The research started in 2019 shows 32% of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse.
Teens also blame Instagram for anxiety and depression increases, and the research also showed 6% of users in the United States with suicidal thoughts traced it back to Instagram.
Instagram says it’s looking at new ways to discourage users from focusing on their physical appearance after The Wall Street Journal revealed that Facebook researchers have repeatedly found that the photo-sharing platform is toxic for teen girls.
The newspaper reported on Tuesday that researchers at Facebook, which purchased Instagram in 2012, have been conducting studies on how the app affects millions of young users for the past three years.
The research shows the platform can damage mental health and body image, especially among teen girls. Facebook executives have often played down mental health concerns in public.
Facebook company documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal demonstrate that Instagram’s parent company knows the app can be toxic for teenage girls.
Among the findings, many teens blame Instagram for increases in the rate of anxiety and depression, and 32% of teen girls said when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse.
Instagram says it’s looking at new ways to discourage users from focusing on their physical appearance after The Wall Street Journal revealed that Facebook researchers have repeatedly found that the photo-sharing platform is toxic for teen girls.
The newspaper reported on Tuesday that researchers at Facebook, which purchased Instagram in 2012, have been conducting studies on how the app affects millions of young users for the past three years.
The research shows the platform can damage mental health and body image, especially among teen girls. Facebook executives have often played down mental health concerns in public.
“We make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls,” said one internal presentation slide obtained by The Journal, summarizing research about teen girls who experience the issues.
Among teens who reported suicidal thoughts, 13% of British users and 6% of American users traced the desire to kill themselves to Instagram, one presentation showed, according to The Journal.
Karina Newton, head of public policy at Instagram, wrote in a statement posted on Tuesday that referenced the newspaper article that while Instagram can be a place where people have “negative experiences,” the app also gives a voice to marginalized people and helps friends and family stay connected.
Newton said that Facebook’s internal research demonstrated the company’s commitment to “understanding complex and difficult issues young people may struggle with, and informs all the work we do to help those experiencing these issues.”
The internet has drastically increased how many people we all connect to and how much information we consume.
As a society, we’re working out how to process these changes and what’s suitable for us individually.
At Instagram, we hire the best researchers and scientists we can to look at these changes and to help us understand how they impact people. We also consult with leading experts and researchers worldwide to help us see beyond our work.
External research into social media’s impact on people is still relatively nascent and evolving, and social media itself is changing rapidly.
Some researchers argue that we need more evidence to understand social media’s impact on people.
Each study has limitations and caveats, so no single study is going to be conclusive. We need to rely on an ever-growing body of multi-method research and expert input.
