> Anecdotally, Instagram ranks much lower than Reddit for causing problems among the young kids I’ve worked with.
It's hard to tease out causality because Reddit overuse would have more self-selection of kids with preexisting depression. Happy kids would see no reason to doomscroll Reddit.
Instagram on the other hand is more compelling to everyone, and what you might interpret as positive content could be interpreted by a teen as being excluded by the popular kids yet again, with no easy way to opt out because unlike Reddit everyone at your school uses the platform and expects you to be on it.
It's hard to tease out causality because Reddit overuse would have more self-selection of kids with preexisting depression. Happy kids would see no reason to doomscroll Reddit.
Instagram on the other hand is more compelling to everyone, and what you might interpret as positive content could be interpreted by a teen as being excluded by the popular kids yet again, with no easy way to opt out because unlike Reddit everyone at your school uses the platform and expects you to be on it.