them more, as I would be thinking "well maybe someone has sent me a message since I last checked" and it might be true. It's a tricky one! I found uninstalling the apps and logging out on the web after each session helps a bit, as then there is some friction in having to check what's going on since I have to log in every time.
• ge96 4y ago
  I pretty much live in a box (apt no land). Always on the computer. I work a lot/work on projects. But then I hit that point where I can't do logical things/can't write more code. I can switch to physical projects or go to the park. But I really have been isolated from people I think since 2014 or so. I had a roommate for a few years after that then he moved out. I briefly worked jobs where you interacted with people day to day that helps with comradery. Lately though I'm getting tired of the scrolling/point driven life. I still can't make the jump yet (get property so I can spend most of my free time outside). Still social media is nice to pass the time and along with YT/TV, to fill that social void. In the past I've found it weird to be around people like I don't know what is normal and usually can't stand the slowness of the moment. Then it's super weird when you're in a crowded place ha (usually freaks me out). This is why when the internet dies I can't stand it... I remember my life how it's constantly using the internet to be in that state of motion. I'm not saying internet bad. Idk I'm like 3/10 of the way through life so far, I gotta see what is considered worth still.
  • erddfre3423 4y ago
    I definitely agree that getting a property is a good idea. I feel much better and it's easier to stay away from news & social media whenever I go to countryside, where I have lots of free space and things to do outside. In an apartment there are only so many things one can do, and too many screens nearby, especially for a remote-worker like me. Maybe urban life works for some people, but it definitely causes boredom to me, and social media & news are a distraction from that.
• 88913527 4y ago
  I took a break from social media for a year; it was excellent. Briefly after my return, I found out an extended family member passed away. Nobody would have told me otherwise. People will assume you're on there and in-the-loop even if you aren't. It's hard to navigate any social environment where that's an implicit given of others.
  • impjohn 4y ago
    I have a similar story, but for me it is 4 years and still going. I am generally calmer and my emotional amplitude is less pronounced during the day than when I was on SM, but getting involved socially means you really have to be proactive, otherwise you sort of disappear
  • lvass 4y ago
    I only used traditional social media for a brief moment around 16 years ago. What works nicely for me is I have noted down the birthdays of everyone I care about with org-mode. I always try to contact them, and also send messages on christmas.
• drewcoo 4y ago
  Taking a break from anything that demands constant attention does that. - news - work - kids - spouse - day-trading - etc. This is known. Very well known. Reported on many times? How is this news? Is it just news because HN wants to comment on it? Again?
• eligro91 4y ago
  I'm using 2 useful apps to avoid social media on my smartphone: - Minimalist phone: Gives you full control on your home screen, and which apps you want to hide. - lock me out: Useful apps and sites blocking. You must pay in-app-purchase to break out your rules. And for my mac I'm using static /etc/hosts file and simply putting hosts that I don't want to access hundreds of times. it looks like that: 127.0.0.1 news.google.com 127.0.0.1 www.youtube.com 127.0.0.1 www.facebook.com 127.0.0.1 twitter.com ...
  • Markstar 4y ago
    Interesting. The latter reminds me of a book ("Drop Dead Healthy"), where the author tests a similar technique to incentivize productive behavior. There it goes a step further, though: If you miss a deadline, break a promise, etc., you must donate a specific amount to a cause that you despise.
    • eligro91 4y ago
      there is https://www.beeminder.com/home https://www.beeminder.com/home which is doing pretty much what you've described here.
    • bishopsmother 4y ago
      I'm building SocialsDetox ( https://socialsdetox.com/r/sdh https://socialsdetox.com/r/sdh ) along similar lines, to provide an easy way to block/timeout from Social Media (and/or other categories that may be detrimental to well-being). Unfortunately I suspect not many people would opt for the "donation to a cause they despised" feature (before being allowed to re-enable their access); will look at adding it as an option and report on the take-up.
• deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
• elvis10ten 4y ago
  In topics like these on HN, people often compare social media (SM) with tobacco/drugs. I still disagree with this comparison. For one, social media is not inherently bad like smoking/some drugs. The only SM I use currently is Instagram. I spend 30 minutes or less per day and I’m usually happy at the end. In fact I would argue IG made me a better person — I got into fitness, helped me connect with a football club I now play with, etc. In the past I used Facebook a lot and it changed my life — I found jobs and built connection with people I would have never had the opportunity to meet. The majority of my friends have a similar experience. My father (60) who lives in a remote part of the world uses “joy” to express his experience with SM. Secondly, on the topic of social media making people feel insecure about something (like their bodies). Isn’t that everywhere? At the beach? In magazines? On TV? At parties? In school? I’m into fitness and I see people that have better aesthetics than me on SM and IRL. I appreciate their beauty but it doesn’t faze me. Isn’t it common knowledge that someone always have more X than you? And these people are usually the minority? Lastly, influencers react to the market. Anyone who has ever posted content know that wholesome content are usually not engaged on as much as exaggerated/superficial content. If people want less of these, maybe they should vote with their likes & follows? PS: I do realize some part of my comment might not be as practical as simply not using social media at all. But I think we should be teaching people these skills as it applies beyond SM usage.
  • acatnamedjoe 4y ago
    These sorts of responses always come up to these kinds of posts and, with respect, they always seem to come down to: "I don't have any issues with social media so I can't see why anyone else does" But imagine saying to an alcoholic: "I can have a few beers on a Friday night and then stop, and so can the majority of my friends, so I dont see what the problem is."
    • elvis10ten 4y ago
      Again, I think this analogy doesn’t work. Firstly, alcohol is inherently bad for you. SM is not. SM to me is more malleable and we can choose to make it what we want. We could apply this to most things from video games to work.
• p5v 4y ago
  Being able to take a break from social media is one of the nobler goals we started building Murmel (https://murmel.social https://murmel.social) with. It’s not an easy process, and we are far from finished, but our customers have already reported positive results back to us. Rather than scrolling on Twitter for hours, they now let the best of their Twitter timeline arrive in their inboxes once a day. Like the morning newspaper reading routine, I am hoping that we would be able to provide people with the option to disengage from the downward spiral of doom-scrolling, and instead, get the gist of all there is to know in one daily email digest.
• sgtnoodle 4y ago
  Until the past couple weeks I haven't used reddit in years because its just a bunch of toxic echo chambers. Today I tried posting a helpful suggestion to someone asking for recommendations for speakers for their parents' TV. Several other users got nasty and a mod deleted our thread because I dared to suggest a soundbar in the "home theater" forum. I guess I'll try again in a few more years?
  • asciimov 4y ago
    Reddit is best when the sub-reddits are smallish. Home Theater is gets pretty rabid when it comes to soundbars, that's the last place to ask or give soundbar advice. Typically, the subreddits I like the best are splinters from the original. Typically these start after some sub-reddit drama happens and a moderate size group decides to go somewhere else.
  • jokoon 4y ago
    I love Reddit, but I wish it was a little less toxic sometimes. Reducing toxicity online really is a hard problem.
  • 8K832d7tNmiQ 4y ago
    Reddit is still the best place to find and learn small and niche interests, with bonus points if it's still pretty active.
• andrelaszlo 4y ago
  I wanted to get off social media for a long time (Facebook, mostly) but couldn't bring myself to close my account. A few weeks ago I just uninstalled the app. I don't have any FOMO since I can always check on the computer,but I end up doing it less and less often. I think the behavioral hold they have on me is loosening, and it feels awesome.
• jokoon 4y ago
  Social media allows people to feel less alone, I guess... The problem of internet is toxicity, where users feel they can disrespect others without consequences, something they would not do face to face. It seems there is no good solution to this problem, except reducing the size of communities so they don't feel anonymous. I really think the website who will solve the toxicity problem will win a lot of money.
• account-5 4y ago
  I still remember when social media/web 2.0 was kicking off. All my mates were on it. I tried I really did but I thought the whole thing was a waste of time. When I finally learned the true intent behind these platforms wasn't connecting people but was making money from those people (connecting people is just the hook) I was done. Having seen how these platforms affect my children I'm now dead set against them. You literally are the product, and are manipulated to stay on the platforms to continue to be so. This is my long way of saying, with personal annocdotes, that I am not surprised at all by this finding.
• yogini 4y ago
  It's a great article! What I think is, it's the comparison and less focus span, that leads us anxious. Though social media has a role to play in this. We also have to accept the fact that it has become a part of our lives, so understanding the core of problems we face would work in long run.
• kkkkkkkskkk 4y ago
  test
• K9z31DfON85ik5b 4y ago
  https://socialmediapause.com/ https://socialmediapause.com/
• bayesian_horse 4y ago
  Does hackernews count as social media?
