Let’s face it. Sometimes there’s no better feeling than logging into your Instagram account with one or more flashy red notifications waiting for you. Once you open the app, what was meant to be a five-minute browse through your feeds ends up becoming mindless scrolling for an hour, and by the time you finish, you’ve likely left the phrase “Oh my goodness, so gorgeous!”, in the comment sections of over four posts. 

While scrolling through social media may seem like a harmless pastime, research conducted by Instagram’s parent company, Meta, revealed that the mental well-being of teenage girls is often negatively impacted by the time they spend on the platform. 

Social media platforms like Instagram are full of ideals and unrealistic standards. With excessive posing, makeup, lighting, and perfect angles, people can post the best version of themselves regardless of the photo’s authenticity.

Unfortunately, this practice of posting heavily filtered content has weighed heavily on the self-esteem of teenagers as a whole. For example, Facebook’s report found that 40% of teens surveyed in the United States and the United Kingdom reported that their feelings of being unattractive started with their use of Instagram.

Feeling unattractive due to social media is especially prominent in teenage girls due to Instagram’s promotion of the ideal body. Influencers like Kim Kardashian are praised for their hourglass figures and cinched waistlines, often leaving young girls to strive for the same results despite being unrealistic. Consequently, 32% of teenage girls using Instagram said the app made their body image issues much worse. Constant exposure to photoshopped content being marketed as reality has left adolescents unsatisfied with every aspect of their appearance, ultimately destroying self-esteem. 

Instagram’s alarming impacts on mental health does not end with body image. Mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression have also been linked to excessive time spent on Instagram, with 6% of those surveyed tracing the start of suicidal thoughts to the use of the app.

Experts pin Instagram’s negative impact on mental health to its focus on comparison. On the platform, people compare their natural faces, bodies, relationships, and lives to the best version of somebody else’s. This excessive comparison prevents people from embracing what they possess and leaves them striving to imitate others.

Instagram clearly isn’t the best for mental health and building self-esteem, but fortunately, there are many solutions to tackle the issues that excessive time on the platform can present. 

First, take a break! The best solution to combat the negative impacts of social media on mental health is to log off for a while. While you may experience a bit of FOMO from temporarily deleting the app at first, you quickly forget about the app over time. I now use the time I formerly devoted to Instagram to go on evening walks with my dog Mylo, nap, catch up on physics homework, or stream Gilmore Girls! The less you’re on Instagram, the faster you realize how trivial a role the app plays in your life, plus you’ll likely gain an hour or so of newfound free time that you used to spend browsing the app.

Second, if you insist on keeping the app, follow accounts that lift your spirits, not ones that idealize perfection. By filtering the content you consume, you can combat the need to compare your life to those who frequently post on Instagram.

Finally, acknowledge that not everything you see on Instagram is real! Almost all of the content you see online has likely been edited or filtered in some way to make the image look better. Remember, people post their best selves on Instagram, not their worst.

Being a site filled with filtered faces, fake private jets, and high expectations, it’s no wonder that Instagram can contribute to negative impacts on mental health, but fortunately for its users, the option to disconnect from the app and embrace reality can mitigate the effects of the platform on the teenage brain.

1. Georgia Wells, Jeff Horwitz, and Deepa Seetharaman, “Facebook Knows Instagram Is Toxic for Teen Girls, Company Documents Show,” The Wall Street Journal, September 14, 2021, accessed March 19, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-knows-instagram-is-toxic-for-teen-girls-company-documents-show-11631620739. 
2. Wells, Horwitz, and Seetharaman, “Facebook Knows.”

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