Since last week, I've tried to avoid using instagram. I start to realize that I'll be an addict, and cannot through a day without open it. Actually I felt it about two years ago, but the feeling is getting stronger nowadays. I think the app is worst because the new features. I was really in love with instagram in the first two years I use it, but now I am not satisfied anymore when use it. Instagram gives so many informations of course, and it helps me well. We can safe our memories in pictures then post them, and see the comments of our friends about the picture, and also get likes. We can post our opinions or ask suggestions in a caption or in a commets coloumn of friends' posts. We can keep in touch with people in easy ways in case we can't do it in person. Instagram also works in some businesses. But now, it's not as simple as that for me. It's complicated. Seeing others' lives in instagram no longer can cheer me up. Guess what, it's not only me, but a lot of people around the world feel the same. It becomes a mental health issues in the world. Mostly happened to young people and female.
I just read some articles about how instagram becomes the worst social media for mental health according to United Kingsom’s Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) and the Young Health Movement (YHM) report #StatusOfMind, examining the positive and negative effects of social media on young people’s health. From the report, Shirley Cramer CBE, Chief Executive, RSPH, said, “Social media has been described as more addictive than cigarettes and alcohol, and is now so entrenched in the lives of young people that it is no longer possible to ignore it when talking about young people’s mental health issues. Through our Young Health Movement, young people have told us that social media has had both a positive and negative impact on their mental health. It’s interesting to see Instagram and Snapchat ranking as the worst for mental health and wellbeing – both platforms are very image-focused and it appears they may be driving feelings of inadequacy and anxiety in young people."
The report concludes the potential negative effects of social media on health are; Anxiety and depression, poor sleep quality, body image, cyberbullying, and fear of missing out (FoMO). We can see that many sosial media users are constantly worried about what others think of their pictures and posts. They often compare themselves with others just by seeing friends having holidays then feel like they are missing out while others enjoy life. Using social media on phones, laptops and tablets at night before bed is linked with poor quality sleep for some reasons. Filter and editing feature of instagram unconsciously make young people, both male and female, but particularly females must look good enough and they can't be what they really are, and so on.
RSPH/YHM conducted a survey of almost 1,500 young people from across the UK, yet it might could be precise representative of humans' feelings in the world. According to the report, YouTube tops the table as the most positive, with Instagram coming out as the most detrimental to young people’s mental health and wellbeing. But rather than avoid the problem, Instagram has decided to build a team called Wellbeing Team, in order to face the issues.
Everyone has different taste and thought. We live in different lives. But we are same as human. I want to convey that true happiness comes from within. Stop looking into someone else's life and compare it with yours. Besides you have your own timing, you also have your own blessings. Be the best version of yourself, do not worry too much about what people think. Play your own role. You have no idea about what other people really face in their real lives. Don't be judgemental about people, don't be judgemental about yourself. Just... be thankful. You've already got what you need.
Back to the point, instagram cannot give me much happiness like previously anymore. It spends my time without any benefits. It fills my head with unimportant thoughts. It keeps me far from focus on doing right things. That's what I feel, and I don't know how about you. Some "right posts" can comfort me, but the "wrong posts" just like poisoning my brain over and over again. That is why I've tried to avoid using instagram. I probably log my instagram in again, still I wish I do it twice a month, and in any great urgency.
There are plus minus in everything. In my thought (right now), instagram is just like a social weapon, that could help you to survive and also could kill you.
Picture from:
pinterest.com
https://www.rsph.org.uk/our-work/campaigns/status-of-mind.html
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