Slashdot Mirror


Facebook Admits that Some Social Media Use Can Be Harmful (axios.com)

In a new installment of its "Hard Questions" series, Facebook acknowledged on Friday that social media can have negative effects on people, depending on how they use it. From a report: This might be the first public acknowledgment from the company that its product -- and category in general -- can have detrimental effects on people. Facebook is also addressing the topic shortly after two former executives publicly criticized the company for what they described as exploiting human psychology. Passive use of social media -- reading information without interacting with others -- makes people feel worse. Clicking on more links or "liking" more posts than the average user also leads to worse mental health, according to one study.

63 comments

  1. Social smoking? Smoking media? Something there by TimothyHollins · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Do you remember that time when tobacco companies finally admitted that "incorrect" use of their products "might be" harmful "to some"? I'm starting to see many parallels between "social" media and smoking. For starters, both are predominant factors in a large cluster of diseases.

    1. Re:Social smoking? Smoking media? Something there by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      For starters, both are predominant factors in a large cluster of diseases.

      It's funny that users of Slashdot don't see themselves as partaking of social media.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    2. Re:Social smoking? Smoking media? Something there by lucasnate1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      A big part of facebook usage is following people's lives and friendship graphs. On slashdot people barely post about their lives and I have rarely seen people using friend/foe. While I do agree that commenting on slashdot is a social online activity, I think it is different from the activities I mentioned before.

      Note: I also have a facebook account which I use too much.

    3. Re:Social smoking? Smoking media? Something there by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you remember that time when tobacco companies finally admitted that "incorrect" use of their products "might be" harmful "to some"?

      No. Because they never did.

      The government did.

      As awful as social media and Facebook and Twitter can be, they're holier than God Himself compared to the tobacco industry.

    4. Re:Social smoking? Smoking media? Something there by cayenne8 · · Score: 1
      From the article:

      -- reading information without interacting with others --

      Err...seriously?

      So, in the days before social media on the web, when there was nothing BUT things to read, we were all depressed and feeling bad???

      Somehow I missed that.

      It's funny that users of Slashdot don't see themselves as partaking of social media.

      You consider Slashdot to be social anything???

      Hmm....I dunno....I don't find /. to really be social media...just is a simple forum where people post messages and opinions.

      Not really what I'd consider social media, like Twitter or FB.

      Would you term USENET as being social media?

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    5. Re:Social smoking? Smoking media? Something there by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 3, Funny

      On slashdot people barely post about their lives

      . . . could be because Slashdot folks don't have any lives to post about.

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    6. Re:Social smoking? Smoking media? Something there by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's because I never get any upboats.

    7. Re:Social smoking? Smoking media? Something there by thePsychologist · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Social media is actually more like sugar than smoking. Humans evolved to like the taste of sugar because it represents a source of easily digestible calories and fiber in the form of fruit and of properly chewed carbohydrates.

      Modern food processing has made sugar into something eaten in far larger quantities and in a far purer form than is good for people, and is now a prime factor in heart disease.

      It's the same with social networking. Facebook and the internet have made socialisation into an entirely new form that counts on our gratification of traditional social interactions and refines it into something that is not really that healthy but widely used.

      --
      "What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." Ralph Waldo Emerson
    8. Re:Social smoking? Smoking media? Something there by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you remember that time when tobacco companies finally admitted that "incorrect" use of their products "might be" harmful "to some"?

      No, but I'm pretty sure somebody proved that breathing can be dangerous to your health.

    9. Re:Social smoking? Smoking media? Something there by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

      It's funny that users of Slashdot don't see themselves as partaking of social media.

      Slashdot is an insignificant part of social media. Slashdot is a bit like a wino that thinks he isn't part of the global economy. He doesn't have a job and doesn't pay taxes, and the world economy can probably move along with or without him.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    10. Re:Social smoking? Smoking media? Something there by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

      It's a funny analogy because humans were smoking thousands of years before they started refining sugar.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    11. Re:Social smoking? Smoking media? Something there by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1, Funny

      You consider Slashdot to be social anything???

      Absolutely. Haven't you been to any of the local Slashdot meetups? They're a blast. We get together and have pitchers of diet coke and talk about how women really aren't suited for the very difficult tech jobs that we do. They tend to be sausage fests for the most part, but a few Slashdot celebs who I won't mention (mi, SuperKendall) are kind of femme and will let us feel them up at the end of the evening.

      Hmm....I dunno....I don't find /. to really be social media...just is a simple forum where people post messages and opinions.

