Social Media Are Driving Americans Insane (bloomberg.com) 190
Deena Shanker, writing for Bloomberg: If you pull out your phone to check Twitter while waiting for the light to change, or read e-mails while brushing your teeth, you might be what the American Psychological Association calls a "constant checker." And chances are, it's hurting your mental health. Last week, the APA released a study finding that Americans were experiencing the first statistically significant stress increase in the survey's 10-year history. In January, 57 percent of respondents of all political stripes said the U.S. political climate was a very or somewhat significant source of stress, up from 52 percent who said the same thing in August. On Thursday, the APA released the second part of its 1 findings, "Stress In America: Coping With Change," examining the role technology and social media play in American stress levels. [...] The highest stress levels, it should be noted, are reserved for those who constantly check their work e-mail on days off. Their average stress level is 6.0. So those of you who think it's somehow pleasant to work from home on a Saturday afternoon, you're actually fooling yourself.
Do we need more evidence... (Score:4, Insightful)
...than the current Psychotic-in-Chief?
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Does the insanity cause the tweets? Or do the tweets cause the insanity?
Does the moon cause the tides? Or do the tides cause the moon?
Do immigrants cause poor living conditions? Or do poor living conditions cause immigrants?
I don't know. Let's ask Mr. Owl.
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You mean the Pussy-Grabber-in Chief.
Bill Clinton left office in 2001.
There's a helluva lot more nasty allegations of rape and actual sexual assault and sexual harassment about Bill Clinton that makes Trump's mere words pale in comparison.
But Slick Willie with the bent wee-wee is OK because he's a Democrat, right?
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They're politicians, every one of them is worthless, evil, and corrupt.
The Clintons, both of them, are every bit as horrible as Trump. You just accept them because you are affiliated with the same party.
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THAT'S A GODDAMNED LIE.
See, that's exactly the short of fucked-up false-dichotomy thinking I was complaining about in the first place! I'm a LIBERTARIAN , not a Democrat.
That's the thing, THEY'RE REALLY NOT. The Clinton's are horrible in a "normal" corrupt-big-government sort of way, but they PALE IN COMPARSION to the damage to civil liberties and democracy itself that Trump i
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You're too stupid to even know you're a dumbass.
Sadly true of all dumbasses.
I mean, that's the main problem with them. They all think they're fucking geniuses.
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Welcome to /. 2017. You're all fucking dumbasses.
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Holy shit, you're right. Even the next day, the troll I replied to is +4 and I'm at 0, flamebait. The alt-right asshats have taken over.
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This.
Right now is not a good time to try and correlate American stress levels and mental health to any other trend than that goddam mother fucking yellow bellied blue balled orange bastard.
Re: Do we need more evidence... (Score:1)
Tell us what makes you so angry.
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"Bottom 25" sounds like "Bottom Feeders."
The needle's all the way to the right into to lala land.
Republican town halls are now security risks, and desperate California farmers, who took to heart: "California does not have a drought," are worried they're losing migrant workers.
The press is the enemy of the state now.
I peek at the the orange guy with a tater on his dick, but I, too, avoid the stress and go fishing.
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In your group, yes. And in the group in another location, they're laughing at you. Because everyone is bellowing in an echo chamber.
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Immigrants, LGBTQ, Obamacare recipients, foreign travelers, reporters and other world leaders don't live in echo chambers.
You do.
Too much noise (Score:5, Interesting)
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Some of the whiniest people are still "unfollowed" months since the election, probably because I realized that I don't really care enough about some of them to hear from them everyday rather than one a month or so at a party or other event.
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Pro Tips about how to give no f**ks:
Delete all social media apps, use the web ui, yeah it sucks, and thats the point, you'll use it when have to, and not much more. I check facebork every few days when I think about it, sometimes I post a photo or 3 of some things no one else cares about much, at least its original unlike the junk everyone else re-shares on there.
