> “Results showed that exposure to manipulated Instagram photos directly led to lower body image.” Engeln, Loach, Imundo, & Zola (2020)
Children with vulnerable developing brains being targeted by algorithms designed by teams of engineers and PhDs to exploit human psychology don't stand a chance. You may as well be telling heroin addicts to "just don't get addicted bro".
You can show kids /r/Instagramreality/ [1]. I doubt it will help.
That's not even considering that fact that the sheer volume of fake that gets dumped on people completely skews the logic aspect too. Even if you wanted to be rational about you successes and failures, how are you even supposed to know where you really stand?
I am reminded of the study that found that placebos "worked" (had positive effects) even when the patient knew it was a placebo[1]. Unrealistic standards of beauty perpetuated by digitally manipulated images in advertising and social media can mess you up the same way, even when you know what is at play. You can be manipulated by an ad even when you know it is an ad trying to sell you something you likely don't need.
that makes no sense, it would be more like telling people that are not yet addicted: "dont get addicted bro".
and yes, dont fucking get addicted
edit: humans are also attracted to fire, we tell kids, "dont stick your fingers into the fire", they learn.
It's the job of the parents to teach kids how the world works, including what are fictional constructs that should not be used for any kind of measurement.
If "just don't do X" worked, no one would be fat, corrupt, addicted, or injured in workplace accidents.
But people don't work that way, and "don't do X" is hopelessly reductive -- it leaves out all of the (often very strong) factors that drive people to actually do 'X', such as non-stop marketing on TV, movies, radio, and internet apps pushing them to look, think, act, and buy the same things.