For years, social media platforms like Instagram and parent company Meta (formerly Facebook) have been criticized for harboring harmful content and fostering anxiety and depression, particularly among younger audiences. Use of these sites has also been linked to negative body image and eating disorders, due to the abundance of filtered and photoshopped images that reinforce unrealistic ideals. TikTok, the ByteDance-owned social video site that’s exploded in popularity, has also been criticized for surfacing pro-eating-disorder videos to teens. The topic will likely receive increased scrutiny next week when Instagram head Adam Mosseri testifies before Congress on Wednesday about how the app is trying to keep young people safe.
(Note: This story is based on Frances Haugen’s disclosures to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which were also provided to Congress in redacted form by her legal team. The redacted versions received by Congress were obtained by a consortium of news organizations, including CNET.)
Over the last several months, TikTok and Instagram — which last year launched its own short-form video feature, Reels — have released mental health guides as well as resources designed to support people with negative body image or eating disorders. But more recently, Instagram’s efforts have been overshadowed by leaked internal documents known as the Facebook Files, which were first reported by The Wall Street Journal. These documents include results from the social network’s own research into the mental health impact of its platforms. Among its findings, the company noted that 33% of Instagram users and 11% of Facebook users think the platforms make their own body image issues worse. Additionally, more than half of Instagram users reported body dissatisfaction.
“Overall,” Meta concludes in one document, “there is substantial evidence to suggest that Instagram and Facebook use can increase body dissatisfaction.”
Following The Wall Street Journal’s publication of Meta’s internal reports on teen mental health, which had been leaked by Haugen, a former Facebook product manager, the social network publicly shared annotated versions of its research decks. Regarding data on body image issues for teen girls, Meta wrote that the responses reflect how people “already experiencing hard moments” felt about Instagram, rather than the general population of teenage Instagram users.
Still, Meta’s findings have experts like Renee Engeln, a psychology professor at Northwestern University, concerned that issues around eating disorders and body image are “much too broad to be solved by a link to some resources,” she said. “People aren’t suffering for lack of a link to resources. When the whole culture is just a big toxic soup, it’s not gonna solve our problems.”
Comment Template