4 ms·

It's admittedly an extreme case, but I've been seeing Instagram fairly directly harm a friend's mental health. She is repeatedly seeing people on Instagram doin

It's admittedly an extreme case, but I've been seeing Instagram fairly directly harm a friend's mental health. She is repeatedly seeing people on Instagram doing elaborate things - decoration, cooking, parenting, etc., and it's giving her unrealistic expectations about what standards she should be upholding in everything she does, be it cooking or crafting or interior décor or parenting or whatever. She isn't just trying to keep up with the Joneses, she's trying to keep up with the Joneses and the Nguyens and the Singhs and the Smiths and the Telliers all at the same time. The extreme impossibility of anyone actually doing this has more or less turned her life into (in her estimation) an endless stream of failure, and it's really wearing her down. The craziest thing is, it happened so quickly. On year she was doing her own thing and loving it. Then her mom got her onto Instagram, and a year later she was trying to do everyone else's thing and chronically burnt out. I'm not sure it's entirely Instagram's fault, though. A while back I decided to stop renewing my Make Magazine subscription for more or less the same reason.

ShroudedNight 5y ago
> ...it's giving her unrealistic expectations about what standards she should be upholding in everything she does... It sounds like Instagram is essentially the generalization of pornography.
bronco21016 5y ago
This is a huge issue with social media and Instagram in particular. I see it a lot on YouTube as well. It’s like the Joneses suddenly became EVEN further ahead of everyone because the internet has such wide reach and only selects for the best of the best. It destroyed my marriage personally. My ex became obsessed with being the “BEST”. Went as far as creating multiple accounts in Instagram to highlight achievements in multiple areas. The obsession resulted in us no longer knowing each other. We spent essentially no time together and time spent together was spent obsessing over one of the accounts. When I noticed how it was changing us I deleted it. I hope my ex finds happiness in some way some day. For me, I know I’m a much happier person not being wrapped up in that constant game of comparison against people I simply cannot compare to because my life situation is different.
_carbyau_ 5y ago
I see it all as "magic tricks" to varying degrees. The "reveal" may look cool, but what they did and how much time/effort/money it took to get the result is hidden from you.

ShroudedNight 5y ago

> ...it's giving her unrealistic expectations about what standards she should be upholding in everything she does... It sounds like Instagram is essentially the generalization of pornography.

bronco21016 5y ago

This is a huge issue with social media and Instagram in particular. I see it a lot on YouTube as well. It’s like the Joneses suddenly became EVEN further ahead of everyone because the internet has such wide reach and only selects for the best of the best. It destroyed my marriage personally. My ex became obsessed with being the “BEST”. Went as far as creating multiple accounts in Instagram to highlight achievements in multiple areas. The obsession resulted in us no longer knowing each other. We spent essentially no time together and time spent together was spent obsessing over one of the accounts. When I noticed how it was changing us I deleted it. I hope my ex finds happiness in some way some day. For me, I know I’m a much happier person not being wrapped up in that constant game of comparison against people I simply cannot compare to because my life situation is different.

_carbyau_ 5y ago

I see it all as "magic tricks" to varying degrees. The "reveal" may look cool, but what they did and how much time/effort/money it took to get the result is hidden from you.