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Social Media Are Driving Americans Insane (bloomberg.com)
Deena Shanker, writing for Bloomberg: If you pull out your phone to check Twitter while waiting for the light to change, or read e-mails while brushing your teeth, you might be what the American Psychological Association calls a "constant checker." And chances are, it's hurting your mental health. Last week, the APA released a study finding that Americans were experiencing the first statistically significant stress increase in the survey's 10-year history. In January, 57 percent of respondents of all political stripes said the U.S. political climate was a very or somewhat significant source of stress, up from 52 percent who said the same thing in August. On Thursday, the APA released the second part of its 1 findings, "Stress In America: Coping With Change," examining the role technology and social media play in American stress levels. [...] The highest stress levels, it should be noted, are reserved for those who constantly check their work e-mail on days off. Their average stress level is 6.0. So those of you who think it's somehow pleasant to work from home on a Saturday afternoon, you're actually fooling yourself.
...than the current Psychotic-in-Chief?
Uhmmm... seriously ? Since there has been obviously *zero* change in the political landscape between August last year and January this year, the only possible conclusion for the reportedly increased stress from the political landscape is social media. Rrrright... We don't need fake news when plain idiocy will do just fine.
There was a time when we spent most of our free time outdoors, playing games or hiking/biking, swimming etc. And we lived in the city. I pity the under 45s, if they had to exist for two seconds without a computer or phone, they'd melt. Sorry to say but it sucks to be you.
In this case, the medium is not the message.
What's driving Americans insane is the manifest insanity of certain Americans.
I think the big problem is that everyone seems to want to use social media to shout their political and social beliefs constantly and non-stop. Before the rise of social media I had a pretty good idea of where my friends were in the political/social spectrum, but we never really discussed it. Now it seems that everyone must not only tell you where they stand on issues, but they have to tell you why you're wrong for not taking the same stance. Day after day with the smug condescending memes, fake news pieces from whacked out websites, pointless hoaxes that Snopes debunked years ago ad nausem. After a while it just gets on your nerves and you either join them, drop out, or go insane. I've pretty much filtered or unfollowed just about everyone on Facebook because I'm tired of it (whether I agreed with them or not). If it wasn't for some of the computer groups I follow I'd probably never log into FB anymore.
Humans spot risk, oddities in recognisable patterns and are far more likely to remember negative events because they are hard wired to do so.
As hunter-gatherers (you know, in the time before writing and the invention of religion) we'd either learn to spot danger and do what we can to avoid it or have decreased chances of survival...fast forward 100(?) thousands years or so and the information revolution gave us access to numerous sources of negativity and percieved risk. Once upon a time to find a heretic you had to travel! -now you can speak with a blasphemer in under 10 seconds just go to a forum or heck, skype them!
Some people are unable to detach, disassociate or become desensitised. Often the stress is not even about real threats just amplified mass fear of awful weather, cheating in their favourite sport, injustice of what they consider their basic rights etc.
Basically like all humans, people suffer from the human condition. Humans are irrational. They are more concerned with controlling borders than traffic accidents despite traffic being the proven killer. They are more worried about terrorists than the flu and yet one kils hundreds of times more. Humans are scared their children might develop diametrically opposed beliefs if they associate with certain other kids but turn a blind eye to the negative imapcts of their own beliefs because they seldom scrutinize it...the list goes on.
Americans are not crazy but they are being driven crazy by a political system that preys on fear. News network that compete to report the latest disaster. Corporations that research their insecurities about their body and sell them shit they do not need.
Actually this happens everywhere...somehow this more pronounced in the US for reasons I'll let others suggest.
A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
So then you agree that when Obama was President and he drove conservatives crazy that it was his fault?
Or does that only apply to Presidents you don't like?
Why the double standard then?
do your self a favor, delete your account permanently, 15-20 people is not that many to keep up with using any other means of personal communication with the added bonus of said personal communication making the friendship stronger through the gesture of putting effort into such a relationship.
Even if you cull your friends list, you are still subjecting yourself to the algorithms of facebook which when pressed for content to deliver you grabs from ads and sensationalist news stories. Do not subject your self back into a system that is meant to draw you in and get you to further expand your friends list and or social media presence.
The only way to win such a game is not to play. considering that you have started to see the rewards of not playing the game, Why would you ever go back?
For whatever extent you want to talk about the news itself being the cause of stress (which is fair to do), I think we have to look also look at the setup of the platforms, human nature, and the culture around social media, as likely contributing factors.
Because really, however bad the news was, 20 years ago you'd be waiting for the nightly news to find out about it. Several decades before that, you'd be waiting for the following day's newspaper. Now, we're getting constant updates, and those updates may be causing a device in your pocket to vibrate and make noise every time something new comes out. We know that checking all of those notifications is addictive, and not checking causes stress. However, constantly feeling the need to check also causes stress. (human nature)
Also, we have grown to expect that everyone is constantly online, always checking all of their platforms. Speaking for myself, I get messages via various social networks, and if I don't respond immediately, people freak out and take personal offense. Even when I try to remove those apps from my phone or turn off notifications, I get angry messages from people because I'm ignoring them. (culture)
I think it's also worth pointing out that most of these platforms are not really designed for occasional use. I've thought it would be nice if you could set a time-based digest of a social networking site. For example, instead of looking at Twitter, give me a weekly digest of the tweets that (based on some criteria) I'm going to be most likely to want to read and respond to. Only update Twitter at 9am on Sunday mornings with the 25 most important tweets of the week. But Twitter doesn't work that way. It's basically built on the idea that you're always looking, always paying attention, because if you stop paying attention for a day or two, you're just going to miss things and they'll get buried under a flood of other tweets. (the platforms)
Basically, I don't think we can do much about the human-nature aspect. Realistically, I don't foresee the platforms changing because they're providing the instant-feedback that people want. In my thinking, they key would be to change the culture and expectations around social media, which would change what we want from the platform, which would change the platform.
But then, intentionally changing culture is not so easy either.
Wow, it's an interesting exercise to replace "FB" with "Heroin" in your post. It still makes sense. Maybe it's time to haul up Zuckerbock in front of a Congressional Committee, Big Tobacco style, and have him claim that FB is not addictive. Or maybe a class action suit for promoting a product that damages the health of the general public.
Unfortunately, just like with Heroin, making it illegal would not stop folks from abusing it until it causes their deaths.
Well, at least the death of their sanity. And, as with Heroin addicts, FB addicts are most of the time somebody else's problem.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Er, how is that news? Look at what happened November 8th, 2016 for insanity index. Forecast; High.
Chance of dunderheads: 100%
Protectionism, Xenophobia, and nut job anti-consumerism regulations to be expected for the next two years.
Sticking busybody noses into random vaginas guaranteed.
Skyhigh medical bills and health insurance: Paid for by lobbyists that stand to gain.
Hilarity, hypocrisy and hysteria: delivered.
Global shunning: On the way.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
I was getting annoyed about Facebook and finding that I was spending time on it and not really finding it worthwhile, but the monkey-brain habit was already ingrained so I kept going back. I honestly stopped the habit completely with just a couple steps:
1. Uninstall the Facebook app
2. If I ever end up opening Facebook in the browser, log out completely when I'm done, and don't save the password or username
Turns out that when I have to go through several steps (open browser, navigate to Facebook, type in username, type in password) it's disruptive enough to the mindless "Check Facebook" routine I had developed that it killed it entirely. I went from checking it 5-6 times a day to checking it once or twice a month, and life is much better.