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Facebook knows Instagram is toxic for teen girls, company documents show

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Re: Facebook knows Instagram is toxic for teen girls, company documents show

#221

Post by ggggtez »

joelbluminator wrote: post #14

Is it Facebook / Instagram's fault or us as a culture? As a culture we adore beauty, wealth, power...Facebook seems to be just a platform where our natural desires can have a play. Facebook hasn't created this impossible beauty ideal, it was created long long ago by Hollywood and the fashion industry. Facebook just makes it super easy for people to become obsessed with something by "connecting" with it. It used to be…

Implying that Facebook/Instagram isn't our culture.

It's one and the same.

Re: Facebook knows Instagram is toxic for teen girls, company documents show

#223

Post by mrgreenfur »

jhardy54 wrote: post #205
J-dawg wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand how you could read the parent comment and decide that it's "blaming" teen girls, unless you are deliberately arguing in bad faith. Teenage girls are predisposed to behave in the way described, and Facebook/Instagram is profiting by exploiting that. Nothing about the explanation above is blaming them. If anything the comment makes a stronger case for Facebook's actions being immoral.

> Teenage girls are predisposed to behave in the way described, and Facebook/Instagram is profiting by exploiting that. Has this been studied, or are we taking an arbitrary thought experiment as a foundational axiom?

Agreed. SOME may behave this way, but without more info who are we to say that they "are predisposed" in general. Teenage years are very hard for tons of reasons mentioned above and the way people handle those stresses comes down to tons of factors, support systems, upbringing, context, culture, etc.

Facebook is immorally exploiting that stress.

Re: Facebook knows Instagram is toxic for teen girls, company documents show

#224

Post by franga2000 »

gilbetron wrote: post #197
spockz wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This shows how a statement can be factually true and completely disingenuous at the same time. Yes 1/3 are effected badly but we just say that it can have positive effects. Just omitting the fact that it often has a detrimental effect…

Yes, a nuclear bomb explosion can be bad, but there is a case where someone had a tree knocked down that they were going to have to pay to get cut down, so nuclear bombs can have positive effects!

This is also disingenuous, since they could've gotten the tree cut down without the nuke and so the nuke has no "exclusive" positive value. Social networks have some positive value that is exclusive to them, like the ability for people to connect with friends as well as diverse groups of strangers - both things that would otherwise be much harder if not impossible for many.

Re: Facebook knows Instagram is toxic for teen girls, company documents show

#225

Post by akeck »

earthscienceman wrote: post #98

I'll make a comment that tries to be different than the range of criticism here already. Instagram is toxic for everyone . For reasons too personal to put here, I've been pretty depressed and dysfunctional lately and I've unintentionally discovered the experience of doomscrolling. The output of the instagram algorithm is absolutely terrifying. It has the perfect metrics (swipe time, profile browsing, etc etc) to prey…

I've developed a healthier way to use IG for myself. I follow only a small number of artists in the particular fields of art in which I'm interested and I keep my accounts private. As a result, I'm limited in what's available for scrolling and the 10 or so people who like and comment on my art I know are actually interested and very likely not bots.

Re: Facebook knows Instagram is toxic for teen girls, company documents show

#226

Post by afavour »

aspaviento wrote: post #206
wussboy wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a personal grudge against anyone saying "Why don't the parents take some responsibility to combat a multi-billion dollar company who puts the resources of small countries in to making their children behave in detrimental ways." But I'll not get in to that. :) Facebook and Instagram are drug dealers. Sure, they're not physically distributing a substance, but the social interactions they provide are every bit as…

> I have a personal grudge against anyone saying (...) There is no need to have any grudge against me (I hope). I get it. I never said being a parent is an easy job. I acknowledge how hard it is but... > Facebook and Instagram are drug dealers If you teach your kids not to consume drugs, why Instagram should be any different?

> If you teach your kids not to consume drugs, why Instagram should be any different?

Imagine if all the other kids at school used drugs on a daily basis, that there was advertising plastered everywhere telling you that drugs are cool, that successful people use drugs and that your worth in this world can be directly tied to successful use of drugs.

I don't mean to sound mean here, but are you a parent? If not I suspect you're not really aware of the realities of parenting, particularly once a child becomes teenage. You can only do so much. And you certainly can't win against a multi-billion dollar enterprise determined to make your rebellion-inclined teenager do something.

Re: Facebook knows Instagram is toxic for teen girls, company documents show

#228

Post by aspaviento »

wussboy wrote: post #218
aspaviento wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have a personal grudge against anyone saying (...) There is no need to have any grudge against me (I hope). I get it. I never said being a parent is an easy job. I acknowledge how hard it is but... > Facebook and Instagram are drug dealers If you teach your kids not to consume drugs, why Instagram should be any different?

Sorry, I agree my grudge comment came off hard. No offence I hope?

No offence, I understood from where you came.

Re: Facebook knows Instagram is toxic for teen girls, company documents show

#229

Post by everdrive »

tubby12345 wrote: post #198
JohnWhigham wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% on the money. People will gnash their teeth because they don't like the truth being told out loud. It's the same reason why online dating is completely fucked up: incentives are completely different for men and women. Women hold access to sex (which men want), men hold access to relationships (which women want). The problem is that each wants completely different demographics; women generally want older secure m…

>100% on the money. yea this random comment on a random tech site about evolutionary biology passes the smell test why? oh is it because of preconceived notions and biases rather than rigorous argumentation (i.e. well cited and published research)? hmmm

The tone of your comment is not helpful, but the factual claim you've made is definitely correct. This is something that I think seems reasonable, yes. But I am not a biologist, and no one (as far as I'm aware) has made any attempts to scientifically test my claim. At best, we have to call this a plausible idea. At worst, of course, it's not even that.

Re: Facebook knows Instagram is toxic for teen girls, company documents show

#230

Post by josho »

joelbluminator wrote: post #29
tw04 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's their fault. An individual girl in 1995 who was concerned with her looks had at most a couple dozen people in her life to judge her. In 2021 it's hundreds of millions, and a large portion are more than happy to spout things they would NEVER say in real life. Does society value beauty? Sure. Do models set "unrealistic expectations"? Sure. Are some high school girls assholes to other girls? Absolutely. But once up…

> and a large portion are more than happy to spout things they would NEVER say in real life This is pretty much an internet problem, not a Facebook problem. The things people say to each other on forums or Twitter or Facebook, especially when anonymous (but not always), are quite often horrendous.

Facebook is the business that enables this problem on their platform. This problem could disappear overnight if Facebook decided to moderate their platform. Facebook chooses profitability over a safe platform for their users. This is where regulatory bodies should step in.

And yes we need regulatory help. Tens of millions in this country are experiencing mental health issues as a result of these platforms. When we understood that other industries were causing a health crisis we regulated them, the same needs to occur here.

Note. I don't know what the regulatory solution should be, but we should be having that discussion.

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