Facebook and the Disintegration of the Human

Facebook and the Disintegration of the Human

Facebook...potential mental health warning/screening tool? Or a cause for some of the issues we're seeing in the first place?

In all honesty, I think the notion of even potentially using FB as a screening tool is silly, especially when there are so many obvious flaws and negative sociological and global impacts of it.

Welcome to the the decadent desensitized online present.

Thanks for the article and agree with you it wouldn't be a valid screening tool. I agree though with most of the other points. If online interaction is kept to a minimum its fine, but its way out of control for most people. I believe it causes desensitization and makes people less social overall. If someone can vent online, they're less likely to get support from their loved ones.

The other day I was in a medical clinic waiting room and 75 % were all on their devices including a 5 yr old. None of them were talking to each other. I've also noticed so many young people are completely out of shape. Its used to be you would only see muffin tops on the occasional obese teenager, but now its common place to see this even if the persons not overweight. Most people are slaves to their devices and they never take a break from letting others talk to them.

Facebook has some sick accounts and they don't care. I saw something disgusting that a 15 yr old girl supposedly did and she boasts how she gets to be on some extreme show because of her behavior. Weird gets more views and some people make fun of other peoples misfortune. The moral fiber is disintegrating, especially for young people.

Interesting article, here's a similar one I read recently about how the Internets making us crazy: Is the Internet Making Us Crazy? What the New Research Says - Newsweek and The Daily Beast

i agree.
deleting my facebook 3 years ago was the best thing i ever did for a few reasons. privacy. getting away from people i dont like or boastful people. away from usual societal crap that i didnt care about like latest fashions or music or films. stuff like that.

one of the worst things was seeing people post their REAL feelings about others and drama and about society. even scarier was seeing family i looked up to post derogatory crap. at the same time im sure they were scared of me in that sense.

at first it was hard because when you are connected that much to anyone it can be sometimes hard to let go. you know with a tv show or a book or something you have to wait for new content to come around. with people the convos and drama is fresh 24-7. i rarely talked on there but it was readin other peoples lives that made it interesting to me.

anyway.
so glad i detached myself from facebook.
facebook made me dumb.

I read an article on Yahoo! earlier today and then read the comments, and one comment was by a Facebook page about illegal immigration and a march on Washington. I went to check out the FB page, and can't say I was particularly shocked to see a lot of racist and rude comments, backwards ideas and just offensive things posted there. I agree with some of their points, but not all of their answers. How many of them who said what they said online would say it in person? I actually wouldn't be shocked to find many of them would admit it in the real world, but many wouldn't.

I love the Internet, but it's a whole new world.

yea also on that i noticed with facebook and the integration of facebook login on sites that include comments - that people arent afraid to show their real name and picture with their comment. as supposed to how having a username and no picture gave anonymity. it seems no one cares anymore. or majority doesnt. you know? im not sure of a place that doesnt allow signing up or logging in with facebook. ive actually couldnt even sign up on sites because it REQUIRED facebook.

and i wanted to second that about the racist comments. its literally become rampant on facebook the hate speech and hate pictures ive seen by people who post on facebook. about mexicans and obama pictures with the N word attached. and noose photos....
its very scary actually.

Huh. I read that editorial earlier this week and was just pondering whether to share it here.

I have to keep a Facebook account because my classmates have a group to share coursework and information, and my project manager and a non-profit I work with both prefer to get in touch via Facebook chat. But as of this Wednesday, I made a pact with myself: no more Facebook unless it's to reply to an important message. So no more surfing my friends' news feeds, no more "liking" and commenting on dumb stuff, and more importantly no more vitriol spewing myself (I used to be a Facebook activist and I shared a lot of causes from my community... well, no more of that).

Technology is making us less social and more prone to instant gratification. I really think Facebook is the foremost culprit in all this. But what can we do? Sure, a few of us sensible people can take it easy, but the majority of users won't. I'll be honest, it made me so mad to see girls in my list post a duckface self-shot and get 100+ likes while my causes only got a handful of likes and comments and they were a LOT more meaningful than a duckface shot... **sigh**

I find the internet in general to be very overwhelming, especially with the comments that people make. I think it reflects just how hateful, bigoted, and ignorant society is and it IS scary.

I have to avoid reading comments a lot of the time because it makes me feel like I want to have a panic attack.

