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Marybeth Fair

Dr. McLaughlin

Multimedia Writing and Rhetoric

19 November 2015

#Goals

Imagine: a teenage girl opens her Instagram app, and immediately a stream of photos

exposes her to perfect “candids” of beautiful women, perhaps standing in front of the ocean, the

picture saturated with grays and blues as they gaze into the distance, a light breeze sweeping

their hair across the frame; or, maybe, they are sitting on a front porch, perched on a weathered

wooden railing, steam rising from their cup of herbal tea; or possibly they are leaning out of a

convertible, the sun’s rays glittering off their sunglasses and their even, white smile. The

teenager is exposed to thousands of these photos, thousands of these carefully arranged and

orchestrated “candids,” every time she opens this app. Instagram is conveniently located on her

phone that travels in her pocket, sits in her backpack, lays on her nightstand. She cannot escape

these photos, and every time she views them she cannot help but compare the lives of these

mannequins to her own. This phenomenon is not isolated- Instagram recently hit 400 million

active users (Kharpal). Many of these users are young women, and they are being harmed by

following accounts specifically made to post seemingly perfect photos. In order to protect

themselves from the damaging effects of this constant exposure, teenage girls need to learn about

these dangers; therefore, middle and high school health class curriculum should add content

regarding safe practices on Instagram.

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Instagram is a social media app where users create accounts and share photos. Anyone

can create an account, and users can follow other users, adding that user’s pictures to the stream

of photos that appears upon opening their app. Some entrepreneurs have taken advantage of this

platform to create accounts that display the “perfect” life, touting impeccably filtered

photographs with a “background of stark white (or exposed brick, or wood), with a single plant,

and one Eames chair standing as the lone piece of decorative furniture, equipped with two art

magazines that cost 15 dollars each” (Fagan). These women are given many names, from “digital

influencer” to “social media personality” to “minimalist pixie dream girl,” but they all follow the

same mold (Instagram @dianamarksofficial), Chan-Laddaran, Fagan). They post artsy pictures

of themselves and their lives- the landscapes, furniture, foods, fashion, anything that will collect

likes (a positive response from followers). Then, photos undergo a rigorous editing process.

Through continuous posting of such photos, these women sometimes gain hundreds of thousands

of followers. Once they acquire substantial number of followers, companies pay them to post

photos with their products, praising their greatness, and these accounts spiral into livelihoods.

One example of an Instagram celebrity is Danielle Robertson. She is a twenty-one year

old law student from Australia (Instagram, @dannibelle). She posts photos of herself, clad in

workout gear and smiling off-camera or grinning on the beach in a bikini. Though she does some

modeling, her main source of fame is this Instagram account, which has over 544 thousand

followers (Instagram, @dannibelle). This is 544 thousand people exposed to the photos

Robertson posts every day. While she, joined by many Instagram celebrities, may claim her

account “positively affect someone’s life” and “genuinely make a difference,” perhaps as fitness

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motivation, there are many negative consequences of constantly seeing these photos (Instagram,

@dannibelle).

One of the biggest dangers of these accounts lies in their encouragement of comparison.

Often, viewers will see these photos and compare them to their own lives. Based on a study done

at Carnegie Mellon, when people view lives on social media that appear to be better than their

own, “two things can happen: they can feel worse about themselves, or they can feel

motivated” (Detweiler 157). This motivation reasoning sounds plausible and is often the defense

given by the creators of these accounts. As one woman shared, “if [she has] the power, through

social media, to positively affect someone’s life and to genuinely make a difference, [she does

not] see how that could be a bad thing” (Instangram, @dannibelle). This woman is correct.

Encouraging hundreds of thousands of people to follow their dreams, to attain their goals, would

be a great accomplishment indeed. Unfortunately, this is often not the case. Yes, these accounts

affect their followers’ lives, but positively? Usually, no.