Twitter, unfollow everything thats useless. My Twit feed only follows the local transit agency so I can bitch at them when my train is late or de
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wtf is twitter even for?
I only follow 2 accounts, both belonging to the same person. I check his tweets every morning because they very well may have global consequences. I'm waiting in terror for the day we see this:
NK too afraid of US might to follow through with EMPTY threats. FAKE NUKES!!
Excuse moi, monsieur... (Score:3, Insightful)
Uhmmm... seriously ? Since there has been obviously *zero* change in the political landscape between August last year and January this year, the only possible conclusion for the reportedly increased stress from the political landscape is social media. Rrrright... We don't need fake news when plain idiocy will do just fine.
Life before int4rw3bz (Score:2, Insightful)
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Ogg: Ogglet! Go outside! Play! Get eaten by that tiger!
Ogglet: No dad, can't I just paint on the wall a little longer? It's raining.
What is new is old.
Re:Life before int4rw3bz (Score:4, Insightful)
Before Nintendo and Sega, there was Atari, Mattel and, later, Coleco. Yet, it never stopped us from playing outside. What your mother doesn't tell you is that kids stopping going outside was mostly because women became the head of the household during the 80s (instead of men), and so making sure kids were safe became the utmost priority. On the one hand, mothers said they wanted their kids to play outside, but, on the other hand it had to be in a controlled way and kids had to be watched all the time. So kids ended up preferring to stay in their rooms. Don't blame consoles or the Internet, blame mothers.
Re:Life before int4rw3bz (Score:4, Interesting)
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I got that beaten. 7 yrs old when got the key and went to school alone. Dinner at home rule stopped at the age of 13. I would call only if stayed overnight at a party. We [bunch of boys] could go hiking the mountains and our parents would not hear from us for 3 weeks! More astonishing, around age of 15 the girls joined us! Can you imagine a parent of today sending her daughter at age of 15 with a bunch of boys to a remote location that has transport in and out once per 3 days, no communication whatsoever [e
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I've never used Facebook. I don't understand why people want to.
Not insane (Score:5, Funny)
now give me a minute to see what fark, deadspin, facebook, twitter, reddit, tumblr, livejournal, wordpress, and blogger have to say about it.
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Re: Not insane (Score:2)
No (Score:1, Insightful)
In this case, the medium is not the message.
What's driving Americans insane is the manifest insanity of certain Americans.
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Looks like our first case of insanity has checked in.
What? Commander Taco is back?
Where?
Social media? (Score:2)
Blaming the discussion platforms instead of the madman at the helm for the uniform rise in political anxiety is just the sort of thing that is causing the stress to rise in the first place. Well, at least for me, but I was already a little touched to begin with.
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So then you agree that when Obama was President and he drove conservatives crazy that it was his fault?
Or does that only apply to Presidents you don't like?
Why the double standard then?
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If it "drives you crazy" when you're discouraged by society and government from oppressing people who aren't part of your religious nuttery, then maybe you need psychological help.
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Of course it isn't, but the people who were "driven crazy" were surely motivated by that kind of thing, not substantive policy issues.
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You're really making some big assumptions! HYUGE assumptions! Sad!
I am quite enjoying the current politic! I believe that a madman at the helm is just about the only way we are going to see the kind of change in our system that we sorely need. He's already pushed hard enough on so many hot button issues to bring even the millennials into the discussion. He's got the ball rolling on so many issues that we are discussing the psychological effects of trying to pay attention to them here on slashdot!
I don't car
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The fears of conservatives with regard to Obama were based on facts that were entirely fabricated. They weren't based upon anything Obama actually said or did, but were often the result of conservative commentators simply making up horrible things out of whole cloth. Witness the whole birth certificate scandal that lasted for years.
By contrast, the fears of liberals with regard to Trump are based on Trump's words and actions. If anything, many Liberals have given Trump far more of a benefit of a doubt th
Re:Social media? (Score:5, Insightful)
For whatever extent you want to talk about the news itself being the cause of stress (which is fair to do), I think we have to look also look at the setup of the platforms, human nature, and the culture around social media, as likely contributing factors.
