The jury in the ongoing trial in Los Angeles over social media addiction must answer a key question: If Kaley, the 20-year-old plaintiff who sued Meta Platforms and YouTube, exaggerated mistreatment by her family, was she also embellishing the harms she suffered from the apps?
The jury in the ongoing trial in Los Angeles over social media addiction must answer a key question: If Kaley, the 20-year-old plaintiff who sued Meta Platforms and YouTube, exaggerated mistreatment by her family, was she also embellishing the harms she suffered from the apps?Or was Kaley’s tendency to express herself with absolutes and black-and-white language influenced by those apps?
In the past month, the jury has heard plenty of evidence to support the plaintiff’s argument that the companies turned a blind eye to internal research findings that their platforms were harming children in pursuit of more users and more money. But this case is specifically about Kaley, who is pursuing the lawsuit using only her first name or the initials K.G.M., and the jury will have to decide whether she was harmed by her use of Instagram and YouTube.
Discrepancies in Kaley’s testimony, as well as expert interpretation of what she has said about problems in her life that don’t involve social media, pose challenges to the jurors as they try to understand how exactly social media has affected Kaley, and whether it is to blame for the tumult in her young life that could be the result of multiple entangled factors.
Taking the jury through one medical record after another from Kaley's multiple therapists, Meta argued that the young woman’s mental health issues were caused by fraught family dynamics, academic struggles and social challenges beyond the Internet.
Kaley’s medical records, as well as her social media posts, were strewn with statements about her “abandonment” by a father who moved out after a divorce when Kaley was about four, as well as her conflicts with her mother and sister.
“I’m in an abusive household” is one example. “I wish my mom had stopped abusing me” is another. Other examples from Kaley include “My sister is always mean to me” and “My mom always yells at me.”
Kaley alleges Instagram and YouTube caused her to be addicted to social media, which then led to a series of mental health problems. The companies are arguing that it’s more possible that Kaley’s family conflicts and struggles in social relationships caused her mental health disorders. Both sides have sought to downplay the factors relied upon by the other side, and Kaley’s perspective plays an important role in helping the jury decide which causes are more probable.
A key witness for the plaintiff, Dr. Kara Bagot, an associate professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at UCLA, spent almost four full days on the witness stand. According to Meta, she was the only expert or doctor who has diagnosed Kaley with social media addiction.
Bagot downplayed the impact of family conflicts on Kaley. She repeatedly testified that the experience described by Kaley of being abandoned by her father was not abandonment. She said Kaley cut off contact with her dad, and that “estrangement” is a better word.
Bagot denied that Kaley was abused or neglected by her mother. With regard to claims of physical abuse, Bagot disagreed that it met the standards in “a medical setting” of abuse.
Similarly, Bagot testified that Kaley’s “concept of bullying doesn’t meet the standards for what we call bullying in psychiatry.” On a purportedly traumatic experience Kaley has experienced involving her sister, Bagot said: “I believe it was very traumatic at the time, but it didn’t result in a long-term psychiatric disorder.”
Bagot attributed these claims to “black and white thinking” — a “very absolutist” way of expressing oneself.
In one example, Kaley claimed her mom “doesn’t cook anything ever.” If Kaley’s mom didn’t feed her, social service would have been involved, Bagot explained, but there is “no evidence of any neglect,” she said.
Kaley used the phrases “all the time” and “my entire life” a lot. Kaley is only 20 years old, Bagot pointed out. She “has an entire life beyond this point,” she said. “Kaley just can’t speak to her entire life because some of it hasn’t happened yet and some of it she can’t remember.”
During her own testimony, Kaley also said, looking back at some of the statements, she was being “dramatic.” Echoing Kaley’s explanation, Bagot said many such statements, particularly posts on social media, were made by Kaley to get attention and garner comments or likes.
Bagot was confronted by Meta lawyer Paul Schmidt that such thinking could equally be applied to Kaley’s statements regarding social media.
When examining Kaley’s social media use, Bagot used a questionnaire. For each of the six questions concerning use of social media, Kaley selected the highest level. For example, the questionnaire asked, on a scale of one to five, whether a person feels the need to use social media sites more and more.
Schmidt suggested that Kaley’s tendency to engage in black-and-white thinking was also reflected in her descriptions of her social media use. Bagot, however, said her conclusions were informed by follow-up discussions in person with Kaley.
Bagot did concede that when Kaley talked about her social media use, she could be engaging the black-and-white thinking too, but she added that responses like “feeling I always have to be on it” were consistent with diagnostic criteria for addictive behaviors.
Sonia Krishna, a psychiatrist testifying as an expert witness for the companies, testified Kaley was not addicted to social media. Krishna said she took into consideration the fact that Kaley, and teenagers like her, tend to dramatize, and it’s important to prioritize the “extensive medical records” that are available.
Bagot said Kaley's method of communicating was influenced by social media. “Social validation has driven her continual use of social media over time,” she said. Posts with “absolutist thinking are the ones that garnered the most comments,” she said.
“It carried over into Kaley’s real life. This absolutist thinking is what gets her validation,” Bagot said.
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