Suing Meta
In the 1950s, scientists started to discover a link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer. It took a while before the public took notice. People kept smoking on airplanes through the 1980s.
In the 1990s, state attorneys general filed lawsuits against the tobacco companies, alleging the companies lied about the addictive dangers of their products. The lawsuits led to a settlement where Big Tobacco agreed to pay billions of dollars for health care costs and anti-smoking education initiatives.
People still smoke, but it is no longer a cultural norm, and the health risks are well known.
Some of the same trend lines are playing out with social media right now, as state attorneys general are explicitly drawing an analogy between Big Tobacco and Big Tech.
33 states are suing Meta, the parent company of both Instagram and Facebook, for deceptively selling their addictive products to young people.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes joined the lawsuit, saying:
Meta not only ignored the well-being of young users but deliberately misled the public, claiming their platforms were safe. By violating consumer protection laws and federal privacy standards, they've put the mental health and well-being of an entire generation at risk. Meta must be held accountable for its irresponsible and damaging actions.
The Arizona Republic reported some of the specifics:
The lawsuit alleges that Meta designed Facebook and Instagram with "harmful and manipulative features" to keep young users on the apps. The design encouraged compulsive use with "likes" and alerts to encourage constant engagement, the suit charges.
The state AGs also say Meta continued to use a visual filter that promotes young users' body dysmorphia, and leads to body image issues related to eating disorders.
The other factor in the lawsuit has to do with a violation of consumer protection laws, via Arizona Capitol Times:
The state plaintiffs allege Meta “routinely” violates the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, a federal law that requires websites and online services to obtain informed parental consent before collecting personal information from children under 13.
The complaint notes Instagram and Facebook only require users self-report their age. They claim Instagram age hurdles in particular “have long been ineffective.”
The lawsuit seeks financial damages, and it also wants to force Meta to stop its manipulative practices.
This particular lawsuit is not the only lawsuit against Big Tech playing out in Arizona. At least 10 school districts are suing Meta and several other social media companies like Tik Tok and Snapchat for knowingly causing harm to young people’s mental health and forcing the districts to bear extra costs dealing with the social fallout.
The legal dynamics of these cases are tricky. The Dispatch reported that prosecutors have an uphill climb because they “have to demonstrate that Meta’s statements were made directly to consumers, were misleading, and that they materially affected consumers’ choices to use their platforms.” There’s also a First Amendment protection that shields social media companies from liability for the content posted on their platforms.
Regardless of the legal outcome in these specific cases, there seems to be a growing public awareness of the problems associated with social media.
On an anecdotal level, as a teacher, my view is that social media is having a net negative impact on young people. When schools don’t have a policy to restrict smartphone access, it is common to see practically every student walking around with earbuds in ears and screens in faces — students physically standing together, but minds inhabiting a disjointed digital world.
Most teachers I think would say the same thing: Attention spans are shorter. Moods are more unpredictable. Students are more sleep deprived than ever. Cyberbullying extends beyond the boundaries of the school day.
Compulsive social media use seems bad for mental health.
Scientific research is confirming our suspicions.
Social scientists Jean Twenge and Jonathan Haidt are compiling the evidence. Both make the argument that increased social media is not only correlated with mental health problems, but is doing active harm.
Research shows a spike of youth mental health problems — self-reported issues, diagnoses, and hospitalizations — starting with the dawn of handheld social media in the year 2012. No other factor is so consistently associated with mental health declines during this past decade. Additionally, longitudinal studies and actual experiments have indicated that reduced social media intake leads to improved frames of mind.
A recent Education Next article takes for granted the problem that social media worsens anxiety and depression and sleep, and wonders if social media is also to blame for a consistent drop in academic performance since the mid 2010s. It makes logical sense. The habituated mental tasks of scrolling on social media are diametrically opposed to the mental tasks necessary for academic thinking.
Aside from the lawsuits, there are additional signs that people are taking these problems seriously.
Schools are starting to take proactive measures to ban smartphones during class time. The notion that cell phones should be banned from school is growing into a consensus among professional educators.
The other day I saw a television commercial for a restrictive smartphone that allows communication but no access to the internet or social media. It was marketed as being a safer option for young people.
Obviously, human beings spend a lot of time using online devices. The news is online. Every job in the world uses online interfaces. Electronic communication is everywhere. We want to share. That’s not going to change. Short-form writing and thinking is dominant in our digital world. That’s probably not going to change.
But electronic communication doesn’t have to be compulsive to the point where it destroys our capacity for deep thinking and authentic socialization.
Social media companies have brilliantly hacked our brains with features like auto-play, likes, infinite scroll, and algorithms that know us better than we know ourselves.
The internet didn’t have to be this way, and it’s possible to imagine a healthier future of sharing and communicating.
Lawsuits against Meta might curtail some of the addictive features of social media, which would be good news for young people.
The important tipping point, however, will be when a critical mass of society becomes aware of the full effects of our digital habits. Because that’s when cultural norms start to change.
Spot on. In my personal opinion there should be an age restriction for social media and adult websites of age 18 to let these young minds mature before being influenced by these sites.
Agreed.