On Wednesday, Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, took the witness stand in Los Angeles in a major lawsuit about whether social media harms young people’s mental health. The case focuses on claims that companies like Meta (which owns Instagram) and Google’s YouTube built their apps in ways that hook children and lead to problems later in life. The plaintiff at the center is a 20-year-old woman (but was a minor when she signed up for Instagram) who says her early use of the app and other platforms contributed to depression and other struggles as she grew up.
Mosseri strongly pushed back against the idea that Instagram is designed to be addictive. He told jurors that he doesn’t think people can be “clinically addicted” to social media in the medical sense and that what many call addiction is really “problematic use,” which is a personal experience rather than a clinical diagnosis, adding, “I’m sure I said that I’ve been addicted to a Netflix show when I binged it really late one night, but I don’t think it’s the same thing as clinical addiction.”
During questioning, Mosseri repeatedly said that he was not a medical professional, but did say, “It’s a personal thing, but yeah, I do think it’s possible to use Instagram more than you think it helps.”
As you can probably guess, it didn’t take long for people online to respond. As soon as headlines about his testimony started circulating, people on X began dissecting his comments and sharing their own takes:
Obviously, the debate over social media and teen mental health isn’t slowing down anytime soon. Now we want to hear from you: do you agree with Mosseri’s take that Instagram isn’t addictive, but can be a problem, or do you think the platform plays a bigger role in how we use social media? Drop your thoughts, experiences, and reactions in the comments below!!!