      What is the main difference from social media, where people post messages and opinions? I mean, Slashdot doesn't include the ability to post images or videos, but considering they don't even support unicode, I'm not sure that's a surprise.

      Would you term USENET as being social media?

      Of course it is. You saw many of the same phenomena played out on USENET that you're seeing today on twitter or facebook.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    12. Re:Social smoking? Smoking media? Something there by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      Slashdot is a bit like a wino that thinks he isn't part of the global economy.

      Except even the winos support unicode.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    13. Re:Social smoking? Smoking media? Something there by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a funny analogy because humans were smoking thousands of years before they started refining sugar.

      Nope, we were eating bee's honey before we started learning how to smoke meats.

    14. Re:Social smoking? Smoking media? Something there by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Absolutely. Haven't you been to any of the local Slashdot meetups? They're a blast. We get together and have pitchers of diet coke and talk about how women really aren't suited for the very difficult tech jobs that we do.

      I know I'm just an anonymous peon, but I literally spat my beer out. God bless you sir, and Merry Christmas.

    15. Re:Social smoking? Smoking media? Something there by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That sounds absolutely nothing like the 10 year slashdot anniversary that I went to. I even took a date (female) who was a long time reader. The whole sexism thing is a relatively new phenomenon. Well, not so new anymore. I'm old.

    16. Re:Social smoking? Smoking media? Something there by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      A bigger part of facebook is to track everyone. Even if you don't have an account.

      Where did the idea that this is okay come from?

    17. Re:Social smoking? Smoking media? Something there by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure bees were doing the refining in that example.

      Boiling tree sap might be pretty old though.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    18. Re: Social smoking? Smoking media? Something there by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      > in the days before social media on the web, when there was nothing BUT things to read

      Those things were not from your friends or, for the average reader, even people you know. They were about news, products, ideas, or whatever.

    19. Re:Social smoking? Smoking media? Something there by Shadow+of+Eternity · · Score: 1

      The difference is smoking causes cancer while TFA's social media usage scenarios are most likely caused by rather than causing mental health issues.

      --
      A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
    20. Re:Social smoking? Smoking media? Something there by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The Stasi. They were European, so everything they did was right.

    21. Re:Social smoking? Smoking media? Something there by smallfries · · Score: 2

      Social media is based around a tailored user experience. An algorithm picking things that the user will find most interesting. They function as Skinner boxes - open the tab and maybe there is a jolt of dopamine wrapped up in something the user has a personal connection with.

      We have slashdot editors keeping us safe from that experience.

      --
      Slashdot: where don knuth is an idiot because he cant grasp the awesome power of php
    22. Re:Social smoking? Smoking media? Something there by Mashiki · · Score: 2

      Of course it is. You saw many of the same phenomena played out on USENET that you're seeing today on twitter or facebook.

      I don't remember usenet tailoring what information I could or couldn't see, or people posting every 1.83 seconds that they're now finishing a piece of cake. I remember specific help groups that had detailed information, but compared to social media it's nowhere near the same. On top of that, usenet has never really had someone standing over your shoulder telling you "if your opinions aren't right, we're gonna ban you."

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    23. Re:Social smoking? Smoking media? Something there by lucasnate1 · · Score: 1

      Were they that different from the cia during mccarthy?

  2. FB says that? There's a hint for you... by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 2

    If the Pope himself admitted some church attendance can be harmful, you'd definitely know the whole Catholic faith would be bad to the core.

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
    1. Re: FB says that? There's a hint for you... by Monster_user · · Score: 1

      I disagree that the Pope admitting church attendance can be harmful would indicate that the church itself is rotten to the core. I would argue the opposite is true, failing to admit failure indicates a lack of or fear of accountability, an unwillingness to face or admit failure, and therefore an unwillingness to fix the flaws at the center.

      However I doubt it would be spoken by the Pope for a different reason. It would be admitting that the church can't solve the problem. Such an admittence is acceptable at a small scale, but not at the international level where the Pope speaks.

      By admitting that Facebook and social media use can be harmful, Facebook is admitting it is a problem, and is admitting they can't resolve the issue by themselves. This opens the way for a solution to be discovered and implemented.

    2. Re:FB says that? There's a hint for you... by fustakrakich · · Score: 1
      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  3. Slashdot by Areyoukiddingme · · Score: 2

    Clicking on more links or "liking" more posts than the average user also leads to worse mental health, according to one study.

    Slashdot Moderation Considered Harmful!

    I wrote the clickbait headline. Pay me!

    1. Re:Slashdot by coolmoe2 · · Score: 1
      How does that not make sense? If you click on like for damn near everything it says a lot about your current lifestyle.

