So does this apply to all social medias? (Threads, X, Bluesky, IG, etc) how come they didn’t have this evidence from their users well? Or maybe they didn’t bother to ask..

I suppose the harm from social networks is not as pronounced (since you generally interact only with people and content you opted to follow (e.g. Mastodon).

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api 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The harm is from designing them to be addictive. Anything intentionally designed to be addictive is harmful. You’re basically hacking people’s brains by exploiting failure modes of the dopamine system.

	▲	Ozzie_osman 6 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		If I remember correctly, other research has shown that it's not just the addictive piece. The social comparison piece is a big cause, especially for teenagers. This means Instagram, for example, which is highly visual and includes friends and friends-of-fiends, would have a worse effect than, say, Reddit.
	▲	SoftTalker 6 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		What about it being addictive by its nature? I find myself spending too much time on HN and there’s no algorithm driving content to me specifically.

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aprilthird2021 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I had a similar thought. I wonder if any social media on a similar scale as FB/IG would have the same problems and if it's just intrinsic to social media (which is really just a reflection of society where all these harms also exist)

	▲	isodev 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I think group chats (per interest gathering places) without incentives for engagement are the most natural and least likely to cause harm due to the exposure alone.