Because really, however bad the news was, 20 years ago you'd be waiting for the nightly news to find out about it. Several decades before that, you'd be waiting for the following day's newspaper. Now, we're getting constant updates, and those updates may be causing a device in your pocket to vibrate and make noise every time something new comes out. We know that checking all of those notifications is addictive, and not checking causes stress. However, constantly feeling the need to check also causes stress. (human nature)
Also, we have grown to expect that everyone is constantly online, always checking all of their platforms. Speaking for myself, I get messages via various social networks, and if I don't respond immediately, people freak out and take personal offense. Even when I try to remove those apps from my phone or turn off notifications, I get angry messages from people because I'm ignoring them. (culture)
I think it's also worth pointing out that most of these platforms are not really designed for occasional use. I've thought it would be nice if you could set a time-based digest of a social networking site. For example, instead of looking at Twitter, give me a weekly digest of the tweets that (based on some criteria) I'm going to be most likely to want to read and respond to. Only update Twitter at 9am on Sunday mornings with the 25 most important tweets of the week. But Twitter doesn't work that way. It's basically built on the idea that you're always looking, always paying attention, because if you stop paying attention for a day or two, you're just going to miss things and they'll get buried under a flood of other tweets. (the platforms)
Basically, I don't think we can do much about the human-nature aspect. Realistically, I don't foresee the platforms changing because they're providing the instant-feedback that people want. In my thinking, they key would be to change the culture and expectations around social media, which would change what we want from the platform, which would change the platform.
But then, intentionally changing culture is not so easy either.
Re:Social media? (Score:5, Interesting)
It's the reason we have the term "FOMO", or Fear of Missing Out. By not being attached to our phones 24/7 we fear we're going to miss big news about something (... almost always trivial in the big scheme of things).
If you hate that term, get used to it - it's a root of the term for the phobia, and as a medical diagnosis.
Re:Social media? (Score:4, Interesting)
I've the exact opposite problem. I managed to 'train' my friends to never send me SMS messages except for emergencies. I could carry my old cell phone with me just for emergencies. Smart Phones are something else however. You are constantly updated with all kinds of notifications. Even when you turn out all notifications and want to use your smart phone you see all those numbers of missed notifications, messages or emails on your screen. That's the reason why I gave up on smart phones. I still have my iPhone 4S but it just lays on my desktop connected to my computer. I never take it with me. I've also given up on emails entirely, except at work. I don't check work email at home. I've never made profiles on any social network. I rarely watch television, only when there is a program I would like to see, after recording it of course.
I only read newspapers on the internet on a tablet or at my desktop at home (I pay for the digital edition) and I sometimes read Slashdot. I don't use internet everyday. In summer or weekends when the weather is nice I prefer to hike or bike or I go out with friends in my free time. Although I'm more disconnected than most, I still feel the pressure of the always connected people in my life.
Many people have similar opinions about some issues. I never understood why all of the sudden when we grow older most of my friends have the same opinions. When we were teenagers and in our twenties we had interesting discussions about small problems and world politics. Today they all have similar ideas. I've noticed when a friend tried to convince me, he pulled out his smartphone and showed websites that he learned through facebook. That's when I was struck. Have my friends become drones? The most frustrating part is that lately they have become anti-Trump drones. I didn't know Trump except that he was a wealthy non politician going for president, I just understood that he was hated by established media and politicians but loved by the voters. That can happen. But how can someone who isn't American become an anti-Trump drone and even start using American English slogans. I've even heard them talk about 1984. I told them that they looked more like the 1984 workers who knew the truth about some far away event from the screen then that inexperienced president who doesn't know how to talk like a politician and offends a lot of people with short tweets. When I told them they were drones of the cultural hegemony as described by Antonio Gramsci I expected an interesting discussion like in our younger years. Instead they became offended and angry and compared me with Hitler...
