Hawaii And Other States Sue Meta For Knowingly Hurting Teens
Studies consistently show that the more often teens use Instagram, the worse their overall well-being, self-esteem, life satisfaction, mood and body image.
Forty-one states and the District of Columbia on Tuesday, alleging that the company intentionally designed Facebook and Instagram with features that harm teens and young users.
Meta officials had internal research in March 2020 showing that Instagram 鈥 the social media platform after TikTok 鈥 is harmful to teen girls鈥 body image and well-being. But the company swept those findings under the rug to continue conducting business as usual, according to a Sept. 14, 2021, . The report was based on documents provided by .
Meta鈥檚 record of pursuing profits regardless of documented harm has sparked comparisons to Big Tobacco, which but publicly denied it into the 21st century. Those of us didn鈥檛 need a suppressed internal research study to know that Instagram can harm teens. Plenty of peer-reviewed research papers .
Understanding the impact of social media on teens is important because almost all teens go online daily. A Pew Research Center poll shows that .
Teens are than any other social media site except TikTok. It is a ubiquitous part of adolescent life. Yet studies consistently show that , the worse their overall well-being, self-esteem, life satisfaction, mood and body image. One study found that the more that college students used Instagram on any given day, the . Meta has taken steps to make Instagram less harmful to teens, but experts say the changes are not enough.
Unhealthy Comparisons
But Instagram isn鈥檛 problematic simply because it is popular. Two key features of Instagram seem to make it particularly risky. First, it allows users to follow both celebrities and peers, both of whom can present a manipulated, filtered picture of an unrealistic body along with a highly curated impression of a perfect life.
While all social media allows users to be selective in what they show the world, Instagram is notorious for its photo editing and filtering capabilities. Plus, the platform is popular among celebrities, models and influencers. Facebook has been relegated to the uncool soccer moms and grandparents. For teens, this seamless integration of celebrities and retouched versions of real-life peers presents a ripe environment for upward social comparison, or comparing yourself to someone who is 鈥渂etter鈥 in some respect.
People, as a general rule, look to others to know how to fit in and judge their own lives. Teens are especially vulnerable to these social comparisons. Just about everyone can remember worrying about fitting in in high school. Instagram exacerbates that worry. It is hard enough to compare yourself to a supermodel who looks fantastic (albeit filtered); it can be even worse when the filtered comparison is Natalie down the hall.
Negatively comparing themselves to others of others鈥 seemingly better lives and bodies. Recently, researchers even tried to combat this effect by .
It didn鈥檛 work. Negative comparisons, which were nearly impossible to stop, still led to envy and lowered self-esteem. Even in studies in which participants knew the photos they were shown on Instagram were retouched and reshaped, adolescent girls still after viewing them. For girls who tend to make a lot of social comparisons, these effects are even worse.
Objectification And Body Image
Instagram is also risky for teens because its emphasis on pictures of the body leads users to focus on how their bodies look to others. My colleagues鈥 and my research shows that for teen girls 鈥 and increasingly teen boys 鈥 thinking about their own bodies as the object of a photo , and that leads to feeling shame about their bodies. Just taking a selfie to be posted later makes them feel worse about how they look to others.
Being an object for others to view doesn鈥檛 help the 鈥渟elfie generation鈥 feel empowered and sure of themselves 鈥 it can do exactly the opposite. These are not insignificant health concerns, because body dissatisfaction during the teen years is a powerful and consistent .
Meta has what researchers have been documenting for years: Instagram can be harmful to teens. by repeatedly talking to their teens about the difference between appearance and reality, by encouraging their teens to interact with peers face-to-face, and to use their bodies in active ways instead of focusing on the selfie.
The big question will be how Meta handles these damaging results. History and the courts have been less than forgiving of the head-in-the-sand approach of Big Tobacco.
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