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EARLIER THIS WEEK, a new study linked Facebook with increased depressive feelings.
Why? Because of that well-known phenomenon of comparing yourself to others.
“It doesn’t mean Facebook causes depression, but that depressed feelings and lots of time on Facebook and comparing oneself to others tend to go hand in hand,” said study author and doctoral candidate Mai-Ly Steers.
Many of us have toyed with the idea of giving it up completely. Deleting the app from our phones and only talking to real human beings.
Matt Weinberger tried to do it – but found it harder than he thought. But his reasons are more practical than psychological. He explains:
“This past winter, I stopped using Facebook for a couple of months.
It’s really hard to not be on Facebook. But if you can last, you might just learn a little bit about how social media messes with your brain.
I used to really like Facebook. I’d go on there to tell stupid jokes and share links in a setting that felt at least a little more intimate than Twitter. I mean, they’re your ‘friends’, right?
But after the umpteenth thread derailed by people wanting to have their own conversations in my own feed and ruining the fun for everybody else, I decided it was easier to just stay quiet. Those few things I did post, I would anxiously check every so often in fear that everything had jumped off the rails. It became a source of some anxiety.
My hiatus wasn’t part of a grand personal statement on the role of social media in our lives. I didn’t write a dramatic manifesto on how I was quitting, or delete the app from my phone in a grand gesture. I just realised I wasn’t enjoying it anymore, and so I started checking it less, until I stopped looking at it at all.
Once I realised I wasn’t really looking at Facebook anymore, I challenged myself to see how long I could go. I made it just about two months, sticking to Twitter and Twitter only.
But it’s hard not to be on Facebook.
First, because everybody uses it, my social life had come to be defined by Facebook invitations.
I’m almost positive I missed some parties, not to mention all the life milestones that get put on Facebook and not shared directly with friends because who doesn’t check Facebook twelve times a day?
But in a much more literal sense, it’s hard to not be on Facebook. Apps on my phone use Facebook to login. Events I wanted to go to would ask for a Facebook RSVP. Stores would offer coupons for liking them on Facebook. Lots of brands tweet or otherwise push out links to Facebook content across their entire social media presence:
Again, there were no rules to my self-imposed challenge, and it wasn’t like I was forfeiting anything. But it wasn’t fair how often Facebook ended up in my face. Suddenly, I noticed just how pervasive it’s become.
It also taught me something interesting about the ongoing Twitter vs Facebook debate.
On Facebook, you’re at the center of a network of friends, and friends’ friends, and friends’ friends’ friends. On Twitter, you’re just another user.
The Twitter philosophy results in the kind of online harassment we’ve seen as GamerGate and the like, which is an awful result. But Facebook’s more intimate setting means that your life is basically always on display for the people who theoretically know you best. I found Twitter to be more comfortable.
I came back to Facebook in early March to announce that I had started working here at Business Insider.
All in all, my time away wasn’t a huge deal. Most people didn’t even seem to notice I was gone before I said something towards the end of the experiment, which was a small blow to my ego, but a very helpful reminder that you are not your Facebook profile.
My hiatus helped recenter me and reminded me of something very important: Social media is supposed to connect us, and at its best, it can make us feel a larger part of the lives of those around us. But it can be a distraction, a crutch, and a way to feel more alienated than ever before.
And so it’s with mixed feelings that I report that for better or for worse, Facebook is the glue that’s holding large portions of the web together, whether we want it or not. No matter how it changes, and no matter how much it stops being fun, we many Facebook users aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.”
Matt Weinberger
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More like the floorboards creaking from the weight of the bullsh*t they were all spouting last night
Too much bending over backwards to “Good Republicans”.
Ah Diarmuid will ya ever leave off we get it you’re not a fan of SF no need to slate them on every f*cking article
Why shouldn’t he? Why don;t you call out the shinnerbots and paid SF shills on here for covering for his BS every fcuking article?
And here’s the other one who’s popping up on every article! Ye’re all equally dopey. Ye are acting like a bunch of children teasing each other. Yourself and Diarmuid have a go at Adams the SF trolls have a go at Kenny and ye all claim the moral high ground. A bunch of adults acting like a bunch of kids.
If the place wasn’t overrun with shinnerbots for the last 4 years there’d be no need for anyone to counteract them.
And if your so upset numpty, reading the comments section on political articles any not only this, but any online publication in Ireland, certainly is not the place for you.
Bit of originality wouldn’t go amiss though. Every comment is ‘good republican’ or slab or sf/ira.
how is this news and enda admitting lying about the McNulty affair is swept under the carpet.
