The benefits of networks and online communication are vast for both businesses and individuals, but there are also negative sides to it. Based on focus groups, surveys, and other studies from 2019 to 2021, Facebook found that the use of Instagram has a clear negative effect on the mental health of teenage girls. This includes Instagram making them feel pressure to match the lifestyles and bodies of influencers, the need for validation through likes and comments, and being bullied on the platform. With the social pressure to be active on social media, it also makes it hard for these teenage girls to remove themselves from the platform.
Especially when it comes to looking like many influencers on Instagram, these images and videos are often completely unrealistic. Especially with more advanced video and photo-editing technology, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to distinguish what is real and what is altered. It is therefore impossible to tell whether you are comparing yourself to a real or a digitally altered person.
So is there something to be done about the negative impact on such social media on teenagers? Facebook being aware of the obvious negative health consequences of Instagram, but choosing to hide it from the public, is even being compared to Big Tobacco. Especially as as a society we become more informed of the importance of mental health, these kinds of findings should be taken seriously.
But instead of addressing these issues Facebook seems to be going in the complete opposite direction, planning an Instagram-like app for under 13 year olds. This seems like a step in the wrong direction, introducing the social pressure of social media to younger and younger children.