This happened a few weeks ago, and it is just one of the many anecdote that slowly turns me crazy. It seems that the always connected people stop thinking about the information they read. There is probably too much different information on a short time that makes it impossible to actually think things over. This makes them take over opinions from the national media without forming their own opinion. I don't know. I do know that more and more people are convinced about an opinion and don't accept a different opinion and sometimes even freak out when you say you don't agree.
Like that overweight girl that started convincing me about the fact that meat is very unhealthy and that we were not build to eat meat, while she was eating an orange carrot. I told her we were evolved to eat meat hence why we have large brains, but we are definitely not evolved to eat orange carrots because orange carrots are a result of the meat powered human brain who managed to selectively breed the woody texture out of carrots to make them edible and even managed to selectively breed the colour orange as a tribute to "Willem van Oranje". The ancestors of the carrots could only be harvested in the wild for a limited period before carrots/roots became like wood. She didn't know what to say. This was information she never heard about. Instead she started to call me names and walked away with an angry face when nobody
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Isn't the comments section of Slashdot a form of social media?
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No, this is unsocial media.
This really proves nothing (Score:2)
The highest stress levels, it should be noted, are reserved for those who constantly check their work e-mail on days off. Their average stress level is 6.0. So those of you who think it's somehow pleasant to work from home on a Saturday afternoon, you're actually fooling yourself.
That's on a scale of 1 to 10, and the average across America is 4.4 for those who didn't RTFA. (Extremely sloppy summarizing. Way to go, msmash!)
And besides, this is only a correlation - the article does not identify whether constant email checking causes stress, or if people who are already stresses are more likely to check emails. It further goes on to state:
About 42 percent of constant checkers specifically point to political and cultural discussions as causing stress. And the impacts play out in real life—35 percent of constant checkers say they are less likely to spend time with family and friends because of social media.
Suggesting (at least to me) that constant email checking and high stress levels simply have a common precursor, not that one causes the other.
Continuous distraction (Score:1)
Dropping Out of Social Media (Score:5, Insightful)
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that Snopes debunked years ago ad nausem
And Snopes being treated as the infallible be-all-end-all of fact checking.
Pretty much use Facebook mostly just for tracking events and party invites these days. That's the main reason I started using it in the first place when people realized that it was much more convenient than sending letter invites, calling/texting dozens of guests, having to check papers and rely on flyers to know what was going on around town, etc.
Re: Dropping Out of Social Media (Score:5, Insightful)
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ancient evil
AOL
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You're certainly on to something, but I think it's only a subset of a wider problem: that people now think they're "having a conversation" that doesn't stop.
"Conversation" is a thing that's bounded in time and space. It happens between two or more people over a certain mutually agreed time, and (medium permitting) space. During that time, we make some reasonable assumptions - for instance, that The Conversation is the paramount thing on each participant's mind at the time, that everyone involved is at least
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shout their political and social beliefs constantly and non-stop
I know people who watch tv for this exact reason. Following the news on the internet, you usually get a day or two head start about what is going to show up on tv, so you can ask their opinion on something and they'll have no idea. Three days later they'll have a very strong opinion about it and it seems to match what they've been listening to on their news programs. And I've never watched them but those programs are always YELLING. Those people don't seem to have a regular conversational voice.
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I feel like it's not just about politics. I hardly ever log in to Facebook (the only social media application I even have an account on), and even outside of elections or times of political conflict I've felt like a majority of the people who use the service a lot are really just shouting at an uncaring world and hoping for a response. Sometimes it's sharing cute or funny videos/pictures. Sometimes it's sharing intentionally inflammatory comments. They don't act like traditional trolls. They just seem
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...Now it seems that everyone must not only tell you where they stand on issues, but they have to tell you why you're wrong for not taking the same stance. Day after day with the smug condescending memes, fake news pieces from whacked out websites, pointless hoaxes that Snopes debunked years ago ad nausem. After a while it just gets on your nerves and you either join them, drop out, or go insane. ...
