Page 45 - Waterfall City Dec 2023_Jan 2024 Issue

iPHONES, iPADS

AND iWORRY

By Dr Ilse Ruane

I nstagram is a visually-led social For a teen, the goal of having an • it’s always about looking flawless. It is
interacting in real life, in sports and in
friendships;
media platform where the primary
Instagram account is to gain the most
likes. Some teens go to great lengths
method of interaction is double-
tapping an image to like it. Posts go
not real; and
viral due to the posts feeding into the to gain these likes – but online life isn’t • it creates an unreal popularity contest.
real life.
dominant culture. The app allows users
to post their photos or videos onto According to studies, Instagram is the Compare and despair
their feed. Photos or videos are often worst social media network for mental Instagram makes it easy to compare
edited or enhanced before sharing health and wellbeing. While Instagram the number of ‘friends’ you have
to gain as many likes as possible. got points for self-expression and self- against your peers. It is natural to
identity, it was associated with anxiety, compare. We compare ourselves
By following the person, you are able depression, bullying and the fear of with others in terms of ability, social
to access their online gallery of photos, missing out (FOMO). Instagram looks standing and even how we feel.
provided they have not hidden it from friendly and fun, but:
you. • users have little control over what Social media is making it impossible to
they are seeing; avoid comparing. Researchers are even
Locations may also be shared, which • the pseudo-positivity of Instagram calling this the ‘compare and despair’ of
opens up all sorts of concerns. encourages its users to present an Instagram. The typical Instagram user
Instagram’s algorithm tailormakes attractive image to get maximum spends most of his/her time observing
feeds for the user based on their followers; other people and messaging, but not
previous searches, hashtags and other • it presents unrealistic, edited images too often posting. In other words, users
users they follow. Instagram has three and posts that speak directly to teens. spend most of their time gathering
account settings to choose from: They quickly forget that people edit information about others. As a result,
private, business or open. their photographs. These can lead to it is nearly impossible not to use this
the risk of developing an unhealthy information to compare our lives with
The widest net for gaining followers body image. They can also set others.
and ‘friends’ is an open account. But unrealistic expectations and create
this also means anyone on the internet feelings of inadequacy and low self- Teenagers also believe other people have
has access to all your posts, photos and esteem; more friends than they really do, based
videos – and, therefore, ultimately has • teens start investing more time online on the number of followers a person
access to you. at the expense of communicating and has. The teen user may have hundreds

Waterfall City Issue 12 2023/Issue 1 2024 43