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Facebook’s documents about Instagram and teens, published

wsj.com

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Re: Facebook’s documents about Instagram and teens, published

#31

Post by vadfa »

GhettoComputers wrote: post #25
cm2012 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook is global, the fact the suicide rate only grew in the US and not worldwide is a point in its favor. Not to mention the increase in suicide rate is higher for older generations who use social media less, according to the data.

That is assuming that facebook usage is globally homogenous. Social climates, sex and age play a huge factor. Young insecure girls that are bombarded with how they should look, and what their friends are doing without them will not be affected as the boomer who only goes onto facebook marketplace to sell, talk with family, or the kind that posts trump memes. Heres some interesting data. https://www.smartinsights.com/…

I don't think usage of instagram is much different here in western europe and the results regarding teen suicide are not the same seemingly. So I'm not sure of what to think.

Open to being proven wrong about instagram usage in the us vs europe. I haven't really looked into it. But it seems all teens and preteens here are hooked on it.

Re: Facebook’s documents about Instagram and teens, published

#32

Post by GhettoComputers »

Karawebnetwork wrote: post #30
GhettoComputers wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you prove these statements with any data? There are of course benefits to online networking, but the US population of LGBT is 5.6% (of all ages) with most concentrated in urban areas so you are pointing out a small age bracket of a specific type of social engagement in a small population as a counter with the assumption it is beneficial, and the hobbies you describe are not social media engagement, they are onlin…

I moderate four LGBTQIA+ communities and support spaces on Facebook, totaling over 395k members. I cover both my local scene and international communities. Without the online spaces, most members wouldn't have friends. The bulk of the work is managing the news feeds and the main task is to approve posts individually. So we see them all. Many would otherwise be totally isolated. Teens in rural America are among the mo…

Thank you for your perspective. Do you think that the LGBTQIA+ community is best served in this method? For instance, art communities would have been a stand in for many before, and from my exposure it seems to have had very good effects for marginalized people who aren't mainstream due to interests, sexual orientation, or creativity and ideas that are normally dismissed. They seem to be the least polarized people I know of.

I have a question for my friend: he is bisexual so he has problems where he is invalidated by both hetero and non hetero communities, and feels very isolated and depressed, and I don't know enough to help, where do you suggest is the best place for him to get support or any resources for bisexual men?

My experience with tumblr was a very mixed bag for the non heterosexual communities such as the mixture of mental health as a focal point where some I knew got better and some got worst and self diagnosed themselves into deeper unhappiness.

Re: Facebook’s documents about Instagram and teens, published

#33

Post by closeparen »

GhettoComputers wrote: post #19
closeparen wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rising teen suicide proves everyone’s favorite social critique. Declining church attendance. Declining corporeal punishment. The academic rat race. Climate change. Whatever I don’t like about the world is why the kids are killing themselves. Having had friends struggle with this when I was a teenager, I find it incredibly disrespectful and in poor taste to leverage their suffering in this lazy and offhand way as…

What is my lazy, poor taste or political opinion? You are attacking my post with no evidence or counter points, a emotional response that isn't based on anything other than hearsay, the first section is a strawman, and the second is how your sample bias should dismiss any other experiences. Is it not hypocritical to dismiss the effect of social media on suicide, such as by cyber bullying? My experience with social me…

Social media is one of dozens of social changes in the last N years. You can line any one of them up next to any bad outcome. This is not generally being done from a place of epistemic humility or interest in establishing causation. It’s just “thing I already don’t like lines up with bad outcome, see how right I am not to like it!”

If that’s not what you’re doing, I don’t mean it as an attack on you. I just think we’re systematically abusing miserable kids as confirmation of our priors (about all kinds of things, social media is just one). We owe them curiosity about how to actually help.

Re: Facebook’s documents about Instagram and teens, published

#34

Post by DisjointedHunt »

alexfromapex wrote: post #24

Will these Senate hearings be theater only, like previous ones with large corporations and the government? Where is the action and what laws are improving these situations?

All Senate hearings seem like theater in the present.

Personally, when i look back at archives from the past and either read the record or watch the recorded hearings from say, the 2008 financial crisis, does it show that it is a little more than that.

It is a forum to voice these positions that are ideally meant for us as a society to learn from.

Politics being politics, it has turned into a forum to raise issues and a sinkhole for precious legislative time.

Re: Facebook’s documents about Instagram and teens, published

#35

Post by DisjointedHunt »

BrianOnHN wrote: post #20

Nobody knows how good, or bad, they have it until they see how someone else lives. Isn't that explanation enough? Yes, the change is because of social media, and everything else that's made other peoples lives' more visible.

The argument is social media is not a neutral platform but __amplifies__ the extremes, thus reducing the "Visibility" to a rat race of envy, by design.

If it were as simple as you suggest, the studies would not be pointing out the biased slant of these platforms being harmful as much as they have been.

Re: Facebook’s documents about Instagram and teens, published

#36

Post by juanani »

GhettoComputers wrote: post #9

https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/03/trends-suicide > The suicide rate increased 33 percent from 1999 through 2017, from 10.5 to 14 suicides per 100,000 people (NCHS Data Brief No. 330, November 2018). Rates have increased more sharply since 2006. Suicide ranks as the fourth leading cause of death for people ages 35 to 54, and the second for 10- to 34-year-olds. It remains the 10th leading cause of death overall. >But…

Interesting, I assume it is cultural values. There is something toxic about a culture that centers around greed. This is hard for teenagers to deal with. Thankfully, our propaganda is far reaching and maybe just seeing how poised one culture is to assign negative labels of other non-greedy cultures, it is likely a unifying mechanism. See, life finds a way around the rot. Rot on, it should make proper humanity stronger.

Re: Facebook’s documents about Instagram and teens, published

#37

Post by DisjointedHunt »

nomdep wrote: post #27

TL;DR: Teens act and react in stupid ways and should not use social media. In fact, most of us shouldn’t either.

Not to discount your point, but to add on that "Platforms that greedily optimize content distribution should be regulated to prevent an unhealthy incentive structure kicking in"

Re: Facebook’s documents about Instagram and teens, published

#38

Post by sp332 »

nomdep wrote: post #27

TL;DR: Teens act and react in stupid ways and should not use social media. In fact, most of us shouldn’t either.

Sure, and that means Facebook's plans to get more young teens to use Instagram are worrying and maybe should be regulated.

Re: Facebook’s documents about Instagram and teens, published

#39

Post by freewilly1040 »

BrianOnHN wrote: post #20

Nobody knows how good, or bad, they have it until they see how someone else lives. Isn't that explanation enough? Yes, the change is because of social media, and everything else that's made other peoples lives' more visible.

Now apply a distortion that allows everyone to to make their life seem much better than it actually is, and it’s not difficult to believe these platforms cause mental health problems.

Re: Facebook’s documents about Instagram and teens, published

#40

Post by freewilly1040 »

I see a lot defending the researchers involved, talking about how great they are and how none of Facebook’s misdeeds are their fault.

At some point though, when data is consistently not shared, and any findings not favorable to the company are buried, what these people do is not “research”. It’s propaganda. They serve to give Facebook the appearance of valuing neutral judgement on the impact of their platform, and to provide credible sounding findings that can be spun to the benefit of the company.

None of this should surprise, of course. They are a for profit company after all. But at some point these “researchers” are complicit in the scheme.

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