Facebook knows Instagram hurts teen girls but publicly downplays concerns: report

[Bootes Void]

https://nypost.com/2021/09/14/facebook-knows-instagram-hurts-teen-girls-but-downplays-concerns-report/

Facebook has conducted internal studies that found Instagram is harmful to teen girls and exacerbates body image issues, anxiety and depression — even though the company’s executives have publicly extoled the mental-health benefits of social media, a new report says.

Facebook for the past three years has been conducting studies into how its Instagram app affects its millions of young users, repeatedly finding that it’s toxic for many of them, especially teenage girls, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing internal documents.

“Thirty-two percent of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse,” the researchers reportedly wrote in a March 2020 presentation.

“We make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls,” another slide from 2019, summarizing research about teen girls who experience the issues read.

“Teens blame Instagram for increases in the rate of anxiety and depression,” said another slide, according to the Journal. “This reaction was unprompted and consistent across all groups.”

Among teens who reported having suicidal thoughts, 13 percent of British users and 6 percent of American users said the desire to kill themselves came from Instagram, one presentation reportedly showed.

The research has been reviewed by top Facebook executives, the Journal reported, and was cited in a 2020 presentation given to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, according to the documents.

But Zuckerberg has repeatedly declined to make Facebook’s internal research on the effects of its platform on young users public for lawmakers and academic researchers.

[It’s so Joever]

What? Having an app where people are incentivized to show off the best of their lives and pretend they are better than everyone else is going to have problematic effects on the youth? Noooo.

[Horus]

Instagram itself isn't the problem, it's those damn face filters. Norway banned them.

[Fight for Trump]

What? Having an app where people are incentivized to show off the best of their lives and pretend they are better than everyone else is going to have problematic effects on the youth? Noooo.

Yes, I use the update thread for that instead.

[GP270watch]

 Social media is problematic, as a whole it seems right now the bad is far outweighing the good.

[John Dule]

wow how dare mark zuckerberg go around to all these girls' homes and force them at gunpoint to use instagram until they get depressed. this says a lot about our society

[Fight for Trump]

wow how dare mark zuckerberg go around to all these girls' homes and force them at gunpoint to use instagram until they get depressed. this says a lot about our society

Well, beverage companies don't force customers to drink alcohol, but they do have responsibilities to curb their product design and marketing that might lead people to alcohol abuse or drunk driving.

[Ferguson97]

wow how dare mark zuckerberg go around to all these girls' homes and force them at gunpoint to use instagram until they get depressed. this says a lot about our society

Come on, I know you're smarter than this.

[John Dule]

wow how dare mark zuckerberg go around to all these girls' homes and force them at gunpoint to use instagram until they get depressed. this says a lot about our society

Well, beverage companies don't force customers to drink alcohol, but they do have responsibilities to curb their product design and marketing that might lead people to alcohol abuse or drunk driving.

They shouldn't.

[DaleCooper]

wow how dare mark zuckerberg go around to all these girls' homes and force them at gunpoint to use instagram until they get depressed. this says a lot about our society

Zuckerberg and the techies responsible for these sites say a lot about how little humanity is in this industry. What says a lot about our society is that millions of parents allow their children to use these pretty obviously horrible apps and then demand the government impose invasive regulations of online communication so that the parents don't have to parent anymore.

wow how dare mark zuckerberg go around to all these girls' homes and force them at gunpoint to use instagram until they get depressed. this says a lot about our society

Well, beverage companies don't force customers to drink alcohol, but they do have responsibilities to curb their product design and marketing that might lead people to alcohol abuse or drunk driving.

They shouldn't.

Do you think that bars should be able to sell alcoholic beverages to children?

[emailking]

Other than shutting down Instagram I don't know what you can do. But I do think people should not use filters to make themselves look thinner or more attractive, at least not without disclosing they're using that.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

wow how dare mark zuckerberg go around to all these girls' homes and force them at gunpoint to use instagram until they get depressed. this says a lot about our society

Well, beverage companies don't force customers to drink alcohol, but they do have responsibilities to curb their product design and marketing that might lead people to alcohol abuse or drunk driving.

They shouldn't.

At a certain point negative externalities, or any externalities for that matter, from millions and millions of individual consumer decisions become everybody's problem. I know you know this, you just take it as an article of, dare I say it?, faith that policymakers shouldn't care.

[DaleCooper]

Other than shutting down Instagram I don't know what you can do. But I do think people should not use filters to make themselves look thinner or more attractive, at least not without disclosing they're using that.

It's a societal sickness. There's no way to legislate it away.

[emailking]

Yeah I don't think there should be legislation.

[Fight for Trump]

wow how dare mark zuckerberg go around to all these girls' homes and force them at gunpoint to use instagram until they get depressed. this says a lot about our society

Well, beverage companies don't force customers to drink alcohol, but they do have responsibilities to curb their product design and marketing that might lead people to alcohol abuse or drunk driving.

They shouldn't.

I think you got bad Google Maps directions. The Libertarian Party convention is that way.

[Ferguson97]

wow how dare mark zuckerberg go around to all these girls' homes and force them at gunpoint to use instagram until they get depressed. this says a lot about our society

Well, beverage companies don't force customers to drink alcohol, but they do have responsibilities to curb their product design and marketing that might lead people to alcohol abuse or drunk driving.

They shouldn't.

Do you unironically believe the “only responsibility is to their shareholders” line…?

[Beet]

Teen girls get depressed, shareholders get money. Sounds about right.

[John Dule]

wow how dare mark zuckerberg go around to all these girls' homes and force them at gunpoint to use instagram until they get depressed. this says a lot about our society

Well, beverage companies don't force customers to drink alcohol, but they do have responsibilities to curb their product design and marketing that might lead people to alcohol abuse or drunk driving.

They shouldn't.

At a certain point negative externalities, or any externalities for that matter, from millions and millions of individual consumer decisions become everybody's problem. I know you know this, you just take it as an article of, dare I say it?, faith that policymakers shouldn't care.

Regardless of whose problem it is, that doesn't change the fact that the company is not responsible for people who overuse their product.