<story><title>Facebook knows Instagram is toxic for teen girls, company documents show</title><url>https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-knows-instagram-is-toxic-for-teen-girls-company-documents-show-11631620739</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>wussboy</author><text>I have a personal grudge against anyone saying &amp;quot;Why don&amp;#x27;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.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;But I&amp;#x27;ll not get in to that. :)&lt;p&gt;Facebook and Instagram are drug dealers. Sure, they&amp;#x27;re not physically distributing a substance, but the social interactions they provide are every bit as addictive. In time, society will abolish or tightly constrain them in the same way society has banned other highly addictive substances.&lt;p&gt;And this is why I don&amp;#x27;t blame the users.</text></item><item><author>aspaviento</author><text>The less I want is to defend Facebook but I think lately people don&amp;#x27;t want to acknowledge their own responsibilities. It&amp;#x27;s like every time there is a problem, the cause is someone&amp;#x2F;something else. I don&amp;#x27;t think Instagram is impossed to anyone. Young people can feel the pressure to use it because their friends use it but they aren&amp;#x27;t forced to do so.&lt;p&gt;From the article it seems that young girls know about the toxicity in the application, why they keep using it? if their parents are aware too, why do they let their daughters use it?</text></item><item><author>andreime</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not defending Facebook and I just had some thoughts reading the quotes and am curious what you think of them.&lt;p&gt;1. I remember that while growing up fashion magazines, actors&amp;#x2F;actresses and I want to say peer pressure (but am fearful its incorrect) were a big source of body image issues.&lt;p&gt;2. Maybe it&amp;#x27;s a side effect of our society or &amp;quot;normal&amp;quot; to have security issues while growing up. We&amp;#x27;ve been having good childhoods for how long - 100 years? Maybe there are some feelings that we never had the option of expressing or feeling.</text></item><item><author>blakesterz</author><text>&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;archive.is&amp;#x2F;egPlc&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;archive.is&amp;#x2F;egPlc&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;“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...&lt;p&gt;“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 anxiety and depression,” said another slide. “This reaction was unprompted and consistent across all groups.”&lt;p&gt;From what researchers said in a March 2020 slide presentation posted to Facebook’s internal message board.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>smithza</author><text>I will say emphatically that parents of teens are the most influential people in their lives, whether acknowledged or no. It is likely the case that parents will forever be the most influential people in someone&amp;#x27;s life and the positions you take, the behaviors you engage in, and what you teach will stick with them for their whole lives. Take a stance and teach them. They may rebel, they may not, but years down the road your opinion will likely inform their reflections and help guide their future actions.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;getting off soapbox&lt;/i&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Facebook knows Instagram is toxic for teen girls, company documents show</title><url>https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-knows-instagram-is-toxic-for-teen-girls-company-documents-show-11631620739</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>wussboy</author><text>I have a personal grudge against anyone saying &amp;quot;Why don&amp;#x27;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.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;But I&amp;#x27;ll not get in to that. :)&lt;p&gt;Facebook and Instagram are drug dealers. Sure, they&amp;#x27;re not physically distributing a substance, but the social interactions they provide are every bit as addictive. In time, society will abolish or tightly constrain them in the same way society has banned other highly addictive substances.&lt;p&gt;And this is why I don&amp;#x27;t blame the users.</text></item><item><author>aspaviento</author><text>The less I want is to defend Facebook but I think lately people don&amp;#x27;t want to acknowledge their own responsibilities. It&amp;#x27;s like every time there is a problem, the cause is someone&amp;#x2F;something else. I don&amp;#x27;t think Instagram is impossed to anyone. Young people can feel the pressure to use it because their friends use it but they aren&amp;#x27;t forced to do so.&lt;p&gt;From the article it seems that young girls know about the toxicity in the application, why they keep using it? if their parents are aware too, why do they let their daughters use it?</text></item><item><author>andreime</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not defending Facebook and I just had some thoughts reading the quotes and am curious what you think of them.&lt;p&gt;1. I remember that while growing up fashion magazines, actors&amp;#x2F;actresses and I want to say peer pressure (but am fearful its incorrect) were a big source of body image issues.&lt;p&gt;2. Maybe it&amp;#x27;s a side effect of our society or &amp;quot;normal&amp;quot; to have security issues while growing up. We&amp;#x27;ve been having good childhoods for how long - 100 years? Maybe there are some feelings that we never had the option of expressing or feeling.</text></item><item><author>blakesterz</author><text>&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;archive.is&amp;#x2F;egPlc&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;archive.is&amp;#x2F;egPlc&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;“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...&lt;p&gt;“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 anxiety and depression,” said another slide. “This reaction was unprompted and consistent across all groups.”&lt;p&gt;From what researchers said in a March 2020 slide presentation posted to Facebook’s internal message board.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>aspaviento</author><text>&amp;gt; I have a personal grudge against anyone saying (...)&lt;p&gt;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...&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Facebook and Instagram are drug dealers&lt;p&gt;If you teach your kids not to consume drugs, why Instagram should be any different?</text></comment>