From Diary to Social Media: Guest Column

Social Media

In a video for the Identity Project, Dr. Leonard Sax notes that 20 years ago, many young girls had a diary in which to write, privately, about the journey to discover who they are and what they want. That kind of introspection is healthy and helpful. Today, however, too much mental processing is done on TikTok and Instagram. It’s not private but performative. Think of the teenage girl who takes 100 selfies, choosing two or three to offer her social media audience, after carefully touching them up.  

That is not healthy. As Dr. Sax put it, “The difference between the diary and social media is the difference between living and performing.” 

The constant striving for approval, which rarely comes, from a disembodied online crowd also trying to “perform’’ and, at times, hurt others, inflicts long-term damage on the mental and emotional wellbeing of young girls.  

That’s why, when it comes to teens and social media, the right call is to say “No.” Go to identityproject.tv to hear Dr. Sax’s excellent talk. 

Copyright 2024 by the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Reprinted from BreakPoint.org with permission.

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TikTok Sues to Block Federal Ban

Social Media,

Social media giant TikTok filed a federal lawsuit this week challenging a new law that would ban the app or force its Chinese parent-company to sell the social media platform.

With an estimated one billion users worldwide and 150 million in the U.S., TikTok is considered by some to be the most popular social media platform in the world — especially among teens and young adults.

The company has struggled to protect private user data from entities in China, and the platform has faced criticism for letting its algorithm serve users what some call a steady “diet of darkness” online.

As U.S. Congressman Bruce Westerman wrote in March,

Although TikTok executives claim that it does not share any data collected by the app, there are several Chinese laws in place that provide CCP [Chinese Communist Party] officials access to all user data collected by Chinese-owned tech companies, like TikTok. This means the CCP has access to sensitive data, like the location of every TikTok user worldwide, including the over 210 million Americans who have downloaded the app.

Likewise, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin has voiced concerns over the fact that TikTok is subject to Chinese laws that “mandate secret cooperation with intelligence activities of the People’s Republic of China.”

In April, President Biden signed a bipartisan piece of legislation requiring TikTok’s Chinese parent-company, ByteDance, to divest itself of the platform by January 19, 2025. If ByteDance fails to sell TikTok, the law would ban TikTok in the United States.

TikTok’s federal lawsuit claims the law violates the U.S. Constitution and asks a federal court to block the law.

As we have said repeatedly, there is mounting evidence that — by design — social media platforms like TikTok may deliberately push objectionable content to kids and put users’ personal information at risk. With that in mind, it’s good to see policymakers taking action to rein in these tech giants.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Instagram Takes Steps to Discourage Kids from Sexting on Social Media

Social Media

Social media giant Meta — owner of Instagram and Facebook — is taking steps to discourage kids from sending and receiving nude photos on Instagram.

The Wall Street Journal reports,

These images, real or fake, can cause emotional anguish, schoolwide humiliation and even financial harm. In recent months, “sextortion” scams have ensnared thousands of teenage boys across the U.S. Sending sexual images of minors is also a crime.

Instagram users who receive nude images via direct messages will see a pop-up explaining how to block the sender or report the chat, and a note encouraging the recipient not to feel pressure to respond. People who attempt to send a nude via direct messages will be advised to be cautious and receive a reminder that they can unsend a pic. . . .

Meta doesn’t have plans to roll out the warnings to its other apps, such as WhatsApp and [Facebook] Messenger.

Teen sexting is a serious problem. As our friends at Daily Citizen note,

A 2019 study of 54 million text messages and 1.5 million hours of phone usage by the parenting software Jiminy found one in three teens will ask for nude photos.

An astounding 24% of children studied had either sent or received a nude photo by the tender age of 13.

Sending such personal photos — both real and fake — exposes children to physical and emotional danger. Compromising photos can be shared and leaked among peers, causing humiliation, shame, embarrassment, blackmail, and even suicide.

Stories like this remind us why last year Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office filed a lawsuit against Meta in Polk County Circuit Court. The lawsuit alleges Facebook permits content that sexualizes children and that the platform itself is designed and structured “to exploit multiple neuropsychological traits in youth.”

The lawsuit says that, “youth mental health problems have advanced in lockstep with the growth of social media platforms that have been deliberately designed to attract and addict youth by amplifying harmful material, dosing users with dopamine hits, and thereby driving youth engagement and advertising revenue.”

The lawsuit goes on to allege that Meta violated Arkansas’ Deceptive Trade Practices Act by designing and marketing “dangerous social media platforms that have injured the health, comfort, and repose of the State’s community” and fueled the current youth mental health crisis.

The A.G.’s complaint against Meta concludes by asking the court to stop Meta’s actions and award the state up to $10,000 per violation of the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act in accordance with state law.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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