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Facebook Admits that Some Social Media Use Can Be Harmful (axios.com) 63

Posted by msmash from the too-little-too-late dept.
In a new installment of its "Hard Questions" series, Facebook acknowledged on Friday that social media can have negative effects on people, depending on how they use it. From a report: This might be the first public acknowledgment from the company that its product -- and category in general -- can have detrimental effects on people. Facebook is also addressing the topic shortly after two former executives publicly criticized the company for what they described as exploiting human psychology. Passive use of social media -- reading information without interacting with others -- makes people feel worse. Clicking on more links or "liking" more posts than the average user also leads to worse mental health, according to one study.
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Facebook Admits that Some Social Media Use Can Be Harmful More

Facebook Admits that Some Social Media Use Can Be Harmful

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  • Social smoking? Smoking media? Something there (Score:3, Interesting)

    by TimothyHollins ( 4720957 ) on Friday December 15, 2017 @06:25PM (#55748931)

    Do you remember that time when tobacco companies finally admitted that "incorrect" use of their products "might be" harmful "to some"? I'm starting to see many parallels between "social" media and smoking. For starters, both are predominant factors in a large cluster of diseases.

    • For starters, both are predominant factors in a large cluster of diseases.

      It's funny that users of Slashdot don't see themselves as partaking of social media.

      • Re:Social smoking? Smoking media? Something there (Score:5, Insightful)

        by lucasnate1 ( 4682951 ) on Friday December 15, 2017 @06:35PM (#55748977) Homepage

        A big part of facebook usage is following people's lives and friendship graphs. On slashdot people barely post about their lives and I have rarely seen people using friend/foe. While I do agree that commenting on slashdot is a social online activity, I think it is different from the activities I mentioned before.

        Note: I also have a facebook account which I use too much.

      • From the article:

        -- reading information without interacting with others --

        Err...seriously?

        So, in the days before social media on the web, when there was nothing BUT things to read, we were all depressed and feeling bad???

        Somehow I missed that.

        It's funny that users of Slashdot don't see themselves as partaking of social media.

        You consider Slashdot to be social anything???

        Hmm....I dunno....I don't find /. to really be social media...just is a simple forum where people post messages and opinions.

        Not real

        • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

          by PopeRatzo ( 965947 )

          You consider Slashdot to be social anything???

          Absolutely. Haven't you been to any of the local Slashdot meetups? They're a blast. We get together and have pitchers of diet coke and talk about how women really aren't suited for the very difficult tech jobs that we do. They tend to be sausage fests for the most part, but a few Slashdot celebs who I won't mention (mi, SuperKendall) are kind of femme and will let us feel them up at the end of the evening.

          Hmm....I dunno....I don't find /. to really be social

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by Anonymous Coward

            Absolutely. Haven't you been to any of the local Slashdot meetups? They're a blast. We get together and have pitchers of diet coke and talk about how women really aren't suited for the very difficult tech jobs that we do.

            I know I'm just an anonymous peon, but I literally spat my beer out. God bless you sir, and Merry Christmas.

          • Social media is based around a tailored user experience. An algorithm picking things that the user will find most interesting. They function as Skinner boxes - open the tab and maybe there is a jolt of dopamine wrapped up in something the user has a personal connection with.

            We have slashdot editors keeping us safe from that experience.

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by Mashiki ( 184564 )

            Of course it is. You saw many of the same phenomena played out on USENET that you're seeing today on twitter or facebook.

            I don't remember usenet tailoring what information I could or couldn't see, or people posting every 1.83 seconds that they're now finishing a piece of cake. I remember specific help groups that had detailed information, but compared to social media it's nowhere near the same. On top of that, usenet has never really had someone standing over your shoulder telling you "if your opinions aren't right, we're gonna ban you."

        • > in the days before social media on the web, when there was nothing BUT things to read

          Those things were not from your friends or, for the average reader, even people you know. They were about news, products, ideas, or whatever.

      • It's funny that users of Slashdot don't see themselves as partaking of social media.

        Slashdot is an insignificant part of social media. Slashdot is a bit like a wino that thinks he isn't part of the global economy. He doesn't have a job and doesn't pay taxes, and the world economy can probably move along with or without him.

        • Slashdot is a bit like a wino that thinks he isn't part of the global economy.

          Except even the winos support unicode.

    • Re:Social smoking? Smoking media? Something there (Score:4, Interesting)

      by thePsychologist ( 1062886 ) on Friday December 15, 2017 @07:10PM (#55749113) Journal

      Social media is actually more like sugar than smoking. Humans evolved to like the taste of sugar because it represents a source of easily digestible calories and fiber in the form of fruit and of properly chewed carbohydrates.

      Modern food processing has made sugar into something eaten in far larger quantities and in a far purer form than is good for people, and is now a prime factor in heart disease.

      It's the same with social networking. Facebook and the internet have made socialisation into an entirely new form that counts on our gratification of traditional social interactions and refines it into something that is not really that healthy but widely used.

      • It's a funny analogy because humans were smoking thousands of years before they started refining sugar.

    • The difference is smoking causes cancer while TFA's social media usage scenarios are most likely caused by rather than causing mental health issues.

