FACEBOOK ANNOTATIONThe names of two employees who presented thisresearch have been redacted from this slide.
Our internal research is part of our effort to ensure thatour platform is having the most positive impact possible.
We invest in this research to proactively identify where
we can improve and better support users who experience
hard life moments — which is why the research often
focuses on potential areas to improve from a user
experience perspective.
The results are based on the subjective perceptions of
the respondents whose ages ranged from 13-65+. The
methodology is not fit to provide statistical estimates forthe correlation between Instagram and mental health orto evaluate causal claims between social media andhealth/well-being.

REDACTED

The research contained in this report was sharedinternally in November 2019.

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FACEBOOK ANNOTATIONAt Facebook and Instagram, such research reports areoften shared live in "read-outs" with teams where there isshorthand, shared understandings, and the opportunity to
discuss.
Contrary to how the objectives have been framed, thisresearch was designed to understand user perceptions
and not to provide measures of prevalence, statisticalestimates for the correlation between Instagram andmental health or to evaluate causal claims between
Instagram and health/well-being.
This research, like external research on these issues, foundparticipants reported having both positive and negative
experiences with Instagram.
The estimates that 30% of users felt that Instagram madeproblematic use worse and that approximately 30% ofteen girls also felt that Instagram made dissatisfaction
with their body worse can be clarified as only applying to
the subset of survey takers who first reported
experiencing an issue in the past 30 days and not all users
or all teen girls.

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FACEBOOK ANNOTATION
As part of a product work-stream, this research intended
to get user feedback primarily from users who wereexperiencing hard moments — as the subheadline notes:“We wanted to understand Instagram's role (for better orworse) in the hard experiences in people’s lives.” The
Instagram well-being team wanted to understand whatthese users expressed as their problems and their needs
so they could develop products and experience forsupport.
At Facebook and Instagram, such research reports areoften shared live in "read-outs" with teams where there isshorthand, shared understandings, and the opportunity
to discuss. Such readouts often focus on potential areasof improvement from a user experience perspective anddiscuss implications (including limitations of the study
and conclusions) with others.
Contrary to the objectives stated in this slide, thisresearch was designed to understand user perceptions
and not to provide measures of prevalence, statisticalestimates for the correlation between Instagram andmental health or to evaluate causal claims between
Instagram and health/well-being.

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FACEBOOK ANNOTATIONThis research was designed to inform internalconversations about users' perceptions of themselves
and of Instagram. It did not measure causal relationships
between Instagram and real-world issues.
The research presented Instagram users with a survey
about a select negative experiences they may have had.
Only if a user reported having had such an experience didthey get a random "deep dive" to explore the topic more.
The analysis did not adjust for either sampling andnon-response, or for unequal conditional selection into
the deep-dive questions, thus making the results not
representative of Instagram users generally.
Because individuals were randomly routed to one of six
survey questions, and then quasi-randomly to one
additional “deep dive”, many sample sizes are very small.
For example, fewer than 150 teen girls spread acrossthese six countries answered questions about theirexperience of body image and Instagram.
Still the research was used to help the team ideate on
ways to improve the user’s experience with Instagramand for Instagram to better support its users during hardlife moments, such as the well-being guides in Explore(https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/sup
porting-well-being-with-instagram-guides).

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FACEBOOK ANNOTATIONThe report covers 22 hard life moments, not 23 as statedon the slide. However, with the exception of slides 18 and19, the report focuses on almost exclusively on the 13
moments categorized under “mental health.” The
description of these area categories (e.g., “mental health”)
were perception-based, did not involve a clinicalassessment, and did not use clinical criterion.

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FACEBOOK ANNOTATION
Nothing in this report is intended to reflect a clinicaldefinition of mental health, a diagnosis of a mental
health condition, or a grounding in academic andscientific literature.

