Agh, this thread is just full of people boasting about their immunity to interest in Facebook. Congratulations, you're fantastic, oh that we could all be as enlightened as you.
Personally, I find that Facebook has become my address book - while I still text people I see every day, Messenger group chats are often used instead. Plus the voice and video calls have been a great way to keep up with people further afield. Yes, Skype exists, but Facebook is easier - which is huge with older relatives.
That said, this study doesn't surprise me. In terms of public posts everyone projects their "best life", so you're browsing through a catalogue of amazing experiences while you sit at home feeling a little fat.
I'm not sure what the answer to that is. Some say Snapchat is a much better place for people to be their true selves - I can believe it.
As for using facebook in a sane manner, I was struggling because I rely on messages and event invites so I didn't want to block it completely (and messenger.com and app is not enough for me). But this plugin basically saved me: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/kill-news-feed/hjo... -- it simply hides the newsfeed, turning facebook into a fully functional messages/events page that it otherwise completely dull.
> Agh, this thread is just full of people boasting about their immunity to interest in Facebook. Congratulations, you're fantastic, oh that we could all be as enlightened as you.
And now you're doing the same exact thing they are - boasting about how you're superior to everyone else.
Is it possible for us to have discussions without these signaling-laden put downs? Just say what you want to say and try to refrain from putting everyone else down.
It's not always possible to make a point without the suggestion or implication that the alternative to the point is a lesser choice. So why beat about the bush - if you mean to say that there are angles to a thing that are inferior, just say it. Not everything can be so inclusive.
For instance, I think anyone that believes the pyramids were built to store grain is inferior to scientists that can tell me why they were actually built. So be it said.
10 years ago having a FB account was cool.
Once everyone was on FB then saying you'd deleted your account and gone off the grid was cool and all the people still using it were sheep.
Now it's cool to say you're still using it and that everyone who deleted their account is a jerk for mentioning it.
We're just going around in circles.
It's a useful tool, a time pit for others but being critical of someone because they do/don't use it is pretty weak.
Isn't that the usual cycle of adoption of a new trend according the merchant of cool ?
Though I remember differently, 10 years ago some of us were warning against facebook as the major privacy concern it was and due to their spam techniques to capture new victims.
I still keep Facebook around 10% for looking people's contact information and 90% because everyone has migrated to using Facebook's messenger. Cutting it just down to the messenger is a godsend.
I am not so sure that was the most useful, I sure liked the main site chat to work on mobile even if I didn't want another app (messenger to be installed). Yeah i'm one of those few who prefer simple single app experience. I prefer if companies could try keep things a little more backward compatible. /rant
It's started to lag and be very clunk for me recently (though maybe I just need to close some tabs). It used to be incredibly more responsive than facebook.com
> Agh, this thread is just full of people boasting about their immunity to interest in Facebook. Congratulations, you're fantastic, oh that we could all be as enlightened as you.
> That said, this study doesn't surprise me. In terms of public posts everyone projects their "best life", so you're browsing through a catalogue of amazing experiences while you sit at home feeling a little fat.
> I'm not sure what the answer to that is.
I'm not on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc. (and I'm probably one of a very small minority who has never had accounts) and I wouldn't consider myself "enlightened."
I think "the answer" is to reflect on what it is that adds value to your life and what subtracts value from your life.
If your personal use of social media is focused on activities that you conclude are beneficial, there's no reason you should stop using it. On the other hand, if your use of social media is making you less happy, you should treat it the same way you'd logically treat anything else that makes you less happy.
Unfortunately, as these studies demonstrate, a lot of the people using social media aren't happier for it, and more problematically, many clearly aren't reflecting on that.
If I had a pound for every person I know who makes snooty remarks about "not even owning a TV" but actually watches BBC iPlayer and Netflix TV episodes on their laptop... well, I'd have at least £3.
Well, one could argut that it would rather the new "I'm not on myspace, friendster, orkut, livejournal,…" but to stay in check with reality it ought to be "I'm not on aol" for aol was the only one of those to be a walled garden experiment.
The "I don't own a TV" is often deceiving as people without a TV usually watch their TV content on youtube, streaming or download. How many do not have a TV but have not missed a single game of thrones ?
> you're browsing through a catalogue of amazing experiences while you sit at home feeling a little fat.
No, I think it's more than that. I have no evidence for this, but I suspect that spending excessive time on the internet will make you feel more isolated (and therefore worse overall), regardless of whether you spend that time on social sites or not. It's the withdrawal from genuine face-to-face contact that is important, not the particular mechanics of such-and-such an app or website.
I think we're still missing something important about human interaction in the way we embody it in computers. Even video does not solve it completely. Telepresence is and will continue to be a major open problem for the forseeable future.
