SPOKANE, Wash.— Ross Lindsey runs Fishing Bloopers, a page that posts twice daily to TikTok, YouTube and Instagram, with nearly 35,000 followers across the three platforms. But before starting this adventure this summer, Lindsey was on the other end of the phone.
“I used to sit on social media for hours. I would scroll endlessly,” Lindsey says. “It was so addicting to sit there and see other people’s adventures.”
23-year-old Lindsey, who was in high school at the time, ended up quitting social media cold turkey for about three years.
“Sitting there for hours and staying up until 2, 2:30 in the morning when I needed to be up at 6 a.m., that was when I knew I needed some discipline,” he says.
On Tuesday, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced he would join a bipartisan group of 41 other attorney generals (including Idaho’s Raúl Labrador) to launch a lawsuit against Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta. The suit, filed in the Northern District of California, claims Meta violated state consumer protection laws and the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act by knowingly creating predatory and addictive features.
“Meta is ignoring the risks that Facebook and Instagram posed to kids — and exploiting them for financial gain,” Ferguson said. “My office is committed to protecting the mental health of Washington youth.”
The lawsuit says Meta’s algorithms play on human psychology to keep people addicted to their platforms, eventually harming their mental health.
“The algorithm is exploiting these social learning biases that we have, but it’s misaligned with how it’s supposed to function,” Dr. Vinai Norasakkunkit, a professor of cultural psychology at Gonzaga University, said. “We’ve become more tribal as a result; we’ve become more angry and (express) more moral outrage. But all of that works for the social media companies.”
In a statement to the Associated Press, Meta said they share a “commitment to providing teens with safe, positive experiences online, and have already introduced over 30 tools to support teens and their families.”
They also said they’re “disappointed that instead of working productively with companies across the industry to create clear, age-appropriate standards for the many apps teens use, the attorneys general have chosen this path.”
While he tries to build up his own social media audience, Lindsey wants to promote the positive sides of social media.
“Fishing bloopers have brought many people to the waters from the sounds of it,” Lindsey said. “Some people said, ‘I went and got a brand-new pole,’ and I just commented, ‘that’s amazing.’ People have asked what kind of gear to use. I went on the river with the Spokane Riverkeeper. They took me out, and we did some trash picking up. There was a kid even in Norway that commented and said, ‘I wish we had this.’”
Dr. Norasakkunkit believes smaller communities are where social media can thrive.
“(It’s good) if you can focus more on positive experiences instead of negative experiences… and if it’s focused on the things you really like doing and you love,” he said. “That’s a great use of social media. Of course, the algorithm will keep recommending those videos too, which can take you down another rabbit hole, but I think it’s less harmful than the more tribalistic (rabbit hole).”
Lindsey, who comes to the water at 5:30 every day after working his 9-5 and shoots and edits his videos with his iPhone 14, loves the reach social media can have if used correctly.
“It’s cool to see interactions go from the internet to in-person,” he said. “You can always have coffee, but if you drink too much, it’s not good. If you have the right amount, it can change your life.”