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6

FACEBOOK ANNOTATIONAs noted in an earlier slide, users were randomly assigned
to answer 6 of these questions as yes/no questions.
These initial screening questions were not about
experiences on Instagram, or related to Instagram
specifically, but whether a person had these experiences
anywhere in the past 30 days. The results on this slide do
not reflect the intensity of the experience.
Results do not account for possible differences between
countries, and are not adjusted for different rates ofInstagram use by country or differential systematic
non-response, which means the results are notgeneralizable to the broader Instagram user population.

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7

FACEBOOK ANNOTATION
It is understandable and expected that teens and adults
experience different issues. This slide is analyzing
screening questions, which were not about experienceson Instagram or related to Instagram specifically.
As with other slides, results do not account for possible
differences between countries, and are not adjusted for
different rates of Instagram use by country or differential
systematic non-response, which means the results are
not generalizable to the broader Instagram user
population.
In addition, there are incidental errors in the slide. For
example, the graph does not appear to support theconclusions that are called out in the subtitle (e.g. familystress is higher among adults than teens).

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8

FACEBOOK ANNOTATIONThis slide is analyzing screening questions, which were not about
experiences on Instagram or related to Instagram specifically. If
someone answered "yes" to any one of the six random survey
questions, they were routed to a follow-up survey for one of the items
they answered yes to.
The numbers on the left represent the average of responses translated
from this scale:
5. Very bad
4. Pretty bad
3. Moderately bad
2 Slightly bad
1. Not bad at all
The axis is truncated at 4, while the maximum of the scale is 5 making
this look like it is nearer the maximum than it is in reality.
The subtitle references both intensity and how negative experienceswere as two separate constructs, but the survey used one question tomeasure them as a single undifferentiated construct.
It is worth noting that this figure masks large possible differences in thenumber of survey respondents answering this question. For example,
over 1,000 people answered how intense sleep problems were, but
fewer than 200 answered about SSI. Because there was no adjustment
to account for differential conditional probabilities of which follow up
survey a respondent would be routed to, the survey overestimates how
certain we are about the location of the mean and estimates do not
generalize to all users who have experienced said hard life moment.

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9

FACEBOOK ANNOTATIONThis slide is analyzing screening questions, which were notabout experiences on Instagram or related to Instagram
specifically. As noted in the previous slide, the axis is
truncated at 4, while the maximum of the scale is 5 making
this look like it's nearer the maximum than it is in reality.
As noted in earlier slides, this measure is likely too narrow,because there is no adjustment for non-response. In otherwords, the slide is likely over-estimating how certain weare about the location of the mean.
As noted in the previous slide, this figure masks large
possible differences in the number of survey respondents
answering this question. Additionally there are many more
adults (over 10,000) responding than teens (under 4,000).
As noted in the previous slide, the subtitle references bothintensity and how negative experiences were as two
separate constructs, but the survey question measured
them as a single undifferentiated construct.

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10

FACEBOOK ANNOTATION
If someone answered "yes" one of the six random survey questions, they
were routed to a follow-up survey for one of the items they answered
yes to.
The numbers on the x-axis (bottom) represent the average of responses
translated from this scale:
5. Very important
4. Pretty important
3. Moderately important
2. Slightly important
1. Not important at all
Many of these values appear to be statistically indistinguishable. So
people think it is just as important that Instagram supports them forfamily stress as they do with anxiety, problematic use or social
comparison.
Because of the unequal conditional randomization identified earlier,these are likely to be biased too high. This question is not focused on
how much an average user might think support is important, but insteadreports how much a user who has experienced the particular problem
reported thinks it is. This is very likely to be higher than a population
average is.
That said, internal research helps us identify areas where we can
improve. As a result of internal research, for example, we’ve introduced
new resources to support those struggling with body image issues and a
dedicated reporting option for eating disorder-related content, and one
idea we think has promise is finding opportunities to jump in if we see
people dwelling on certain types of content.