• impjohn 4y ago
  I've been away from facebook and instagram for about 4 years. Never caught the tik-tok or snapchat train, so the only consumption i do is light reddit and hackernews. The weirdest thing for others is that I can sit indefinitely without having to look at my phone and actually get lost in thoughts or even get bored. The downside is that it can isolate you. Where I live, if you're not on instagram you don't exist. My girlfriend is more up to date with what my colleagues are up to, even though I spent 8 hours a day with them in the same office.
  • digisign 4y ago
    I'd say it is better to know a few people well than skim the updates of hundreds.
    • SCUSKU 4y ago
      I would have to agree, I also gave up Instagram/Facebook because I noticed it impacting my mental health. The only thing I miss is the early days of Facebook when it was just humans being human, and posting pictures of them being silly or with their family instead of flexing about newly acquired money/status, etc. But maybe that's just me remembering with rose tinted glasses.
      • impjohn 4y ago
        Personally it's hard to understand if quitting SM changed my emotional response to a lot of things or if it is me who changed in time. It doesn't help that the agenda and techniques used by these platforms evolve all the time to find new ways to hook you in
    • ellopoppit 4y ago
      Indeed, this is how humans have lived for their entire history, up until extremely recently. Our brains are not wired for it
  • lexx 4y ago
    I am in the exact same situation for the past 2 years. My mood is vastly improved. The social media isolation aspect is as important as the social media socialization aspect to me. Not important. The people I want to talk to are on discord or signal, and we do actual activities together
• MikePlacid 4y ago
  > Why do we insist on still shrugging our shoulders and continuing to treat the use of these tools like some sort of unavoidable civic and professional necessity? I am positively charmed by that “we” above. Time and time again people are telling me their theories about how our world works - and these theories imply that I do not exist. Charming, no?
• noufalibrahim 4y ago
  I fast from food for a month a year due to religious reasons (from dawn to dusk). During this time,I fast from social media (telegram, twitter mostly). After about a week, I feel anxious at a superficial level but it levels off and I feel much better about 2 weeks in. After the whole month, when I log into twitter again, I can really feel a mental shift. Almost like being dragged back into it. It's not pleasant. I'm not surprised by these findings.
  • WilTimSon 4y ago
    I'm curious, do you also tend to fast from news sources, if you follow any? HN, BBC, stuff like that. Things that aren't social media but might have a similar effect where you get overwhelmed or anxious from the information.
    • noufalibrahim 4y ago
      Very incisive question. When I first moved off the social media sites, I went to google news to "stay informed". I had enough self awareness to realise that I was treating it more or less the same way I was treating twitter so I stopped looking at those too.
    • somenameforme 4y ago
      I don't think people are getting overwhelmed or anxious from the information, but rather from the way that information is presented. The past was, in nearly every measurable way, vastly worse than the present. In the span of a single life you go from WW1 to the Spanish Flu to the Great Depression to WW2 to the very real threat of nuclear annihilation which nearly came to be multiple times. And you didn't need to seek out information on this. You were likely directly affected by some of these events. If you weren't, you certainly knew somebody who died or was otherwise severely affected themselves. I mean think about COVID and then bump up its impact exponentially. And then imagine living through events of this scale over and over and over and over again. That is what people in the past lived through. Today you can present data impartially, or emotionally. Emotional narrative gives a million clicks, a million shares, and drives extreme "engagement" that is a hair's breadth away from mob mentality. You can also present data impartially, which drives little more than a more informed society. It's not a surprise which path we take.
• charstacker 4y ago
  Consider the following scenario: You're pleased and content one minute, thinking your life is going fine the next. You have a few minutes to kill, so you log onto Facebook and begin scrolling... First, you notice a friend's post stating that she has accepted her ideal job. Then you read a coworker's too political rant. You continue browsing and see a video of your neighbour enjoying a fantastic tropical vacation. And now your cousin has uploaded a before and after photo that makes you want to hide your thighs for the rest of your life. The next thing you know, you're second-guessing your profession, irritated by politics, wondering why you can't afford a trip, and researching your next diet. Social media is nothing but roller coaster,
  • AlwaysRock 4y ago
    Removing social media from my phone and replacing it with the Kindle app has quite literary changed my life.
  • yawboakye 4y ago
    this isn't a problem of social media but rather a problem of following current affairs. the cost of publishing has become so low that even news media dedicate whole articles to single tweets (and other social media posts by famous people). devout followers of social media (and perhaps news media, both television and internet) have become addicted to knowing/following the current thing. one can visit/use twitter, facebook, &c everyday without keeping in sync with the current things and/or allowing themselves to be tossed about like a boat in a tempest. curate deliberately. follow few things and people.