  • FB says that? There's a hint for you... (Score:3)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Friday December 15, 2017 @06:26PM (#55748941)

    If the Pope himself admitted some church attendance can be harmful, you'd definitely know the whole Catholic faith would be bad to the core.

    • I disagree that the Pope admitting church attendance can be harmful would indicate that the church itself is rotten to the core. I would argue the opposite is true, failing to admit failure indicates a lack of or fear of accountability, an unwillingness to face or admit failure, and therefore an unwillingness to fix the flaws at the center.

      However I doubt it would be spoken by the Pope for a different reason. It would be admitting that the church can't solve the problem. Such an admittence is acceptable a

    • You better check with the president first [dailymotion.com]

  • Slashdot (Score:3)

    by Areyoukiddingme ( 1289470 ) on Friday December 15, 2017 @06:34PM (#55748973)

    Clicking on more links or "liking" more posts than the average user also leads to worse mental health, according to one study.

    Slashdot Moderation Considered Harmful!

    I wrote the clickbait headline. Pay me!

    • How does that not make sense? If you click on like for damn near everything it says a lot about your current lifestyle.

      "holy shit I wish I had a cute cat"'

      Yeah or a real life

  • "Passive use of social media -- reading information without interacting with others -- makes people feel worse."

    Thankfully hardly a billion people use FB that way.

  • Let's just admit it: it's just plain bad (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) on Friday December 15, 2017 @07:05PM (#55749087) Journal
    Arguments that so-called 'social media' keeps people in touch with each other who are geographically too far apart to interact in person fall flat so far as I'm concerned; there's written letters, there's email, there's phone calls, there's skype, there's all sorts of ways for people who are motivated to keep in touch with each other. Otherwise 'social media' just seems to bring out the worst in people, because you're not saying anything to someones face, you're just typing on a keyboard. I've been around since the dialup BBS days and it wasn't fundamentally different with that than it is with 'social media' over the internet, but the overall effect it has on people is literally orders of magnitude worse because of the number of people involved simultaneously. Too many people on various incarnations of 'social media' over the last 20 years who are there for attention-whoring (Look at me, look at me! Pay attention to me!) or just plain running their mouths, with little or no consequences because they aren't having to face the people they're talking to or about. Worse, 'social media' on a massive scale (like Facebook and Twitter) seem to be creating an entire generation of people who will grow to adulthood with poor (or non-existent) social skills, becoming socially avoidant, because so-called 'social media' gives them an excuse to stay away from actual people instead of interacting with them in person in a healthy way. Bottom line: I think 'social media' is a cancer on our collective societies and I wish it would just go away. I can't see any way you could change it to make it healthy.
    • Says the guy who could have been interacting with all of us in person, instead of using this social media platform.
      • Says the guy who likewise doesn't use his REAL, LEGAL NAME on Slashdot.
        Slashdot is not 'social media', no matter how many goddamned times you repeat it. It's a NEWS SITE with COMMENTING. You don't see people blogging about their goddamned vacation, or posting pics of their kids or pets or how swole they're getting at the gym, or whatever the hell it is people do on 'social media' these days. They post NEWS STORIES and we COMMENT on them. Not 'social media' by a longshot.

  • The application of neuroscience is smartphone apps is ubiquitous among apps that make the makers money from the users continued use of said app. It doesn't matter if it's a game or social media app, they all apply neurological tricks to maximize how much money the user will fetch them. This is should not be news to you and if it is then you should reconsider owning a smartphone and participating in social media.

  • Facebook doesn't know what it is talking about.

  • Just like everything else, thank you, that's all anybody needs to know. Just slap a label on it, like on the bottle of Drano.

  • Facebook was so invested in because its potential to break down society was realized by its big investors. It wasn't a shot in the dark with their billions of dollars. It wasn't a surprise that social media would transform our society. They knew what it was to become and it profits them immensely.
    Why do they want to break down society? Because they want to increase the level of control they have. Instead of programming society on the scale of groups, they want to control every atom; every individual, and op

    • Its sad that nazis have infested every site this year. What do tou think about the release of the Daily Stormer media guide yesterday? Will it make your job easier or harder?

      • So you read that entire thing and that's all you have to say? Why am I even supposed to be a nazi here? Why do you abuse yourself by reading something so long that you hate only to recoil in pain when you're done?

        • Your username signals enough and I skimmed your rant. Pretty pathetic. At least the GNAA used to put the work in.

          • You obsess over narratives and labels because you perceive them as empowering, a way to avoid your personal weaknesses and confusions. You're moralizing your emotions. You're giving yourself no incentive to investigate matters or learn anything new. You're showing yourself the utmost disrespect in an attempt to fit into something you do not understand.

            You need to find religion and focus on your internal problems.

            • Oh dear. Do you really think that somebody who has an account here for 20 years is going to fall for this shit? Kid, when you try to use NLP: 1. You need to understand who you are talking to in order to manipulate them. 2. A touch of subtlety is required, not this hamfisted mess. If you want to try to troll people on slashdot - you need to git gud first.

              Your attempts at argument are weak and unfocused. Can you not do any better than this? Perhaps your inability to reason is why you have sunken into this rig

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