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Re:I quit Instagram and Facebook and it made me happier by elorant on Sunday December 02, 2018 @04:51PM (#18584796)
I don't understand why there has to be this dichotomy, you're either active on social media and miserable or off of them and happy. Why can't you have just a moderate use of Facebook. I mention FB because I don't really get Instagram, it's a bunch of photos with no context. I was forced to create a FB account to monitor the social media of a company I consult and my relationship with it thus far has been smooth as silk. Apart from the tracking stuff which I try to mitigate by blocking third party JS on web sites. Other than that it's another tool to get the job done. I don't befriend everyone that makes a request and rarely ever bother to view what my friends put in their timeline. I don't feel that there's only one way to use Facebook, which is to like and watch every little shit everyone in your social circle posts. Just sort stuff out and have a very conservative use of it. A chat session every now and then with friends you can't meet as often as you'd like and a little browsing of posts of the really important ones, like family and very dear friends. Everything else is just irrelevant and you can ignore it. Simple as that. Well at least it works for me.
Re:I quit Instagram and Facebook and it made me happier by majewsky on Sunday December 02, 2018 @05:33PM (#18584990)
> Why can't you have just a moderate use of Facebook.

Because social media apps are designed to access the same neural pathways as addictive substances. Let me rephrase your question: "why can't you just have a moderate use of alcohol?" Sure, many people can (and note how that's not newsworthy), but try suggesting to an alcoholic to just drink a little less.

Re:I quit Instagram and Facebook and it made me happier by MyOwnSpirit on Monday December 03, 2018 @12:41AM (#18586591)
But the answer may not lie in promoting severance from alcohol/facebook. Like Elrant, I believe there should be a middle ground people try to reach. Not everyone may be able to reach it by themselves but education should be put before a more extreme solution such as cutting people from alcohol/facebook in my opinion. It is not efficient to tell a alcoholic to drink less but it is efficient to educate people around you about the dangers alcohol can pause.
Re:I quit Instagram and Facebook and it made me happier by elorant on Sunday December 02, 2018 @06:25PM (#18585239)
That's a fair point.
Re:I quit Instagram and Facebook and it made me happier by zapzupnz on Sunday December 02, 2018 @05:22PM (#18584946)
Rather like email, you filter out the noise, you decide what you're going to consume that day, and you ignore everything else.

This is how I use Facebook. I basically only use it because it's a convenient messaging service; Hell will serve chilled water before my non-tech friends and family join Yet Another Messaging Service™, so I meet them where they already are.

Plus, for better or worse, I rather like the Facebook Messenger interface and app. It's not perfect, but it's nice looking and consistent across platforms. If it weren't for most people I know being on Facebook and not everybody having Apple devices, I'd probably use LINE or stick to iMessage.

Re:I quit Instagram and Facebook and it made me happier by joshuamcginnis on Sunday December 02, 2018 @07:08PM (#18585410)
Self-control is hard and dopamine is a hell of a drug.