How does Instagram negatively impact peoples mental health??

𝕙𝕠𝕨 𝕕𝕠𝕖𝕤 𝕀𝕟𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕘𝕣𝕒𝕞 𝕟𝕖𝕘𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕧𝕖𝕝𝕪 𝕚𝕞𝕡𝕒𝕔𝕥 𝕡𝕖𝕠𝕡𝕝𝕖𝕤 𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕒𝕝 𝕙𝕖𝕒𝕝𝕥𝕙?The reason why girls  are photo shopping their photos and changing their Instagram feed is because of society's beauty  standards: If you're not size 2, you're fat, but if you are a size two you're anorexic.. If you have dark or pale skin you're not  appealing to the eye,  but if you're tanned you’re a try hard.. These insecurities come from people like Kylie Jenner, Madison    Beer and Kim Kardashian who are famous for being attractive to beauty standards rather than actually being good at  something. People have commented on  Madison's Tiktok:  “Imagine looking like this",  "Suddenly I'm not hungry anymore.", and "Is Madison even real?".  This is extremely toxic for younger viewers and makes them think of themselves as not good enough because they don’t have Kylie's lips, Madison's waist and Kim's physique. .  

To collect data and get an accurate answer to our question, we will create a survey to send out to every student in our school. This survey will contain multiple questions based around how people feel about Instagram and the way it influences young people. We will also interview some people from varying backgrounds and year groups face to face to get a better understanding of how Instagram affects them personally. Before our results are calculated, we have written our own thoughts on what we think the results will show.

Hypothesis: We think most people who take our survey will have felt self conscious because of someone they have seen on their feed, and will have been negatively affected by Instagram in some way.

After collecting all the data from our surveys/interviews, we have discovered that our hypothesis was somewhat correct, but not as many people felt negatively affected by Instagram as we thought they would.

We had 59 responses to our survey in total. here are some of the answers to our questions:

Have you ever felt self conscious because you don't look like someone on your feed?
           
 -32 people said that they have, and 28 people said they haven't which was a lot more than we thought would.

What advice would you give to someone who feels negatively impacted by Instagram?             
- Literally just look around, people don't actually look like that
- Be yourself, don't worry about what other people think of you because you are perfect just the way you are
- You be you. You can't be anyone else, and don't try to be anyone else.
- Maybe take a break or unfollow the people that make you feel that you're not good enough
- Find the source of the negativity and unfollow the accounts or whatever else to make sure your mental health is ok
- Remember that people only post their best life/self. That may not be how they actually live.
- Delete it if you're struggling that much. Put your mental health first.

Have you ever felt pressured to look a certain way on your feed?

         - 24 people answered yes, and 36 people answered no.
       
              If yes, in what ways?

         - Insecure about my skin colour
         - I feel like I will be judged for posting what I want, rather than what other people want.
         - Because there are so many "perfect" people on Instagram and I can't help feeling like I want to be like them
         - To be skinnier and have clear skin
         - Feel like I need to be really pretty

Have you ever photo shopped yourself to make you look "better"?

             - 10 people answered yes, and 50 people answered no.

Have you ever considered changing yourself in any ways because of someone or something on your feed?
     
             - 27 people said yes, 36 people said no

Have you ever felt pressured to make your life look "perfect" online?

         - 20 people answered yes, 40 people answered no

              If yes, in what ways?

         - Not show any of the bad things
         - like having a defined body
         - Only in the way I look like, choosing the 'best image' but I don't post anything now

Do you ever delete your posts because you feel self conscious or you feel as though people will judge you?

         - 41 people said yes, 24 people said no

             If yes, how often?

         - On a weekly basis
         - Like twice a year
         - Nearly every post
         - Not very much, just old ones from when I was younger and I posted really cringy
                stuff

Have you ever said something to make someone feel bad about themselves?

             - 44 people said 'no', 13 people said 'yes, and I regret it' and 4 people said 'yes and
                 they deserved it.