Though this be madness, yet there is method in ’t.

Polonius, Hamlet (II.ii.)

It’s been a tough week for Facebook. Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp were all down for several hours on this past Monday, and Tuesday former FaceBook data engineer and product manager, Frances Haugen, testified before the Senate regarding the social media giant prioritizing profits before people. Haugen was the source for a Wall Street Journal report on misinformation spread by Facebook and Instagram. She left Facebook in May of this year, and her revelations have left the tech giant facing some daunting questions.

At a Senate hearing, Haugen shared internal Facebook reports and stated that the social media company puts “astronomical profits before people”, harming children and destabilizing democracy via the sharing of inaccurate and divisive content.

What was alarming to me was Haugen’s reference to the social media platform fueling negative body images for teen girls. Haugen revealed that one Facebook survey found that 13.5% of U.K. teen girls said their suicidal thoughts became more frequent after starting on Instagram. She stated that another study found 17% of teen girls say their eating disorders got worse after using Instagram. 32% of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse.

Haugen testified that “Facebook knows that they are leading young users to anorexia content … It’s just like cigarettes. Teenagers don’t have any self-regulation. We need to protect the kids.” She also added, “What’s super tragic is Facebook’s research says as these young women begin to consume this eating disorder content, they get more and more depressed. It makes them use the app more.” In the end, she said that “They end up in this feedback cycle where they hate their bodies more and more.”

As a woman with a history of an eating disorder, and a mother of an anorexic, Haugen’s testimony hits home for me. It’s no secret that women in our culture are judged by the way we look, the color of our skin and our hair, the way we dress, and how thin, tall or robust we are. We are bombarded by the media every day: Skinny models and popular actresses in flowing dresses, the latest diet, and exercise crazes. The list goes on and on.

In an interview, 20-year-old Leann from Brisbane, Australia, stated that social media has played a massive part in her body image issues. “It was only maybe when I turned 17 and 18 I started really having issues. Wanting to be skinnier, and wanting to be fit or have abs.” She added, “You’d see models and just be flooded, and it would just reinforce these ideas in your head of this is what gets you popular, this is how to make people like you. I started just developing really poor body image issues.”

Epidemiological studies have suggested that the prevalence of eating disorders among teen girls has increased over the last 50 years. Some researchers suggest that the media plays a central role in creating and intensifying body dissatisfaction, and may be partly responsible for the increase of eating disorders. Such studies have shown that children and teens are particularly vulnerable to messages and images conveyed through mass media and that many children and teens are unable to tell the difference between what they see on social media and what is real. An example of this is when young people look at the photos of a super-model but are unaware that these images have been digitally edited via airbrush and digital enhancement to portray the ‘ideal’ female and male body. These images promote unrealistic standards that are impossible to achieve, no matter how much someone exercises or diets. The unattainable ideal.

Dr. Paula Saukko of Loughborough University in the U.K was among a team of researchers who interviewed 31 people with diverse eating disorders during the pandemic. They found that during the lockdown there was a surge in social media use and mental health issues. Dr. Saukko stated that “social media encourages users to compare themselves to others in terms of looks or success and foments constant engagement, replies, and insecurities when others are not responding or reacting.”

Although Mark Zuckerberg has denied such claims, let’s not forget how Facebook began. It all began at Harvard University in 2003. As a student, Zuckerberg hacked into the Harvard student database and was able to access the photos of female students. He created the website Facemash and promoted it as an online service for students to judge the attractiveness of their fellow students. Since Zuckerberg violated university policy in hacking into the database, Facemash was down after two days. However, before it was shut down 450 people voted 22,000 times. The success of this venture prompted the young Zuckerberg to launch FaceBook with fellow students Chris Hughes, Eduardo Saverin, and Aaron Moskovitz.

Anyone who conducts an internet search of “Facemash,” will be presented with disturbing images of young undergrad women and captions of “Who’s hotter?” And the phrase, “We are let in for our looks. No. Will we be judged on them? Yes.”

Given Facebook’s sordid emergence out of Facemash, I am not surprised that FaceBook officials deny any claims of promoting divisiveness, misinformation, and negative body images for children and teens. Look at its origins: Judging young women on their looks alone.

It’s time for Facebook to own up to the effects of its platforms, and admit it has a big problem. However, that won’t happen as long as profits are up. Like the conniving Polonius in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, who’s manipulations contributed to the death of his daughter Ophelia, Facebook is more concerned with position and market-share than with human mental health or lives.

Time for some adult supervision.