I could maybe be more amenable to considering his opinion if his product wasn't designed to elicit this kind of behavior in users. Whether 16 hours specifically is the norm or just an extreme outlier, it is still the desired outcome of every decision that goes into engineering and building Instagram.
eating 20 twinkies a day isn't necessarily the norm but twinkies have been formulated to make you want to eat them.
It’s worth keeping in mind that 16 hours was their single highest day of use ever, not their typical daily use.
I’m sure I’ve spent 16 hours on Netflix or League of Legends in a 24 hour period before, yet my median daily usage is 0 hours, and it wouldn’t be reasonable to describe my usage as an addition either.
I’m not saying people don’t get addicted to social media, they do, but in this particular case I think his description of problematic is adequate, and this headline is unnecessarily confrontational.
Considering teenagers should get more than 8hrs of sleep, 16 hours means they're losing sleep because they spent more than their waking hours on a single thing...
Ah yes, my high school years, go to sleep at 1 ~ 2 AM wake up at 5 AM in order to get ready for high school. There was no instagram, insomnia was still terrible. Teens need a lot of sleep time, but I feel like I was way more resilient on less sleep. Compared to now where I can barely function without at least 7 hours of sleep.
[assuming you work for Meta or a social media company] in theory (and not that debatable IMHO) if the net contribution to society on balance is negative?
Do you really believe 16 hours of use daily is not indicative of an addiction? It deserves a headline as it is is a controversial statement that aims to minimise criticism against social media platforms and thus needs to be challenged / debated in society. If social media addiction is not treated as a social problem, the people will not pressure the government to regulate it. That is why social media platforms are claiming that it is only (a personal) problem (of some individual) if some use it for 16 hours while others suggest that it has become a societal problem because its users are now addicts. Social problems needs political solutions to address, and in this case one of the suggested ways is government intervention (through regulations).
Technically correct. We can't call every compulsive behaviour "addiction". Using a social app for 16 hours a day is a very serious problem and requires treatment. But it's not addiction in the same sense that other commonly-recognised addictions to substance and even behaviours are.
eating 20 twinkies a day isn't necessarily the norm but twinkies have been formulated to make you want to eat them.
People with addiction use substances or engage in behaviors that become compulsive and often continue despite harmful consequences.
This is from the American Society of Addiction Medicine.
You can do your own test if this matches watching short videos extensively.
https://www.asam.org/quality-care/definition-of-addiction
This is the light of moral clarity in Mountain View that champions Instagram for Kids [1].
[1] https://www.npr.org/2021/12/08/1062576576/instagrams-ceo-ada...
I’m sure I’ve spent 16 hours on Netflix or League of Legends in a 24 hour period before, yet my median daily usage is 0 hours, and it wouldn’t be reasonable to describe my usage as an addition either.
I’m not saying people don’t get addicted to social media, they do, but in this particular case I think his description of problematic is adequate, and this headline is unnecessarily confrontational.
His compensation package must have these variable components- MAUs, hours spent, engagement etc
Why does this deserve a headline?
Name one thing that is okay to do for 16 hours a day. One.
He literally said it is problematic!
> Instagram boss says 16 hours of daily use is "problematic"