Can Instagram ruin your life? The jury will decide

The Atlantic sought the perspective of Mark Bartholomew in a story about opening arguments starting today in a case that has the potential to change social media — and maybe even the internet — as we know it. The case in Los Angeles accuses social media companies, particularly Meta, of releasing products built with dangerously habit-forming features. It is the first such lawsuit to make it to trial. Bartholomew cited a product-liability claim, filed by the mother of a teenager who died by suicide after forming an intense relationship with a chatbot, as evidence of “a growing willingness” among courts “to take old product-liability doctrines for physical goods and apply them to software.”