Revelations from leaked Facebook internal research keep coming at a steady pace, and the latest analysis of these documents reveals that the company knows how the platform can both aggravate or soothe the mental state of users suffering from loneliness. Facebook, and its sibling platform Instagram, don’t have a particularly stellar record of caring about mental well-being, thanks to a history of reportedly prioritizing traffic and profits over the safety of users.
Leaked internal research was previously handed over to Congress and revealed that the company was aware of Instagram’s toxic effect on teens, especially young female users struggling with body positivity issues. The company has been aggressively making moves to lure young users who tend to use Snapchat, TikTok and Instagram. While the core Facebook platform has struggled to cater to this audience demographic, it still has a sizeable user base, and it appears that they are torn between its positive impact and ill effects when feeling lonely.
Internal documents assessed by Protocol reveal that Facebook made loneliness worse for some users, and eased the feeling for others. Users who participated in the study showed a stark difference in usage patterns. Those experiencing mild loneliness spent roughly one hour each day surfing the social media platform. However, those going through a more intense phase of loneliness were either glued to Facebook for a longer spell, or used it for a very short interval. The findings are surprising, considering the fact that the platform has courted criticism for its addictive nature. Another set of leaked documents recently disclosed that Facebook knew about the problematic usage pattern of over 350 million users indulging in compulsive social media behavior that was bordering on addiction.
Facebook’s Harmful & Healing Potential
It’s not just the platform shows a very contrasting effect on loneliness. As per its own research, features like Facebook Memories helped some people feel better, while others felt a lot worse and were pushed towards negative social comparisons. Interestingly, the findings also concluded that Facebook helped ease the feeling of loneliness to a larger extent compared to Instagram, Twitter, and dating apps. However, using Facebook was still worse for the mental state of users compared to activities like watching YouTube, spending time with family, and listening to music.
Subsequent internal research that was conducted in 2019 revealed that a hefty 37-percent of Facebook users “felt lonely and had no one to turn to.” The research also revealed that users with worse loneliness did more reading and posted less content. The reading behavior of users is apparently explained by content being engaging and helping to distract from their problems. This is in spite of some of the most popular content on Facebook having turned out to be plagiarized, a problem that the company was reluctant to solve due to fear of legal skirmish and a drop in engagement.