What you are describing is really the propaganda battle in a cultural war that the Liberals didn't know existed before Trump was elected into office, and the mainstream Conservatives, while aware, didn't realize how hard it would turn on them and bite them in the butt. This war has been going on a long time: e.g. Powell Memorandum in 1971 [wikipedia.org], and if you count the white nationalism/supremacy part of this - it goes back to colonial times and the advent of slavery. Trump spoke to these people and his win has
Hard wired (Score:5, Insightful)
Humans spot risk, oddities in recognisable patterns and are far more likely to remember negative events because they are hard wired to do so.
As hunter-gatherers (you know, in the time before writing and the invention of religion) we'd either learn to spot danger and do what we can to avoid it or have decreased chances of survival...fast forward 100(?) thousands years or so and the information revolution gave us access to numerous sources of negativity and percieved risk. Once upon a time to find a heretic you had to travel! -now you can speak with a blasphemer in under 10 seconds just go to a forum or heck, skype them!
Some people are unable to detach, disassociate or become desensitised. Often the stress is not even about real threats just amplified mass fear of awful weather, cheating in their favourite sport, injustice of what they consider their basic rights etc.
Basically like all humans, people suffer from the human condition. Humans are irrational. They are more concerned with controlling borders than traffic accidents despite traffic being the proven killer. They are more worried about terrorists than the flu and yet one kils hundreds of times more. Humans are scared their children might develop diametrically opposed beliefs if they associate with certain other kids but turn a blind eye to the negative imapcts of their own beliefs because they seldom scrutinize it...the list goes on.
Americans are not crazy but they are being driven crazy by a political system that preys on fear. News network that compete to report the latest disaster. Corporations that research their insecurities about their body and sell them shit they do not need.
Actually this happens everywhere...somehow this more pronounced in the US for reasons I'll let others suggest.
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As hunter-gatherers (you know, in the time before writing and the invention of religion)
Before writing, yes. I strongly suspect that religion existed even then. All of the hunter-gatherer societies that survived to historical times had religions, often quite sophisticated ones.
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While some religions or forms of them existed before writing there was still a time when the imaginary concept of the flying spaghetti monster was too complex or useless to be thunk!
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Bravo and tipping of the proverbial hat to a scholar!
It's excellent to see that some people still understand that Humans aren't this magical thing that has power no other animal does, while at the same time being able to change "the world" in any way, at any time they want without repercussions.
I admire your intellect; a large part of all "we" have left.
Delete your account before traveling (Score:2)
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Step 1: Delete your social media account. Step 2: Travel. Step 3: ????. Step 4: Profit
Pssst... 3 is collection of underpants. Don't share that inside info.
I cut off FB a month ago. It's been a good month. (Score:4, Interesting)
I had my wife log me out of Facebook and change the password. She knows it if I ever want to get back in. It's been a month and it's been generally great. I ended up with time for stuff I "never had time for" -- Crosswords, books, movies, 8+ hours of sleep, time with the kids, home projects, etc. I'm more focused at work and sleep better. This makes me less grumpy, impresses my boss and also makes me eat better and get in regular workouts. The elimination of FB has made it easier to have a virtuous cycle that feeds on itself rather than an endless stream of crappy memes and political crap that doesn't really help my life in any appreciable way. If I ever choose to return to FB I'm going to cull the friends list tremendously, I expect it to drop precipitously to maybe 15-20 people, generally family and friends I legitimately want to keep up with.
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do your self a favor, delete your account permanently, 15-20 people is not that many to keep up with using any other means of personal communication with the added bonus of said personal communication making the friendship stronger through the gesture of putting effort into such a relationship.
Even if you cull your friends list, you are still subjecting yourself to the algorithms of facebook which when pressed for content to deliver you grabs from ads and sensationalist news stories. Do not subject your sel
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Wow, it's an interesting exercise to replace "FB" with "Heroin" in your post. It still makes sense. Maybe it's time to haul up Zuckerbock in front of a Congressional Committee, Big Tobacco style, and have him claim that FB is not addictive. Or maybe a class action suit for promoting a product that damages the health of the general public.