Karley Sciortino, a writer for Vogue, shared her story of a time Instagram affected her life

in an article published last year. She was rowing a boat around a lake near Los Angeles on a

romantic date when she unconsciously opened Instagram and scrolled through her feed. Instantly,

Sciortino was bombarded with photos of both friends and celebrities at the Cannes Film Festival,

and suddenly her date, which moments ago had been enjoyable, was now shattered, inferior and

pathetic (Sciortino). Sciortino had been having a lovely afternoon, but when Instagram forced

her to contrast her day to the photos posted on the app, her day was nothing compared to those

perfectly filtered ones she was viewing.

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Often, when users compare their lives to those displayed on Instagram celebrities’

accounts, they instead are met with feelings of inferiority. In other words, they engage in

negative social comparison. This theory suggests that “we base our self-perceptions at least

partly on how we think we are doing in comparison to others” (Kühne, Vries 218). This habit

becomes problematic when applied to social media. Users compare their own lives, the good and

the bad, to the highlight reel others post online. They measure the unaltered reality of a real,

human life against the edited, carefully chosen best moments captured on Instagram, and the

comparison of this gritty reality to the stream of polished perfection can be devastatingly

detrimental to one’s self-esteem.

Thus, users often feel inferior to others on social media, and social media usage can harm

one’s self image in this way. A study conducted by the University of Amsterdam of 231

participants ages 18-25 found that “more intense Facebook use was positively related to negative

social comparison” and “negative social comparison predicted lower self-perceived social

competence and lower self-perceived physical attractiveness” (Kühne, Vries 220). While this

study was conducted for Facebook, logically the results can be applied to Instagram, as they are

similar social media platforms. Constantly seeing photos of these “perfect” women leads

followers to compare their lives to these orchestrated photos, lowering their opinion of their own

competence and attractiveness.

Besides diminishing the viewer’s sense of social competence and physical attractiveness,

photos from digital influencer accounts can lower body image and overall self-esteem.

According to a study by physiological researchers at the University of Sussex, “exposure to

either ultra-thin or average-size magazine models lowered body satisfaction and, consequently,

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self-esteem” (Clay, Dittmar, Vignoles 451). Often, Instagram celebrities have figures similar to

those of models- thin, toned, tan, etc. Unfortunately, the danger of these accounts is their candid

aura. The photos all appear to be casual pictures, snapshots from the everyday lives of these

women. In reality, often these images are “contrived perfection made to get attention” (WITW

Staff). The pictures are staged to appear perfect and are not a reflection of the everyday life to

which viewers may be comparing them. Even beyond this staging, the actual women in the

photos are sometimes not an indicator of healthy body goals. One digital influencer admitted to

skipping meals and exercising excessively to maintain her figure for her Instagram photos

(Markovinovic). When users see these women described as normal or healthy or fit, it lowers

their elf-esteem, even though they may be perfectly healthy. Especially “for girls who have a

tendency toward perfection, anxiety and disordered eating,” images of thinness become a symbol

of happiness (Dove). These “inspirations” become the catalyst for unhealthy behavior and habits.

Evidence of these feelings is rampant in the comments under these posts, where users are

free to share their feelings with the owner and the world beyond. For example, beneath a photo

of a fit woman in a sports bra smiling on her porch, her followers posted “I’m going back to gym

next week now” and “I am never gonna get this kind of bodyyyy [sic]” (Instagram,

@dannibelle). Under another photos of a woman’s abs, a user commented “same pants, they look

better on you tho [sic],” followed by an emoticon of a crying face (Instagram, @kimmysheri).

Even posts of a woman’s face, holding beauty products, the caption lauding their benefits- in

other words, the most obvious of advertisements- still receives comments from followers such as

“I need whatever your [sic] doing times 10! Just gorgeous” (Instagram, @momcrushmonday).

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Comments such as these show the negative social comparison that occurs from viewing images

of Instagram celebrities.

