COLUMBUS, Ohio — This week, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen presented testimony to congress that the social media giant knowingly spreads misinformation and content that harms children.
“To be honest, nothing that I’ve heard so far in the testimony [and] in the news reports has surprised me,” Dr. Lisa Hinkelman said.
Hinkelman is the founder of Ruling Our Experiences (ROX). The last 10 years the organization’s goal has been to create generations of confident girls.
In 2017, and then again in 2020, ROX conducted a Girls Index while surveying girls across the country. One key finding, Hinkelman says, was the more time girls spent engaged in tech and social media, the higher their levels were with sadness, depression and body dissatisfaction. Dr. Hinkelman says those numbers go up by five times for those who are on social media for eight or more hours a day.
“Meaning that they were sad or depressed almost every day,” she said.
Frances Haugen told congress Facebook exploits negative emotions for profit. The question: How do we fix it?
“It’s definitely a million dollar question and I think it’s a very complex answer,” Hinkelman said.
Hinkelman says it’s complicated, much like a “Chicken or the egg” argument. Are girls turning to social media because they’re sad? Or, are girls sad because of social media?
What’s clearly needed, Hinkelman says, is attention to detail.
“We also know there’s this whole other side [to social media] that is really damaging and without our attention and our intervention and our support, girls are going down these rabbit holes that are increasingly detrimental to their well-being and to their mental health,” she said.
She says young people need to be encouraged to unfollow and step away from negative things and to be encouraged to maintain healthy social media relationships that create healthy mindsets.
Another ally, Hinkelman says, are the parents.
“I think so much of the responsibility is on the adults who didn’t necessarily grow up in a time of social media to work hard to understand,” she said.
She says to be a friend, to listen and to bridge relationships to turn to young people so that they don’t turn away from you.
“We can’t always offset all the negative and we can’t always control aspects of society or the media that they are exposed to,” she said. “But, we can control what positive things we add to their lives.”
Hinkelman says it’s also important to make time for in-person contact and communication and for young people to take advantage of extra-curricular activities at school to help with depression and isolation.
A new ROX study is being conducted right now while surveying 20,000 girls nationwide. Those results, Hinkelman says, should be published next fall.
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