By Khadijah Booth Watkins, Associate Director and Gene Beresin, Executive Director

Posted in: Multimedia, Podcast

Topics: Culture + Society, Mental Illness + Psychiatric Disorders

It’s been an unsettling time for many, with the testimony by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen and her disturbing claims that the company knows that Instagram causes mental harm to teen girls. In this episode of Shrinking It Down, Dr. Gene Beresin and Dr. Khadijah Booth Watkins put on their shrink caps to process the concerns that Instagram poses to children and teens, and talk through guidance to help young people navigate digital media in healthier and safer ways. It sometimes feels we’re all hostages to this digital age, and we need to know how to harness it, protect ourselves, and protect our children and teens. A lot of this starts with casual but sincere conversations with our kids to learn more about what media they use, how they use it, why they use it – to be more informed and guide them in thinking more critically about it. Plus, Gene and Khadijah share concrete conversation starters and approaches to begin these important conversations and keep them going.

Thank you for tuning in. We hope that our conversation will help you to have yours. Questions or comments? Write to us!

Media List

Follow along with the conversation.

• Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen: The 60 Minutes Interview (60 Minutes)
• Facebook Knows Instagram Is Toxic for Teen Girls, Company Documents Show (The Wall Street Journal)
• 8 facts about Americans and Instagram (Pew Research Center)
• The Immediacy of Digital Media: For Better or Worse? (MGH Clay Center)
• Digital Media and Body Image (MGH Clay Center)
• Body Image, Media, and Eating Disorders—a 10-Year Update (Academic Psychiatry)
• The Developmental Challenges of Middle School: It’s Not So Much Who You Are, But Whom You’re With (MGH Clay Center)
• Instagram promoted pages glorifying eating disorders to teen accounts (CNN)
• Media Literacy and Mental Health, featuring Common Sense Media (MGH Clay Center)
• What is media literacy, and why do we need it? (Common Sense Media)
• Factors Correlated with Violent Video Game use by Adolescent Boys and Girls (Journal of Adolescent Health)
• Internet meme (Wikipedia)
• 50 must-do fall activities for families (Today’s Parent)

 

Subscribe and tune in wherever you get your podcasts — just search for ‘Shrinking It Down.’

Episode produced by Sara Rattigan

Music by Gene Beresin