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11

FACEBOOK ANNOTATION
Similar interpretation to previous graph; comparing teensto adults.
In addition, the subtitle at the top is misaligned with theresults in the graph. It appears that most of thedifferences between teens and adults are not statisticallydifferent. Even where there are small differences in means,the difference between 3.38 and 3.57 on the 5 point scaleis statistically indistinguishable.

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12

FACEBOOK ANNOTATIONAs in other slides, the question about the impact of Instagram wasonly asked to people who answered "yes" to experiencing one ofthese hard moments anywhere. The original question has five
response options that are collapsed into three in this analysis.
Made it Better includes● Made it a lot better● Made it a little better
No impact includes only
● No Impact
Made it Worse includes● Made it a little worse● Made it a lot worse
The rows are stacked bars that identify the proportions answeringin these buckets. The responses represent how survey takers
already experiencing hard moments perceive the impact ofInstagram on their experience. The estimates were based on a
non-representative and non-random sample.
Note that the question wording asks users to self-evaluate causal
impact of Instagram in a vague question with no reference, anchor
or causal control.
The comparisons made is the subtitle are unclear and misalignedwith the data in the graph. The "Made it better” category is always
or almost always as large as or larger than the "Made it worse"
category (though some do not appear to be statistically different,
like "Problematic Use"). In all cases, the "no impact" is thecategory chosen most often.

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13

FACEBOOK ANNOTATIONThe responses represent how survey takers already experiencing
hard moments perceive the impact of Instagram on theirexperience, and not the teenage population of Instagram users ingeneral. Also, as this study is focused on the perceptions ofsurvey takers, it is not designed to measure the causal
relationship between Instagram and hard life moments. In thiscontext, the causal language in the title is myopic.
As in the previous slide, the original question has five response
options that are collapsed into three in this analysis.
The rows are stacked bars that identify the proportions
answering in these buckets.
The study has a complex recruitment flow that only asks thisquestion if users have expressed a problem. This is likely tointroduce bias to the estimate by selecting for people withproblems.
The subtitle may be sensationalizing the negative impact on thegraph, as in the prior slide where again "no impact" is often themost chosen category and "Made it better" is frequently larger
than "Made it worse".
The headline also ignores potentially positive interpretations —for example, more than half of respondents self-report that
Instagram makes their feelings of loneliness better, and large
proportions state that Instagram makes feelings of SSI better.
Once again, these are not causal and should not be
over-interpreted, but they should not be ignored.

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14

FACEBOOK ANNOTATIONThis question reports self-reported percentages ofpeople selecting particular ways that they interactedwith Instagram after answering about a particularexperience. The results are not representative of the
Instagram user population generally, but provide some
guidance on ways Instagram might lean into to help users
cope with hard life moments.

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FACEBOOK ANNOTATIONThe question asks for opinions about how Instagram might
help. Because the different color shading represents verysmall difference within each row, the colors alone may beperceived as larger changes without looking at the actual
percentages (especially next to slide 15).

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16

FACEBOOK ANNOTATION
No context to add.

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17

FACEBOOK ANNOTATION
The purpose of this research was to suggest areas of productprioritization. This graph visualized a cross of three survey
questions.
1.

2.

3.

The size of the bubble represents the proportion of users
surveyed who said "yes" to experiencing a problem. (This is
the same question asked in slides
7 and 8). Importantly, this does not measure the proportionof people who had the experience on Instagram. It measures
whether they had the experience anywhere in the last 30
days.
The x axis (across the bottom) represents the proportion ofpeople who reported that Instagram "Made it a little worse"
or "Made it a lot worse" when asked about impact (this is thesame question analyzed in slides 13 and 14).
The y axis (on the left) represents the average score for"intensity" (this is the same question analyzed on slides 9 and10)Estimates of the axes (2 and 3) are calculated from a non-random
subset of the population; these answers were conditional onreporting that they had one of the negative experiences.
The causal language and implied representativeness of Instagramusers in the headline is myopic; as discussed throughout, thisresearch did not measure directly whether Instagram makes
things worse but how people who reported that they were alreadyexperiencing these issues felt Instagram impacted theirexperience.

