The least surprising news ever broke last week. After years of Facebook brushing off the harmful impacts of Instagram, which it acquired in 2012, a leaked internal report revealed what we all already knew: that the social-media giant has known for years about Instagram’s negative effects on the mental health of teens. It’s a side effect so obvious that it feels almost comical to need research to prove it.
Social media has given every person, even those who weren’t predisposed to it to begin with, the opportunity to spend their entire lives coping with anxiety and depression. Everyone is suffering, and everyone knew what the root of our mental-health crisis was long before Facebook acknowledged it. The question now is: What, if anything, will they do about it?
