Nearly 60 years after the U.S. government started slapping warning labels on cigarette packages and 35 years after it did the same with alcoholic beverages, America's top doctor wants to Ctrl C+V that approach with social media platforms
. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy in a recent New York Times op-ed
: "The mental health crisis among young people is an emergency — and social media has emerged as an important contributor. Adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of anxiety and depression symptoms, and the average daily use in this age group, as of the summer of 2023, was 4.8 hours. Additionally, nearly half of adolescents say social media makes them feel worse about their bodies."
While we know that the label would be digital in nature, we know very little beyond that. Its wording, font size, visual presentation, screen position, and the specific apps it would be tethered to would only start to take shape after Congress has given its bureaucratic stamp of approval — a reality that is far from certain
. But just six months removed from the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing
where Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally apologized to parents in the audience who said Instagram contributed to their children's suicides or exploitation, one doesn't need to go through mental gymnastics to come to the conclusion that a surgeon general's social media warning label could appeal to both sides of the aisle.
But if it's just the label, it's not enough. Not nearly enough. Even if D.C's legislative heavyweights come to a bipartisan kumbaya, a flashy banner isn't undoing decades of meticulous platform design meant to maximize user scroll time by some of the most skilled and well-resourced product engineers in the world. And Murthy says as much in an interview with? NYT journalist Sabrina Tavernise on The Daily podcast
.
Murthy: "I want to be very clear that a warning label, in my mind, is not the entire fix to the harms that social media poses to our kids… Congress ultimately needs to make social media safer. And the way to do that is by putting in place measures that protect kids from harmful content and from manipulative features that lead them to excessive use. That is what Congress has to do. Alongside that, a warning would help parents and kids understand the risks that we see."
Coupled with April's TikTok ban legislation
that is now tied up in the courts
, Murthy's plea to lawmakers for a safer and healthier online environment for kids represents a turning of the page — maybe even a new chapter. A much-needed one, too. Even if the first cracks of a tough, tough nut in the way of effective solutions for data privacy and security, content moderation and child safety leave quite a bit to be desired, we're starting to have the right conversations and ask the right questions. Arriving at the right answers likely won't be easy or particularly speedy.
I keep coming back to the historical precedent of cigarettes (which I'm not even sure are all that analogous of a societal harm
). Warning labels were first added to packaging
in the U.S. in 1966, two years after then-Surgeon General Luther L. Terry published a report linking tobacco to lung cancer and heart disease. In his conversation with Tavernise, Murthy references that only in combination with "community education programs, advocacy from parents, legislation from Congress, and from state and local legislatures," were labels able to increase awareness and decrease the number of Americans who smoke from 42% to below 12%. And that's over a 60-year time period.
But social media is a different beast. There are positives — like the sense of community and connection it can provide marginalized groups and underrepresented voices
who feel isolated IRL. It is far more pervasive
, too. Roughly 9 out of 10 kids ages 13 to 17 use YouTube
, 6 in 10 use either TikTok, SnapChat or Instagram and more than half of U.S. teens spend at least four hours daily on social apps
. And, Murthy argues, it is also unique. Other major technology advancements in media that have ushered in temporary moral dilemmas haven't drastically transformed childhood in a way that makes both screen time and access to bad actors
not only possible but unbelievably easy around the clock.
And we're not talking about adults. These are kids. Murthy: "They are fundamentally in a very different stage of brain development. And in that stage of brain development, their impulse control hasn't developed as much. They are more susceptible to social comparison and social suggestion.”
All reasons why I think, at best, a surgeon general's warning label would only make teenage users think twice about the potential harms baked into their social app of choice before ultimately scrolling, swiping and carrying on, business as usual. It wouldn't do the much harder and, frankly, more impactful work of educating teens on how to actually navigate those pitfalls. However, social media literacy would.
Platformer founder and editor Casey Newton on the Hard Fork podcast
: "It's about understanding how systems are designed, how they are likely to make you feel, what strategies you can use if you find yourself in a spot of harm, what are some likely scams or dangers that you might find on these systems. It would be amazing if the platforms actually offered that kind of literacy."
