STUDY: Instagram, the most harmful social network for young people’s mental health

A recent study has set young people on fire. Specifically, according to a our analysis by two health organizations and quoted by  The Guardian , it draws attention to the fact that four of the five most popular social networks are harmful to mental health.

The first social network that seems to be harmful to young people is INSTAGRAM:

Instagram has the strongest negative impact on the mental health of young people, according to the study conducted on approximately 1,500 young people aged between 14 and 24 years. If you are wondering what the impact of other social networks is on the mental health of teenagers, you find out that both Snapchat and Facebook and Twitter are also harmful, according to the study.

But the surprise is just now: of the five, it seems that YouTube was considered the only site with a positive impact!

Moreover, health organizations claim that social networks deepen the feelings of inadequacy and anxiety of young people. The four platforms have a negative effect because they can exacerbate the body image of children and young people and can worsen aggression, sleep problems and feelings of anxiety, depression and loneliness.

Thus, Instagram was rated negative for seven out of 14 points, especially in terms of the impact on sleep, body image and fear of being excluded from certain groups. The positive points were free speech and identity.

On the other hand, YouTube was rated as “harmful for its impact on sleep” but received white balls for nine of 14 categories, including other people’s understanding, expression, loneliness, depression and emotional support.

A well-known professor, president of the Royal College of Psychiatry in Great Britain, explains the reasons:

“Social media marketing services play an important role in the ‘unhappiness of young people’, but they have as many benefits as they have a negative impact,”.

On the other hand, the teacher points out that young people need to understand both the positives and the negatives, which is meant to train them for the new era of digitization.

“We need to explain to young people all the aspects, both positive and negative, to prepare them for an increasingly digitalized world,” says the teacher.