Can Teens Manage the Destructive Demands of an Instagram Culture?

Since this blog was first posted, there's been increasing pressure on Social Media to address the demonstrated danger to teens of their algorithms and images.  Tech commentator Scott Galloway has been one such voice of alarm:  

"When the mobile phone put Facebook and Instagram into every teen's hands 24/7, loneliness and suicide data began a steady march upward. . .The suicide rate among 13- to 17- year-olds has doubled since the iPhone put social (media) in their pockets."(1)

In spring of 2021, the Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook had known for over three years that Instagram can corrode a teenager's wellbeing.(2)  Facebook, Instagram's parent, conducted its own internal studies that concluded: 

“We make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls,” said one slide from 2019, summarizing research about teen girls who experience the issues.

“Teens blame Instagram for increases in the rate of anxiety and depression,” said another slide. “This reaction was unprompted and consistent across all groups.”

Among teens who reported suicidal thoughts, 13% of British users and 6% of American users traced the desire to kill themselves to Instagram, one presentation showed.

According to the Journal, Facebook has attempted to buffer these destructive impacts by partnering with nonprofits that promote "emotional resilience," such as the practicing of "daily affirmations to remind themselves that, 'I am in control of my experience on Instagram.'"  

But, can Teens actually DO this?  

Teens are only beginning to develop the "self-authoring mind" that enables them to objectify their inner experiences, and consider how they might manage or change those inner states.  Teens ARE their subjective experiences, shaped by the cultures in which they participate.  Because they cannot yet manage the multiple and conflicting demands between the cultures of home, religion, peer group, sports and social media, teens can seem almost chameleon-like, adapting to each group in the moment.  They experience the conflicting demands between these cultures as unfair or irrelevant in the moment.  They bark back to these conflicting demands, "Whaddaya want from me?" in the words of Robert Kegan, renowned scholar of culture and consciousness.

Only a community of more mature mentors can gradually help teens to grow into thinking objectively about their subjectivity.  And those mentors must model that capacity for awareness in their own speech and actions.  Over time, our teens minds will grow IF we mentors also show our own growth of mind.

AdMission College Counseling can help foster that self-authoring mind.  By helping teens identify their values, innate gifts, and hopes for their future, AdMission joins your team to lift your teen above Instagram Culture.  

Contact me for a complementary conversation that focuses on your teen's strengths and strategies for growth.

(1) Scott Galloway, February 9, 2024, METAstasis,https://www.profgalloway.com/metastasis/

(2) https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-knows-instagram-is-toxic-for-teen-girls-company-documents-show-11631620739?mod=hp_lead_pos7&mod=article_inline

(#FaceBookTeens,#RobertKegan,#InstagramTeens,#bodyimageteens,#socialmediateens,#ScottGalloway,#META;#SuicideTeens)