Analysis Of Instagram Is Killing Teen Girls Self-Esteem

Over the last ten years, with the growth of technology and the Internet, social media websites gradually become more and more popular in society such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Nowadays, teenagers do not only use social media just talking with friends, but they also create social media as a place for them to discover information and express themselves. In fact, there are the number of teenagers who spend most of their time to post and check-in on Instagram. It is wondered whether social media has any negative effects on the individuals who use them usually. As the report “Instagram Is Killing Teen Girls’ Self-Esteem”, the author states that almost every girl teenager feels isolated and unsatisfied with what they have. Indeed, they

With this issue, Instagram may affect the point of view of the teenager about body image. For example, a lot of Instagram users make this app as a platform for them to promote themselves. In the past, Facebook used to be a platform for posting everything such as pictures, status, or even blogs. Unlike Facebook, Instagram is especially focused on photos (Moreau). It allows users to take a photo from their mobile devices and edit it by using filters, blurring effects, color adjustments, etc., in order to enhance the image before posting it on the profiles. According to the studies on the Internet, the author argues that “Most teens and tweens only post the good news such as a college acceptance letter, a new award, or information about that wonderful date the night before” (“Social Media and Self Esteem - Dos & Don’t For Teens and Parents”). As we can perceive from that article, most teenagers would probably never choose to post that shabby, rolled out of bed late and barely got to school on time while still wearing sweats image on Instagram. Instead, they post their best pictures. However, the good compliments are not always received on those photos. Instead, some comments may be rude and impolite giving a lot of words such as “fat”, “ugly”, etc. Consequently, these images combined with those words only increase negative body image and low social media

Nowadays, many teenagers imitate famous people that they followed on Instagram. This could have an effect on another factor such as their self-esteem. Following strangers such as celebrities and models may cause the individuals to have a lower self-esteem and feel dissatisfied with their life by seeing the pictures celebrities post day-to-day about their lavish lifestyles, “perfect” bodies, and pretty faces (Wallis 2015). Next, other studies done to test the exposure of images of models to girls have found that participants who viewed pictures of the models reported a significantly lower body satisfaction and self-esteem report than those in the control group who were not exposed to any models (“Social Media and Self Esteem - Dos &Don’t for Teens and Parents”). In addition, another study in Germany call this phenomenon the “self-promotion-envy spiral,” and it happens when Instagram users compare themselves to the people they’re connected to on the platform (Dion, “The Effect of Instagram on Self-Esteem and Life Satisfaction”). Therefore, we could realize that if we addict in the imaginary world of Instagram, we may lose our own lifestyles and immerse into the unreal life on social media. However, this reason is still a small impact on the confidence of teenagers. For instance, some accounts, solely have the one picture, and a link