By Jill Tresca '24
Being a teenager is already rough, but when you add social media to the mix, things just become more complicated. There is a lot of pressure on young women to have “perfect” bodies and meet society’s beauty standards. This focus on physical features and what we are broadcasting on the outside will not always reflect what is going on on the inside. One former Facebook employee decided enough was enough and took it upon herself to expose Facebook and attempt to help liberate teens. It is Frances Haugen who worked for the platform and is still working to open the public’s eyes to Facebook’s corrupt conduct.
Facebook had knowledge and data on the declining mental health rates of teenagers as a result of their platforms through their research. Their algorithm captured personal vulnerabilities, and “...Instagram exacerbated body image issues for teen girls already experiencing those feelings,” according to a NY Times article. The pre-existing emotions of teenage girls are being exploited to make them fall deeper into this type of online rabbit hole, causing them to spiral deeper and deeper into their content and therefore their app. Instagram, a branch of Facebook, is utilizing the expectations placed on teenage girls to look and conduct themselves in certain manners by showing young adults images of photoshopped women thus subjecting them to the unfair stereotypical “beauty” standards society has created.
They seemed to have no intention of changing their ways, as they are profiting from teens’ ongoing use of their applications. In her 60 Minutes interview, Frances Haugen said, “The thing I saw with Facebook over and over again was there were conflicts of interest between what was the right thing for the public and what was good for Facebook. And Facebook over and over again chose to optimize for its own interests, like making more money.” Though she was able to summarize their priorities in only a couple of sentences, we, as listeners and affected people, can take what she is saying to heart and realize Facebook does not have our best interests at heart even though we are their client, of sorts. Instead, Facebook chooses itself, to look out for itself, and its financial gain before evaluating how to make the online environment a safer place.
The cold, hard facts Haugen has supplied us are some alarming information on the company’s willingness to take charge and action against online hostility. One of the papers she leaked from Facebook reads, “...we estimate that we may activate as little as 3-5% of hate….” This statement is simply egregious. We can see Facebook could not care less about its users, and they do not do enough to block out negative influences or ideas for younger viewers. This document continues, “...and ~0.6% of V&I on Facebook, despite being the best in the world at it….” In the quote “V&I” stands for violence and incitement. It is so clear they comprehend what their social media forms are being used for, which is some good and some interaction with friends, but also a place where people can inflict pain on one another and threaten one another. Their lack of action is disturbing in this case because they know they can fix it, they just refuse for the sake of their greed. In her 60 Minutes interview, we get information as to exactly how they are using their program to their gain and others’ loss: Interviewer: “Misinformation, angry content is enticing to people, keep them on the platform.” Haugen: “Yes, Facebook has realized that if they change the algorithm to be safer, people will spend less time on the site, they’ll click on less ads, they’ll make less money.” This clearly illustrates how Facebook knows it is in a position of power and so they choose to exploit this abhorrent behavior, so they don’t go out of business.
After Haugen’s interview, it is not surprising that Facebook is trying to defend itself and call her word choice and the contextual evidence “misleading.” A spokeswoman, Lena Pietsch, said “ We continue to make significant improvements to tackle the spread of misinformation and harmful content. To suggest we encourage bad content and do nothing is just not true,” according to a CNN article. The facts remind, however, that Facebook is a space where people are being flooded with negative news and body images and nothing Facebook says about “misinformation” can change the way social media unfavorably influences the lives of many teenagers.
Facebook is using teenage insecurities and pain to accumulate more money and, thanks to Frances Haugen, we know what has actually been going on. It is difficult to think one company could be causing this much damage to the mental states of many teenagers, but this is the reality we live in. It is good to ask ourselves: What will you do about it?
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Lx5VmAdZSI https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/10/03/tech/facebook-whistleblower-60-minutes/index.html https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/10/05/technology/facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen#whistle-blower-tells-congress-that-facebook-is-not-able-to-effectively-police-anti-vaccine-misinf ormation
Editors: Natalia Cseh '23, Ms. Brilliant
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