Facebook Knew That Instagram Was “Toxic” for Teens
Ioanna’s Vasdeki
Do you know how many photos and videos are posted on Instagram daily by users? Two years ago, this staggering number reached… 95 million in a single day! Another shocking fact: the percentage of teenagers worldwide who use Instagram is 7%, while over two-thirds (!) of users are under 34 years old – so you can imagine how appealing the platform is to companies worldwide.
However, the most shocking news, which concerns young people, one of the most challenging and sensitive age groups, has made headlines across international media in recent days.
According to all official data, Zuckerberg’s platform had conducted an “internal study” that revealed teenagers felt worse about themselves because of Instagram. How exactly? For instance, 32% (a very high percentage) of girls reported that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel even worse. The existence of this research and its cover-up by Facebook was exposed in the so-called “Facebook Files” by Frances Haugen, a former Facebook executive. We all know how many millions of images of themselves and their friends young people post daily on Instagram. And we are well aware of how crucial a teenager’s self-image is to their mental and physical health. In short, what every thoughtful person suspected about a social network like Instagram was simply confirmed by its own creators.
From the brilliant exhibition curated by Erik Kessels at the Foam Museum, where he printed 350,000 (!) photos found on various social networks in just 24 hours! The associations and symbols are immediate and clear…
Now, Zuckerberg’s social platform, in an attempt to make a nice diversion from its defamation, is boasting the creation of 10,000 job positions within the European Union to build a “metaverse,” a vast virtual world. And as we know, many people are in need of jobs, so the allure will certainly be very strong, and perhaps this will make people forget “small” issues like the health of the youth on this planet…
Interesting Statistics About Instagram: https://www.omnicoreagency.com/instagram-statistics/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/248769/age-distribution-of-worldwide-instagram-users/
