Social Media Harm

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Companies responsible for some of the world’s most popular social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat, are facing mounting legal actions, including wrongful death lawsuits over teenage suicides and mental harm tied to their sites. Social media companies have created many dangerous algorithms and environments to increase user engagement and maximize profits, particularly for young users. Parents and families have begun fighting back and holding them accountable.

Recent research demonstrates how dangerous social media can be for younger users, a more vulnerable age group, to social media’s impacts on the rewards center of developing brains.

What Are the Harmful Mental Health Effects of Social Media?

Though young children and teenagers are often more susceptible to toxic atmospheres, social media can cause adverse mental health effects on users of any age and demographic. The platforms’ features and algorithms use addictive psychological tactics to tap into regions of the human brain that train users to spend increasingly more time engaging with their platforms. Common harmful mental health effects of social media are listed below.

Addiction

For some users, social media use can develop into addiction with compulsive, persistent, and excessive use that negatively impacts an individual’s life. Social media addiction causes a release of dopamine, a chemical in the brain that provides pleasure. Those suffering from social media addiction may display symptoms such as:

Decreased interest and participation in other activities
Excessive use during real-world and social activities
Shunning work or responsibilities
Relationship difficulties
Decreased self-esteem
Frequent and prolonged social media use
Reduced interpersonal interactions
Uncontrollable urges to check social media

Addiction to social media can also lead to sleep deprivation from late-night scrolling, disordered eating patterns, and negative body image.

Anxiety and Depression

Constant streams of the representation of other users’ lives as “perfect” often lead some users to draw negative and unhealthy comparisons to their own lives. In some, these feelings can develop into more chronic mood and mental health disorders affecting an individual’s ability to function.

Anxiety and depression have been definitively linked to excessive social media usage. A research study published in the International Journal of Adolescence and Youth revealed that anxiety, depression, and psychological distress directly correlated to the activity.

Social media’s harmful mental health effects are often more pronounced in teenagers. The Mayo Clinic reports that three or more hours per day of social media interaction puts 12-15-year-olds at increased risk of mental health problems.

Eating Disorders and Body Image

Social media has been shown to cause significant body image harm, particularly among pre-teen and teenage children. Body-shaming comments, posts promoting unrealistic body image expectations and dangerous health advice, and questionable products touted by influencers and aggressive advertising often translate to users developing a negative body image. Leaked internal company documents, known as the “Facebook Papers,” revealed that after using Instagram, 32 percent of teenage girls felt worse about their bodies, and 17 percent reported worsened eating disorders.

In addition to the mental effects, a social media-induced negative body image leads to disordered eating patterns, obsessive diet and exercise habits, and other unhealthy behaviors. Serious eating disorders, such as binge eating, anorexia, and bulimia disorders, often cause both mental and physical harm to the point of becoming life-threatening.

Self-Harm

Social media has also been linked to intentional self-harming behaviors, including cutting, burning, and self-mutilation, a coping mechanism for some in an attempt to deal with emotional pain and anger. Self-harming can lead to more serious injuries, such as:

Broken bones
Infections
Nerve, muscle, and tendon damage
Numbness or weakness
Organ damage
Suicide or accidental death

Self-harm and the resulting scarring can lead to worsening mental health, shame and guilt, self-esteem, social isolation, and interpersonal relationship difficulties.

Suicide

According to the CDC, the suicide rate among girls and women aged 15 to 24 has increased nearly 90 percent over the past two decades, a time period aligning with the rise and increased popularity of social media platforms. Between 2007 and 2015, the suicide rate among teenagers increased by over 30 percent and is the second-leading cause of death among this age group.

A 2018 Pew Research Center study found that an increased risk of teenage suicidal ideation coincided with the time spent on social media coupled with the type of content consumed. Researchers also determined that two or more hours of social media use per day caused a decline in mental health, regardless of content, and teens engaged in personal posts, such as selfies or journaling, faced a higher suicide risk than those who engaged for entertainment. Teens experiencing online bullying had the highest risk.

How Are Social Media Companies Liable for Public Harm?

In the world of social media companies, Meta is king, responsible for three of the largest social media networks in the world: Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Recent studies into frequent social media use revealed alarming details regarding teenagers and adolescents. Release of the Facebook Papers clearly established that company executives were well aware of the toxic effects of their platforms on young users yet took no steps to address them.

As a result, Meta is facing a flood of lawsuits over teen suicide, self-harm, emotional distress and mental health issues, eating disorders, sexual abuse and online grooming, and drug overdose and deaths injuries, including overdose injuries and deaths facilitated by online drug sales. Social media lawsuits typically allege:

Negligence in failing to create safeguards and monitor for dangerous and harmful content.
Failure to adequately warn of their platform’s serious mental and physical health risks.
Failure to exercise reasonable care in the design, development, operations, and promotion of their platforms.
Defective algorithms and technologies that promote harmful or dangerous content to minors.
Defectively designed platforms and algorithms intended to maximize screentime and promote addictive behavior.

The majority of legal claims against social media companies pertain to harm against children, teens, and young adults, filed by parents and families, especially in cases of victims sustaining serious mental health or physical harm.

Extreme and constant engagement increases advertising revenue for social media companies but is a highly dangerous objective, clearly indicating the companies’ interest in maximizing profits over public safety. Legal claims against social media companies not only compensate victims but also shed light on the dangers of social media platforms while forcing better regulations to protect users.

Social media lawsuits are a complex and evolving area of law, and additional information regarding the algorithms, features, and designs social media companies employ continues to be revealed. At Goldstein & Goldstein, our social media harm lawyers help clients understand their legal rights and options against harm caused by social media use and the potential legal recourses available to fight back.

Our Social Media Harm Lawyers at Goldstein & Goldstein, LLP, Advocate for Clients Harmed by Social Media Platforms

If you or a loved one has suffered an injury or serious health conditions due to social media use, the skilled social media harm lawyers at Goldstein & Goldstein, LLP, can help you seek justice, compensation, and regulatory change. Call today at 973-675-8277 or visit us online to schedule a free consultation. Located in East Orange, New Jersey, we serve clients in the surrounding areas.