      "holy shit I wish I had a cute cat"'

      Yeah or a real life

  4. Phew! by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    "Passive use of social media -- reading information without interacting with others -- makes people feel worse."

    Thankfully hardly a billion people use FB that way.

    1. Re:Phew! by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

      It's clear that many things posted on FB were not ready by anyone, not even the original poster.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  5. This just in! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Scientists conducting a study sponsored by RJ Reynolds have found that cigarette smoking stimulates your "T-Zone" and promotes healthy lung function in those consuming a moderate one pack per day.

  6. Let's just admit it: it's just plain bad by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Arguments that so-called 'social media' keeps people in touch with each other who are geographically too far apart to interact in person fall flat so far as I'm concerned; there's written letters, there's email, there's phone calls, there's skype, there's all sorts of ways for people who are motivated to keep in touch with each other. Otherwise 'social media' just seems to bring out the worst in people, because you're not saying anything to someones face, you're just typing on a keyboard. I've been around since the dialup BBS days and it wasn't fundamentally different with that than it is with 'social media' over the internet, but the overall effect it has on people is literally orders of magnitude worse because of the number of people involved simultaneously. Too many people on various incarnations of 'social media' over the last 20 years who are there for attention-whoring (Look at me, look at me! Pay attention to me!) or just plain running their mouths, with little or no consequences because they aren't having to face the people they're talking to or about. Worse, 'social media' on a massive scale (like Facebook and Twitter) seem to be creating an entire generation of people who will grow to adulthood with poor (or non-existent) social skills, becoming socially avoidant, because so-called 'social media' gives them an excuse to stay away from actual people instead of interacting with them in person in a healthy way. Bottom line: I think 'social media' is a cancer on our collective societies and I wish it would just go away. I can't see any way you could change it to make it healthy.

    1. Re:Let's just admit it: it's just plain bad by ScentCone · · Score: 1

      Says the guy who could have been interacting with all of us in person, instead of using this social media platform.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    2. Re:Let's just admit it: it's just plain bad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... so-called 'social media' gives them an excuse to stay away from actual people ...

      That's because social media rewards people for playing Farmville and reading click-bait and, as you've just admitted, encouraging violent, narcissistic behaviours. It's no more an excuse than Usenet or D&D sessions. It's just, as you've noted, so many people prefer mindless entertainment from a computer than from the people they know.

    3. Re:Let's just admit it: it's just plain bad by lucasnate1 · · Score: 1

      I suspect that during the 50s-90s people wanted shallow friendships to stave off boredom. Today we have technologies that do it better than these friendships.

    4. Re:Let's just admit it: it's just plain bad by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

      Says the guy who likewise doesn't use his REAL, LEGAL NAME on Slashdot.
      Slashdot is not 'social media', no matter how many goddamned times you repeat it. It's a NEWS SITE with COMMENTING. You don't see people blogging about their goddamned vacation, or posting pics of their kids or pets or how swole they're getting at the gym, or whatever the hell it is people do on 'social media' these days. They post NEWS STORIES and we COMMENT on them. Not 'social media' by a longshot.

    5. Re:Let's just admit it: it's just plain bad by ScentCone · · Score: 1

      You seem awfully sensitive about this, as you express yourself socially to another user.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  7. Far from the only ones. by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

    The application of neuroscience is smartphone apps is ubiquitous among apps that make the makers money from the users continued use of said app. It doesn't matter if it's a game or social media app, they all apply neurological tricks to maximize how much money the user will fetch them. This is should not be news to you and if it is then you should reconsider owning a smartphone and participating in social media.

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  8. Working as Designed! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Spasibo, Zuckerberg.

  9. Correlation is not causation by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    Facebook doesn't know what it is talking about.

  10. Its supposed to make you feel important by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think the premise of Facebook was fine, make you feel connected to people even though they may be physically too far away. Share moments in time quickly with people. Then it became a social game to acquire as many people you barely know to make you feel important.
    Then it became the shout it out to the world fake news and extreme viewpoint site where people could gravitate to a comfort zone and demonize anyone else. Actually this isn't that different to a high school click although your much older, should be more mature and should want to absorb other points of view. The seedy parts of life have now infiltrated Facebook's of the internet and we just now begin to realize this fact.

  11. proof positive! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Facebook doesn't know what it is talking about.

    Check out the attention whore, posting something trollish to get attention.

