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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

#641

Post by modriano »

joelbluminator wrote: post #323
yunohn wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re probably confused because you’re speaking quite generally, while most of us here are commenting after reading the article: > “They came to the conclusion that some of the problems were specific to Instagram, and not social media more broadly. That is especially true concerning so-called social comparison, which is when people assess their own value in relation to the attractiveness, wealth and success of other…

I am not confused, the article is under a paywall so probably lots of people only read the tite, like me. But feel free to skip my comments of course.

You can often get past a paywall by plugging the URL to the paywalled article into the wayback machine. In fact, the top comment (at least in my HN reader) is just an archive link to the article.

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

#642

Post by ipaddr »

standardUser wrote: post #560
ipaddr wrote: post #539

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People do mock other people for being Christian or for a political belief. Nothing has changed but the bullies are now using the power of social media and the press to amply that bullying. The bullying continues to employers or schools, groups, friends. Same as it ever was.

It's certainly not the same as it ever was. I think you're missing the distinction between "punching up" and "punching down". Punching up - taking aim at dominant power structures - is a necessary part of social advancement. Punching down is just cruel. Punching down used to be encouraged and celebrated, now it isn't, and some people are mad that they can't get away with it any longer.

Are you sure it's not celebrated? The poor rural folks often are a target. Christains.. anti-vaxxers.

What has changed is you are part of the group punching down but you think you are punching up.

It always happens this way. That other group is always: wrong, dangerous, not like us and any action against them is justified.

Seen it, heard it before. The interesting part is when the groups switch and people still think they are an underdog.

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

#643

Post by fortran77 »

bthrn wrote: post #104
fortran77 wrote: post #57

> “When I went on Instagram, all I saw were images of chiseled bodies, perfect abs and women doing 100 burpees in 10 minutes,” said Ms. Vlasova, now 18, who lives in Reston, Va. I just logged into my Instagram. I saw a guy fixing an old "roundie" television set, someone baking food, some through-the-microscope photos of soldering surface-mount components by hand, a home-made 3D printer, and a couple of clips from mus…

You are missing that Instagram (and nearly every other online platform) targets users based on the type of content it thinks they want to see. Instagram thinks you are more interested in tinkering and that Ms. Vlasova is more interested in other things.

Ok. But why? And can Ms. Vlasova complain if that's what she's interested in?

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

#644

Post by Aerroon »

popcorncowboy wrote: post #468
treis wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The research the GP's quote is referencing said Instagram made 41% feel better, 31% worse, and no impact for the other 28%. It's not clear why that can be used as evidence that it makes some girls feel worse about themselves but that it makes some girls feel better about themselves.

I've come up with a new sports drink. X% of people say it makes them feel good! WOOO! Y% don't feel anything. About one in Z people will absolutely feel worse. If you have suicidal thoughts, about one in ten of those will be able to attribute their suicidal thinking to my drink. When interviewed about my drink, teenagers will unprompted blame the drink on increasing rates of anxiety and and depression. If you feel un…

Alcohol is not a sports drink.

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

#645

Post by Animats »

atonalfreerider wrote: post #543
Animats wrote: post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ditto for online pornography. Nah. That's been studied heavily. Here's an overview from the National Institutes of Health.[1] Wikipedia has an overview.[2] The overall conclusion is that most of the research is of terrible quality and there's no big measurable effect. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6352245/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_pornography

Here is strong evidence to the contrary from the NIH: >The proposed DSM-5, slated to publish in May of 2014, contains in this new addition the diagnosis of Hypersexual Disorder, which includes problematic, compulsive pornography use. Bostwick and Bucci, in their report out of the Mayo Clinic on treating Internet pornography addiction with naltrexone, wrote “…cellular adaptations in the (pornography) addict’s PFC resu…

That's from one case, and it's worth reading.[1]

[1] https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(11)...

