It suggested that teen girls experience an increase in suicidal thoughts after using Instagram.
One of the internal studies that Haugen leaked specifically focused on teen girls. It suggested that teen girls experience an increase in suicidal thoughts after using Instagram. Other studies focused on Instagram’s detrimental effect on eating disorders and body image issues. Seventeen percent of teen girls said that their eating disorders worsened after Instagram use, and 32 percent reported that the app made them feel worse about their bodies. Again, I think of free will, agency, autonomy, freedom. I also think of Jenna. Did she feel free? When I looked at Jenna’s Instagram account, it was impossible not to notice how often she showed off her small waist, large breasts, and long limbs. I couldn’t help but think about how I have similarly put my body on display on the internet. This act of apparent confidence always comes with an emotional cost. Before posting, I overanalyze and scrutinize every inch of my body. I become riddled with insecurity and often wallow in moments of self-loathing. The leaked Facebook studies suggest that the portrayals of false perfection that saturate Instagram are psychologically harmful. However, for me, those harmful feelings—of worthlessness, body dysmorphia, loneliness, etc.—don’t seem to arise as much when I am consuming others’ content and their personal portrayals of false perfection as when I am trying to present the false perfection of myself. As I looked at Jenna’s page, I wondered if she felt the same way.