"Teens are insatiable when it comes to 'feel good' dopamine effects... We do well to think hard about how we can make IG an app tailored to the teenage mindset."

"Teens' decisions and behavior are mainly driven by emotion, the intrigue of novelty and reward...While these all seem positive, they make teens very vulnerable at the elevated levels they operate on. Especially in the absence of a mature frontal cortex to help impose limits on the indulgence in these." "Teens are hungry to learn and therefore seek new experiences and exposure and the teenage brain happens to be pretty easy to stimulate. Novelty seeking further manifests itself in three behaviors that especially lend themselves to social media - exploration, discovery and experiences." "We know IG has traditionally been quite strong on the entertainment front, but we are beginning to get signal the relevance of content on IG may be waning among teens. Why is that? Well for a novelty seeking mind - slow or repetitive content is a buzzkill. More frequently we are hearing that content has become redundant in Stories and other surfaces - especially in comparison to hyper discovery apps like Tik Tok and Youtube." "When it comes to discovery → finding something new or novel, much like our big bro FB, IG has a pretty good hold on the serendipitous aspect of discovery through our Explore surface, recommendations and social graph. And everytime one of our teen users finds something unexpected their brains deliver them a dopamine hit." "Teens are insatiable when it comes to 'feel good' dopamine effects. Humor and fun are highly valued. But, this does not mean that other types of content don't engage teens. Humor is just one emotional note - and teens are much more complex beings as they explore who they want to be. This explains teens intense occupation with things such as music and competition." "Further, teen brains' are especially 'plastic' or keen to learn presenting a unique opportunity that coupled with curiosity can sends teens down some interesting rabbit holes - absorbing as much as they can about a particular topic." "Teen's insatiable appetite for novelty puts them on a persistent quest to discover new means of stimulation. Think: What would it be like if there was a discovery feature on every IG surface? How can your team give teens somewhere new to go or something new to find from the product you work on?" "Even when teens don't have a particularly negative experience on IG, they can still feel bad based on how they self evaluate compared to what to they see. When adolescents identify a self they aspire to be, and this mismatches with their actual selves studies associate this with poor grades, low self esteem and symptoms of depression. A related problem we have identified internally as social comparison." "Research has shown that social comparison on Fb and IG is highest among teens and young adults." "Teens experience heightened emotions and impact making them more self-important, vulnerable and sensitive." "Lastly a huge driver for teen behavior is the prospect of reward. This is what makes them predisposed to impulse, peer pressure, and potentially harmful risky behavior like drugs, stunts and pranks." "Teen brains are much more sensitive to dopamine, one of the reasons that the risk of drug addiction is higher for adolescents and keeps them scrolling and scrolling. And due to the immature brain they have a much harder time stopping even though they want to -- our own product foundation research has shown teens are unhappy with the amount of time they spend on our app. Teens are unhappy with the amount of time they spend on IG" "And sadly, a short term reward and inexperience makes teens prone to risky behavior and there are plenty that present themselves online and on Instagram. This could be engaging with predators, consuming dark content, sharing nude photos or copycat self-harm." "Approval and acceptance are huge rewards for teens and interactions are the currency on IG. DMs, notifications, comments, follows, likes, etc. encourage teens to continue engaging and keep coming back to the app." "We do well to think hard about how we can make IG an app tailored to the teenage mindset."