Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen gave a keynote speech and participated in a panel discussion on social media regulation and teen mental health on Nov. 7 in Salt Lake Community College’s Grand Theatre.
Haugen formerly served as the lead product manager for Facebook’s civic misinformation team. While in that position she saw how the algorithm promoted divisive content and misinformation, prompting her to go public with her concerns over Facebook’s social impact in 2021.
“Having even a little bit of concrete information out of these platforms changes things dramatically,” said Haugen.
In her speech for the college’s Community Conversation Speaker Series, Haugen discussed how social media has become a massive change for society.
“The world is changing in a very profound way from an economy of tangible things to intangible things,” said Haugen, noting that tangible things included not only physical products, but services such as Google search.
Haugen warned how social media’s personalized algorithms can be dangerous, describing how users are unable to control what they consume and as a result, negative content can grow in this environment.
“The algorithm doesn’t know what it’s showing, it only knows what gets you to click,” said Haugen.
During her keynote, Haugen discussed the potential for social media to be researched. She mentioned how search engines such as Google will most often give the same results to every user, therefore creating an experience that can be replicated by researchers. But social media differs.
The user experience can be dramatically different for each person, which can make it more difficult to research and identify flaws. On top of this, Haugen noted that social media companies can make it difficult to conduct studies on their platforms.
“We got here [the current state of social media usage] because we can’t crash test social media,” said Haugen.
Social media companies have made small changes in response to societal pushback. However, Haugen noted that the concessions reveal that these companies can potentially make greater changes.
In one presentation slide, Haugen listed several policies that had the potential to improve user experience, some of which included letting users control what they see and how their algorithm functions, turning notifications off during school hours and releasing crucial data for user safety.
Haugen noted that social media companies have the ability to change, but due to profit and attention incentives ultimately do not. In response to this, Haugen stated the importance of federal government action as well as the smaller lawsuits and local governments have on the matter.
“We have to have plans to reintegrate kids [back into a world away from social media] because technology will keep pulling them further [into social media],” said Haugen, who explained how social spheres, such as friends and family, can help improve the mental well-being of teens in the offline world by shifting time away from social media.
Panel Highlights
After the keynote, Sarah Reale, the director of digital marketing at SLCC, moderated a panel discussion with Haugen.
The panel featured DaSheek Akwenye, the director for SLCC’s Center for Health & Counseling; Diane Liu, an associate professor of pediatrics for the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine; and Aimee Winder Newton, a senior advisor to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox.
A strong focus during the panel discussion regarded what parents can do to help their children regulate their social media intake.
Liu commented on how social media has changed her field in pediatrics: “It has caused us to be more proactive on the preventative side.”
Liu then listed the advice she gave to parents, something she referred to as the 5 Cs. This included: parents knowing what platforms their child is on; the content they view; how their child calms themselves; how time usage crowds out other social activities, and how they communicate.
Akwenye discussed the importance of creating a culture that effectively responded to mental health, taking note of how SLCC provides mental and physical health services for students.
“It takes a village to collectively come together,” said Akwenye, while he discussed how students can help teach each other social skills and become trauma informed.
Haugen agreed with Akwenye’s statements regarding teaching social skills and building a stronger culture as an important response.
“We have to have conversations about making sure kids have the opportunity to coexist with us,” said Haugen.
Winder Newton noted the need for preventative measures from the government.
“We’ve got to move upstream and look at prevention,” said Winder Newton.
Utah is already drafting legislation on the issue, with a potential bill that would establish a ban on phone use during school hours as the default for school districts, with the option for districts to opt out of the ban if they choose.
“We need to be empowering the ecosystem of accountability we have in every other industry,” said Haugen, as she commented on the role regulation has in challenging current social media systems.
“The reality is that every time we have invented a new [form of] communication [via] technology it has been incredibly disruptive,” said Haugen. “We learned, and [now] we respond.”
