1. In The Coddling, and I pointed to Instagram as a main suspect in the sudden rise of depression/anxiety among Gen Z girls that began around 2012.
New report: Facebook’s own internal research supports that hypothesis.
Conversation
2. Some background: The increase in teen depression/anxiety is very large and sudden, around 2012, in USA, Canada, and UK. Bigger for girls. See this Google doc lit review with many graphs:
docs.google.com/document/d/1di
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3. The evidence that the surge of depression/anxiety around 2012 was caused in part by social media is compelling but not definitive. Most correlational & experimental studies find a link. and I compile studies here:
docs.google.com/document/d/1w-
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4. On social media and mental health: nearly ALL of the research assumes a dose-response model—SM harms only the user. But SM and esp. Instagram have emergent systemic effects, putting all teen girls into a prestige economy based on their appearance.
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5. The new prestige economy creates a bizarre and unhealthy social world much like an episode of Black Mirror (e.g., Nosedive), even for girls who rarely use Instagram:
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6. I can see no way to fix Instagram for minors. Any platform that encourages children to upload photos of themselves, to be rated and commented on by strangers, is likely to harm many kids. I wish I could raise my daughter in a world that had no such platforms.
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7. What will Facebook do now? Their findings are only 2 years old, so they are not yet like Big Tobacco. For starters, how about two demonstrations of good faith: 1) stop the widespread use of Instagram by pre-teens, and 2) publicly renounce the plan for “Instagram for Kids”.
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8. I joined and on the to talk about the evidence that Instagram really does harm girls. Don't look at all screen time correlating with depression for all kids; zoom in on social media and girls. And... ask the girls.
You're awesome and this was awesome. But unfortunately it's all just so .. obvious. What I think is less obvious is how SM censorship is eroding the social fabric. I for one can hardly consider human the people who just spout off Facebook meme-esque arguments. It's infuriating.
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Love your book & thanks so much for this great interview to get more attn to these issues. Dr Haidt gets at which data matter.
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YES!!! Glad to see this happening. The data is there. Plus clinically we are seeing an increase in discorded eating and suicidal ideation the last 3 years. Like significant increase.
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After listening to discussing the harms of social media, ironically my first response was to follow him on Twitter. 😕
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What we need the most is info on how to successfully prepare our children for this, both mentally and in how to use social media.
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How many teen girls are also observing their moms behaving the same way on social media? If their friends AND their moms are all using filters, obsessed with looks, etc., how will they ever develop a healthy self esteem?
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