Instagram and mental health of teenage girls

THE story that Facebook, the company in charge of Instagram, the social media application for sharing pictures and videos and stories, has research findings showing that its Instagram offerings were and are bad and harmful to the mental health of teenagers even while the company was planning to further create an Instagram version for preteenagers speaks to the dangers inherent in the unregulated exposure of children and teenagers to the current fad of social media and the limitations of relying on social media companies to regulate themselves in the quest to deliver the best services to the society. Many scholars, overtime and since the emergence of social media and the addiction it has generated, have called attention to the possibility of mental health issues surrounding the prolonged use of this new media. And this as it became clear that the social media companies were and are more interested in how to retain the engagement of users on their sites in order to make more money through the display of adverts. In which case, it would not matter that scholars were calling attention to the dangers and risks of addiction to and prolonged use of the social media, what was important to the companies was how to generate excitement and action and reaction that would compel users to stay on and continue to engage on the sites no matter the harm to themselves and their mental health.

Think of the report that Facebook and other social media companies deliberately skew their algorithms to give prominence to posts that would provoke others and generate reactions even where such posts are not necessarily true in order to ensure that there is and continues to be engagement on the various platforms. Or the report that these social media companies deliberately promote misinformation and disinformation to generate engagements that would assure them of more money. These are reflections of the patent sole concern of the social media companies with monetary gains even at the expense of societal stability and the health conditions of their users. We obviously ought to be concerned here about the safe use of social media and new technology beyond being carried away by the exotic nature of their presentations and the sheer fancifulness of their newness and the imagery that provokes or  represents. The whole essence of innovation should not just be about new exotic offerings, but should be more about the contributions of the new offerings to a better society and social reality and a higher sense of living for the people.

Imagine the general condition of girls and women in the world in terms of the negative implications of the pervasive patriarchal system for their life and existence. It is known, in this regard, that girls and women suffer extensive damage because of patriarchal oppression and discrimination especially in the areas of education and particularly exposure to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), such that women are generally at the backend of all educational and scientific advancements. The same way girls and women suffer socially in terms of objectification of their bodies by boys and men for frivolity and resultant body-shame and mental health problems for the girls and women. This means issues of body shape and body image concerns and presentations in photographs and videos are extremely important to girls and women, not necessarily because they are inherently or intrinsically more prone to body consciousness than boys and women, but maybe more because of the historical weight of the onslaught they have had to bear about the objectifications of their bodies over time. In which case any media platform that showcases photographs and videos ought to be seen as a treacherous setting for girls and women given that such platform has the potential of generating and reinforcing the urge toward body consciousness by girls and women occasioned by patriarchal objectification of their bodies, with this calling for appropriate safeguards in the setting up and use of such media platforms by regulatory bodies.

Yet, we had the enthusiastic setting up of the Instagram platform without any thought as to appropriate mediating safeguards and controls for the unleashing of photographs and videos within an overarching province for comparisons. Not even how the platform would affect impressionable and growing children and teenagers was given a thought or addressed by the owners and the regulatory bodies. Is it any wonder then that we have research reports indicating that ‘Instagram is harmful for a sizable percentage of … (young users), most notably teenage girls,’ and that Instagram ‘make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls’? Further, according to the research reports, ‘thirty two percent of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse,’ just as ‘among teens who reported suicidal thoughts, thirteen percent of British users and six percent of American users traced the issue to Instagram.’ In the same vein, it is reported that ‘teens blame Instagram for increases in … (their) rate of anxiety and depression,’ with researchers concluding that some of these issues are specific to Instagram because ‘social comparison is worse’ on the platform, given that ‘comparisons on Instagram can change how young women view and describe themselves.’

The implication of all this is that we have a grave situation with Instagram in terms of its effect on the mental health of teenage girls and this situation calls for clear and urgent action on the part of the owners of the platform and regulatory bodies across the world, such that we do not continue to sacrifice the mental health and future of teenage girls on the altar of photograph and video showcase and continuing monetary gains for the owners of the platform. This is what the reality of the research reports calls for and we expect that the owners and regulatory bodies would act expeditiously to make necessary amends.

• Yakubu of the Department of Communication and Language Arts, University of Ibadan.

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