Internal Facebook documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal show that posts by celebrities like Kim Kardashian litreally make users feel depressed.
The internal Facebook document show that Facebook is fully aware that the followers of certain celebrities experience extremely negative thoughts and emotions about their self-image than other users.
In another document titled “Social comparison on Instagram,” which surveyed 100,000 people last spring in nine countries, followers of celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, Ariana Grande, Kendall Jenner, Justin Bieber and Charli D’Amelio experienced more depression and low self-esteem than other users on the platform.
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Facebook spokesperson Kevin McAlister told reporters that users who took part in the survey were not asked to name specific celebrities that they follow but researchers found that celebrity accounts were “some of the most frequently seen accounts for people who told us they experienced either higher or lower levels of negative social comparison on Instagram.”
Breitbart.com reports: Facebook researchers did not further investigate whether users’ exposure to the content posted by these celebrities resulted in them developing negative feelings about themselves. In the research documents, Facebook researchers noted that the company could attempt to partner with celebrities to develop campaigns aimed at reducing negative comparisons.
Overall, researchers found that users viewing more celebrity content in their Instagram feed was associated with negative comparison; simultaneously almost half of the content viewed by users on the platform comes from celebrity accounts.
