San Francisco Frontiers - US plaintiff decries harmful social media addiction

Kaley G.M., a 20-year-old California resident, painted a dire picture of a social media addiction that began when she was six years old and that she says exacerbated her mental health issues, including depression, body image problems and acts of self-harm.

"I was at a young age and I would spend all my time on it," Kaley testified when asked to explain why she thought she was addicted to YouTube. "Anytime I tried to separate myself from it, it just didn't work."

Even when she was bullied on Instagram, she still stayed on the app. "If I was off, I would just feel like I was missing out."

The landmark trial is expected to last until late March, when the jury will decide whether Meta, which owns Instagram, and Google-owned YouTube knowingly designed addictive apps that harmed her mental health.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stand last week and pushed back against accusations that his social media company had done too little to keep underage users off his platform and had profited from their presence.

In the highly anticipated testimony, Kaley took questions from her lawyer, who sought to portray her as an emotionally fragile user who was ensnared as a child by YouTube and Instagram and whose use of those apps caused her lasting harm.

"I'm very nervous," Kaley, wearing a pale pink cardigan, said as she began her testimony, which will include cross-examination by lawyers from Meta and Google.

Kaley described scenes from her childhood in which her mother would have her leave her phone in the living room at night, only for her to retrieve it once her mom went to bed and return it before morning.

"I would be really upset," she said, when denied access to the apps.

Her lawyer Mark Lanier said court records indicate that on one day she was on Instagram for 16 hours.

She said her mother pushed her into therapy at around age 12, and that during the first session she said she could not engage with her family at home because of "excessive worrying because of social media."

"I stopped engaging with them as much because I was spending all my time on social media," she recalled.

She also described her heavy use of filters on Instagram from a young age to make her eyes bigger and her ears smaller. The jury was shown a video in which she complained about being fat.

Shown a banner featuring dozens of her Instagram pictures, Kaley said "almost all of them have a filter on."

When asked if her life, health, sleep and grades would have been better without social media, Kaley answered: "Yes."

- Seeking job in social media -

In a surprising twist, Kaley said she would like to become a social media manager and capitalize on the skills she has built since a young age.

Kaley G.M.'s case is the first of three trials expected in the same court that will help determine whether Google and Meta deliberately designed their platforms to encourage compulsive use among young people, damaging their mental health in the process.

The outcome of the Los Angeles trials is expected to establish a standard for resolving thousands of lawsuits that blame social media for fueling an epidemic of depression, anxiety, eating disorders and suicide among young people.

Similar lawsuits, including some brought by school districts, are making their way through federal court in Northern California and state courts across the country.

R.Baker--SFF