https://www.ilpost.it/2017/09/22/storie-instagram-trucchi/Instagram is the social media of the moment, and it is a moment that has lasted a long time: it is used at least once a a month by over a billion people, and at least once a day by 500 million users. The Stories format has existed for just over two years: in April 2017 at least 200 million people made at least one a day, in June 2018 it was 400 million. Instagram likes it, those who like it, because it is a positive and complicit place, without the violent and toxic language so frequent on Facebook and Twitter, and invites you to share beautiful things and interact with appreciation of the beautiful things shared by others. For some, however, this feature is also their biggest problem: those beautiful things are fake, contrived, exaggerated.
The technology journalist Alex Hern wrote in the Guardian that «according to more and more users and mental health experts, the positivity of Instagram is his problem, because it puts an unstoppable emphasis on promoting “perfect” lifestyles ». If Instagram is seen as a good social media because it is serene, Hern turns the issue around by saying that perhaps it is not so good, precisely because it is too serene.
Twitter is considered the social media on which, in addition to holding on to informed, you always look for the joke and express an opinion, often critical, on a variety of things, often arguing. Hern wrote that Instagram «seems to be the friendliest social network that can be conceived. It is a community of people who communicate mainly visually and in which the main interaction is a double tap on an image to put a “heart”; it is a social network in which a content tends to become viral thanks to its positivity, and in which many of the most followed profiles are of cats and dogs ». According to him, however, the problem is that, unlike other social media, Instagram “pushes its users to present an image of themselves that is cheerful, attractive, but which for others could be misleading and even harmful”. Hern explained it this way: «If Twitter is the place where everyone becomes terrible and Facebook is the proof that everyone is boring, Instagram makes you fear that everyone is perfect. All but you “.
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The reasons why Instagram is perceived in this way lie in its structure . It is a platform that works mainly for images, not for words, and every time you want to share an image you are invited to modify it, improve it, make it even more beautiful with filters and corrections. It's the modern version of the holiday slides: only there were a lot of slides, it wasn't possible to add the Juno filter and the viewers were few. On Instagram many people – recent estimates speak of 11 million people a day, in Italy – do more or less the same thing: they try to tell their life (not just their holidays) trying to make it attractive. Compared to the slides, the quality of the content and the number of viewers change.
The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) is a British association that works to inform people about health and well-being. In 2017, he surveyed the negative effects Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram had on users aged 14 to 24. Instagram was the social media that according to the interviewees had the worst consequences on them: in particular on their FOMO (“Fear Of Missing Out”, the fear of being excluded from something that is happening), on their perception of their own body and on their their sleep. Niamh McDade, a researcher at the RSPH, told Hern: “At first glance, Instagram can seem very friendly. But continuing to look at the photos of others without interacting is not good. The thing is, on Instagram you only share things that are meant to put you in a good light. On Twitter and Facebook, on the other hand, you see many things that do not just serve to say “Hey, look at my wonderful life”. “
According to Hern, Instagram has become what it is, especially after a modification of his algorithm, made in 2016. Before that change the contents were shown in chronological order, while now this is no longer the case: from 2016 Instagram decides what to show to users based on their interests, their interactions with other profiles and the frequency of their use of the app. Instagram now tends to show more of the content they liked the most, and the content they like the most is often the positive and most successful. Hern wrote that since 2016 Instagram has started showing “a selected and unrealistic version of a feed that was already full of selected and unrealistic content.”
Hern's views and the RSPH poll did not they are absolute truths. Certainly the passive observation of fake perfect lifestyles can be harmful to someone, and it is likely that Instagram, as it is, shows the side of this problem. But it is also true that Instagram is such a recent phenomenon that it is impossible to be sure, or to predict what will be in a year. Many people have different interactions with Instagram; some make passive use of it, others make active use of it. Psychologist and sociologist Sherry Turkle said in 2012, the year Instagram was created, that social media makes us “alone together”. Stories, which have been a significant part of Instagram for two years, are made to show content that is a little more realistic and everyday, and therefore also less perfect. Finally, it should always be remembered that Instagram allows you to choose who to follow, and the choice is huge: just make the right choices to get the right feed.
considerations, Hern also shared his personal experience with Instagram. He wrote that he is trying to open the app less and less and that he just follows a couple of hundred people, especially to follow only those who really know. Despite this, he complained of “seeing an endless feed of family and friends doing amazing things and having a lot of fun, without me”.
