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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

#191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like this is part of the point you're making, but this sort of statement should only be considered a lie. Some philosophers might correctly call this "bullshit," however colloquially it's the same as a lie: it intends to deceive.

Honestly, though, when did 'technically correct' become the baseline for messaging? If you say what's 'technically correct' even if you ignore the entire mountain of steaming horse shit right behind it, you get a pass anymore. Why? Why is this socially acceptable? Is this different from the past, or are we just more aware of it?

It isn't different from the past; see tobacco

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

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need Government regulation. Specifically, to not display the # of 'likes', friends, followers and other similar metrics publicly on each page. Remove this metric and you remove the major gamification/psychological element.

I think that's an interesting approach although I'm not convinced that's sufficient. Is addictive content less addictive without a visible metric? It removes one potentially harmful aspect but teen girls will still see feeds full of beautiful models living in LA mega mansions.

I don't think that's sufficient at all. Before likes and shares, we had TV, and before TV, we had newspapers and tabloids.

The newspapers regularly printed pictures of women considered beautiful according to the beauty standards of that time.

That propagated that standard even more widely.

And people could easily compare those traits with the traits they saw in the women they knew, and women did feel bad about not looking like the woman in the newspaper.

This is old.

So, even if we make non-algorithmic, time-based feeds, this problem cannot be fully gotten rid of.

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

#193
post #145
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

you don't think people can identify something that hurts them?

I'm not on any side in this particular argument, but there are thousands of things we do/eat/experience every day which hurt us and we have no idea.

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

#195

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…

Let’s suppose you’re correct: teen girls are evolutionarily predisposed to be especially cutthroat.

Does this make it acceptable that a corporation like Facebook exploits this tendency for profit? Should we not recognize this vulnerability and protect our children against it?

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

#197
post #5

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…

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!

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

#198

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…

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

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

#199

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…

> Why are young girls so awful to each other?

Why does this conversation always have to exclusively revolve around how young girls treat each other? Young boys are awful to young girls. Women and men are awful to young girls. The question you should be asking is why do we as a society tolerate people (of any age and any gender!) being so awful to girls?

The article is about Facebook, the company. Facebook isn’t run by young girls. And yet many comments in this thread are focused not on Facebook’s responsibility to (and profiteering from the exploitation of) girls mental health and are instead focused on blaming the girls themselves.

Seems more than a little backwards to me.

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

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At some point I just wish Zuckerberg would give one single fuck .

I often think of Facebook/Zuckerberg as the perfect example of why having a mission statement (something something connecting all the people) that seems perfectly non-controversial in a vacuum, often leads to a willing delusion that this must mean it's always a good thing and justifies any means. They reach a point where they're fundamentally unable to honestly ask themselves whether their "good thing" is actually go…

This is a very interesting point. As someone who wants to start an organization with a very strong mission statement, it brings a sense of caution.

Is it the mission statement itself which is dangerous? Or is it possible to come up with a "good" one?

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