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18

FACEBOOK ANNOTATIONThis is similar to slide 18, but is limited to teens. It is thecomposition of 3 survey questions:1.

The size of the bubble represents the proportion ofusers surveyed who said "yes" to experiencing a problem.
(This is the same question asked in slides 7 and 8).

2.

The x axis (across the bottom) represents the proportion ofpeople who reported that Instagram "Made it a little
worse" or "Made it a lot worse" when asked about impact(this is the same question analyzed in slides 13 and 14).

3.

The y axis (on the left) represents the average score for"intensity" (this is the same question analyzed on slides
9 and 10).

Unlike the previous slide the headline does not use strongcausal language. This is still unlikely to be representative of
Instagram teen population because of the conditionalrandomization in the survey design (the measures on the axes
are only asked of people who had an experience), and the lack of
non-response weights.
As discussed throughout, this research did not measure
whether Instagram makes things worse but how people whoreported that they were already experiencing these issues felt
Instagram impacted their experience.

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19

FACEBOOK ANNOTATIONThe overall ranking is based upon a combination of
proportions and means seen in previous slides. It does
not take into account differences in who responds toparts of the survey or adjusts for other research design
features.
We are taking away from the research that social
comparison/body image issues are important issues forusers and this is informing our path forward with respect
to our product as we consider ways to help teens copewith these hard life moments.

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20

FACEBOOK ANNOTATIONThe overall ranking is based upon a combination of
proportions and means seen in previous slides. It does
not take into account differences in who responds toparts of the survey or adjusts for other research design
features.
We are taking away from the research that social
comparison/body image issues are important issues forusers and this is informing our path forward with respect
to our product as we consider ways to help teens copewith these hard life moments.

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21

FACEBOOK ANNOTATION
No context to add.

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22

FACEBOOK ANNOTATIONThis is the same as slide 16, but is evaluated for teens only.
The question asks for opinions about how Instagram might
help. Because the different color shading represents verysmall difference within each row, the colors alone may beperceived as larger changes without looking at the actual
percentages.

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23

FACEBOOK ANNOTATION
Like slides 18-19 this graph is a composition of threevariables. It substitutes perceived impact on the x-axis (onthe bottom) with Instagram's perceive responsibility. The x
and y axes are averages from five-point scales with higher
numbers more negative. The size of the bubbles
represents the proportion stating that they had
experienced a problem.
This slide and the methods employed in the study areperceptual in nature and not suitable for inferring how
Instagram impacts these changes. Nonetheless, it is useful
to know what issues users are dealing with to informproduct strategies related to helping users cope with their
hard life moments.

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24

FACEBOOK ANNOTATIONThis slide is similar to ranking exercises in slides 20 and
21. This slide and the methods employed in the study areperceptual in nature and not suitable for inferring how
Instagram impacts these changes. Nonetheless, it isuseful to know what issues users are dealing with toinform product strategies related to helping users copewith their hard life moments.

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25

FACEBOOK ANNOTATIONThis is a duplicate slide to 24 but with fewer internalannotations. This slide and the methods employed in the
study are perceptual in nature and not suitable forinferring how Instagram impacts these changes.
Nonetheless, it is useful to know what issues users are
dealing with to inform product strategies related tohelping users cope with their hard life moments.

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26

FACEBOOK ANNOTATIONThis slide contains a duplicate visualization; the priorslide includes the text of the survey questions being
plotted on the axes. This slide and the methods
employed in the study are perceptual in nature and notsuitable for inferring how Instagram impacts thesechanges. Nonetheless, it is useful to know what issues
users are dealing with to inform product strategies
related to helping users cope with their hard life
moments.

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27