Will they? What would that actually look like? Who would lead the effort? (P.S. Public media, you interested?) More questions. More conversations. But, after two decades, at least we're talking. A label's just a start. We can do better. On to the headlines…
Social Media Headlines
- In a New York Times opinion piece that got more than a few people talking, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy wrote that social media is "associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents." His solution? A tobacco-style warning label. Murthy is also calling on Congress to pass measures that would protect minors from online abuse and exposure to inappropriate content, bar social media platforms from collecting sensitive data from child users, and set limits on push notifications, autoplay and infinite scrolling. He wants to require that social media companies be publicly transparent about their platform's metal health effects and undergo independent safety audits, too. (AP
)
- New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has signed two bills into law meant to mitigate social media's role in the growing youth mental health crisis. The first bill will require that parents be able to stop their children from seeing posts suggested by a social network's algorithm. The second will put additional limitations on the collection, use, sharing and selling of personal data of anyone under the age of 18. (The Guardian
)
- In a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a lower court's 2023 ruling that the Biden administration violated the Constitution's First Amendment when federal government officials encouraged social platforms including YouTube, Facebook and X to remove posts deemed as misinformation, including those about elections and COVID. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who authored the ruling, wrote that the plaintiffs could not show a "concrete link" between the conduct by the officials and any harm that the plaintiffs suffered. (Reuters
)
- As it fights for its future in the courts, TikTok may have another legal battle on its hands after the Federal Trade Commission issued a statement claiming that an investigation "uncovered reason to believe" that TikTok and its China-based parent company, ByteDance,? are "violating or are about to violate" the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, the central federal law protecting youngsters on the internet that restricts tracking by online services. (The Hollywood Reporter
)
- Elon Musk to advertisers who fled X in November 2023: "Go $%#$ yourself!" Elon Musk in June 2024: "That was meant with respect to freedom of speech." (CNBC
)
- All fun and… Mobile-gaming company Voodoo has bought anti-Instagram #NoFilter app BeReal for $540 million. The "Gen Z social network" claims to have north of 40 million active users, however recent reports indicated BeReal was running on fumes in the cash flow department. (Mashable
)
-
June's Biggest Platform Updates
- TikTok has Yelp-ified its location tagging feature. Instead of just showing other videos that have tagged the same location, TikTok has created categories like "food & drink," "things to do," "hotels," and "shopping" that are filled with relevant videos. (The Verge
)??
- Meta has started to give some Facebook business page managers the option to "Auto A/B" test Reels, an automated feature that will test different versions of your Reel with various captions, covers and more and distribute the top performer for you. (Social Media Today
)
- Instagram is testing unskippable ads. (TechCrunch
)
- Not quite 100% sure if a Reel is Feed-ready? DM a friend a preview for a second opinion pre-publication. (Swipe Insight
)??
- Threads has opened up its API to all developers, enabling creators and publishers to schedule posts, manage replies, and view metrics via third party apps. (The Verge
)
- Swiping right on Threads now = ??.? Swiping left now = ???. (Mashable
)?
- Threads users can now opt into Fediverse sharing, which means their content will cross-post to platforms like Mastodon. (CNET
)
- Threads is exploring the possibility of integrating 24-hour self-destructing posts into the platform. (Social Media Today
)
- YouTube is rolling out access to Community posts to all creators, regardless of subscriber count. (Creator Insider
)?
- YouTubers can now edit super long videos. (Social Media Today
)
- X’s live streaming capabilities will now only be available to Premium subscribers. (Deadline
)
- Pinterest users can now share their curated boards as short-form videos on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. (TechCrunch
)
- In an effort to curb the rise of sexual and financial exploitation on its platform, Snapchat is adding new teen safety features, including warnings on messages from unknown contacts, users that have been blocked or reported by others, or people from outside the region where the teen's contacts are located. (CNN
)
- Zoom… but make it WhatsApp? Meta is beefing up the video calling features of its instant messenger platform including improved screen-sharing and the ability to have up to 32 participants in one call on both mobile and desktop. (The Verge
)
Best Practices
- EMBRACE THE SEO UNIVERSE. As Gen Z and Millennials continue to choose social platforms' interactive, visual and community-focused aspects for finding information and making choices over traditional search engines, the ability of brands and organizations to integrate platform-specific keywords, hashtags and trending topics into their content will only become more and more critical. (Search Engine Land
)?
