This article has been syndicated from The Bloomly, an InfluenceHer Collective Member. Read the full post here.
My name is Rebecca and I have a love-hate relationship with Instagram. Instagram has somehow changed from being a fun way to share what's happening in my life into a chore.
According to Time Health, "studies have suggested that young people who spend more than two hours a day on social networking sites are more likely to report psychological distress." While it seems to be a general trend that all social media promotes negative mental health, to me and the rest of the world, Instagram stands out in particular.
As a few months ago, in May, a study published by the Royal Society for Public Health and the Young Health Movement announced that Instagram was ranked worst social media platform for young people's mental health and this didn't come as a shock to me.
Why wasn't I surprised? In my own life, I have been seeing the mental strain that comes along with social media, experiencing it on almost a daily basis. I've been constantly feeling mixed emotions about it. I love it, but at other times I completely hate it what it's doing to me.
A while ago, I tweeted out something about my mixed feelings for Instagram and it seemed that a lot of other people felt the same way.
INSTAGRAM STRESSES ME OUT BUT I LOVE IT BUT I HATE IT ???
— Rebecca (@thebloomly) July 11, 2017
Seeing that I wasn't the only one in the midst of an intense battle of love vs. hate over Instagram, I decided to give each side their moment and explain the pros and cons. General consensus seems to be that yeah, sometimes Instagram makes me feel terrible about my life, but at the same time, I'm a) totally addicted and b) love the positive benefits of Instagram in my life.
Why Instagram Is Ruining My Life
I struggle with the fear of missing out.
The fear of missing out is literally exactly how it sounds. Looking at social media, you see the lives of other people and you see that they're having fun. Without you. This spurs, you guessed it, the fear of missing out on all of the fun. For me, this is most difficult when I see my friends and/or people that I know in person on social media going to social events that maybe I a) wasn't invited to, b) decided not to go to, or c) is so completely amazing that I would never even imagine going to.
It's most difficult in these situations for me personally because with social media influencers, I know that their lives will always be exciting on social media because that's their job. However, with people that I know personally, they're more like me. I know where they went to school and what classes they're taking. They're people that I can relate to more based on what I already know about them. I feel that connection with them and I know that we're somewhat similar.
However, knowing that these people are just like me, seeing posts online of them doing extraordinary things or going to fantastic events makes me feel like I'm a) slacking in my life or b) just pathetic and not cool. If we're all supposed to be in about the same place, we're about the same age, we have similar skills, we maybe even took some of the same classes and went to the same school, but here they are, doing more than me.