In my case, I don't feel it's the Internet in general. I think it's Facebook that puts me in a funk. Oh, and I steer away from Reddit, if not feeling great. That said, I think I'm a lot older than most you you guys. I'll honesty give the reasons why I find FB depressing:
I don't have a lot of friends. I find people so self-aware on FB, I don't find them interesting. People, I used to find interesting, edgy, true individuals seemed to turn into just boring, conformists. Nothing wrong with boring, and conformity? I think it just all reminds me of my own mortality?
I also learned--I'm not the person I thought I was when on FB. Meaning--I'm more critical when I'm on that site, than in real life. Example--I go to someone's site I used to know, and see the physical age in their pictures, and it's just depressing. I see how some have given into being their parents, and it's just depressing. I see the see the car I was suspose to inherit being trashed by my nephew, I get depressed on a lot of levels. I also see that people aren't breaking down my doors looking for me--as a friend, I get depressed. I look at the news feed, and what FB thinks I'm interested in, I get depressed. I see that that the one person I thought would not have over 1000 friends, is actively trying to friend my pseudonym profile, I get depressed. She doesn't even know the most depressed civil war soldier's name, and she wants to friend him. (In the civil war, a soldier was showing signs of melancholy. A doctor decided to call his condition depression. I use that soldier's name on a FB account.)
I see my pictures have been stolen, and I get depressed. I see my stolen pictures, with a new copyright, and I get depressed. I always deactivate my account when leaving FB.
When FB, monkeys around with the deactivation process, I get depressed.
So FB does make me depressed some days. Maybe, it's just too much reality? Are we suspose to know exactly what almost everyone is doing, or not doing? What age has done? What lack of opportunities/money did to some peoples lives?
I don't hate FB, but think it needs some real competition. Right now, it's just too big. Its tentacles are integrated in too many websites. It's become its own internet? It's just to much posing, trout mouth, Kardashian, narcissism for some days. Today is that day for me.
I don't just start feeling down but I get angry at the BS on FB. I have a neighbor who always does the "my life is so great!" spin on FB, but living in the same street we see more of the reality than maybe some other people. I can't be on FB because it would mean calling people like her out on their BS, she is ugly (sorry but she just is by anyone's standards), her children are awful spoiled bitches, her constant posts about how sporty she is are lies and all she really does is spend money on sports shop brand names she can't afford. It's a true lifestyle spin that really makes me dislike her and worse ... I dislike myself for feeling like I should care and for not speaking up. So I try to avoid the negativity and BS (I learn about this person through my SO who reads it out to me sometimes). The problem with FB as I see it, is that it doesn't bring people closer together but pushes them apart because instead of being involved in some dialogue, face to face, you are left to silently judge and be judged.
But if your town has a "buy, sell, give away" group you should join, those are great.
Clicking on their profile and downgrading from 'friend' to 'acquaintance' I find helps a lot. You then hardly see their stuff. I've had to do that for four annoying people (far right politics, topless pics, fascist propaganda etc...) and I don't think I've seen any of them in my feed since.
Tbh, I haven't been on FB since I abandoned my account in about 2010 so I'm unaware of these new features like "aquaintance", I thought everyone had the same status of friend. I'm more worried about FB tracking and privacy, I have banned my SO from opening FB on my computer, not that does much on a shared IP.
It's not the internet, it's screens. Whether TV, computer, phone, tablet, or else, watching a screen regularly for an extended period of time has a significant effect on humans who are social animals.
There is enough of scientific data and studies over the last few decades on the tv screen to reach a scientific consensus but commercial interests and public relations have prevented this consensus from reaching the general public. we have less data for videogames and internet and smartphone but it's already shaping towards something similar.
And there is more than simply replacing actual human interactions by screens, for example most flat screens emit light frequencies in the blue range that have effects on the body and mind, impacting sleep and linked to macular degeneration.
Though that being said, facebook due to its format and content has a significant tendency in making people feel bad about themselves.
There's research showing that doing video conferencing with half body(to capture body language) and with custom tech that enables eye contact can increase trust. I wonder though why we arent advancing there, at the very least across the enterprise.
(This is off topic but) there's probably something fascinating to be studied about it. The assumption I've heard a number of people make is that their anti-socialness means that they read more, code more, and as such it's actually a positive quality that elevates them above others. Even as someone who can be antisocial themselves, I think it's a load of bunk, and it's sort of interesting to see human interaction being dismissed as frivolous.
To be fair he said "lack of desire for lots of social interaction" -- with emphasis on the word "lots" -- and not "lack of desire for social interaction".
cortesoft may very well be needing social interaction (inasmuch as Maslow's hierarchy of needs is fulfilled), just not lots.
Yep. Being at work all day gives me enough group social interaction. Then at home I just like to be alone with my wife. I am an introvert, so being out with people drains my energy. I like people, but only need it a bit.
I think the person you are replying to is agreeing that it is not frivolous, but is stating their amazement that so many people dismiss it as being such.
On the one hand, I can think fairly deeply. Yes, I do regard that as a positive quality. And yes, a lot of social interaction gets in the way of that. ("Interruptions shatter mental momentum" - I forget who said it, but when you're trying to think deeply, it's really true.)
