Social media good or bad argumentative essay

Running head: INSTAGRAM IS CHANGING YOU 1

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INSTAGRAM IS CHANGING YOU

Instagram is changing you while you are swiping through your friend’s profile

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Instagram is changing you while you are swiping through your friend’s profile

Have you every found yourself using Instagram for hours without realizing how much time has gone by? Instagram and other forms of social media were once created as an arena for friends and family to share good memories and fun experiences. Lately, Instagram has become a place where only perfect pictures are allowed. Many people, especially teenagers, have been using Instagram as a place to show off their perfect moments, and this has caused more and more users of the platform to become less confident, questioning the value of their imperfect lives. The world would be better without Instagram because it has created a false reality that makes young people in particular question their true personalities, it has made the world all about addictive “likes”, and finally, it has changed the way we follow others’ lives, in some cases even leading to stalking.

Instagram has created a fake reality where most of its users only post their best pictures of their perfect vegan avocado burger, perfectly clean white puppy or a neat selfie in perfect lighting. The youth in particular are using Instagram as one big stage where they only show when they are happy and look pretty. It has actually started to become normal to assume that a person may look totally different in real life. According to Cole (2017, para. 8), Erving Goffman’s term ‘front stage’ explains the situations in which others are aware of our behavior, such as on Instagram and other social arenas. On the ‘front stage’, we behave differently because we want to follow social norms, such as being healthy, not being tired, or always being on our A-game. But, realistically, who can be like that all the time? This is a bad thing, because this fake reality creates more unnecessary stress than we already experience in modern life, and a lot of people feel like they have to live up to unrealistic standards of beauty and eating habits. Perhaps they saw their favorite model posting pictures of a new diet, or her skin routine for perfect skin, suddenly making them feel like they must be like that too. Many people even get confused about who they really are. Having to present yourself in one way on social media, in another way with your family, and a third way with your friends makes it almost impossible to keep track of who you really are behind the scenes when no one is looking. We should try not to get caught up in this fake reality that we are presented with on Instagram and just be ourselves instead.

“Likes” are a virtual compliment that are influencing how the youth perceive themselves these days. Likes have actually become so important to many Instagram users that they choose to spend money on them. Users can actually buy these “red hearts” that can be seen under every picture. This is a very bad tendency, and it is proven that a large number of likes has the same effect on the brain as eating a piece of chocolate (Association for Psychological Science, 2016, para. 1). Making the brain “happy” sounds like a great thing, but what happens when teenagers do not receive a lot of likes? They tend to think they are not good enough, pretty enough or worthy enough. Instagram is making a lot of people insecure and most teenagers use likes to create a virtual hierarchy by placing, for example, Kylie Jenner on top, followed by Cristiano Ronaldo and Beyoncé. Users get so addicted to that quick boost of happiness they get from likes, such that if they do not post something they have to get that happiness from somewhere else. Likes are unbelievably addictive, and anyone who has ever posted a picture on Instagram, or any kind of social media, knows what it feels like to get those likes acknowledging your picture is good. It is clear that these virtual compliments in the form of likes are affecting Instagram users negatively.

Instagram has definitely made it easier to follow our peers’ lives all day, every day. It has made it possible for users to pick whoever they want to follow, and on a daily basis they can go check out their profile, and see what fun stuff is going on in that person’s life: what their puppy is up to today, what birthday parties they are going to, or even what they are having for dinner. Many people argue that the social media platform has made it easier for us to maintain social relationships with friends and family that live far away from us or that we have little contact with. While it is true that Instagram makes it possible to know what your friends and family are doing all the time even though you are not there yourself, this constant virtual connection can have negative effects on users. Baer (2014) describes the use of Instagram as “Not just to take pictures, but the fear of missing out on the moment (para. 9).” By this he means that now, since we can follow our friends all the time, we fear that if we do not use Instagram for a day we will miss out on something. Consequently, users may become addicted to the platform because they don’t want to miss other users’ updates. This addiction to others’ lives may even include famous people. Most Instagram users follow Kim Kardashian, for example, and even though they do not know her personally, they know exactly what she is eating, doing or where she is throughout the day. This type of addiction may have other negative consequences; for example, it is possible for people use Instagram as a convenient tool for stalking, because of the way Instagram has made it easier than ever to follow others’ lives twenty-hours a day, seven days a week.

Instagram has undeniably been created to help people share the memorable moments in their lives, but in the last few years, the false reality it presents has created more problems than good. Instagram has been a significant part of making social media culture all about likes, perfect pictures, and unrealistic life expectations, such as being perfectly skinny and pretty. Not only has Instagram caused many users to gain distorted self-images and become confused about their own personalities, it has also made issues like stalking a bigger problem, since it has made it so easy to peek into others’ lives. Unfortunately, the biggest issue is that people are not aware of these negative consequences of using Instagram. Becoming aware of how you use Instagram, and social media in general, will help you better avoid these problems. Instagram is changing you while you are swiping through your friends’ posts, so open your eyes, get out of the chair, and go take part of that birthday party at your friend’s house in real life, not just virtually.

References

Association for Psychological Science. (2016). Social Media ‘Likes’ Impact Teens’ Brains and Behavior. Retrieved from https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/releases/social-media-likes-impact-teens-brains-and-behavior.html

Baer, D. (2014). The Psychology Behind Why Instagram Is So Addictive. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/psychology-of-why-instagram-is-addictive-2014-11

Cole, N. L. (2017). Goffman’s Front Stage and Back Stage Behavior. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/goffmans-front-stage-and-back-stage-behavior-4087971