    • guerrilla 4y ago
      > follow few things and people. Everyone follows few things and people. You don't even know the names of all the pop stars to follow let alone their drama... or the news in every language you don't speak...
  • id 4y ago
    If other people find their ideal job, have a tropical vacation, etc. it makes me feel... good? Those are good things in general, although the tropical vacation might make me also feel concerned about the climate. The problems I have with social media are that - it steals a lot of time - a lot of content gets me by evoking negative emotion - it's taxing to get exposed to so many different ideas, clips, heated discussions, etc. Makes we wanna throw away my phone and live in the woods
• nivenkos 4y ago
  I just stopped reading news completely, and deleted Twitter. And try to only read technical subreddits. It's a whole lot better - using the time to exercise or program instead of just doom-scrolling for stuff we can't change anyway.
• kmarc 4y ago
  I ran into this with a person of romantic interest. Thankfully I never got addicted to social media; once I could see that a "break from social media" would be the only thing that could possibly help this person. It never worked out between us, however I was exposed to rather relevant info on the topic. For anyone looking for tips and tricks to cope: r/nosurf [1]. Lot of garbage there but I found it interesting to see how many people have problems with this and how they found their epiphanies around it [1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/nosurf/ https://www.reddit.com/r/nosurf/
• muterad_murilax 4y ago
  Perhaps it's time we started calling it narcissistic media.
• Ekaros 4y ago
  I can agree that social media makes things worse for me... Reading stupid arguments by malicious people just makes me angry... And the time wasted could probably be used on somewhat better things, like reading books, playing games, watching some movies or tv shows...
• vehicles2b 4y ago
  Is a week long enough to experience such changes? Probably for a change in perceived well-being, but for a change in depression or anxiety it seems too short. Anti-depressants and therapy work on a timescale of months. I don’t know, maybe social media has a profoundly negative effect on mental health and its removal for even a week can cause immediate benefit.
• simonbackx 4y ago
  And then you are not even speaking about the time you save! Removing those apps from my phone has been a great decision.
• MezzoDelCammin 4y ago
  Is HN considered "social media"? Because in many ways (at least for me), there's a resemblance - the never disappearing timeline, the comments that sometimes show the trenches of the good old culture wars... It's definitely no Facebook. I guess HN (or HN admins, to be precise) is doing a better job at limiting the disagreements from "Petersburg troll-farm vitriol" to "occasionally sarcastic". But the social media effect is definitely there...
  • bayindirh 4y ago
    I don't think HN fits to the "Social Media" of today. It's more of a slow churning RSS feed with comments underpinned by a strong social contract. Another difference is, while we disagree, we don't fight bona fide flame wars. A more civilized and skilled discussion is favored here, and this is a very good thing (TM). Feeling a lot of completed projects or new things kindle the impostor syndrome sometimes, but it's not creating the same insecurity of image based social platforms or "free for all" comment platforms. I've first deleted reddit back then, then removed Instagram from my phone. I can say that I'm much happier. However, HN is not creating same type of tension for me. I learn a lot of things, for a start.
    • MezzoDelCammin 4y ago
      I agree about the discussion being (mostly) civilized. But I'm really asking myself to what degree is this because of the admins dedication to their job and to what degree is this by design / users selection. I'm in a few FB groups that are not too far of the mark either when it comes to the debate rules, but moderating one of them, I see that keeping things civilized is not really something one can automatize or put into an algorithm / ML magic. Hence the parallel with HN. We tend to imagine social networks as apps / startups, but I don't think that's a full picture.
      • bayindirh 4y ago
        Of course, a social media is not limited to the "brands" everyone uses, but I wanted to separate them because most people think of these "brands" when anyone says social media. The quality of a place goes hand in hand with community and dedication of moderation. HN's moderation is mostly invisible and there's a well evolved structure. This is only half of the picture. We as the community support this structure, because we like it too. Humans are humans and language has many nuances to be automatically moderated by AI/ML. The only useful help we can get from AI/ML can be flagging some stuff for taking a look. Last decision shall be done by humans at the end of the day. However, at the end of the day, quality of a community is part moderation and part community. Everything else is a byproduct of that.
