Georgia Wells: The documents show that in 2018, Facebook starts really trying to study the effect that Instagram has on mental health. And several external studies said there was a link. But at the same time, questions were mounting about the connection between social media apps and rising rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide among teens. Documents show that Facebook would come to see Instagram as its best bet for growth among teens. That same year Facebook bought Instagram, an app that was hot with teens and under Facebook the app would grow rapidly. In 2012, according to the documents The Journal reviewed, Facebook saw teen users in the U.S. Coming up on the show, an inside look at the mental health research that Facebook has kept private. Kate Linebaugh: Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. Georgia Wells: The experience of looking at the documents and seeing this research, it makes me think, why is it private? Should the public know? Should parents know? Should teens themselves know? As recently as May, Facebook's Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, told reporters that the effect of the app on teen mental health seems to be "Quite small." Mosseri didn't talk about those internal studies that The Wall Street Journal has now revealed. She says in public Facebook executives have downplayed Instagram's negative effects. Kate Linebaugh: That's our colleague, Georgia Wells. Georgia Wells: Internally, there's this growing body of evidence that for many teens and in particular teen girls Instagram can be toxic. One internal document says that for teen girls who'd recently experienced body image issues, Instagram made those feelings worse for one in three of them. Internal Facebook documents show the results of their studies and those results suggest that Instagram can have negative effects on many of its millions of young users. Kate Linebaugh: In recent years, Facebook employees have been studying this very issue, Instagram's effect on the mental health of teens. Kate Linebaugh: Anastasia developed an eating disorder, and she has a clear idea of what led to it.Īnastasia Vlasova: I realized that Instagram was really triggering a lot of my eating disorder, so that's when I made the connection between social media and my poor mental health. But then as I close the app I would feel so awful about myself and I would look in the mirror and I would think, "Oh my gosh, I am nowhere close to the image of these fitness influencers.
Kate Linebaugh: But by the time she was in eighth grade, Anastasia had noticed that these same influencers had started effecting her in different, more negative ways.Īnastasia Vlasova: I would go onto social media and I would use that as motivation, again, to get me to get back into fitness or go to the gym or eat healthy. Kate Linebaugh: How did those posts make you feel?Īnastasia Vlasova: Initially I was incredibly inspired by them. Kate Linebaugh: First, she followed her friends then she started following the accounts of fitness influencers, people who post photos and videos of their workouts.Īnastasia Vlasova: The fitness influencers that I follow were all super tan and very toned and a lot of them are smiling in their photos and they just looked like they were living basically the best life possible. Instagram which is owned by Facebook has long been popular with teens like Anastasia.Īnastasia Vlasova: I was super excited and I couldn't wait to post photos with all of those intense Instagram filters that no one really uses nowadays. Kate Linebaugh: She signed up for Instagram. Kate Linebaugh: No offense taken, it's okay.
It wasn't Facebook.Īnastasia Vlasova: No, I mean, I think Facebook is a little bit for an older demographic. Five years ago when she was 13 years old, Anastasia Vlasova signed up for her first social media account. A quick heads-up, this episode includes some discussion of eating disorders and self-harm. If you haven't already listened to part one, start there, it's already in your feet. We're looking deep inside Facebook through its own internal documents.
#Alexa jean fitness instagram series
Kate Linebaugh: This is The Facebook Files, a series from The Journal. This version may not be in its final form and may be updated. This transcript was prepared by a transcription service.
0 kommentar(er)
