News Media reported on Wednesday that Instagram’s internal study revealed that the app has a detrimental impact on youths in the United States and the United Kingdom. Some of the findings of internal research so far.
“Thirty-two percent of teen females indicated that when they felt horrible about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse,” according to a slide from a March 2020 presentation uploaded to Facebook’s (which owns Instagram) internal message boards, according to the Media Story.
Teenagers also blame their use of Instagram for higher rates of anxiety and sadness, according to the Media report.
Significantly, one presentation revealed that 13 percent of British users and 6% of US users linked their desire to commit suicide to their use of Instagram.
In the United States and the United Kingdom, people utilise social media in different ways.
According to the findings of a Pew Research Center survey published in April, the majority of 18-29 year olds in the United States use Instagram (71 percent) or Snapchat (65 percent). Tik Tok is used by half of the respondents in this age range.
Within this age range, persons between the ages of 18 and 24 are the most likely to use Instagram (76 percent), Snapchat (75 percent), and Tik Tok (55 percent). Significantly, half of Hispanic and Black Americans (52%) and a lesser percentage of White Americans (49%) indicated they use Instagram (35 percent).
According to Pew, seven out of ten Americans in the United States use social media to interact with others, engage with news content, share information, or entertain themselves. According to Statista, the 25-34 year old age group in the UK has the highest percentage of Instagram users (30.9 percent). This is followed by 18-24 year olds, who use the app 22.9 percent of the time. Instagram had over 28 million users in the United Kingdom as of July 2021.
What has been Instagram’s Reaction?
“While the storey focuses on a small set of findings and presents them in a negative light, we stand by this research,” Instagram said in a statement in response to the WSJ investigation. It illustrates our dedication to understanding the complicated and challenging difficulties that young people face, and it informs all of our work to assist individuals who are dealing with these issues.”
The evidence on social media’s influence on mental health is “mixed,” according to the statement.
“Research on the effects of social media on people’s well-being is mixed, and our own findings are consistent with other studies. People aren’t born with a good or terrible attitude toward social media. Many people find it useful one day and then find it bothersome the next. What appears to matter the most is how people utilise social media and their mental state while doing so,” the statement continued.
Instagram also stated that it is striving to make the platform safer by addressing bullying, eating disorders, and self-injury.
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