There has been so much speculation around the most recent whistleblower of Facebook and it is exceedingly important to discuss in the context of marketing within social media. There are some relatively daunting statistics regarding the impact that Instagram has on women's mental health. Frances Haugen has brought attention to the deprecating reality of Instagram, which has flooded major news outlets around the world. It is important to examine how a company utilizes their marketing of a service to heighten its social consumption, that negatively affects its users while simultaneously earning astronomical profits.
With nearly 70% of teenagers being users of Instagram, per NPR, there is large concern for the harm that these social media platforms can dish out. This can be seen as a major dilemma this generation faces and there needs to be some action or regulation of Facebook's entities to aid this mental health crisis. Many conversations stem from this dilemma, primarily, how can the government regulate and monitor Facebook's applications? Will this even be effective? Regarding marketing and PR, how will social media be used differently to target specific target audiences given these findings?
We need to question why this is not being brought to attention to schools around the world, informing everyone the potential harms of these social media platforms. Should people begin to regulate and restrict their time using the app? I'm surprised to see how relatively quiet the groundswell has been as of lately regarding this news. Initially the world saw outrage and major headlines regarding the event, but what now? This is an immensely sensitive and difficult topic for our world's youth and younger generations to have, but it is very necessary. Social media has many positive impacts on our world and our communication, but at what cost? I would absolutely love to hear people's inputs, views, and opinions on the recent news regarding Facebook.
Here is a revealing read from the Wall Street Journal regarding this topic:
Hi Dan, I think this is really good timing because I just talked about this in my class yesterday. I am not sure why the Groundswell is not more upset about this, but it appears that Facebook keeps choosing to make Instagram a more harmful place because research has shown that if someone is depressed they will use the app more and then by using the app more they will get more depressed. It is a toxic cycle. I wonder if we have outgrown the positives of social media as a culture, I mean businesses still need it, but do individuals? I don't know anymore.
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