Many people hate Facebook and Instagram. They say it makes us feel bad, is bad for our health, increases the suicide rate of teens and does many more bad things.

But is Meta really all the bad in this world, or is it maybe that Meta just offers a Tool, and it depends how people use it?

I want to shine a light on the later part in this article.

Instagram⌗

When we talk about rising suicide rates in teens because of wrong beauty standards, it’s not that Meta tells us “use Instagram to post pictures of your body, so that other people can rate it”. Meta just offers a platform, and it is up to you how you use it.

I mostly use Instagram as a backup for my holiday pictures and to share nice places with other people. And that’s the thing! The first picture on Instagram was a picture of a Harbor. So the initial thought what Instagram should have been was more near to my usage of it and not to the world-wide beauty competition many teens see it.

So the issues all the people blame Instagram for is nothing created by Instagram themselves but more what the Society made of it. In my eyes, that tells us more what’s wrong with our Society and not what’s wrong with Meta.

Facebook⌗

Again. People blame Facebook because there are many evil and stupid people on Facebook who use it to promote extremist political views and other things bad in our Society.

Facebook also gets blamed because it “doesn’t do enough” against crime in some countries.

But put yourself into the position of Mark Zuckerberg. You created a Tool which was meant for people to keep in contact. Now people all over the world use it in languages you don’t understand and in Countries where it doesn’t even make sense to operate because nearly no companies spend money for advertisement there.

It’s very hard to keep up with all the laws and regulations in all the countries in this world. And countries / societies have different views on what is acceptable.

So forcing a American view on countries in the Middle East could be very dangerous for employees there. Mark Zuckerberg could maybe make some people in the Western world happy, but other people would be so angry that employees may be killed…

I think the people in the USA / EU want Facebook to be kind of a “World Super Police”. But Facebook is no government Organisation. Facebook is just a company which sells a tool. Simple as that.

The decision what’s right and what’s wrong still is the job of governments and the solution to these issues is not Facebook becoming a police, it’s more figuring out how Facebook and local governments can work together to create a safer platform.

Summary⌗

I think a big part of the Issues people have with products from Meta are actually issues of our society, and they use Meta as a Scapegoat.

Killing / harming Meta won’t make the world a better place because the Issue is in our Society. Instagram-Teens don’t have problems with Meta, they have problems because of the wrong beauty standards our Society has. Political problems are nothing new and weren’t created by Facebook, but people hate Meta because their products show them these Issues.

It’s comparable like hating a weapon company because people die. The weapon company doesn’t actually kill the people, but they offer tools which could do it.

I personally hate this mentality of hating a Tool instead of actually focusing on the real problem. The real problem in our world aren’t the tools, but the people who use them for bad.