Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression

Re:Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression by drewmate on Saturday November 10, 2018 @12:01PM (#18422173)

I'm kind of in the same boat. I assumed that I would be able to participate in normal friendships without social media (the way people did for generations before me). Instead, I think people just assume I'm ignoring them on facebook because I'm anti-social.

I've learned to be more proactive in maintaining relationships, but it often feels very one-sided since many other people are used to just getting passive status updates and feeling 'connected' to their friends.

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Re:Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression by Aeolun on Sunday November 11, 2018 @10:23AM (#18426755)

I’ve had people genuinely get angry at me because I’d just been ignoring all IM’s for a few days.

They were worried about whether I was still alive, but the concept of calling to confirm was apparently foreign.

I kind of want to stop using social media, but I guess everyone will think I hate them or something.

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Re:Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression by alex__c on Wednesday November 14, 2018 @05:44AM (#18448917)

It's an interesting bit, this. When you open an avenue of communication, then others get re-prioritized accordingly.

Having text options lowers the perceived need for calling in person. Having Facebook lowers the need for in person contact, since people gets some crumbs of info about you off your Facebook feed. And so on.

What can one do, alone? Can you reverse a trend that's affecting all your friends and acquaintances? Not likely. Maybe just for a few close friends, but everyone else.. meh.

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Re:Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression by coralreef on Sunday November 11, 2018 @01:36PM (#18427784)

I wouldn't really classify instant messaging as social media, even though all social media platforms have messengers attached nowadays.

Also, if your friends are making an effort to keep in contact with you, why are you faulting them for choosing X medium instead of Y?

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Re:Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression by Aeolun on Sunday November 11, 2018 @06:39PM (#18429448)

I should be allowed not to use medium X?

Why am I forced to have and check (daily, at least) IM?

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Re:Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression by coralreef on Monday November 12, 2018 @02:45AM (#18431160)

Turn notifications on, don't check it until you get notifications?

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Re:Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression by alex__c on Wednesday November 14, 2018 @05:47AM (#18448933)

Notifications have this huge downside that they disturb you from your work and from your leisure time, fragmenting attention to the point of being useless to yourself.

This has long been decried by people like Cal Newport and others. Knowledge workers need their attention span intact, and yet all the modern tools make interruptions more likely.

I've been in a Messenger group of only 5 people, who were trying to synchronize going to the movies. My phone kept bleeping for 5 damn hours, until they figured what to do. Absolutely disgusting.

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Re:Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression by Aeolun on Tuesday November 13, 2018 @08:48AM (#18440871)

I turned notifications off exactly because I got a few hundred of them per day.

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Re:Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression by coralreef on Tuesday November 13, 2018 @10:53PM (#18447332)

You get hundreds of messages from friends?

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