Social media research is more nuanced than headlines often suggest; correlation does not prove causation.

Stories can make institutional behavior and human consequences visible in ways that data often cannot.

Young people need to be part of the public conversation about technology.

I knew who Frances Haugen was the moment she blew the whistle on Facebook (now Meta) by leaking tens of thousands of pages of internal documents to a Wall Street Journal reporter. I’m a former movie executive turned developmental psychologist who studies media and teens. The documents she released revealed that Instagram’s own researchers knew that teenage girls felt the platform was harming their body image. That research was highly relevant to my field, so like a well-trained scientist, I went straight to the underlying materials, which had been presented to Facebook executives in the form of a slide deck. After reading it, I felt convinced that the conclusions being drawn went far beyond what the data could establish.

Importantly, I had no illusions that Facebook prioritized young people’s well-being in their product design. Yet I also was certain I understood the situation: Haugen thought she was doing the right thing based on a faulty understanding of the research. I was frustrated that the press used her revelation to create a fear-based narrative about Big Tech and its impact on the adolescent mental health crisis.

Then I watched The Social Reckoning.

Here are the numbers the movie emphasized:

Nine hours and 22 minutes: the average time a Facebook “super user” spent on the platform each day.

Sixty-four percent: the share of people who joined extremist groups on Facebook after being sent there by the algorithm.

One-third: teen girls who had body image issues “caused” by Instagram.

What the Film Made Visible

In my Ph.D. program, I learned to pay........

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