- TAKE A RIDE ON THE CAROUSEL. Thinking about posting a single static image on your Instagram Feed? Don't. Add a +1. Algorithmically-speaking, a user swiping on a carousel counts as an "engagement" even if they take no other action. And according to Hootsuite's own social team, carousel posts generated 3.1x more engagements on average than their regular posts. Globally, carousels have the highest average rate of all types of IG posts (0.62%). (Future Social
)?
- KEEP YOUR DAY JOB. Despite projections of a 10 to 20% annual increase through 2028 in social media influencers, securing the bag is a slog - and it's only getting harder. Due to shrinking platform payouts, changing tastes and algorithms, and the grueling nature of the gig, 48% of creator-earners made $15,000 or less last year. (WSJ
)
- WORK AT A ZOO? No, seriously. As? San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Senior Social Media Manager Taylor Moore describes it, brainstorming copy for capybara cuteness sounds like the most fun. (Link in Bio
)
Research & Reports
- The way people gather information online is changing. Google it. On average, there is a decline of 25% in using Google for search between Generation Z and Generation X. And social media apps like TikTok are increasingly becoming the go-to destination for their informational needs. (Forbes
)
- Despite still being the most engaging content format on the platform and brands utilizing them by a nearly 50% increase in frequency, Instagram Reels have suffered a slight decrease in engagements — down by 20% year-over-year. (Social Insider
)
- More than half of Gen Zers (53.1%) said long-form social video content is one of their favorite formats, while just 40% of Millennials said the same, according to a July 2023 survey from Teachable. (eMarketer
)
- 68% of Americans tend to use third-party social video platforms most when it comes to watching online news or news-related videos, compared to only 21% who prefer a publisher's website. (Nieman Lab
)
- Facebook outpaces all other social media sites as a news source for Americans, with 30% of U.S. adults saying they regularly get news there. However, news is NOT a major reason Americans use social media, with the exception of X (65% of X users say keeping up with news is a reason they use it). (Pew Research Center
)
Read, Watch, Listen
- ?? One Midwestern mom started an Instagram account for her daughter, a preteen dancer, as a pandemic diversion to share photos with family, friends and other young dancers and moms. But as the account morphed into an overnight success funded by brands and fan subscriptions, she began to notice a disturbing trend in the follower data: 92% were adult men. (WSJ
)?
- ?? Author and editor Suzette Mullen was 54 years old with a husband and two adult sons when she realized she had complicated feelings for her best friend. So, she searched "late in life and coming out" and "How to know if you are gay?" on Google. She quickly found close-knit communities of women on social platforms like Facebook that ended up playing a crucial role as she navigated the process of divorcing her husband and living as a late-in-life lesbian. (New York Times
)
- ?? The Boston Celtics secured banner No. 18 last month. Sports media members and fans alike are saying that the C's digital content army of videographers and social media specialists deserves championship rings, too. (Boston Globe
)
- ?? Short-form vertical video is the broadcast media of today, and it can be make-or-break for political candidates. Meet the Director of Comms behind one New York City Council Member who's very good at it. (Link in Bio
)
- ?? In the mid-2000s, Google engineer Orkut Büyükk?kten's self-titled social network briefly took the Internet by storm — just one month before Zuck launched The Facebook from his Harvard dorm room. 20 years later, he's back with another social media utopia concept driven by his enduring desire to connect people. Will it actually stick? (WIRED
)?
- ?? An honest conversation with the Head of Instagram. (The Colin and Samir Show
)
- ?? Will a surgeon general's social media warning label really help children's mental health? New York Times tech columnist Kevin Roose and Platformer founder and editor Casey Newton hash it out. (Hard Fork
)
"It's about understanding how systems are designed, how they are likely to make you feel, what strategies you can use if you find yourself in a spot of harm, what are some likely scams or dangers that you might find on these systems. It would be amazing if the platforms actually offered that kind of literacy."
— Platformer founder and editor Casey Newton (via Hard Fork)
