PITTSBURGH (PTTP) – “These are brilliant people who have done something amazing and genius with these platforms. Imagine if we used that knowledge for good – not for profit, but for good.”
Those are the words of Mitch Prinstein, Ph.D., the Chief Science Officer of the American Psychological Association. We contacted Mr. Prinstein to elucidate the claims made in numerous lawsuits filed across the United States against major social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube.
The most recent of these lawsuits was filed by Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS), a school district which represents 54 schools (Kindergarten-12) and approximately 25,000 students.
Pittsburgh’s 271-page lawsuit claims that the aforementioned platforms use predatory tactics to exploit the psychology of adolescents, promoting compulsive use of the applications – a practice leading to detrimental health effects for the children and significant monetary profits for the platforms.
A CDC report in February of 2023 shows that 57% of teen girls reported feeling persistently sad or hopeless. 29% of teenage boys said the same.
Prinstein tells us that it is the developmental stage of the adolescent psyche (approx. ages 11-18) that makes that group particularly vulnerable to certain techniques the apps allegedly use. These behaviorally manipulative strategies, referenced in the lawsuit, have also been used by the cigarette industry and in products like slot machines.
“Instead of feeding coins into machines, kids are feeding [the] Defendant’s platforms with an endless supply of attention, time, and data,” said Pittsburgh Public School officials.
The lawsuit claims these companies need to be held accountable for their actions which have forced PPS to spend significant amounts of time and money (millions, according to PPS solicitor Ira Weiss) educating their students about the deleterious effects of social media and treating the youth-mental-health crisis social media use has contributed to.