I had trouble with Facebook because I was playing the games too much. So, I deleted 950+ of my "friends" needed to get to the highest level of the games I was playing and kept only those relatives and friends I actually knew or had other contact with, true friends. Now I go on facebook maybe once a month as I don't otherwise have contact with some of those people. I find it is a good tool for staying in touch long distance (time or physical distance) if e/snail mail isn't an option.

I only put my real name on Facebook because I thought I had to. I was reluctant, and I don't know why I felt it was required, and I wish I hadn't. That said, I'm somewhat careful what I post. I don't have but a couple of photos. I do say much of what I think, though, and I realize that could cost me a job in the future or others will judge me from my "likes" and comments. I'm okay with that, because people will do what they're going to do. People judge, simple as that. Even me. But some of us, when we judge, we try to keep an open mind. For instance, if I see that someone is talking about bestiality, I will be put off and think they're probably a pervert. However, I also try to remember there may be another reason they're discussing it. Maybe just curiosity, maybe research for something they're writing, whatever. I have bookmarks for weird stuff, and people might make judgments upon me based on them. I have fetish sites bookmarked, for instance, but I'm not actually into most fetishes. I just find "weird sex" interesting.

I think people tend to use FB as a scapegoat. People forget the newsfeed is what you choose it to be. You added those 'friends' then stand back and critise. If you want a healthier interaction, choose healthier friends perhaps? FB isn't doing anything TO YOU.

I don't know - but it is privacy issues that have always basically prevented me from using sites like that too much...Now if you can somehow obscure not just real life identity, but IP address as well (because IP can for sure trace back to an ISP - and from there you get someone.. And even so all "anonymous proxies servers" are only private after the proxie server - again go through the proxie servers logs, and you got a true IP address anyway. So maybe I might participate in such a thing, IF I personally hosted, so if my machine was not online, neither was the server.. Reason - then I literally control all the information, and could delete anything I want, and wipe it clean enough that if it were a military drive, they would be comfortably enough that there if nothing useful there - to just give that hard drive to Alquida. But if I don't do it myself, I don't know it's cleaned that good....
Now yes, the messages could still be copied before deleted, exc. My main thing though would not be to eliminate any message - it would be to make sure it's not possible to ever figure out the real life person that put it there.

i agree with the first line.

although - if someone has a healthy group of friends thats a godsend. to the max. no ones perfect - yes of course - but the fact is most people are really messed up in the head and/or have dependence issues. and dont necessarily have to have mental health issues to be this way. (but they supposedly say 1 in 5 do...so ).

for example i initially deleted anyone considered not family and had exclusively family for a year or two before i deleted mine. nothing changed.

Are you talking about Facebook, or Psych Central?

I am on Facebook (with a few friends and family) and -- I don't think I am disintegrating.

Of course you could say that I wouldn't know...

Hummm - good point - now wait a minute...THANK YOU VARY MUCH!!!



Just kidding.....

I stopped using FB for over a year. I could not stand to hear my cousin's daily pity party one more day. She was on FB all day and night complaining that her toddler did not behave and that she had no time for herself. Um, hello, maybe if you weren't of FB 16 hours a day maybe you could solve these issues. Then my brother started using it. It really is the best way to keep in touch with him, idk why. My friends on FB are limited to people I actually know with 2 PC friends as exceptions.

I do not understand why these young women in particular post their cell numbers with "text me I'm bored 1234567890." When my neice did it I DID text her! I asked her if she was crazy for posting her phone number where everyone and their friends (literally) could see it.

Lynn - I don't think a waiting room is a fair litmus test for society's problem with mobile devices. That is the ONLY time I actually use my cell to read yahoo news or surf the web. Sitting there waiting with nothing to do drives me insane. I would sit there and get more and more angry that you are late calling me back for my appointment. So now I find an interesting article and pass the time more peacefully.

FB has changed my opinion on some the friends I went to school with though. I really had no idea how racist, bigoted, and down right asinine they could be. These are people that I've known for nearly five decades. I had no idea they had these thoughts. I find it astounding. And several of them jump on and have this pack mentality, anything and everything is fair game. I had to do a serious purge after November. So which is an accurate reflection of who they are as a person? The jerk spouting ignorance or the person I thought I knew for years and years?

the jerk spouting ignorance.

let me say why i think so.
1. being on the internet and saying things allows people to be more honest even if they know you because they still dont have to say stuff to someones literal face.

