For Teen Girls, Instagram Is a Cesspool
I encourage people to have a look at the leaked document that is being referenced here.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;s.wsj.net&#x2F;public&#x2F;resources&#x2F;documents&#x2F;teen-mental-health-deep-dive.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;s.wsj.net&#x2F;public&#x2F;resources&#x2F;documents&#x2F;teen-mental-hea...</a><p>p24. Teens are about twice as likely to state that Instagram improves their mental health than to state that it harms it.<p>p28. Teens who were already unsatisfied with their mental health tend to think Instagram harms their mental health more than teens who are satisfied with their mental health. Still, teens who are not satisfied with their mental health (in the USA) are more likely to think Instagram is a positive influence on mental health than a negative one. This is not true in the UK.<p>If you&#x27;re the kind of person who hates when statistics are abused for a narrative, this should be something you dislike. The &quot;damning internal documents&quot; actually show that 80% of teens have a neutral or positive reaction to Instagram, and teens are two times more likely to have a positive reaction than a negative one.<p>Zuckerberg&#x27;s comments about Instagram having an overall positive effect on teen mental health look a lot less like an obvious lie from this angle.<p>My personal opinion&#x2F;guess: Instagram and social media does deliver harmful content to some people and can have negative effects on people&#x27;s mental health. However, in the discussion we&#x27;ve been having this week, every possible positive effect has been discounted to 0 value. That&#x27;s not really fair, doesn&#x27;t reflect the actual results of the leaked studies, and certainly doesn&#x27;t match my anecdotal experience using social media (including fbook, reddit, hn and insta).