Unfortunately, just like with Heroin, making it illegal would not stop folks from abusing it until it causes their deaths.
Well, at least the death of their sanity. An
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It's more akin to when I gave up on a lot of television than drug addiction. I made a decision that I was assigning too high a priority (and subsequently spending too much time on) something that was delivering low value for my leisure time, and I was missing out on other activities that could deliver more enjoyment and pleasure than Facebook was giving me. My wife changing the password creates a barrier to entry that's high enough that I'll go find something else to do rather than trying to get the passwor
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FACEBOOK. I meant Facebook, not heroin.
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Damnit, you're giving me more reason to think about the (joking but probably would work) plan of getting FB cut off for 6 hours and seeing the horrible response and ultimate feeling of helplessness and inability to function that people would demonstrate. Make it 12 and we're getting near danger level. Leave it cut off for over 24 and it would be the ultimate equivalent of doomsday fear. The. World. Is. Ending.
I copyright this, so no one is allowed to go make a movie out of it. :)
Social Media IS? (Score:1)
I know there are differences in British English VS American English, but I was pretty sure since social media is not an entity and it is a reference to something, that the correct usage would be "Social Media is driving Americans insane" - especially given the article is about Americans.
As if I needed a reason (Score:3)
As if I needed a reason not to have any (anti-)social media accounts.
Thanks, but I like my craziness and and insanity to be of my own making, all mine as it were.
FIFY (Score:2)
Americans are insane? (Score:3, Insightful)
Er, how is that news? Look at what happened November 8th, 2016 for insanity index. Forecast; High.
Chance of dunderheads: 100%
Protectionism, Xenophobia, and nut job anti-consumerism regulations to be expected for the next two years.
Sticking busybody noses into random vaginas guaranteed.
Skyhigh medical bills and health insurance: Paid for by lobbyists that stand to gain.
Hilarity, hypocrisy and hysteria: delivered.
Global shunning: On the way.
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Oh, my God...really?
I've avoided anything political for years because I'm sick of the BS all around...BUT could not resist and just hit the back button.
Here is why:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/2016/countymaprb1024.png [umich.edu]
Rod Serling voice: Imagine if you will you live in a red'ish area and have been pushed around by your "betters" in blue for 8 years.
A "Republican" president is elected in what was
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When you say "shunning", are you referring to the Global Shunning of America, or America's Shunning of the Global Complex? Cuz, ya know, both are going to happen.
apparently also a decrease in using proper grammar (Score:3)
"Social media IS driving americans insane"
FFS!
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THANK YOU! That grammar mistake was DRIVING ME INSANE!
I hear ya. I can't stand spelling or grammar errors in anythings anymore.
*snort* I had to.
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"Social media IS driving americans insane"
FFS!
"Media" is the plural form of "medium." I'll admit that the common vernacular has been to treat "media" as a singular noun, but if you use the "proper grammar" argument then "are" was the correct word for the headline to use.
Devolving of social norms (Score:2)
Quick way to quit Facebook (Score:4, Insightful)
I was getting annoyed about Facebook and finding that I was spending time on it and not really finding it worthwhile, but the monkey-brain habit was already ingrained so I kept going back. I honestly stopped the habit completely with just a couple steps:
1. Uninstall the Facebook app
2. If I ever end up opening Facebook in the browser, log out completely when I'm done, and don't save the password or username
Turns out that when I have to go through several steps (open browser, navigate to Facebook, type in username, type in password) it's disruptive enough to the mindless "Check Facebook" routine I had developed that it killed it entirely. I went from checking it 5-6 times a day to checking it once or twice a month, and life is much better.
