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CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – I will share with you a secret of being in business: You want customers to use your product as often as possible.
If you own a restaurant, your goal is for diners to prefer your place more than any other. If you own a retail store, you want customers to prefer your merchandise and your prices over other stores. If you’re on the radio, my goal is to get you to prefer this broadcast over all others. I actually hope that you feel like you’re missing something if you miss a day.
Now suppose for a moment you run a clothing store. You post pictures of your latest fashions on your social media. Of course your actual customers won’t look that way if the buy your skirts and blouses. You online models are size 2… most of your customers aren’t. Now suppose for a moment a parent sues you. Her daughter now has body-image issues because she keeps going back to your web site to see the latest fashions, and those looks are unattainable for her.
That’s a similar argument that’s being made in the lawsuit against META – the owners of Facebook and Instagram. Young people go online and are exposed to images that give them a distorted view of the world. The highly secretive algorithms are designed to keep young people clicking to see the next video.They have mental health problems because of their online usage.
A jury in New Mexico found META liable yesterday, saying they know their online products are harmful to young people.
Well, of course META wants to get people to use their products. Like a fast-food joint, they wouldn’t be in business if their product was easy to say ‘no’ to.
The problem with these lawsuits is a false assumption: that META is 100-percent responsible for your teenagers online activity. Parents are not responsible at all. Moms and dads, if your concerned about your child’s online activity, take away their phone – or don’t give them one. Use the parental controls to limit their screen time, or shut their accounts down.
Suing META, their liability in New Mexico is $375-million and a bigger lawsuit in California is pending, seems too easy. Lawsuits don’t take the place of good parenting.
Chris Conley
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