A lawsuit against social media companies, arguing that the design of their apps purposefully increases their addictiveness and worsens users’ mental health, began Feb. 9, threatening the status quo of social media design.

The lawsuit was filed against Facebook’s and Instagram’s parent company Meta Platforms, and Google’s and YouTube’s parent company, Alphabet Inc. The woman filing the lawsuit claims that purposeful designs like incessant push-notifications, endless scrolling, and other attention-grabbing measures on the platforms got her addicted to them at a young age, and the apps fueled her depression and suicidal thoughts as a teenager.

Health teacher Mrs. Morgan Arnone teaches about social media addiction in her class and makes her students debate about the topic in their assignments. Arnone found many conflicting teenage opinions about this social media issue that is prevalent in so many of her students’ lives.

“It’s always one of my favorite assignments because they really live it, they know it,” said Arnone. “Even though they’re addicted to social media, they might be like ‘yes, I know it is bad for me, but yes, I do it anyway.’”

The case is a bellwether trial tied to over 1,600 similar suits filed by families and school districts against Google, Meta, TikTok, and Snapchat. Thus, the eventual verdict in this case will have extensive impacts on other court cases. A verdict against the tech companies could smooth the way for similar cases in state court and shake the industry’s longstanding U.S. legal defense against claims of user harm. This could force tech companies to modify their designs and make them financially liable for addictive designs. 

Tech companies argue they have added many safeguards over the years, and that they are not liable for content posted on their sites by third parties. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, says that keeping users safe, especially teen users, has always been a priority and that lawyers were “mischaracterizing” the internal communication at Meta about their purposes for addictive content.

However, evidence shows that Meta, in 2018, discussed the successful retention of tweens on the platform, despite the company’s claims that such users were not allowed. The plaintiffs argue the platforms are defective products, meaning products that are flawed or lack adequate warnings for their dangers.

Arnone has brought the trial’s issues into her classroom, assigning students to complete projects that discuss the social media design problems central to this trial. 

“Students are going to create either a sign or a billboard that is going to be talking about one of the social media design features that can be detrimental to your health,” said Arnone. “A lot of students didn’t even know what was going on, so I think it’s going to be fun to just catch them up on what’s happening with this advocacy activity.”

Although not all are familiar with the trial, students have been aware of the presence of social media addiction. Junior Conor Brennan expressed growing concern about social media addiction rising among his peers.

“I think that social media addiction is a problem with teenagers because it stops them from being able to socialize in person,” said Brennan. “Social media addiction is getting worse with all the new technology that is available.”

This trial is the first time the companies will argue the defense of their social media design before a jury, although TikTok and Snapchat, also named in the lawsuit, settled shortly before the trial was scheduled to begin.

The trial remains ongoing amidst a growing number of countries moving to restrict social media use by young people, such as in Australia.

No matter the outcome, far-reaching consequences in the social media experience are expected from this trial.