• ChrisRR 4y ago
  I totally agree. I manage my anxiety and ignoring the news and social media are the biggest contributors. Twitter is especially bad for it. The site seems explicitly designed to make you think the world is going to shit on a daily basis
• wwwwasmistake 4y ago
  I was an social media early adopter but have been off from big social medias for years and as a non-native english speaker i can't find correct words to describe how happy I have been with this decision. Maybe someone else can handle it better.
• lr4444lr 4y ago
  Hot take: I read what other people sre doing on HN and I feel like I'm an utterly mediocre dev who's just pushing features at work to make someone rich, and I can't do much about it because I have a family relying on my income.
  • matt89 4y ago
    I don't necessarily think that is such a hot take, but a feeling shared by many of us. And I think that this ties to the title of the post and general discussion - many people (myself included) feel bad when seeing other people achieve something great or extraordinary. It's so easy to diminish ones achievements, I often do it as well, sometimes without giving it too much thought. But I think its also easy to forget that people in social media (or in HN posts) usually just present the best parts of them. Nobody talks about his/hers bad sides or vices, so it's easy to think that all the other people are great and better than us. In reality most people - like you and me - are probably in the 80-90% of normal workers, be it IT or not, that achieve some successes in life and have some screw-ups as well. What we see in social media is a highly curate 5% of people that shine the spotlight on something great they did.
  • alickz 4y ago
    You're not alone. Also when I see US dev salaries posted I feel like as a European I'm missing out big time.
    • lr4444lr 4y ago
      On that latter point though, go look at a US metro region specific tax calculator for those salaries, then subtract an extra $200 a month (or $500 for families) for health insurance premiums, and look at average rent in those areas too. The differential is still there, but less than you probably thought.
      • cpsns 4y ago
        It's still easily twice what I am making in Canada and our wages are closer to America than Europe's are. The worst part for me is working directly with Americans and knowing they're getting paid for more for the same job.
• jgrahamc 4y ago
  Long ago I deleted my Facebook and Reddit, I have an Instagram account with just a few close people and barely use it, I recently switched to using Twitter in "reply-only mode" (i.e. I don't post anything other than a reply to something someone posted and, in general, that's work-related only).
• zaphirplane 4y ago
  I wonder if hacker news shares the underlying impact on individuals similar to social networks
• intense122 4y ago
  I took 1+ month break from Facebook and after I got back to check some groups, I totally forget to visit this social site so often. Like at the end of day, I remind myself that I wasn't there and still not missing anything. I was tired of bad news and angry comments. There must be really some dopamine effect about these things. Like person is bored so you scroll 100 posts which fulfils your desire and after some time when your levels drop, you come back making this something like habit. Similar to drinking coffee, a lot of people complain about headache if they don't drink right amount of coffee they are used to every day.
• intense122 4y ago
  I visit small Reddit subreddit which is really well-moderated, good sources, I really like it. In spite of, cannot be compared with casual Facebook group. For example, I've created some fancy FB group when people can join and after I logged in after a month, it had almost 1 000 submissions waiting for approval. So i set this to auto submissions. I came back and was horrified with the content. Images of naked people which were breaking so many rules and had so many views before Facebook deleted it. What's the worse, I had to see it because of admin privilege. Thanks Mark. Fake accounts posting IBAN codes, sharing ads and other things. At the end, my group was penalized (not banned). Like, the biggest gigantic superb tech company can't even detect a nude stuff from fake accounts?
• block_dagger 4y ago
  Taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot…
• eimrine 4y ago
  The only case of social networks for me - all kinds of meetings / gathering. I miss the time when all organization campaign was on some traditional forums, I just do not find FB usable.
• langsoul-com 4y ago
  Not too surprising. They have millions to optimise for your attention, which is via emotional reactions.
• Vosporos 4y ago
  Exact same reason I take HN breaks
• Diya_Tech 4y ago
  no its not make me happy because i dont have any friends to talk or enjoy the nature
• Diya_Tech 4y ago
  no its dont make me happy because i dont have friends to talk and to enjoy the nature
• nickstinemates 4y ago
  I think it depends on how and why you use social media. For me, having picked Twitter back up recently after having been mostly dormant for the past 4 years or so, it is about inspiration. The next thing for me is to create a startup. I am immersing myself back in to the heartbeat / pulse of what's going on and thinking about how my ideas intersect with this. There are a lot of inspiring projects I am following lately, specifically around devtools, platforms, etc. that almost exclusively exist on these mediums.