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

#646

Post by Aerroon »

aspaviento wrote: post #131
andreime wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not defending Facebook and I just had some thoughts reading the quotes and am curious what you think of them. 1. I remember that while growing up fashion magazines, actors/actresses and I want to say peer pressure (but am fearful its incorrect) were a big source of body image issues. 2. Maybe it's a side effect of our society or "normal" to have security issues while growing up. We've been having good childhoods…

The less I want is to defend Facebook but I think lately people don't want to acknowledge their own responsibilities. It's like every time there is a problem, the cause is someone/something else. I don't think Instagram is impossed to anyone. Young people can feel the pressure to use it because their friends use it but they aren't forced to do so. From the article it seems that young girls know about the toxicity in…

>It's like every time there is a problem, the cause is someone/something else.

And every time somebody else must do something about it in a way that affects everybody.

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

#647

Post by msabalau »

jefftk wrote: post #21
blakesterz wrote: post #2

https://archive.is/egPlc “The research that we’ve seen is that using social apps to connect with other people can have positive mental-health benefits,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at a congressional hearing... “We make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls,” said one slide from 2019, summarizing research about teen girls who experience the issues. “Teens blame Instagram for increases in the rate of anxiet…

On the other hand, teens blaming Instagram does not mean Instagram actually has that effect.

Good point. Let's do an experiment and shut down Facebook altogether, and see if things improve.

Move fast and break Zuckerberg!

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

#648

Post by jdavis703 »

Frost1x wrote: post #387
pfortuny wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Using social apps to connect with other people can have positive mental-health benefits" That statement cannot be false because it is devoid of any content, being a mere hypothetical. The fact that it is surrounded by "research" is meaningless as well, as the aforementioned sentence is like saying "the elements of the empty set fulfil all properties"... So no, they are not contradicting themselves. They are simply a…

Most corporate PR statements are crafted this way. They often give the illusion of saying something because all the key words of saying something are there, but they're often crafted in a way that if read carefully, say almost nothing at all or have a giant disclaimer in small font that essentially says *none of this maybe true and is subject to change . A lot of pharmaceutical advertisements do this to: this might h…

But in the case of pharmaceuticals there is at least rigorous scientific evidence behind the statements. Even so, science does not have all the answers, and to pretend so would be making a mockery of the scientific method.

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

#649

Post by a9h74j »

WhompingWindows wrote: post #128
andreime wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not defending Facebook and I just had some thoughts reading the quotes and am curious what you think of them. 1. I remember that while growing up fashion magazines, actors/actresses and I want to say peer pressure (but am fearful its incorrect) were a big source of body image issues. 2. Maybe it's a side effect of our society or "normal" to have security issues while growing up. We've been having good childhoods…

Normal means that there is a bell-curve distribution of how insecure individuals would be; you'll see both more and less self-confident individuals. However, if you barrage the populace with photoshopped, top 1% in beauty, frankly unhealthy bodies, that distribution is going to move to the "right" towards more insecurity. I'd wager anyone susceptible to insecurity would experience a much greater level, than in a poor…

Not just images? Drop her in LA. I fear for a remarkable young talent I won't name.

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

#650

Post by a9h74j »

treis wrote: post #351
vladvasiliu wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. I remember that while growing up fashion magazines, actors/actresses and I want to say peer pressure (but am fearful its incorrect) were a big source of body image issues. I remember reading somewhere, can't remember where, something that addressed this point. Broadly speaking, the idea was that "people in magazines" weren't perceived as "peers", so you wouldn't compare yourself to them in the same way as you'd…

To me this sounds like post hoc reasoning to justify the conclusion you already want to make. There doesn't appear to be any real correlation between the introduction of Instagram and suicide rates for girls. Suicide rates are up, but it's for both boys and girls and the beginning of the increase predated Instagram. Instagram is an easy target like Video games, TV, Cell Phones, and Internet were before it. But like t…

Johnathan Haight discusses noticable differences in college students (measurable by mental health services) precisely in the years when students who all had cell phones early [in middle school?] started to enter.
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