Instagram's Mental Health Emergency

[Shiloh]

Source: https://quillette.com/2021/10/04/instagram-and-the-teen-girl-mental-health/

Instagram's Mental Health Emergency
Claire Lehmann
04 Oct 2021

Facebook has recently paused the development of their “Instagram Kids” project after a whistleblower leaked internal documents showing that Facebook's own research finds a link between poor mental health and Instagram use. “We make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls,” said a slide in a presentation given to Facebook executives, “Teens blame Instagram for increases in the rate of anxiety and depression,” said another. Not surprisingly, the Wall Street Journal’s expose has led to a bipartisan backlash against Facebook, with law-makers, child advocates, psychologists, and users themselves describing the harmful effects of social media as the “public health issue of our time.”

For years psychologists have been warning the public that social media, and Instagram in particular, were contributing to large increases in depression and anxiety in teenagers, especially girls. Jean Twenge, psychology professor at San Diego State University whose research looks at generational trends found in very large data sets, described in her 2017 book, iGen, sharp decreases in behaviours that prepare young people for adulthood such as driving, dating, socialising at parties, and working...

 

[Emily]

I think this is more about politics and censorship than pediatric mental health. It is TackyTok that seems to be really ruining lives.

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/democrats-and-media-do-not-want-to
Democrats and Media Do Not Want to Weaken Facebook, Just Commandeer its Power to Censor

"Whistleblower" Frances Haugen is a vital media and political asset because she advances their quest for greater control over online political discourse. [TABLE="class: meta-author-wrap with-photo"]
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[TD]Glenn Greenwald
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[TD="class: post-meta-item post-date"]Oct 5[/TD]
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[sharon sanders]

bump this

 

[Mary Wilson]

New Facebook whistleblower emerges with claims on hate speech

Published: Oct. 23, 2021 at 2:38 p.m. ET
By Theo Wayt

The new whistleblower told the SEC that Facebook has constantly shrugged off concerns about hate speech and misinformation in pursuit of profit

A new Facebook whistleblower has reportedly emerged, dishing to US regulators that an official at the social network in 2017 blew off concerns about hate speech as a “flash in the pan,” adding that while “some legislators will get pissy” Facebook is “printing money in the basement.”

The new whistleblower told the Securities and Exchange Commission under penalty of perjury that the company has constantly shrugged off concerns about hate speech and misinformation in pursuit of growth, the Washington Post reported on Friday.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/n...merges-with-claims-on-hate-speech-11635014320

 

[Emily]

I think this is more about politics and censorship than pediatric mental health. It is TackyTok that seems to be really ruining lives.

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/dem...do-not-want-to
Democrats and Media Do Not Want to Weaken Facebook, Just Commandeer its Power to Censor

The first "whistleblower's" pro bono lawyer responded to Greenwald's article. He's clearly partisan and kind of snarky, IMO, but I really like Greenwald so could be biased. But Lessig's demeaning of elders really turned me off:

https://onezero.medium.com/glenn-gre...t-5a2f85c98dcf

(Note to us boomers (and almost-boomers like Glenn): don’t brag about your technical cluelessness; it makes you look like grandpa with the TV remote.)

Shame on him. Seniors are being targeted in vicious attacks in several US cities right now. Do we need Lessig encouraging the hate further? And he co-opts some really excellent work done by ProPublica a few years ago when they investigated Facebook's AI code that was promoting anti-Semitism. Once Facebook was made aware of this they corrected the code and ProPublica verified that. The system of true investigative journalism worked. No government or partisan censorship was needed. Here's the story:

https://www.propublica.org/article/f...ach-jew-haters

Better to support journalism like that, or Greenwald's efforts, than censorship.

 

[Shiloh]

Source: https://quillette.com/2021/10/26/public-health-crisis-or-media-moral-panic-experts/

Facebook: The New Big Tobacco or A Media Moral Panic?
Quilette 26 Oct 2021

Editor's note:

Former Facebook product manager turned whistleblower, Frances Haugen, recently testified before US Congress in what has been described as the biggest expose in Facebook's history. Central to Haugen's testimony has been the assertion that Facebook knows about the social, psychological, and political harms that its platform creates, yet fails to adequately mitigate these harms by adjusting its business model.

Quillette recently hosted Jonathan Haidt on the podcast, who discussed social media's potential to harm vulnerable teenagers, claims which were echoed in an article written by Claire Lehmann.

Yet other science journalists, such as Stuart Ritchie at Unherd, and John Tierney at City Journal, have argued that the case against social media, and Instagram in particular, is built on hype not science.

To dig further into the nuances of the issue, Quillette decided to survey a range of experts working in the areas of psychology, psychiatry, and mental health on their perceptions of Facebook's influence, and their interpretation of the data. What follows is intended to be a starting point for a longer discussion, as Quillette believes that the impact of social media may be one of the most important issues of the century...