Stop Blaming Social Media for Patriarchy’s Evils
The entire world is organized in a way that makes teen girls feel bad about their bodies. Instagram is not the problem.
“I believe that Facebook’s products harm children,” said whistleblower Frances Haugen, as she testified before a Senate panel earlier this week. She claims to have inside information proving that Facebook’s social media products, which also include Instagram and WhatsApp, are “generating self-harm and self-hate — especially for vulnerable groups, like teenage girls.” Unsurprisingly, folks latched onto this story quickly. We all love to hate social media, almost as much as we love a good damsel-in-distress fairy tale.
We all love to hate social media, almost as much as we love a good damsel-in-distress fairy tale.
Everyone knows that researchers have been looking at the relationship between digital media and teen well-being for decades. A few high profile, celebrity psychologists have repeatedly claimed — with little evidence — that smartphones are causing an adolescent mental health epidemic. Many parents buy into a form of technophobia that’s grounded in nostalgia for the good ol’ days. But most experts agree that the evidence we have so far remains…
