How Meta’s Design Discourages Young Users From Putting Their Phones Down

9. Through its Platform features, Meta discourages young users’ attempts to disengage, notwithstanding Meta’s representations to the contrary

373. Meta employs design features, including but not limited to infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications, and ephemeral content, that work to override young users’ attempts to disengage from Meta’s Social Media Platforms. These tactics, which are wholly within Meta’s control, make it difficult for young users to cease engagement with Meta’s Platforms— independent of the content with which the users interact.

374. Meta has long denied that its Social Media Platforms are designed to be addictive. In July 2018, Meta told the BBC that “at no stage does wanting something to be addictive factor into” the design process for its Platforms.

375. On September 30, 2021, Davis testified before Congress that Meta does not build its Platforms to be addictive and disputed the addictive nature of Meta’s Platforms.

376. However, through its design features, Meta ensures that young users struggle to disengage from its Social Media Platforms.

377. The infinite scroll system, for example, makes it difficult for young users to disengage because there is no natural end point for the display of new information. The Platforms do not stop displaying new information when a user has viewed all new posts from their peers. Instead, the Platform displays new content and suggests relevant information that has yet to be viewed, provoking the young users’ FOMO.

378. As the inventor of infinite scroll noted about the feature’s addictive qualities, “[i]f you don’t give your brain time to catch up with your impulses . . . you just keep scrolling.”

379. Meta also deploys the autoplay feature to keep young users engaged on its Platforms. [Redacted]

380. [Redacted]

381. Much like infinite scroll, the autoplay feature encourages young users to continuously engage on the Platform because it provides them with an ongoing supply of content.

382. As commentators have observed, “it’s the way Instagram encourages you to watch Stories at every turn that makes them addicting”:

Stories are the first thing you see when you open the app—they’re housed at the top of the screen—but they also periodically show up in the middle of scrolling through your feed . . . . And once you’re watching one person’s Story, you’re automatically shepherded into the next person’s Story without ever even leaving the interface.

383. Meta also designed Reels with the infinite scroll feature to maximize the amount of time that users spend on the Platform.

384. Facebook and Instagram Reels automatically and perpetually play as the user swipes the screen up to the next video. The short-form nature of Reels discourages users from navigating away or closing the app.

385. Other aspects of Reels, including the placement of the Like, “comment,” “save,” and “share” buttons on top of the video, reduce or prevent interruption and keep the user constantly viewing the video [Redacted]

386. [Redacted]

387. Meta also uses design features, including ephemeral content, to induce a sense of FOMO in young users and keep them engaged on the Platforms.

388. Ephemeral content on Meta’s Social Media Platforms is content temporarily made available to users with notifications and visual design cues indicating that the content will soon disappear.

389. Meta designed ephemeral content features in its Social Media Platforms, such as Stories or Live, to induce a sense of FOMO in young users. 390. Unlike content delivery systems which permit a user to view existing posts on a schedule convenient for the user, content released through Live is only available in real-time— such that a young user’s failure to quickly join the livestream when it begins means that the user will miss out on the chance to view the content entirely.