Addiction & problematic use

"Seeing more posts with high Like counts (10+ for friends, 10K+ for verified accounts) is associated with feeling worse: more negative and less positive social comparison."

Unnamed employee

Knowledge

"Starting in 2018, there was growing concern in the public... that technology companies were deliberately manipulating users by designing addictive products that can harm well-being and subvert control, labeling these concerns 'Facebook Addiction'... Initial products were launched to give people more control over their use, though efforts were defunded end of 2019 with additional opportunities still available."

Starting in 2018, there was growing concern in the public (amongst media, academics, policy elites, and everyday users) that technology companies were deliberately manipulating …

Unnamed employee

Profits over Safety

"[O]ur product exploits weaknesses in the human psychology to promote product engagement and time spent"

Young teens (~13) don't feel safe using their real name, identity or any clues that could lead to strangers finding them due to privacy and safety concerns." …

Unnamed employee

Profits over SafetyYouth TargetingKnowledge

Redacted: "For late night use, the negative impacts, such as on work/school performance and mood, of little or poor sleep (especially on young people) are well-documented."

████: "We took into account severity but it was in the sense of, do we have causal evidence in the literature that these behaviors lead to negative life impact" …

Names withheld in filing

Knowledge

"Objective: Guide product experiences for how COPPA compliant FB could serve tweens well"

Tweens are already on social media. They decide on which app is for them based on the app's user base. The real driver for tween engagement on social media is entertainment. …

Unnamed employee

Youth TargetingKnowledge

"34% of teen DAU spend 60+ minutes on the app every day."

Overall Takeaways/Recommendations: We are currently planning to sunset Take A Break as part of time management consolidation. …

Unnamed employee

Knowledge

"[Teens] often feel 'addicted' and know that what they're seeing is bad for their mental health but feel unable to stop themselves."

Wendy Gross: "We recently wrapped research on teens' mental health - how they define it, how they talk about, how Instagram may affect it, and how we can help them. …

Wendy Gross · Kenzie Snyder

Knowledge

"I added some more wording to directly link it to 'problematic use,' but I think most product teams dont understand that this is a euphemism for screen addiction or similar issues."

████: "I added some more wording to directly link it to 'problematic use,' but I think most product teams dont understand that this is a euphemism for screen addiction or …

Margaret Stewart · Jennifer Guadagno and names withheld in filing

Concealment

"Facebook... finds that 31% of US users meet [the] definition [of problematic use]."

FACEBOOK'S INSIGHTS WORK: PROBLEMATIC USE …

Unnamed employee

Knowledge

"Our Well-being team has been focused this half on 'defensive' strategies; ways to mitigate the negative effects of Facebook on people's well-being. Problematic Use* is more prevalent than previously thought (12.5 % of people affected)."

Unnamed employee

Knowledge

"Policymakers and stakeholders see the lack of a consistent, comprehensive approach to problematic use and certain 'harmful content' (e.g., SSI + ED content) across FOA as evidence we prioritize engagement/profits"

Well-being work is similar to privacy or major social issues like Health and COVID19; it needs to be addressed consistently across our platforms and in an end-to-end manner …

Unnamed employee

Profits over Safety

"We will build out our positions regarding related issues we are seeing crop up, such as around addiction."

Antigone Davis: "In getting feedback from policy leadership w/r/t policy's integrated youth plan, Erin Egan asked about the development of company positions and 'overarching …

Antigone Davis

Knowledge

"This is a celebration post to call out that the Mental Well-Being team has accomplished the primary P0 goal for the half:... Goal metric: % of weekly active teens meaningfully adopting Take a Break or Alt Topic Nudge (sum of individual feature adoption figures).' As a reminder, our target was 0.25% and, as of the last full week of June, we are at 0.30%."

George Volichenko: "This is a celebration post to call out that the Mental Well-Being team has accomplished the primary P0 goal for the half: 'Reduce experiences of problematic …

George Volichenko and names withheld in filing

Profits over Safety

Shayli Jimenez: "There is a balance we need to strike between driving engagement and being mindful of teen's well-being."

Hello everyone, Thanks so much for your attention to the Teen Fundamentals research I shared yesterday. …

Shayli Jimenez

Profits over Safety

"SM has a negative impact when it magnifies their insecurities, e.g., comparing themselves to others physically and socially; teens also express feeling addicted to it and being bullied"

However, SM has a negative impact when it magnifies their insecurities, e.g., comparing themselves to others physically and socially; teens also express feeling addicted to it and …

Unnamed employee

Knowledge

"Research has shown that problematic social media use is both prevalent among teens and is a driver of churn: 56% of IG teens surveyed say it's difficult to manage time on social media, and teens reporting life interference were 2.1x more likely to delete Instagram"

Over the last two years, MWB has been focused on understanding and reducing problematic use for Instagram Users." "Why does problematic use matter? …

Unnamed employee

Profits over Safety

Nearly a quarter of teens exceed Instagram's own problematic use thresholds for overall time spent and late-night use

Unnamed employee

Knowledge

"The stance we have historically taken is to give people control, but not in a way that hurts metrics"

Antagonists: Ig mostly focused on teens and youth Endless feed IG / tiktok Watch auto play (netflix Slot machine effect pull down to refresh Notifications Discover more …

Unnamed employee

Profits over Safety

"Teens are still developing self control. They are motivated by the prospect of immediate rewards... We must find ways to make teens feel more productive and rewarded on our platform."

The teen brain is easily stimulated by novelty, making discovery surfaces very engaging if the content is fresh." "Redundancy is a buzzkill. …

Unnamed employee

Knowledge

"Problematic Use: Serious, negative impact on sleep, relationships, work, or lives, combined with lack of control over FB use. Prevalence: 3.1% severe (US), 55% mild (global). More common for younger people."

FB is slightly negative for well-being (WB) and we have a phased plan to turn this around." "1. What we know: Despite positives, average net effect is slightly negative. …

Unnamed employee

Knowledge

"People who spend longer than 3 hours a day on Instagram have lower positive affect..."

People who spend longer than 3 hours a day on Instagram have lower positive affect and lower overall life satisfaction. …

Unnamed employee

Knowledge

"we estimate that 18.3% of IG teen users exhibit behaviors associated with PU"

Unnamed employee

Knowledge

"We prioritized UX and ease of app use over effectiveness. By design, our products served as proof points but weren't effective at reducing behaviors. As a result, we see a low honor rate (5.6%) for break reminders and 2% per adopter reduction of LN20 with Quiet Mode."

We pursued an opt in strategy that relied on teens recognizing their behavior and adopting new controls. …

Unnamed employee

Profits over Safety

"37% of teens (13-17) felt concerned that social media apps are 'too easy to use too much'... 38% of teens (13-17) report low attentiveness around IG use (<=2 on 5-pt scale), and these users report 20-25% higher life interference from app use"

Problematic Use: Definition & Impact …

Unnamed employee

Knowledge