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Is there any site more flawed than FaceBook?
- Thread starter Phil in ocala
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Doing away with social media is one of the best personal decisions I've made in life recently. My mind is less cluttered, and I have more time doing what I enjoy!
For some, there can be something along those lines (in a somewhat different fashion compared to something like nicotine or sugars, for example).
More in the sense of people potentially having addictive personalities that might be susceptible to different things based on those personalities and people's lives.
Facebook is one of the web phenomena responsible for killing the popularity of the internet forum...like the one we are using to have this discussion. And what has Facebook brought us? live broadcasts of heinous crimes and, far worse, it has made cat and baby videos harder to avoid.
Horrible.
Horrible.
Well, to be fair, we can similarly make statements of that sort when it comes to internet forums when looking at something like 4Chan, for example.
No. Not really. A cigarette is fundamentally addictive by design, like Facebook is. Sure some people can abstain from these activities, but addictive they are, regardless.
Nicotine is a chemical with physiological addictive properties, while Facebook is just a social/sharing service that some people might get attached to based on their personality or lifestyle, but there isn't some sort of chemical or something of that sort that creates a physiological response from anyone that is exposed to it. So certainly can be addictive, but in somewhat different senses, and while one can't really be used by someone without the negative effects, the other can be.
That’s where you’re wrong. You are aware of things like gambling addictions, right?
Facebook is designed in such a way to give you dopamine spikes when certain things happen on the site, your brain’s reward center is activated and so you try and create that feeling again, hence continue to use the site. It’s already pretty well studied that the site “and other social media platforms” induce this effect. They hire some of the best psychologists and cognitive scientists to find ways to get you to continue to use the site. At least with gambling addiction even the addicts typically realize they have a problem. We’re still trying to convince Facebook addicts that they do too.
The difference is that something like gambling or smoking doesn't really exist for reasons other than a reward of some sort that someone gets from using without much else, while something like a social/sharing site can have other more practical uses that don't involve a reward of some sort (similar to using email or something else of that sort). Of course there certainly are some that do have a reward or other psychological effects that they experience, just like there are some that can have that with many typical things in life as well. I understand what you are saying, and plenty of those type of things are more than likely happening there (among other places like TV, for example), but what I'm saying is that even with that there's more to it than just a smoking or gambling comparison and many people use it more like a tool or something similar I just email or TV without some sort of effects that go deeper than that for them.
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Which is what makes it so insidious. You have people thinking they need Facebook for all of these things. You don’t. So you’re addicted and you’re convinced it has utility that you need and can’t get anywhere else.
Plenty of people don't think they need it (on the level of addiction), and simply use it, just like they do email, phone, TV, or something else like that.
But that's just it - it's not like email, or a phone call. TV could be addictive but it's very, very difficult to do. You're falsely equating Facebook to these things because you don't really understand it.
Or because it is like that for plenty of people (while it can certainly be different for plenty of others).
“Not me, I can’t get addicted to this thing - somehow I’m special and immune to the effects”
While there's a lot of that, there's plenty of a lot of other things. It's kind of like saying that it's hard to understand the point of TV because reality shows are just mindless drivel, when there's way more to it without any reality shows.
And Lord knows, there is endless drivel on t.v. and Facebook. I quit using Facebook several. My work wife is addicted to it. And that is no joke. I would like to see her spend her time in a more productive manner such as using MR. HA. I don't think she will do that. Going to be hard weening her off FB.
Somewhat crudely expressed, but I agree with the sentiment.
I'm not on FB and could never see the point of it.
Reality TV shows don't do it for me, either; the very premise is horrifying - strip people's lives of everything that gives them structure, salaries, order, meaning (jobs, family, friends) and subject them to a laboratory experiment presented as a uniquely horrible form of entertainment.
Has she any other interests of hobbies?
Right, thus the analogous aspect of it to sort of the similar things that can be found on social networks.
My only issue with the web version is that it's become so jumbled with crap that it's much harder than it used to be to scroll through and read stuff. An the newest UI is ridiculously horrible...putting everything in little balloons that take up twice as much space. And my other major complaint is how hard they try to make sure that you don't see the most recent stuff, but whatever their algorithms pick as "Top". You have to go out of your way to get most recent info. Annoying.
But the Facebook app...holy mother of god, what a terrible product. Freezes my phone consistently. I'm talking like phone unusable for 15-20 seconds at a time, even if I'm not in the app. I have to make sure I quit it when not using it.
What should we be using?
[doublepost=1514232092][/doublepost]
You couldn't enjoy your life before with a social media account? Seems like maybe some deeper issues there...
Well, when you have friends spread all over the globe, it's a very efficient way to keep up with them. If your friends are all posting about their last dump, the issue may be more with who you have chosen as friends.
But the Facebook app...holy mother of god, what a terrible product. Freezes my phone consistently. I'm talking like phone unusable for 15-20 seconds at a time, even if I'm not in the app. I have to make sure I quit it when not using it.
What should we be using?
[doublepost=1514232092][/doublepost]
You couldn't enjoy your life before with a social media account? Seems like maybe some deeper issues there...
Well, when you have friends spread all over the globe, it's a very efficient way to keep up with them. If your friends are all posting about their last dump, the issue may be more with who you have chosen as friends.