2. if someone truly didnt feel what they post on there - i truly dont think theyd post it. itd be different if they even posted it once (sometimes! althought not all) but if they post racist/bigoted/prejudiced things repeatedly idk why that WOULDNT be an indicator that thats how they are. whether its ignorance or not.

In some cases I thought (at first, but it did not stop thus the purge) that it was that old HS mentality. Johnny says this so I'm going to also.

I don't know. FB can be handy, and it can be entertaining (the games) but I find it frustrating. I know my cousin uses it to manipulate her grandmother my favorite Aunt. She'll say "my medication is... I cannot afford that so it looks like I'll do without this month". A check is immediately in the mail. My Aunt is 74 years old and still works a full time job. My Aunt thinks that since my cousin never asks her for money (just complains about it daily of FB) it's not the same thing as asking her for money directly. I hear "poor Christy". My Aunt got her a job, $20 an hour job doing computer work at her own schedule (through another family member's business). Christy could not even bother doing that! She had no time! Um, Auntie, do you see all of those farmville announcements? She had time. I guess what it boils down to is that FB gives me too much information about people.

Did anyone even read the article....

Yes I have, why?

Truthfully, no. I usually do read articles and items mentioned in the first post, but I'll admit, I'm feeling lazy these days, and did not.

I don't do much on Facebook these days. I have too many friends to keep up with, even though I keep "Liking" things. It's just not possible to keep up with all the posts from all the people and pages you can sign up with. I like it for keeping up with my family and friends; however, I don't see many posts by them, because I'm overwhelmed by all the other posts. I see posts about animals needing homes, lost pets, and other sad stuff like that, and I usually share, but I find it tedious, because there's so many. I want to help, but I want to do something creative, and spending time on FB (and PC ) takes away from that.

I started reading the article, but immediately realized that the author is not aware of the self-selection bias problem. So I stopped. You cannot opine on such things without first acknowledging the issue of self-selection.

In regards to FB, I absolutely love it because it makes me findable on the web, and I have recovered the connection with my friend whom I have known since age 4, but lost touch with in 2008. She found me in January. The connection is REAL - we now talk on the phone and I will visit her in May (she lives in Chicago). The FB was used as a TOOL to reconnect. This girlfriend found ME, via FB. I myself have found an old friend, whom I lost touch with in 1997 (have already visited her in another state and talk on the phone etc. - so the connection is REAL and FB was used as a TOOL but not as a substitute for a REAL connection).

I have tinkered with GMAIL to filter out alerts about posts, photographs, and all kind of stuff that I am not interested in, in an effort to save time.

In other words, FB is a tool that can be used selectively to your advantage. Nobody is compelled to read posts that they do not want to read, etc. FB has lots of capabilities (I am not aware of most of them), so it should be possible to selectively use the beneficial capabilities (whatever they are and that would vary from user to user) while not wasting time on useless or harmful capabilities.

I can see though how someone would find no capabilities beneficial and then decide to delete the account.

I also like that FB notifies me of birthdays. This way, I do not need to use Google Calendar to send me reminders of birthdays anymore. I think it is rather nice and it saves me time (no need to set up reminders). Plus, it notifies me even of those birthdays that I was not personally aware of.

All of that is nice, in my opinion.

I wish that they would stop changing those tools on what seems like a daily basis. I used to be able to "silence" people. This eliminated the "why did you delete me from FB" conversation. I could live in peace without hearing the crap. Then I go to use that option and it is not there. My daughter told me that it still exists, you have to go to their page, do this, that and the other.

Which brings up an interesting point that I've never thought of before. Irl, I have no problem walking away from a conversation that I do not enjoy. But on FB, with my limited knowledge, I have to scroll past it. It's not always unpleasant things, sometimes its those dumb shares that everyone except me needs to do. I don't need to post this as my profile picture to prove that I'm against animal cruelty, child abuse, or that I love my husband.

Recently people have been posting things "help me find this person." I find that extremely troubling. If I do not want Jack the Ripper to know where I am, I don't need my friend from the third grade piping up saying "Oh, I know where she lives, 1234 Main Street" and get a warm fuzzy feeling that she's helped reunite long lost friends. People do not seem to realize the full impact of their actions online.