    And SO STUPID, posting with their itdentity

    Proof positive that social media is rubbish. Is this how humans actually communicate? This cretin has all the space in the world to present a coherent argument to back up their claim, but apparently we're supposed to figure out what the fuck he's talking about.

    1. Re:proof positive! by hackwrench · · Score: 1

      Humans are just state machines overcoming their own personal paradoxes going from state to state until the end of eternity of which there is no end.

  12. NOT can be, DEADLY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  13. "depending on how they use it" by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    Just like everything else, thank you, that's all anybody needs to know. Just slap a label on it, like on the bottle of Drano.

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  14. Slashdot is different by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "90 percent of anything is shit" said the famous science fiction author. And so it is with social media.

    Slashdot, however, is different. Here we have a diverse but focused gathering of professionals, mostly in IT but also representing the sciences, math and other fields of engineering, who exchange valuable pieces of knowledge and insight learned from their careers. Sure, we do have a few bad apples, but those "troll" posts are quickly modded down.

  15. Facebook knows exactly how guilty it is by slshdtisctrldbysjws · · Score: 1

    Facebook was so invested in because its potential to break down society was realized by its big investors. It wasn't a shot in the dark with their billions of dollars. It wasn't a surprise that social media would transform our society. They knew what it was to become and it profits them immensely.
    Why do they want to break down society? Because they want to increase the level of control they have. Instead of programming society on the scale of groups, they want to control every atom; every individual, and open up new roads to exponentially more power.

    People always explain away things like this saying "well that's just what people want and the company is just giving them what they want and making money, so this isn't really bad, this is progress! There's no conspiracy! People are smart, they aren't so easily suckered into things! They know what's good!"

    The thing is that people are actually not that picky. They will accept just about ANY given solution for their basic needs as long as authority backs it consistently enough. So it becomes a question of what exactly we are progressing towards and who's interest it really is in.

    Humans are not some transcendent creature with the guarantee of self awareness and intellect and rationality because of how much inherently better they are than all other life on Earth. These are optional features supported by a certain way of life. If you take away the nuances from the human way of life, if you take away the culture that support these higher functions, people go into "backward compatibility mode"; they re-adapt to a simpler, savage, prehistoric world. Simply put they devolve.

    While most people don't know themselves well enough to see this, there are people who know this about humanity, and they know about it deeply. These people are leaders.
    Leaders either choose to try to raise people up to their own level of awareness or leaders choose to plunge people down so they can never rise up. Leaders choose either cooperation or enslavement.

    Humans are tribal creatures. They are beyond racist. They are beyond nepotistic. They will kill members of their own families who displease them. Humans are not only genocidal by default, they a fratricidal by default.
    We can see this at every point in our history. We can see this in our close relatives like the chimpanzee that continue to live a way of life that we departed from eons ago.

    Leaders cooperate and enslave in degrees. The closer you are to directly supporting the substance of the leader, that is, the more you share in common with the leader that you align with that leader's will, the more cooperation you will receive. The further, the more enslavement you will receive, up to the point that when your interests drift sufficiently you are immediately killed or otherwise neutralized.
    What this amounts to is simple: as time goes on you will only become more distant and unable to adapt to the leader. The leader's own will replace everyone else. Eventually you drift into the zone of no return in relation to a current leader and unless the leader changes, your line will end: you, your family, your children all die and there are no more children thereafter.
    Usually this takes a long time, so long that the diverse interests in the world shift and leaders change and most tribes survive at least long enough to make a compromise and intermingle with the dominant tribe. But things are becoming unusual: power is being consolidated on unprecedented scales with unprecedented stability, and it is making ever more exacting demands on its subjects as their numbers swell to challenge the Earth's ability to sustain them.
    Humanity's genocidal nature has risen to the surface.

    This all sounds very grim, until you consider the fact we've been up and down this situation for millions of years and have some pretty good solutions to the pitfalls and the problems that lead to them.
    All the machinery is in place for us to CHOOSE our own leaders. Are you choosing yours? Are you prepared to? Can you make yo

    --
    My karma was manually wiped by site staff https://slashdot.org/~slshdtisctrldbysjws 18 mod up, 10 mod down = bad karma
    1. Re: Facebook knows exactly how guilty it is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      predict zuckerberg 2024, then fb account becomes a law to id everyone

      facebook, we are soooooo stupid

    2. Re:Facebook knows exactly how guilty it is by smallfries · · Score: 1

      Its sad that nazis have infested every site this year. What do tou think about the release of the Daily Stormer media guide yesterday? Will it make your job easier or harder?

