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| Mark Zuckerberg Claims There Is No Direct Link Between Social Media and Teen Mental Health Crisis | |
| 2024-09-27 | |
[Breitbart] Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has pushed back against the notion that social media directly harms the mental health of teenagers, despite growing concerns and calls for increased regulation in the industry. His position is even more extraordinary given the fact that Meta’s own internal researchers determined that his social media platforms are terrible for the mental health of teenagers, especially young women and girls.
This statement echoes Zuckerberg’s testimony before Congress in January, where he argued that existing research has not definitively established a causal link between social media and negative mental health effects in young users. However, proving such causal relationships is inherently challenging, and current research suggests that social media can have both positive and negative impacts on the mental health of adolescents. Zuckerberg acknowledged the complex nature of the issue, stating, “The academic research shows something that I think, to me, fits more with what I’ve seen of how the platforms operate. But it’s counter to what a lot of people think, and I think that’s going to be a reckoning that we’ll have to have.” He emphasized the importance of providing parents with the necessary tools to monitor and limit their children’s social media use, rather than placing the onus solely on the platforms themselves. In response to growing concerns, Instagram, owned by Meta, recently announced plans to move all teenage users into more private accounts with restricted direct messaging capabilities and a “Sleep Mode” feature to limit notifications during nighttime hours. Meta also introduced a suite of parental controls for Instagram and Messenger last year, granting parents greater insight into their children’s activities on the platforms. The debate surrounding social media’s impact on teen mental health intensified following the release of the Facebook Papers in 2021, which contained internal documents suggesting that Meta was aware of the negative effects Instagram had on some teenage users. In the wake of these revelations, U.S. lawmakers have increased efforts to implement age verification measures for social media platforms, with some advocating for tobacco-style warning labels on the networks. Breitbart News reported extensively on the revelations from the Facebook Papers, including that the company’s internal researchers found that Instagram is toxic for teen girls. The Wall Street Journal reported: “Thirty-two percent of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse,” the researchers said in a March 2020 slide presentation posted to Facebook’s internal message board, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. “Comparisons on Instagram can change how young women view and describe themselves.” Zuckerberg reiterated his belief that app store owners, such as Google and Apple, should be responsible for handling age verification, rather than individual platforms. He argued that it is “not very excusable” for these companies to avoid taking responsibility for such measures, given that age verification is already essentially in place for every payment transaction made on smartphones. Despite his skepticism about the direct links between social media and mental health issues, Zuckerberg assured that Meta will comply with any government directives and laws related to child safety if they are passed. He added, “I would say that the ability to get push notifications and get distracted, from my perspective, seems like a much greater contributor to mental health issues than a lot of the specific apps.” Related: Mark Zuckerberg 08/30/2024 'Cleaning Up the Crypto Market.' Why the US Is Up in arms about Pavel Durov Mark Zuckerberg 08/24/2024 16 GOP-led States Sue to Block Biden's 'Parole-in-Place' Amnesty Mark Zuckerberg 08/14/2024 Former Colorado clerk Tina Peters becomes first local election official to be convicted of security breach after helping 2020 election deniers | |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #4 Horse Shit. It reminds me of slot machine fever. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2024-09-27 12:24 |
| #3 Content scrubbing NRA accuses Meta of 'election interference' after labeling posts hitting Harris 'false information' |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2024-09-27 10:38 |
| #2 In other news, Diddy Combs Claims There Is No Direct Link Between Drugs and Rape. |
| Posted by: Mercutio 2024-09-27 10:14 |
| #1 Don't say "social media" say "sociopathic media" |
| Posted by: Elmaper+McGurque1612 2024-09-27 00:42 |