Meta, parent company of Instagram & Facebook, announced their new “Teen Accounts” today. The propaganda on that page is written to comfort parents by assuring us that they’ve heard the criticisms of Jonathan Haidt and the U.S. Surgeon General, they read the bad press, and they’re taking steps to avoid breaking the mental health of this generation any further.
But hear this, Mom and Dad: this is the wolves fattening up the young sheep until they are ready for dinner.
The tragic thing about this announcement is that it’ll encourage more “set it and forget it” parenting. More parents will think “it’s made for teens, therefore, you can have it.” And desperate teen girls will have another argument to trick their parents into giving in to the overwhelming cultural pressure to let them have social media.
But as my friends at ScreenStrong.org say often, social media is not for kids or teens. And it’s not just because of possible bad content or predators, though that’s certainly part of it.
(And speaking of predators … I’m sure they won’t lie about their age to snag Teen Accounts for themselves and target kids like they have been … naw.)
No, the reason social media like Instagram is so damaging is that it is designed for one thing: to keep you using it. (I know: they’re adding a 60-minute time limit and a sleep mode. But even if those limits work, the addictive bait will be set, the behaviors ingrained, and the brand loyalty will be built. They win, at your kids’ expense.)
Plus, most teens use multiple social media platforms in their average of 9+ hours a day. With YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, and several others, most teens probably only spend an hour a day on Instagram anyway. Meta’s not losing much of your teen’s attention.
I hear the push-back. “Social media is a tool; it’s what you do with it that matters.” (Ugh, the tool trope. More on that coming soon. But until then, search for “technological idiot” here.)
Social media like Instagram is a tool for one thing: to keep us engaged. That’s why its users are always using it. It’s a tool sold to advertisers by promising them that the product (us, the users) will be programmed by the algorithm to doomscroll as long as possible. And it’s really good at shaping our desires so that we want to do what they want us to do.
So, Mom and Dad, please pass on Teen Accounts. They’re not doing this for your kids’ good. They’re doing it as a public relations move to make it look like they care about your kids. They do care — as wolves care about their woolly dinner.
Your teens needs your family and in-person relationships more than they need 24×7 access to their peers through a predatory social media platform.
You can say no. You really can. And eventually, they’ll rise up and call you blessed for it. Maybe not today. But someday, they will thank you.