      --
      Slashdot: where don knuth is an idiot because he cant grasp the awesome power of php
    3. Re: Facebook knows exactly how guilty it is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You don't really need a law. As the whole of the internet becomes centralized, more and more services allow you to log in through a Facebook account. Yes, there are alternatives - for now - but they're becoming more and more a hassle to use. In the end, not having a Facebook account (not a Facebook profile, there's already one even if you don't want it, and there's nothing you can do about it) will mean being cut off the internet and services you depend on to live. No Facebook account, no job, no bank account, no... Nothing. It's coming. It's round the corner. It will happen. And there's nothing we can do. And when it's done... You will have to watch carefully what you say and do because a report will be enough to suspend your account or blacklist it and what do you do then? Imagine that: civil death because you think the wrong things. It will happen.

    4. Re:Facebook knows exactly how guilty it is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All that "release" was is a free job posting for Daily Stormer! What are they going to do take out a bunch of Craigslist ads in the creative writing section to hire freelance writers? No, but they don't need to anyways, since Buzzfeed just posted their job listing for free! It's the same way Trump played the media and for billions of dollars of free exposure by saying outrageous stuff. "Outrage" websites are big money makers because people want the adrenaline hit of seeing something shocking. Buzzfeed, Huffpo, etc. use it by reporting on outrageous stuff that people feel compelled to check everyday. Now Daily Stormer is using the same model, except they create the outrageous stuff themselves.

    5. Re:Facebook knows exactly how guilty it is by slshdtisctrldbysjws · · Score: 1

      So you read that entire thing and that's all you have to say? Why am I even supposed to be a nazi here? Why do you abuse yourself by reading something so long that you hate only to recoil in pain when you're done?

      --
      My karma was manually wiped by site staff https://slashdot.org/~slshdtisctrldbysjws 18 mod up, 10 mod down = bad karma
    6. Re:Facebook knows exactly how guilty it is by smallfries · · Score: 1

      Your username signals enough and I skimmed your rant. Pretty pathetic. At least the GNAA used to put the work in.

      --
      Slashdot: where don knuth is an idiot because he cant grasp the awesome power of php
    7. Re:Facebook knows exactly how guilty it is by slshdtisctrldbysjws · · Score: 1

      You obsess over narratives and labels because you perceive them as empowering, a way to avoid your personal weaknesses and confusions. You're moralizing your emotions. You're giving yourself no incentive to investigate matters or learn anything new. You're showing yourself the utmost disrespect in an attempt to fit into something you do not understand.

      You need to find religion and focus on your internal problems.

      --
      My karma was manually wiped by site staff https://slashdot.org/~slshdtisctrldbysjws 18 mod up, 10 mod down = bad karma
    8. Re:Facebook knows exactly how guilty it is by smallfries · · Score: 1

      Oh dear. Do you really think that somebody who has an account here for 20 years is going to fall for this shit? Kid, when you try to use NLP: 1. You need to understand who you are talking to in order to manipulate them. 2. A touch of subtlety is required, not this hamfisted mess. If you want to try to troll people on slashdot - you need to git gud first.

      Your attempts at argument are weak and unfocused. Can you not do any better than this? Perhaps your inability to reason is why you have sunken into this right-wing narrative. Do you not see that you are being manipulated and abused by those you are trying to impress?

      --
      Slashdot: where don knuth is an idiot because he cant grasp the awesome power of php
    9. Re:Facebook knows exactly how guilty it is by slshdtisctrldbysjws · · Score: 1

      You sound exactly like a bot.

      You are extremely sick. You have severe mental illness. You need religion. Get help.

      --
      My karma was manually wiped by site staff https://slashdot.org/~slshdtisctrldbysjws 18 mod up, 10 mod down = bad karma
    10. Re:Facebook knows exactly how guilty it is by smallfries · · Score: 1

      Oh dear, you ran out of steam so quickly. Projection is so boring. Troll harder.

      --
      Slashdot: where don knuth is an idiot because he cant grasp the awesome power of php
  16. The Pope himself admitted that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Pope himself has admitted some church attendance can be harmful. He apologized for child sex abuses by priests & Catholic orphanages.

  17. Keep it simple: It's a self control problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Facebook is merely a tool, which can be used for
    good or evil, and can be beneficial or harmful.

      This is a self control issue, nothing more.

    1. Re: Keep it simple: It's a self control problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      facebook contols humans like a bot. share away, and we actually facilitate the bot. throw in some news fake or not or whatever, and share away, we facilitate the bot. lemmings we are.

  18. Not the same thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hrm. Why do you think smoking meat in order to preserve them the same as inhaling smoke from herbs?