  • harryvederci 4y ago
    If twitter works for you then that's great, but if[0] you're purely seeking inspiration for creating a startup, you could consider listening to podcasts like Indie Hackers instead. It's probably way less of an attention black hole, but still inspirational. [0] I can't tell from your comment if that's the sole purpose. If not: never mind.
    • nickstinemates 4y ago
      Appreciate the podcast suggestion. It's more about immersion than it is one specific thing. In addition to the social media angle, I am hopeful tech meetups come back in earnest in San Francisco at different startups; this is the melting pot of ideas and innovation and they're so much fun.
• MomciloM 4y ago
  Deleted Facebook 2 years ago, Instagram 1 year ago. The only social media account I have today is on Twitter and I am thinking about deleting that one. It is true that you can feel a bit isolated from everyone, but it pushes you to go out with people and ask them what have they been up to, send them a message etc. I find the time spent on that much more valuable than the time spent on social media. While it is true that you can get up to what people are doing, I found that I spend the least amount of time getting up to date" with people I know and much more just scrolling through and "exploring" on all of these social media sites. If you feel similar, I highly recommend you to delete any of the social media apps.
• leroy_masochist 4y ago
  I'd be interested to hear whether other HN users consider this site social media. My mental model of HN is that it's basically a longform version of Twitter with a more interesting/intelligent and (slightly) less shrill user community.
• d4rkp4ttern 4y ago
• SantiagoElf 4y ago
  The only thing close to a social media I have is LinkedIn, HackerNews and some Discord servers. Got off FaceBook 2009 ... never had instagram, nor twitter. I don't see a point in those social medias to be honest. Pretty happy :)
  • deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
• tappio 4y ago
  The studies focusing on social media are a bit dummy. I'm doing a PhD on the topic and I too feel like a dummy. Everyone has a different definition of social media, but we can't really generalize findings on all platforms. The studies should focus on services with their names, but then they would be less interesting. Are Twitter and Facebook the same? Can we generalize findings on one to another? No we can't. Besides, is HN a social media platform? Or Reddit? Talking about social media does not make much sense. It also hides out the fact that in the end everything is about the internet and digital content, together forming the new mass medium which is taking the world by storm.
• philip1209 4y ago
  I’ve been off of social media for about two years, and I haven’t looked back. But, I’ve realized that it’s been harder to stay in touch with people. I think the answer is that personal newsletters will make a comeback. Even digital minimalists like Cal Newport have one! Without viral dynamics or an algorithmic feed, a good email seems to be the calmest way to stay in touch. I’ve played around with tools like Substack, Revue, and Convertkit for maintaining a personal newsletter - but none of them fulfilled my needs. Blogs are so permanent - newsletters should be light and easy, and not loaded with growth hacker tools. So, my project is Postcard - a personal newsletter software designed to replace social media: https://postcard.page https://postcard.page It’s still in the early days - but I’ll trade free lifetime access for feedback - just email me.
  • deepstack 4y ago
    Being off almost 10 years, life got significantly better and more interesting. Also stop using smart phone, or only use smart phone in airplane mode most of time. That also helped alot!
  • MisterTea 4y ago
    > But, I’ve realized that it’s been harder to stay in touch with people. The people I was in contact with before social media are still in contact with me via phone, text, chat, email, etc. Most of my social media "friends" were connections and acquaintances. I was never really in contact with those people so nothing was lost when I deleted my social media accounts. If they don't make an effort to talk to you then they aren't that interested in a relation/friendship and not worth worrying about.
  • criddell 4y ago
    > I’ve been off of social media for about two years, and I haven’t looked back. I would consider this place to be a social media site.
• simonswords82 4y ago
  It's been about 5 years since I made the decision to quit Twitter/Facebook. The only social media I've got to endure is LinkedIn (which is becoming more like FB by the day but that's a separate discussion). This is purely because my target market live on there, so I have no choice but to be on there but as soon as I am able I'll disconnect from that too. I cannot wait for that day. Social media platforms are of course optimised by their owners for their owners. They could not care less about your feelings, so long as you keep coming back. I think 90% of all that is wrong with the world can be, at least in some part, traced back to social media. My view is that they have been devastating for the mental health of society - and the more people who realise that social media is bad for them the better.
  • d4rkp4ttern 4y ago
    Indeed, I do think LinkedIn is the new FB. Replace FB's "happy vacation photos" with "raised $100M seed investment" and you have LinkedIn. I am constantly surprised how much time people spend posting and liking stuff on LinkedIn, makes me wonder how they get any work done.
