The unfiltered truth about social media
As discourse about the most desirable body image, bullying, grooming, self-harm and unhealthy beauty standards flood our feeds on social media, tech giants seem to find themselves entangled in messy court cases regarding the safety of their apps for teenagers. These concerns have circulated for years, but as they make their way into the courtrooms, it raises the question of whether these legal battles come with good reason? We can ask the heartbroken parents who have lost their children to suicide after exposure to offensive content online.
On Jan. 31, five tech executives testified regarding issues of child safety, specifically the spread of sexual abuse material via their platforms. Within these courtrooms, parents of suicidal children faced company CEOs, holding photos of their children expressing a desperation for change. Facebook executive, Mark Zuckerburg, delivered an apology to the families of the victims.
“I’m sorry for everything you have all been through,” Zuckerberg said. “No one should go through the things that your families have suffered, and this is why we invested so much and are going to continue doing industry-leading efforts to make sure that no one has to go through the types of things that your families had to suffer.”
However, the effectiveness of apologies like this and the truth of his reassurances about a safer future remains questionable. Simplistic apologies like these cannot undo the trauma caused by the poor decisions of social media CEOs. Zuckerberg, for example, has issued no reparations for any suffering families and seems to lack the genuine intent to do so. As companies continue to insist that changes will be instilled, unsafe content still infiltrates platforms and concerned parents are still waiting on solutions. We cannot rely on the potentiality of a safer future to fuel our hopes for the new generation, as change seems unlikely. Companies are reluctant to potentially jeopardize their revenue. They've created a monopoly that thrives off of graphic or upsetting content as it draws in high engagement and becomes sensationalized online.
Although not every case of a teen stumbling to the wrong part of social media resorts to death, it is undoubtedly harmful. Countless studies over the past decade have analyzed the phenomenon of social media and its addictive grasp on adolescents. Organizations like Science News, the National Institute of Health and BMC Physology have all come to a shared conclusion tying a very distinctive relationship between high social media usage and poor mental health.
However, the profound influence of social media can be found outside of year-long studies and is observable in the content we consume daily. The pure nature of the content that children are presented with can be utterly disturbing. With trends promoting eating disorders, glorification of sexual abuse, unhealthy age gaps in relationships and new self-deprecating trends circulating every month. Is this truly something our youth should have such easy accessibility to? High schoolers, who are already struggling with insecurities and fear of judgment are especially vulnerable. The relentless focus on physical appearance in social media only worsens this, as new terms are constantly emerging from it to make teens more conscious of their appearance and consider ways they can modify their looks instead of embracing their natural selves and truly enjoying their teenage years. Students such as Gelila Mihret (’26) make an effort to block out this unwanted content.
“It matters what side of social media you are on,” Mihret said. “Social media is what you make it and you can customize it to what you want to see and what you don't. You can't stop them but you can stop yourself from seeing those things. It's important to make sure that everything you see online is beneficial for you.”