Instagram bad for our youth?

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Kara Fox of CNN published an article titled "Instagram worst social media app for young people's mental health".  The article discusses the study #statusofmind conducted by researchers at UCLA's Brain Mapping Center who surveyed around 1,500 people aged 14 to 24.  The results found that Instagram had the most negative impact.  Behind it were Snapchat, Facebook, and Twitter.  The researchers found that the negative impact was found most prominently in young women.  They say that the media platform causes young women to compare themselves against unrealistic ideals of what their reality should look like.  This causes them to feel that their bodies aren't good enough.  The photoshopped images create a feeling of "inadequacy and anxiety" as viewers develop a "fear of missing out".  As a response to this social media issue some are calling for social media platforms to take action by placing a warning on photoshopped images so that viewers don't make a false reality their reality. 

After reading this article I wasn't really surprised.  I do think that social media creates false hopes, and hypes up certain luxury items, that the mass population doesn't have access to.  However, personally I have never found myself in a position where I feel the anxiety described in the article.  To prevent the negative effects described in the article, I think that parents should make sure their kids aware of the good and bad of social media.  As the digitized world increases kids will constantly come into contact with the media, and need to know how to cope with all aspects of it. 

Link to Article:
https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/19/health/instagram-worst-social-network-app-young-people-mental-health/index.html

Link to Picture:
https://media.sproutsocial.com/uploads/2017/11/Social-Media-Ideas.png

Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 2, 2018 at 8:09 PM

    What an interesting article! It's not very surprising though that Instagram was concluded to cause the most negative effects. Social media definitely harbors a lot of unrealistic expectations.

    ReplyDelete

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