• Agamus 4y ago
  So, "antisocial media sites" is more appropriate? A person who has never used these "social" media services must be nearly enlightened by comparison to a modern facebook junkie.
• px43 4y ago
  Dopamine fasting is great. Many cultures across the world have been doing it for thousands of years.
• gadders 4y ago
  I think if I had a phone that (apart from calls and texts) did Email, Whatsapp, an e-reader and a music/podcast player I think I would be interested. Maybe a browser because some emails have links you need to action, but I realise using a browser opens you up to all the time-sinks you are trying to avoid.
• abdouls 4y ago
  Totally agree with this! I've used all kind of social media in the past, but I have been living freely since I stopped using these (well, I still go on to twitter once or twice a week, but I can still see a big difference!)
• agomez314 4y ago
  I believe this also applies to Hacker News.
• zmxz 4y ago
  I'm 39, this is for reference (in case anyone reads this). I got into programming because I was a gamer (year is 1998) and I built my clan's website (they're called teams today) by copying this other cool dude from another clan. He was my mentor. It took me so long to do what he did, what he told me was - "if you want to get it done, disconnect". We used modems so disconnecting was normal and easy - if you unplug the telephone wire, it's a hassle to get behind the PC, plug the wire, go through the whole buzzing etc, gist being that even if you want to "just check what's new on forum" - you give up due to hassle. This "technique" stuck with me. Want to get it done? Disconnect. And then came the era of Facebook and other sites where people shared their pictures, opinion, thoughts etc. as if anyone cares about their everyday lives. I'm from the generation where you never shared anything with strangers online. And then, it turns out, people get hooked to this whole infinite scrolling business, being occupied with content they don't care about. They can't disconnect. And when you don't disconnect, you're distracted. I tried Facebook. I hate it with passion. I don't want to write about myself. I'm not interesting to myself, let alone others. I like privacy. I don't care what my Facebook friend does, why don't they do it without having to archive it? There's many things that are way, way too odd to me when it comes to social media but I understand it's like a multiplayer game to a teenager - it's something new and there's a lot to explore, heck you even connect with certain people on a certain level. I've never seen a social media user who was not impacted by negative content. For some reason, human turns to negatives before they do to positives. And that's what global social media is - the outlet where a lot of people let out their negatives. That's what makes me unhappy. To read about flat earth, then getting tangled in endless explanations on why it is/isn't flat. It's the people who are stubborn, unreceptive, just waiting to share without trying to receive. Not everyone had mentors or difficulties in connecting to the internet which gives them the means to moderate the usage of it. Being exposed to a huge amount of information is dangerous, I've seen people become sloppy because they need to read / consume fast so they can move to the next thing which MIGHT be more interesting but they don't know until they try to read/consume it and the cycle continues. So yes, I wholeheartedly agree without any facts and based purely on my subjective impression of social media - that it's something that makes me unhappy. It does not mean it should or does make someone else unhappy, but I for sure liked the internet when it was more difficult for an average human to use it.
• irrational 4y ago
  I’ve noticed the same thing about the news. When I don’t follow the news I am happier and less anxious. Yet, it doesn’t feel right to be ignorant of what is going on in the world. How does one balance their own happiness versus being informed? “Ignorance is bliss” is a saying for a reason I suppose.
  • nuclearsugar 4y ago
    IMO read the news about twice per week. But never watch the news on TV.
    • irrational 4y ago
      I haven't watched TV since the late 1980s, so that one is pretty easy.
  • swinnipeg 4y ago
    This is often the only choice when there is so much noise. In the midst of an election a weekly (bi-weekly? monthly?) summary article of what happened, and what is important is more than sufficient for me.
  • dlivingston 4y ago
    Reading just the Sunday paper or a weekly magazine like The Economist is a happy middle ground, I think.
  • np- 4y ago
    I suffer from this conundrum too. One thing I did observe is that people who don't actively follow the 24/7 news and social media cycle are still are fairly aware of important major events (Ukraine, COVID, etc), as it would be hard to be completely ignorant without living under a rock, so maybe it doesn't have to be a binary thing.