Back pain or not Adams picked up on the Mcnulty gaffe by Enda.Theres so many fg scandals at this stage we’re losing track of them.
It wasn;t swept under the carpet. The IT and Indo ran with it in analysis
It wasn’t swept under the carpet at all, it was brought up on the afters show last night, it was on newstalk this morning, in the papers and on news sites like this.
@ luke: Just read 2 seperate analyses in the indo about the debate last night. One mentions kenny saying McNulty was NOT his call (contradicting what he said in the debate tself) and the other refers to the leader of the state revealing, live on national TV, that he misled our house of parliament as a ‘faux pas’.
Just heard the 12.30 news on the Jonathan Healy show on newstalk and it was the lead story in the bulletin.
Read them again FC.
“Miriam O’Callaghan was most effective when asking about cronyism. Kenny faltered over the appointment of John McNulty and admitted for the first time his responsibility.”
IT
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/five-takeaways-from-the-leaders-debate-1.2545950
You mentioned the indo, I checked. Can you post a link to the analysis article in the indo for us?
I thought it was the echoes of all the whingers in Enda Kennys head.
He has a pain in his back from the Indo trying to mount him. 40 minutes after the debate last night they came out with a Gerry headlined article.
Rubbish! It was “Joans handbag creaking”. She had just picked up her pension early on the way to the debate.
We sure someone didn’t forget to oil Endas brass neck ?
Why exactly is this news?
as SF supporters would say “It’s the “lamestream” media, vested interests, DOB, RTE and the universe’s attempt to make fun of our dear leader Gerry and derail the political process”.
It was the creaking of the imminent collapse of this corrupt establishment
Ha ha , I thought it was Joan Burtons gee string.
“Who is Senator Cahill?”
Was funny too. But not for Gerry.
back from carrying all that shame…
Senator Cahill. Is that the wee lass who was in the IRA who was appointed by the government to represent them by any chance?
Poor Gerry’s back. Can he not have surgery on it in the States, paid for by a benevolent sympathiser to “the cause” again?
Surgery on his back???? You dont know much about back pain do you daisy. He has had a bad back for decades.
What is so ridiculous about surgery for back pain?
Well Jane it depends on the cause of the back pain. Where is the pain coming from. (ie). Is the pain spinal? (ex) lumbar or disk. Is it upper or lower back. Or is the pain muscular? Will surgery for the pain do more good or bad longterm.
He’s just trying to droim up a bit of sympathy.
In fairness, it is a long time for anyone to be standing up, they should really be given seats. The 4 of them have a combined age of 253 after all!
I thought that the creak was coming from Miriam’s questions we had heard in previous debates. Pity that there wasn’t a live audience to judge the party leaders on their ‘last gasp’ performance.
I have seen the medical edivence, it was movement in rods up the three amigo’s backs. Spineless leaders from spineless parties.
Backsides not backs, curse you keyboard, it’s ruind.
My back is also killing me from carrying the country single handedly through this FF led recession.
Jess can we as a country not come together instead of all this crap. What would be wrong with a government being formed from all elected tds, share out cabinet posts on % ratio per party, if independents have 30% cove then their share. Make them all work for us, for our country instead of this continous tribal nonsense and one party pushing is manifesto. The best person for the job, then everybody is represents at some level and proportionally. Willingness is all that’s required, enough blaming and childish carry on
Poxy predictable text
Well said Joe. Makes a lot more sense than anything we heard last night.
It was not a sore back that prevented this poser from taking part in a TG4 leaders’ debate. His lack of fluency in Irish is only matched by his lack of fluency in English.
Can’t be as bad as the pain in a certain part of my anatomy that listening to his waffle causes!!
I too have a bad back, and people often think I am fidgeting when I am just having to move in order to try relieve some of the pain. I feel sorry for Gerry that he has to suffer from one too, people often fail to realise how bad a back injury can be and the affect it can have on a person.
Warning! Naked trampolining with a dog can lead to back problems in the over 60s.
It was Mary Lou sneaking up on him
I wonder what all the whingers will be moaning about come the weekend when we have our new government? Zzzzzzzzz
They will be saying ‘meet the new boss,same as the old boss,”
Irish govn made Maria Cahill a senator
I remember they took the McCartney sisters to the dail and White House
Why don’t our victims of abuse feuds etc all over the republic get this special treatment
Thousands suffering in silence because they aren’t worth anything in getting votes and all the rest of it
I think Miriam o Callaghan done very well last night and came across impartial. In the past she hasn’t always been able to hide her pro establishment and anti left thoughts, sometimes quite shockingly. Why can’t she behave like that all the time. She’ll get respect from all quarters if she can.
have your say