Retraining the Depressed Algorithm (Family Edition)

Approximately eleven countries have enacted or formally announced age‑based social‑media bans or near‑bans for young people. These restrictions range from full legal bans to age‑verification mandates and parental‑consent requirements. Australia, Greece, and Denmark have adopted full or near‑full bans for under‑16s and under‑15s, with Spain and others pursuing similar legislation.

In the United States, the strongest federal action to date came in May 2023, when the U.S. Surgeon General issued a national advisory warning that teens who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of depression and anxiety.

Nearly half of teens reported that social media worsened their body image. These findings did not emerge from ideology—they came from public‑health data.

We bring children into the world with the hope that they will become fully themselves—able to merge the inner and outer worlds, to walk whole into their adventurous lives, in order they may lasso their moon to their liking.

No one envisioned social-media companies systematically attempting to extract the most cherished parts of young people: their psyche, physical health, and, their psychological well-being.

These companies have released products into the world while privately restricting their own children’s use of them. Some executives have been reported to cover the cameras on their personal devices while selling those same devices to the public without an adequate warning. When the makers of a product refuse to use it as designed, the problem is not the user. It is the product. The amount of violence, obscenity, and poor discourse that has been allowed to enter into every crevice of our daily lives, has also entered the lives of our youth.

Gen X is the computer generation. This generation transitioned through DOS prompts and dial‑up tones, and followed the yellow brick road.

May we humbly acknowledge we were promised a future of connection and empowerment, only to find ourselves overwhelmed by intrusion, manipulation, violent and sexual content, and a lack of oversight to the problems? If any generation is equipped to return the favor—to push back, to reset, to teach our children how to navigate this terrain until government catches up—it is this exact generation.

Consider the major platforms—Google, Facebook, X—as a kind of cultural rain jacket emblazoned with the message, “I don’t care, do you?”.

The first step is algorithm literacy. Every member of a family should understand how algorithms learn, what they reward, and how to retrain them.

The second step is awareness. State Attorneys General across the United States have filed lawsuits alleging that Meta designed its platforms to addict and harm young users. Some filings and corporate testimony are public, and are worth reading.

There does seem to be some technology karma at play here in that Meta is the first U.S. corporation to face mounting legal consequences.

Facebook is the company which led unauthorized emotional experiments on its users between 2012 - 2014. One experiment, titled Emotional Contagion study - set out to determine if the emotions of its users could be manipulated either positively, or negatively through the content Facebook controlled.

When the experiments became public, the company admitted it had no reliable way to ensure minors were not included in the experiments. Facebook also conclusively determined a social-media corporation could influence users' moods - either positively, or negatively.

And yet—here we are, over a decade later. Only, the problem has grown, not receded. The intrusion is deeper, the targeting more precise, the psychological cost more visible. This is a line parents and educators can draw together.

More than thirty‑four states are now suing Meta in federal court. In one recent case, a jury in Arizona found Meta liable for misleading consumers about the safety of its platforms, particularly regarding the protection of children from exploitation and predatory behavior. The verdict totaled $375 million.

This is a public‑health moment. 

How to Retrain Your Algorithms

Do not engage with negative content.

Don’t click, don’t pause, don’t read comments — even a two‑second linger is a “yes” to the algorithm.

Actively engage with the content you want more of.

Like, save, follow, and search for topics that calm, uplift, or inform you.

Use the platform’s built‑in controls.

Tap “Not Interested,” mute accounts, hide keywords, and turn off personalized ads.

Reduce access.

Move apps off your home screen and disable notifications.

Pass the word to the old and the young.

Work to ensure those around you are also protected in the digital world.