  • ndbebofienw 4y ago
    Same thing here. I’ve ended up with two places I exclusively check for news: AllSides [0] and a satirical news source of my choice. AllSides helps me frame big events from multiple perspectives. I’ve always had a hard time seeing these perspectives, so having someone else do it for me helps. The satirical site introduces me to assorted current events with a bit of lightheartedness. If it seems important enough, I’ll do a quick search to learn what the “real” news is. With this setup, I am not as well-versed in all current events. However, it’s much less draining, and it also takes less time out of my day! - [0] https://www.allsides.com/ https://www.allsides.com/
• thenerdhead 4y ago
  The only time social media makes me happier and less anxious is when I'm creating, not consuming. I've consumed digital media and social media for majority of my life as I grew up as 56k(dial-up) & cable became mainstream as I approached teens. It makes me sad to reflect upon my life mostly being a comparison to different images online of how others live their often "fictional" lives and how mimetic desire had me wanting what they have although it didn't actually make me "happier" when I did in fact obtain those things in life. I think this problem is a very personal one. I think everyone has a love/hate relationship with social media and only you know how to find the balance that is "just right" for you. While I am grateful for my generation to have not had such an attachment to technology and devices (i'm only 30), I do hope that the newer generations can find peace with the similar challenges of being addicted to digital media/social media/the internet from an early age into adulthood.
• Kalanos 4y ago
  stop calling it social
• fredgrott 4y ago
  I am wondering why they did not break out social media by types. As there are social media sites not driven by the ad-eyes metrics that seem to be better at more reasonable discussion but not always. Examples would be this site itself versus 4chan. Both are not ad driven, but 4chan seem to be toxic compared to this one.
• ivansavz 4y ago
  Direct link to original paper "Taking a One-Week Break from Social Media Improves Well-Being, Depression, and Anxiety: A Randomized Controlled Trial" : https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/cyber.2021.0324?download=true https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/cyber.2021.0324?d... (PDF)
• mawadev 4y ago
  I must comment about the people claiming it does nothing to them. I thought so, too. I justified spending more time on these sites. However - as the time went by, I noticed these posts moving into my subconscious mind. Thoughts I had afterwards were a little skewed. If you enter a forest and you hear a sound you have never heard before, you look around and find the source. In 3 years, if you hear that sound again, your body remembers and you may not look around again. That is the power of our memory and I really want to emphasize there is way more going on than you can keep track of at first glance.
• sealthedeal 4y ago
  agreed. Dopamine reset
• blitz_skull 4y ago
  In other news—if you jump in water, you will also get wet.
• heavyset_go 4y ago
  I took a permanent break from social media and am much happier about it. These days, I only keep a slim business-oriented presence on some social media networks. For the communities that I want to engage in that have moved over to social media, I use anonymized burner accounts that are in no way associated with who I actually am, and I don't follow or interact with people I actually know in real life. I like it this way.
• swayvil 4y ago
  Consider the following scenario. You are ingesting a broad spectrum of experiences. Sights, sounds, smells, tastes... mysterious feelings... touching stuff with your skin... Then suddenly you fixate on a bit of media drama. You focus. Concentrate. This broadband experience is reduced to a narrow trickle of symbols. It's like breathing through a straw. You feel like garbage.
• krnlpnc 4y ago
  My trick is to follow accounts about things that I enjoy and people who are positive. I simply unfollow accounts if they post toxic or exhausting things. Even if I know them in person (including my sibling, sorry send a text or a postcard!) Now my feed is full of positive things, close friends, my favorite hobbies and jokes that I enjoy. Also, only using insta and tiktok is an immediate improvement. Facebook is a cesspool due to it constantly highlighting "friends" comments on random other accounts.
• sys_64738 4y ago
  Facebook's primary aim is to get you to stay so keeping your attention is key to getting you to look at more ads. You feel depressed by looking at other people's Facebook webpages which look positive and happy so you compare it to you own sad, miserable life. Reality is folk mostly post positive reinforcing stories, not the crap in their lives that you'd miss otherwise. The best way to deal with social media is to stop using it completely. Life is too short to waste your precious minutes on this planet using Facebook.
• bioinformatics 4y ago
  No way, really?
• neh_89 4y ago
  It's true and absolutely makes sense. I think social media is the bane of mankind.
• Eddy_Viscosity2 4y ago
  Does HN count as social media?
  • krapp 4y ago
    In this context, yes.
• raulb_ 4y ago
  Taking a break from things such as social media makes perfect sense since we all need to be encouraged from time to time to stay more connected to our immediate surroundings (including ourselves). However, I do think that the real work comes to find a sustainable balance between anything that could distract us and our values. Overtime, these distractions will become even more prominent and we'd better get used to manage these constantly. To learn say "no" more often, and to be more aware when too much time on certain tools is enough. It's a process and takes time!