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I was getting annoyed about Facebook and finding that I was spending time on it and not really finding it worthwhile, but the monkey-brain habit was already ingrained so I kept going back. I honestly stopped the habit completely with just a couple steps:
1. Uninstall the Facebook app
2. If I ever end up opening Facebook in the browser, log out completely when I'm done, and don't save the password or username
Turns out that when I have to go through several steps (open browser, navigate to Facebook, type in username, type in password) it's disruptive enough to the mindless "Check Facebook" routine I had developed that it killed it entirely. I went from checking it 5-6 times a day to checking it once or twice a month, and life is much better.
I expected to get back on FB to meet old friends / acquaintances from HS (maybe more). I goofed around and tried to get into "that thing" for a while and eventually found my best friend (ha) from the time. He had dreams of becoming a pilot. Turns out he actually DID. He was a passenger plane pilot and got to fly all around the globe. It was cool seeing pictures and reading short stories (he seemed to stay away from the constantly show a new female and alcohol in every picture). Anyhow, I talked to him
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Yeah, it used to be the case that Facebook provided a fair bit of social utility - you could see what family and friends were up to, congratulate people on the new job or new baby, find out about cool things going on in the neighborhood, etc. While that was about 80% of the usage a few years ago, I think that's down to
At the end of the day, if you gut the product's functionality and make it actively disregard the user's preferences, I'm done using it. No thanks.
Well, not necessarily (Score:2)
"So those of you who think it's somehow pleasant to work from home on a Saturday afternoon, you're actually fooling yourself."
No, not necessarily. Some of us would prefer this to going into an office.
What about if I work from home on a Tuesday or Friday afternoon, am I still "fooling myself"? Because I think I know what I prefer.
Not just americans ... (Score:4, Interesting)
I've got two spoof accounts on Facebook, one for work - we're an agency selling Social Media Marketing among other things,so it's more or less expected of me - and one I established roughly 7 years ago when i started social dancing and constantly meeting people who asked me if I was on Facebook. I looked at Twitter a few months after it came out, thought "wtf?" after 3 minutes and have used it since maybe 4 times or so. No inroads at all with instagram, whatscrap and other data hogs.
Long story short, even though I'm your Type A 80ies computerkid who has never had less than 5 email accounts in the last 2 decades and who was on Fidonet back in the day posting every day, I see a significant difference between me and many many other people. Today *I* am the one who's more away from electronic media than the average - a thing quite unthinkable back in the 90ies. Even though I haven't changed my habits that much.
Facebook I consider particularly evil, as it is a funnel of constant superficial vanity-induced anti-social behaviour that, as far as I can tell, has a significant impact on the general social skills of people growing up with it. Facebook here being a synonym for anything "social" media these days. A fascinating look into someone from this social media native generation is Essena O'Neills account [youtube.com] on why she quit her life as an instagram "professional". Yes, you can shake your head in disbelief about the naivity and the obviousness of what she finally realised, but don't forget: these are people who grew up with this - they never knew anyhting else - which makes her account ever more honest, poignant and impressive.
Conclusion:
I see the signs left, right and center: Social media has a significant negative impact on the general publics mental health. To put it in other words: FB is not a social network, it's basically a global mental illness.
My 2 cents.
Re: (Score:2)
We're in the same operation. I'm IT, tend to distance myself from electronics, etc. Your story basically dead-on.
What I have to share with you is something I've shared before on here - a day at the mall and a shaking head, reaffirming my belief that this social media crap (especially the younger generation) is absolute garbage and creates a lack of social development.....
I went to the mall one day with a friend who uses FB, Twitter, all that shit, but doesn't impart any of it on me or even talk about it.
In other news... (Score:2)
Tech reporting has gotten more negative than it used to be [slashdot.org]. I mean really, could you ask for a clearer example? We just elected a totally insane president who wants to build more nukes and denounces the press as the enemy of the people. So obviously we should blame social media for people being more stressed???
Social media (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Timely Oblig... (Score:1)
Phone - https://xkcd.com/1802/ [xkcd.com]
Well At Least its not Cats (Score:1)
Per the other story today.