“Like” counts, for instance, have been part of Meta since its early years, when it was still called Facebook and that was its only platform.<\/p>\n
Today, likes are omnipresent on social media platforms. It is the main way in which people engage with text, photos and videos they see online. <\/p>\n
Yet, likes are increasingly viewed as a way to foster negative feelings, particularly among young people.<\/p>\n
Kaley, a young woman who prevailed in her lawsuit against Meta<\/a> earlier this year, described during court testimony how she created dozens of accounts on YouTube and Instagram.<\/p>\n She would use the system of accounts to create likes on her own posts, hoping to drive engagement with other users and her own feelings of validation and self-worth. Kaley was only nine years old at the time. She said she remembered feeling depressed, something she was later diagnosed with, aged 10.<\/p>\n Research over the last several years has shown that engagement metrics such as like counts can drive feelings of rejection and depression, external<\/a> in teenagers.<\/p>\n In the states’ lawsuit against Meta, in which the company said it has handed over more than 2 million documents, lawyers pointed to Meta’s own research that showed like counts drove “social comparison”, or the mental act of marking one’s self worth against images of someone else.<\/p>\n That social comparison driven by Instagram was linked to “increased loneliness, worse body image, and negative mood or affect”, according to Meta’s internal research.<\/p>\n