Boards allege that social media platforms have caused students to suffer from significant mental health issues
Platforms manipulated young student’s brain neurochemistry to get them hooked to social media platforms
Causing reduced attention span and behavioural issues in class
The negative impacts of social media have interfered with the school boards’ ability to effectively educate children
P2: Major Arguments and List of Damages of Public Education Boards
Major Argument: Social media companies (Meta Platforms Inc., Snap Inc., and ByteDance Ltd.) operate platforms that are “unsafe and/or addictive.”
Alleged Damages:
mental health issues among students
behavioural dysregulation among students
learning impairments in students
attention impairments in students
interference with the school boards’ ability to fulfill their mandate of educating children
Total Damages Sought: $4.5 billion
P3: Major Arguments in CBC Article & Challenges of School Boards
Difficulty in proving “duty of care”
Do the social media companies owe a “duty of care” to the school boards?
legal experts say it will be challenging for school boards to prove social media companies owe specific “duty of care” to students using their platforms
Establishing causation
difficult to definitively establish were directly caused by social media use
other contributing factors can be argued
“But the question will be, how do you quantify that? And is it caused by Facebook and TikTok and Snapchat, or is it something else?”
Litigation Complexity and Duration
expected to be lengthy
potentially can take years to complete
Resource Intensiveness
involve dozens of experts
thousands of documents and research
significant costs 💲💲💲
P4: Evidence for My View on the Issue
My “view”: social media does cause harm
Gen Z and Mental Health
Psychologist Jean Twenge explicitly states that Gen Z has experienced a “significant rise in mental health issues”
Gen Z: 1st gen. to spend their entire adolescence w/ smartphones and ubiquitous social media
corroborates w/ school board’s claims of mental health struggles
Shift in Communication
Twenge notes that Gen Z exhibits “increased online communication, less face-to-face interaction”
can be argued by school boards to contribute to
behavioural dysregulation
reduced social skills necessary for classroom learning
Pervasive Influence
Paolo Granata’s discussion of Marshall McLuhan’s “medium is the message”
… and his assertion that younger generations “live on” social media rather than just being “in front of” it
underscores idea that social media is an environ. shaping young people’s development (not just a tool)
News as Entertainment
news turning into comedy (especially on social media) and being consumed as entertainment
points to a broader shift in how information is processed and attention is captured
potentially impacting students’ ability to engage w/ traditional, structured learning