Social media companies are increasingly under scrutiny by Congress following the revelations by Facebook whistleblowers about the company’s awareness of the harmful effects its platforms have on children.
Syracuse University professor Jennifer Stromer-Galley has been involved with social media for over two decades. She said that social interactions necessary for young people’s brains to develop are increasingly being conveyed through social media platforms.
“It potentially creates distorted senses of what is attainable and attainable for teens,” she said.
One of the most potentially damaging effects is how heavy use of social media affects teenagers’ self-image. This skewed self-image can exacerbate eating disorders and other physical and mental health issues based on the content teens see.
“At this stage, there is good research that provides strong evidence that heavy use of social media, especially photo and video content platforms, tends to increase social comparisons. to our friends, to celebrities, ”she said.
In addition, Stromer-Galley said the algorithms on platforms like YouTube and Tik Tok are designed to expose young people to harmful content.
“We can’t help but be consumed by extreme content. Even if we don’t want to see it, we find it difficult not to see it. And that reinforces the algorithms that have been trained on our behavior in order to deliver increasingly extreme content, ”she said.
How would regulation help?
There are several laws on the table that are intended to help protect children on the Internet – the most recent being the KIDS law, which was introduced at the end of September.
Suggestions in the potential legislation include an eraser button to remove posts and data from teenagers’ social media profiles and restrictions on autoplay features that enable algorithmic recommendations.
The Senate has held hearings with social media companies in the past few weeks after whistleblower Frances Haugen revealed that Facebook’s internal research revealed awareness of Instagram’s negative impact on teens. Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube officials agree there are problems, but all failed to provide support for the specific legislation at an October 26 hearing.
Stromer-Galley said an important part of regulation must be to stop collecting data on children.
“In my opinion, one of the most important elements must be that technology companies are not allowed to track or collect behavioral and personal information from young people,” she said.
The data collected from social media users is used in the algorithms that determine which content is recommended to them on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. If these algorithms were more random, said Stromer-Galley, it would be a big step in reducing online polarization.
“Instead of every recommendation, every advertisement that is shown to you on these platforms is tailored to your interests, your previous behavior and predictions of what you will like. If there was just a little more randomness it would actually help, I guess, break through this vicious behavior, ”she said.
Teenage use of these platforms would change dramatically if these algorithm adjustments were implemented. Tech companies have resisted these changes as they would affect their ability to make money from ads.
“That would potentially mean that users would become less engaged on the platform. So you wouldn’t spend as much time in infinite scroll mode because you would see less content that you would comment on, click on or view, ”said Stromer-Galley.
Although Stromer-Galley said regulation won’t solve all problems, she is confident that it is a step in the right direction.
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