It is almost unbelievable, the power Instagram has on our minds towards how critically we view ourselves and diminish our self-worth to some proportions and scales. It comes to mind, whether Instagram feeds on that self-negating, and self-berating thought-process that we as humans carry, or is it just a toxic feature of the photo-sharing platform itself that causes so many individuals to develop negative feelings about their physical appearance out of nowhere. The questions arises – were we really content with our looks before Instagram took the world by a storm of countless displays of conventional beauty standards.
It can work in our favor at times, when we get influenced by a whole lot of interaction on someone’s post, and are motivated to post some content that works to get us some Instagram likes monthly, getting our page the reach we might think we need to feel a little better. Facebook, which owns Instagram, is well-aware of the fact how it has harmed the mental health of many young individuals—particularly females.
Many researchers say that former employees of the platform believe that this harmful impact is almost impossible to fix, however, the impact has become lesser as time has passed and more people are coming up with different views on acceptance.
There is an extreme collision between what is profitable and what is good for mental health, and often what is profitable is not good for mental health, as it may put a lot pressure onto an audience of a certain age group to be influenced into giving themselves into the marketing tactics which give out the impression that a particular standard must be followed.
The harmful impact of Instagram
Instagram has added onto so many mental health issues over the past few years. It has added onto our insecurities and inferiority complexes, making some us feel like we have never achieved anything in our lives, especially teenagers–who are gullible enough to taking everything at face-value and not considering that fact that there must be a lot that goes on behind a particular ‘sexy’ picture on Instagram.
Some researchers have pointed out that there are almost 32 percent of teenage girls who feel bad about their bodies already, and Instagram has amplified those issues for them. Almost 13 percent of British users and 6 percent of American users have reported to have suicidal thoughts as many young women’s self-image suffered badly, affected by comparing themselves with what they thought was beautiful on Instagram.
It is undeniable that Instagram has definitely helped many businesses and individuals gain a foothold on what they held expertise upon, and what they wanted to sell, but this has often made marketers inconsiderate towards what might impact their audience in a negative way.
A lot of buying decisions are derived from visual content, and social media applications like Instagram elaborate an issue for a segment of an audience that are already vulnerable to body-image issues, and as seen of recent times, many marketers have turned this into strategies to promote products in a way that makes customers, or the members of the audience on Instagram feel good about themselves, if they made a purchase from a particular brand.
A Quick Fix
Ultra-thin or models with just the right amount of curves have been considered as desirable by most of us, they may inspire us, but they may also make us feel unwanted, as we start looking at ourselves from a very emotionally critical point of view–a view that may not feel the same over the course of a few years–you may actually feel that you looked really good.
By desirable we also mean that these conventionally attractive individuals may have a lot of views, likes, shares and saves on their content. They may have a huge amount of Instagram followers and that may also push us to do something for ourselves on our own page. Hence, we might turn to marketing tools like SocioTraffic to get ourselves a monthly Instagram package that gives us a lot of followers and makes us look good as we pose for a petty picture up on some beach, holding a margarita and having spent months’ worth salary on something that is so short-lived–except, if you are really enjoying yourself in that moment, and having the time of your life.
In order to somewhat fix this issue that has been sustained by individuals for a long time, presenting a more diverse range of physical appearances, backgrounds, shapes and sizes may have a positive impact on people–may even encourage them to be more accepting of their peers.
