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Comment by cute_boi | Hacker News Reader

Yes, few people probably aren't affected by social media just like smoking & drinking. But from my personal experience many people really feel jealous/unhappy/lonely when they look on false reality. And, those influencer really makes everything worst.

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For me it’s not the fake people showing off, it’s all the news, drama and doom. And arguably it’s all irrelevant anyway. As an Australian, if I had known nothing about Ukraine, BLM protests, Trump, Kyle Rittenhouse, etc, my life would be no bit worse or less informed. It would probably be a bit better. But if I check social media it’s just a non stop stream of crap.

That's a weird mix of contemporary events to mention together.

This is the kind of stuff that ends up filling my news feed. None of it has ever had any real effect on my life but it all seems to get equal feed real estate on reddit/twitter

Unsure about that.. I don't think Australia has been isolated from the rippling effects of price increases of grain and energy, that is one effect of the war in Ukraine. Probably not as much affected as many other countries, but I think you would still import products from countries where these effects are significant, and which have had to raise their prices due to it.

But none of that is likely to be actionable information for them.

It's like hearing that meteor is going to kill us all tomorrow and there is nothing you can do. Sure, it's going to affect you, but your life isn't going to be any better if you know.

It's just pointless anxiety.

Certainly, if you only want to hear about actionable information, you can strike out most of news all together. You can pick up a history book in 30 years to read up on what was happening in the world. Perhaps you will be happier for it, I don't know.

If you only want actionable information, why bother reading a history book?

Questioning "why know things" is a weird take on HN, which is itself a news aggregator.

This is called uninformed voter - the one that votes on what went on 100 years ago, but ignores what contemporary parties and politicians actually do.

For the record, I did skipped news entirely for few years. Yes, I did not knew about some things that may be stressful to know about. I was also dumb af when it came to voting or just generally having opinion on what is going on. This sort of person is super easy to manipulate, because missing context accumulates. So I do read them ever since, because I dont want to be that kind of voter.

Politics: it is what most impacts your life, yet you cannot change it, at all.

> Politics: it is what most impacts your life,

Doubt that. I’ve lived through some changes of the ruling party in my current country, the only changes I’ve observed were: 1) would taxes be 49.9% or 50.1%, 2) in which exact foreign country our military will be waging or supporting another useless war.

Compare that to the price of the stock of your company…

> yet you cannot change it, at all.

Oh, you can. I’ve changed the politics around me twice already: 1) I’ve participated in overthrowing the government- result was good for me, but not so good for the whole country, 2) I’ve swapped a country - that worked dramatically good, both for me and my new country. So use recipe 1 with extreme caution, but recipe 2 looks safe to recommend.

There was one president recently who didn’t start a new war (first president in 40 years) but I was told that he was “dangerous”.

True. But looking back - was that rather unusual change in politics, including no new wars started, something that “most impacted your life”?

No idea what you are trying to say or ask.

I don't know what country you're based on, but in my country there are huge differences in legislation between legislatures of right or left parties.

Regarding impact, no, you individually have not changed a single thing. A single person in a protest or a single vote simply has no impact.

Changing country is one way to take control, but I would argue that the politics itself are unaffected.

> in my country there are huge differences in legislation between legislatures of right or left parties.

Really? Somewhere in Europe? But I still doubt that these differences are something that “most impacts your life”. Let’s compare with the stock price of the company you are working in, e.g.

Yes Europe. Yea maybe that's true, and you also have almost zero impact on that, unless you're CEO or something :)

As someone out of Asia, the information the previous poster mentioned has near zero relevance to me. Barely any ripples from the events happening with the topics mentioned.

But still for some reason my feed is flooded with that news and it feels like there is a lot pressure to take a stand on topics I neither understand nor care about.

Social Media feels suffocating at times, it is like teenage peer pressure multiplied by a factor of 100.

I think this is less social media problems and more American cultural hegemony problems, especially in English-language media of all types.

Ukraine specifically is even bigger news issue in Europe. The closer to Ukraine, the bigger, unless you are Belarus or some such.

Reports on price increases on grain and energy is not the same as minute details on troop movements and artillery hits or interviews with various retired US generals and former Russian officials.

The price increases started before the invasion and have more to do with the printing of money during corona. But people forget quickly, despite social media.

Yeah you need to start over if you plan to continue using social media at all

You’re stuck in a filter bubble thats irrelevant to you

If you start over, dont follow the same people, dont import your contacts, dont give it the same phone number, even for one time passcodes, dont use the same email address

If you're in the US, you'd be highly attuned to these events and putting them together would be a striking dissonance. But really the common trait of these events is that they are widely reported by US media but aren't really consequential or actionable to an ordinary person anywhere else in the world (excluding the war in Ukraine, which is also consequential in parts of Europe).

I switched my Twitter Trends location to Falkland Islands and my feed to "Latest Tweets". I guess this technically now is a filter bubble, but I don't feel like I have the obligation to expose myself to algorithmic content and its generated outrage.

Simply mute people who post the crap. Or use more localized social media.

Part of the problem is I do get sucked in to the drama really. There is nothing really of value on twitter other than drama.

Twitter is great if you are interested in breaking news on specific topics. Most people aren’t though.

Twitter is terrible for discussions, so there I agree with Joe Rogan: “never look at the comments”.

When I was a kid and new to FB, someone told me to check the comments on the meme pages. They used to be funny and I thought that I had been missing out. So I made a habit of checking comments of all the posts.

Now it is a cesspool of trolls everywhere.

Now checking comments used to generate so many negative emotions in me that I have told myself the same - "never look at the comments". I feel happier now.

"Never read the comments" is much older than Joe Rogan.

I used to think this was silly advice but every day I only agree with it more and more.

Something about online comments (twitter in particular) gives off the vibe that they're more reactions than well thought out comments.

Tabloid magazines that only talk about the rich and celebrities have always been super popular which also makes people depressed. I think this is nothing new with social media.

A printed magazine doesn't have the doomscrolling ability of social media apps. The same effect, but a magnitude smaller dosage.

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