Blog #3
In today’s age of social media mass culture, it is a head-to-head race for me personally to define the one platform that I use the most. The race is between YouTube and Instagram and If I had to take one over the other, I think it would be the latter. One of the sole reasons why I use this particular platform the most is the fact that it is very handy to use and shows me content based on my subscriptions and also based on the algorithm on the explore page. I started using Instagram in my early teenage years basically to keep track because everybody started sharing photos and videos on it from simple things like holidays or what they experienced on the weekend. With the evolution of the platform itself, my personal use also changed. Today, I pretty much only use it for entertainment purposes since I am very interested in sports and Stand-up comedy and also to share said content with friends who have similar interests. It takes only a few follows and one is updated about specific topics every couple of minutes. In my opinion, Instagram moved away from only being a platform people use for sharing photos with friends but became an omnipresent medium to communicate, share and inform oneself about whatever topic one is interested in. Among many other studies about the motivation and use of Instagram, Ting et al. (2015) exploratory study elicited five behavioral beliefs about the use of Instagram in Malaysia. Namely, personal gratification, features usefulness, socializing role, product information and entertainment, which meet my opinion about the affordances and benefits Instagram brings as a platform. Nevertheless, next to several positive affordances there is also a dark side of using Instagram. Not only is it highly addictive since it rarely delivers break indicators like the end of a video, but it also influences one’s mental health. Sherlock and Wagstaff (2019) illustrated that increased usage of Instagram was associated with various psychological well-being consequences. These encompass depressive symptoms, general anxiety, physical appearance anxiety, self-esteem, and disturbances in body image perception. This brings us to another very crucial topic that comes with social media, the glorification of perfect bodies, which are inescapable on Instagram. It is no secret that there is a direct correlation between the use of social media and body dysmorphia or eating disorders. Wick and Keel (2020, p. 869) found that “posting edited photos caused increased weight/shape concerns”. In general, the results indicate that the act of posting edited photos is associated with a higher risk of eating disorder issues, with a greater number of problems linked to posting rather than editing photos (Wick & Keel 2020, p. 870). I think this trend of comparing oneself with people on social media is very dangerous, especially for young people because they are still in the main stages of developing their identities and their self-confidence. In sum, careless use of social media platforms of any kind can bring serious harm, especially for young people but it can also be a very useful tool for any kind of information and communication.
References:
Sherlock, M & Wagstaff, DL 2019, ‘Exploring the relationship between frequency of Instagram use, exposure to idealized images, and psychological well-being in women’, Psychology of Popular Media Culture, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 482–490.
Ting, H, Ming, WWP, de Run, EC, & Choo, SLY 2015, ‘Beliefs about the use of Instagram: An exploratory study’, International Journal of business and innovation, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 15-31.
Wick, MR, & Keel, PK 2020, ‘Posting edited photos of the self: Increasing eating disorder risk or harmless behavior?’, The International journal of eating disorders, vol. 53, no. 6, pp. 864–872.













