A new batch of leaked Facebook documents reaffirm the company's obsession with attracting teenage users to Instagram, despite internal company studies that revealed that the pressure for perfection and the social network's algorithm produce a toxic effect in many of them.
According to The New York Times, since 2019 almost all of Instagram's annual advertising budget, forecast for this year at 390 million dollars, is focused on teenagers. It is a maneuver that seeks, mainly, to prevent Instagram from becoming the new Facebook, since the loss of them is a “ existential threat ” for the company.
A Piper Sandler poll published last month accounts for the changes. 35% of teens said Snapchat was their favorite social media app. 30% chose TikTok, while only 22% chose Instagram , although the latter continues to lead by far in number of users.
Instagram as the salvation of Facebook
Facebook began as a social network for students, but with the passage of time its audience was transformed. The youngest had a fleeting passage through the platform and the current user base has little to do with the adolescent spirit that Mark Zuckerberg's company seeks.
In 2012, Facebook bought Instagram and, to avoid its steep migration of “young teens”, decided to put a sharp spin on its new image social network. In this way, Instagram began to incorporate functions designed to bring the youngest.
According to internal documents from 2017, the Stories were a hit with college students, with teens ages 15-19 being the second to use them. However, conclusive data were not obtained in young people aged 13 to 15 years . In response, the company doubled down on its efforts to attract them with targeted ads .
A social network that thinks only of itself
Photo by Laura Chouette on Unsplash As if this were not enough, when from China TikTok began to attract young audiences, Facebook decided to take a controversial step. He started the development of Instagram Kids, a version intended for children under 13 years of age. However, this caused quite a stir and received an avalanche of criticism.
Only after leaked documents came to light last month revealing the mental damage the platform causes to some teenagers, the company decided to put its controversial proposal for children on hold. In addition, he announced that he will work on new functionalities aimed at protecting the mental health of the youngest.
In public, Facebook has downplayed the negative effects of Instagram on teens. The social network has not made public the complete studies revealed by the WSJ investigation. In this way, the multinational company questioned its true commitment to users and revealed a dark background interest.
The New York Times also reveals that the increase in young users that emerged during the pandemic on Instagram is ending. For now, the company seems determined to attract them spending millions and millions of dollars, hoping to respond to the decaying Facebook platform.
