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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

#271
It really blows my mind that there isn't a larger pushback against social media. I do see it here on HN occasionally, but I rarely encounter anyone in the real world that has a strong anti-social media stance. Even then, it tends to be more of an anti-facebook-as-a-company stance. There are outspoken groups for just about every real or perceived social ill, but I don't see it for social media. Maybe it is there, and I'm just not in the demographic of folks that hear about it.

I speak to a lot of folks in certain religious circles about it. A lot of the things the Church is typically against seems to be perpetuated by it--suicide, pornography, materialism. This is the same group of people that were vocally against rock music, drinking, sex, and D&D at various times in the past. The reaction seems to be "yeah, social media sucks" returns to scrolling on phone. My guess is that it's now such a foundational part of modern culture that it's impossible to avoid. It'd be like trying to live without automobiles, which requires an almost monastic dedication to the cause.

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

#272

Facebook is an accelerant. The movie "Mean Girls" largely predated social media and highlighted many of the same issues. This seems to be a pretty ingrained issue, although I think most people agree that Facebook makes it worse. Here's a theory that's nearly guaranteed to land me in hot water: Why are young girls so awful to each other? I don't think it's unreasonable to suspect that is has to do with "hormones," new…

As a society we do a poor job helping children mature. We put them in environments where their models for behavior are peers instead of well-adjusted and behaved adults. So we end up with Lord of the Flys writ large. Many of the children-peer-models come from broken families, with significantly reduced ability to learn from stable well-adjusted adults. Worse, often their basic needs aren't being fully met, and they act out (bully, etc).

We need fewer systems that put children (especially younger children) in situations where they are primarily interacting with and modeling the behavior of other children. This includes both our education and digital social systems.

Some children have active and involved home and family lives. This helps. Some get more favorable interactions and time with teachers, this can help. Some find positive models in media (books and movies) and can help, but media is often negative.

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

#273
post #175

Facebook is an accelerant. The movie "Mean Girls" largely predated social media and highlighted many of the same issues. This seems to be a pretty ingrained issue, although I think most people agree that Facebook makes it worse. Here's a theory that's nearly guaranteed to land me in hot water: Why are young girls so awful to each other? I don't think it's unreasonable to suspect that is has to do with "hormones," new…

Your theory seems backwards. Cut-throat competition for mating opportunities should be a strategy for the least desirable, who have the greatest need to compete for the scarce resource. If you're top of the desirability scale, you are the scarce resource, and your job is to discern the best suitor amongst the many who put themselves forward.

But when you are in a competition even if you are nr. 1 you still have to defend the position so you still need to cut some throats.

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

#274
post #154
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are "bending the truth" which is per definition "to say something that is not true or that misleads people but that is usually not regarded as a serious or harmful lie"...

A half truth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-truth

A 2/3rds truth

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

#275
post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These companies are always going to want to hold our attention but it's us at the end of the day who decide to give them our attention. I think as a society we need to prove that we are smarter than these companies and are capable of discipline and self-control. In corporate america, it's hard for me to see any private owned corporation doing what's in best interest for the public versus their own pockets.

> I think as a society we need to prove that we are smarter than these companies and are capable of discipline and self-control. Kind of like how we said that the answer to alcohol & tobacco was to show self-control, not restrict sales and advertising? Expecting people to go one on one against enormous companies’ profit motives is a recipe for failures.

Except that this is not alcohol or tobacco, this is a digitized version of a free attention grabbing tabloid customized to the person's "interests" is always available to view at their desire. To me this makes it difficult to regulate as it's not purely based on the amount of consumption, it's based on the content you consume.

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

#276
post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> relaxed gun laws make it easier for criminals to shoot people A little O/T, but this trope needs to please stop. The places with the highest gun crimes are also the places with the toughest gun laws. It should go without saying that criminals without definition would not care about laws.

> The places with the highest gun crimes are also the places with the toughest gun laws Only in America. Other western nations have tough gun laws and also low gun crime, because you can't hop in your car and pick up a gun in a neighbouring state. And actually the correlation is only seen in parts of America. New York City has tough gun laws, comparatively low gun crime and a lower homicide rate per capita than the r…

> because you can't hop in your car and pick up a gun in a neighbouring state.

You can’t do this in America either. You can only buy guns legally in your state of residence.

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

#277

Facebook is an accelerant. The movie "Mean Girls" largely predated social media and highlighted many of the same issues. This seems to be a pretty ingrained issue, although I think most people agree that Facebook makes it worse. Here's a theory that's nearly guaranteed to land me in hot water: Why are young girls so awful to each other? I don't think it's unreasonable to suspect that is has to do with "hormones," new…

Does the evolutionary answer to "why are young girls awful to each other" matter? How does it inform our product design to make tech healthier for teenagers?

We already know this is a vulnerable group, and that teen girls have tendencies to compare themselves with peers. Putting a 24/7 stream of perfect, curated, retouched posts from friends in front of all of them seems obviously not ideal.

edit: I may be giving a gut reaction to seeing up-voted amateur evolutionary psychology

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

#278
If this is the principle we should abolish the Forbes rich list to secure the mental health of teen boys and young adults.

The 0.00001%ers are out there, in any realm of life. The genie is out of the bottle and it's not about social media, people are curious about extremely rare things, so they'd be digging them out on blogs and vlogs if social media didn't exist.

The answer to make people feel better isn't to censor the 0.00001%ers but to show them that they are monodimensional individuals who excel at that particular thing and are world class bad at others

See Bill Gates entrepreneurial abilities vs. social skills

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

#279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Their attractiveness also dwindlew with time First, young boys are certainly competitive with each other. Bullying is largely about social status, and social status is the main predictor for mate choice. Second, male attractiveness does not follow the same pattern. Yes, sperm quality does degrade with age, but that decline is nowhere near as sharp as the decline in a woman's reproductive health. Not only will their…

Which studies are your claims based on?

All of them?

For an intro: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_attractiveness

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

#280

It really blows my mind that there isn't a larger pushback against social media. I do see it here on HN occasionally, but I rarely encounter anyone in the real world that has a strong anti-social media stance. Even then, it tends to be more of an anti-facebook-as-a-company stance. There are outspoken groups for just about every real or perceived social ill, but I don't see it for social media. Maybe it is there, and…

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