NY.– A group from 41 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit on October 24 against Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, alleging that the company deliberately used features of its platforms to encourage children to use them. compulsively, even though the company stated that its social networking sites were safe for young people.
“Meta has leveraged powerful and unprecedented technologies to attract, engage, and ultimately trap youth and adolescents,” the states claimed in their lawsuit filed in federal court. “His motive is profit.”
The lawsuit’s allegations raise a deeper behavioral issue: Are young people becoming addicted to the Internet and social media? This is what research has revealed.
What makes social media so attractive?
Experts who study Internet use say that the magnetic appeal of social media is due to the way content responds to our impulses and neurological connections, making it difficult for consumers to separate themselves from the stream of information that it comes to them.
David Greenfield, a psychologist and founder of the Internet and Technology Addiction Center in West Hartford, Connecticut, says the devices lure users with some powerful tactics. One of them is “intermittent reinforcement,” which creates the idea that the user can obtain a reward at any time. But when it comes, the reward is unpredictable. “Like a slot machine,” he says. Just like a slot machine, users are drawn in with lights and sounds, but even more powerfully, with information and rewards tailored to their interests and tastes.
Greenfield says adults are susceptible, but young people are especially at risk because the brain regions involved in resisting temptation and reward are not as developed in children and adolescents as they are in adults. “They’re based on impulse and not much on controlling that impulse,” Greenfield explained of young consumers.
Furthermore, he explains that the adolescent brain is particularly attuned to social connections, and “social networks are the perfect opportunity to connect with other people.”
Meta responded to the lawsuit by saying it had taken many steps to support families and teens. “We are disappointed that, rather than working productively with companies across the industry to create clear, age-appropriate standards for the many apps teens use, attorneys general have chosen this path,” the company said in a statement. release.
Is compulsion synonymous with addiction?
For many years, the scientific community has defined addiction in relation to substances, such as drugs, and not behaviors, such as gambling or internet use. That has been changing little by little. In 2013, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the official reference for mental health conditions, introduced the idea of internet gaming addiction, but noted that more studies were needed before formally declaring the condition.
A subsequent study explored expanding the definition to “internet addiction.” The author suggested further exploration of diagnostic criteria and language, noting, for example, that terms such as “problematic use” and even the word “internet” were open to broad interpretation, given the numerous modalities that information and its transmission can take. .
Michael Rich, director of the Digital Wellbeing Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital, was against the use of the word “addiction” because if the Internet is used effectively and with limits, it is not only useful, but also essential for life. everyday. “I prefer the term ‘problematic internet media use,’” he said, which has gained favor in recent years.
Greenfield agrees that it is clear that the Internet has valuable uses and that the definition of how much is too much can vary. But he said there are also clear cases where excessive use interferes with school, sleep and other essential aspects of a healthy life. Too many young users “can’t stop using it,” he said. “The Internet is a giant hypodermic injection, and the content, including social networks like Meta, are psychoactive drugs.”
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