On the other hand, I need human interaction - maybe not as much as most other people, definitely not all the time, but I need it. I need to be able to be a person, not just a thinking machine.
So maybe I'm "unsocial" without being "anti-social"...
> In terms of public posts everyone projects their "best life", so you're browsing through a catalogue of amazing experiences while you sit at home feeling a little fat.
Or they're all posting negative stuff about their own lives/society. Either way it's lose/lose.
> Personally, I find that Facebook has become my address book
Before disappearing into outer space (leaving Facebook) I found that Facebook had become my address book.
I think that is Facebook's greatest use: a self-updating address book. Instead of all my friends having to update their address books when I make a change, I should update my contact info and the changes should automatically be available to them. It's a great idea. Now, we just have to make it happen outside of a closed system.
> Agh, this thread is just full of people boasting about their immunity to interest in Facebook. Congratulations, you're fantastic, oh that we could all be as enlightened as you.
Finally someone brave enough to stand up and break this hype about "stop using Facebook."
> I'm not sure what the answer to that is. Some say Snapchat is a much better place for people to be their true selves - I can believe it.
I am in my twenties and I find Snapchat really weird. I don't know, I find both typing out the message from a computer keyboard and a straight google hangout/skype chat more natural than a (what??) 5-second snap story... my impression is Snappers tend to make vine-like videos with snapchat and that is just so unnatural....
Sending Snaps to other people is often pretty genuine. It's a great way to build a connection with someone you don't quite know just yet, as you get a lot of face time with that person. And of course, drawing lets you express your creativity. You can manipulate your looks, or the environment around you. It's a lot of fun.
Conversely, Snap Stories can indeed get very Vine-like. They can be quite fun, but if you're making them for the wrong reasons (to get attention) then they lose their meaning.
I guess it is really about having "friends" to do that with you, which I don't have any to do snapchat with. But yeah, I probably can relate it back then with tumblr, using mustache in google hangout etc..
As a tangent, I've found that phone + email are the truly general options across what is anecdotally to me the Balkan social networks. I've also come to realize that everyone views their social network as obvious, and everyone also loathes to download anyone else's social network app.
But email + phone is international, nobody feels like you burdened them by asking them to get a Google account, and nowadays email and phone is all managed through a synced solution on your phone / devices. As a "workflow", contacting someone via phone or email can feel as fluid as any other app.
I know many people to whom e-mail is a third-class citizen when it comes to regular communication -- they only check their e-mail once a week, if that.
Yep, if i want contact with people I will sms, call or email. I keep a small email list of close friends and we communicate better through this channel than any other and it's not platform dependent. All the people who don't engage through these more traditional methods I probably wasn't going to have any meaningful contact with anyway so nothing is really lost by moving away from a dedicated social platform.
Maybe a bit. We procrastinate and are motivated by karma here, but I don't feel like HN is an engine finely tuned to keep us addicted and returning. I don't get notifications on replies or when there are new stories. In fact, there are specific settings to help people take breaks from HN.
Yeah, I'm not sure why some people make such a huge deal about avoiding Facebook personally. Some of my friends use different apps like Whatsapp, Facebook, Skype etc. more than others so I use multiple apps to keep in touch with friends. I can keep in touch far better compared to when we only had phone calls, emails and txts, and don't see what detriments Facebook is causing me at all. Is it really that difficult to not check it too often and unfollow people that post content you don't like?
Have you ever met someone who makes a big deal about avoiding facebook? I'm curious. Every time I met someone who didn't use facebook, I only found out because I or a friend tried to add them, couldn't add them, and asked about it.
But voluntarily giving your contact list and location info, and passing your private conversations via a for-profit data mining machine seems, in principle, not very enlightened.
One day some of that data is going to leak. It's bound to happen.
The reason why I'm still on Facebook is for similar reasons. I wouldn't talk to my sisters much without it.
I use the News Feed Eradicator [1] to deal with the humblebragging stuff. I don't want to see updates and posts, AT ALL. I just want messages and event invites.
Cool factor aside there are very legitimate reasons not to use Facebook. I've never had a Facebook account, refuse to let my GF post pictures of me there and block it's trackers.
Not necessarily against the idea of social networking. I just don't like Facebook. I think others should adopt this same attitude. If people think this is boasting so be it. I find it to be just good sense.
Personally, I find that Facebook has become my address book - while I still text people I see every day, Messenger group chats are often used instead. Plus the voice and video calls have been a great way to keep up with people further afield. Yes, Skype exists, but Facebook is easier - which is huge with older relatives.
That said, this study doesn't surprise me. In terms of public posts everyone projects their "best life", so you're browsing through a catalogue of amazing experiences while you sit at home feeling a little fat.
I'm not sure what the answer to that is. Some say Snapchat is a much better place for people to be their true selves - I can believe it.