[tappio]

I feel content with my life and I'm genuinely happy when my friends accomplish something. I can't remember when I was seriously envious last time. Sometimes, there may be a moment when I feel slight envy, but then I realize that they decided to put effort into that, and I put my effort into something else. Time is limited. Everyone has problems; ups and downs.

I've mostly quit social media because the majority of active people are not interesting, it's full of ad-garbage and heated up debates about dis-interesting topics.

I guess I'm also in the 0.0001%. Though, I do think it's much higher than that. The dissatisfied people are just the most vocal.

[ss2003]

Hacker News is social media

[sodality2]

It's a news forum. Only loosely does it fit in "social media". Would you call reddit.com/r/technews or alike a "social media"?

[madeofpalk]

...yes. Reddit is a social media website. HN is a small, niche social media website.

[sodality2]

Okay, I suppose going by the strict definition of "social media", it does. The study cites "Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok" as examples, however.

Do you believe there is a fundamental difference between these sites, and something like HN (despite both being social media)? I feel like there is. I know this might come off as "I use the superior, intellectual site" or something like that (even though I use the other sites occasionally). But reading tech-related news and comments about it feels very different than scrolling through funny videos on TikTok.

I don't mean to say HN is any better in terms of mental health than either of the others - I spend more time on it than I really should. But I never leave it feeling depressed or jealous like I do on more common social media: I always feel like I learned something rather than watching a meme I'll forget in 30 seconds.

[sorry_outta_gas]

yes

[tappio]

I agree. I actually pointed out in another comment that the term social media does not make any sense. Everyone has a different definition of social media. We can't really generalize findings on all platforms. The studies focusing on social media are often missing that it does not really make any sense to use that word. Are Twitter and Facebook the same? Can we generalize findings on one to another? No we can't. Talking about "social media" this way does not make much sense. It also hides out the fact that in the end everything is about the internet and digital content, together forming the new mass medium which is actually the relevant unifying factor. I'm glad you picked that up!

[rmbyrro]

Come on folks, calling social something as nerdy as HN is hell of a stretch...

[mitchdoogle]

Nerds are some of the most social people - they love talking to other nerds