Fortunately, humanity is not doomed. There are ways to help young women understand

the images on these digital influencer accounts and the effects of these photos. Girls should talk

to a parent or trusted adult about the impact of Instagram celebrities. To start these conversations,

questions can be posed about how often they compare themselves to women online or how they

feel after scrolling through their Instagram feed. Questions such as these make young women

aware of the mental effects of social media. Through this “empowered awareness,” young

women can make informed decisions about their following habits (Dove). Even after simply

awakening their minds to the effects of social media on their mentality, young women are able to

make better decisions about how they use Instagram.

Beyond simple questioning, actual education about the negative effects of these social

media personality accounts can prevent these negative effects without any change in action. In

other words, even if, upon receiving this information in health class, students choose to ignore it

and continue to follow social media personalities, they will still be mentally healthier than if they

had not learned about this topic. No actual action is needed, but the simple education is effective

enough. One study conducted at Old Dominion University found that while “even a five minute

exposure to thin-and-beautiful media images results in a more negative body image” than neutral

images, “the adverse effect of media exposure was significantly reduced among high-

internalization women when they were given media-literacy information” (Yamamiya et. al. 78).

How incredible that this drastically detrimental mental effect of these Instagram images can be

reduced through just education. The method used in this particular study was a seven-minute

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audiotape containing psychoeducational information about artificial beauty and genetic realities.

This study, then, is especially impactful because a simple audiotape or video could be

realistically, easily, and inexpensively incorporated into the health education curriculum.

Another option is suggested in the lesson plan guide “Girls Only Toolkit” by the San

Diego County District Attorney. This plan includes pinpointing images that reflect stereotypes

and describing the “ideals the image is promoting,” “why it hurts their feelings,” or what “makes

them feel bad about their body” (SDCDA 132). This, again, shows the importance of making

young women think about the effects these Instagram accounts have on their lives, and the ease

with which education regarding this issue can be incorporated into the health classroom.

A teenage girl scrolls through her Instagram account. A gorgeous woman in a bikini,

smiling on the beach, her body poised just so, smiles back at her. She clicks and adds a caption,

“body goals for this summer,” or, maybe she types, “jealous ugh,” or simply “goals” (Instagram,

@dannibelle). Whatever message she chooses, she is comparing herself to this contrived, posed

photo, and she feels inadequate because of it. Fortunately, there is a simple way to avoid this

issue, to arm young women with the tools they need to stay safe on Instagram. The educational

system provides an opportunity to reach all girls at a young age. With the simple addition of

material into the curriculum regarding safety on Instagram with respect to these social media

celebrities, an entire generation of young women will be more confident and healthy. Those

sound like worthwhile “#goals.”

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Works Cited

Chan-Laddaran, Kerry. "Instagram Star Essena O'Neill: Social Media Is Not Real - CNN.com."

CNN. Cable News Network. Web. 24 Nov. 2015.

Clay, Daniel, Vivian L. Vignoles, and Helga Dittmar. "Body Image And Self-Esteem Among

Adolescent Girls: Testing The Influence Of Sociocultural Factors." Journal of Research

on Adolescence: 45177. Print.

Detweiler, Craig. iGods: How Technology Shapes Our Spiritual and Social Lives. Grand Rapids:

Brazos, 2013. Print.

Dove. "Impact of Social Media on Teenagers – Dove Self-Esteem." Dove self esteem. Web. 24

Nov. 2015.

Fagan, Chelsea. "The Minimalist Pixie Dream Girl: Who She Is And Why I Hate Her." The

Financial Diet. 19 Mar. 2015. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.

"Instagram." Web. 24 Nov. 2015.

Kharpal, Arjun. "Facebook’s Instagram Hits 400M Users, Beats Twitter." CNBC. 23 Sept. 2015.

Web. 24 Nov. 2015.

Markovinovic, Monika. "Former Instagram Star Reveals Unhealthy Ways She Kept Thin." The

Huffington Post. Web. 24 Nov. 2015.

Sciortino, Karley. "Is Instagram Ruining Your Love Life?" Vogue.com. Web. 24 Nov. 2015.

SDCDA. "Girl's Only Curriculum." Sdcda.org. Web. 24 Nov. 2015.

WITW STAFF. "Australian Instagram Model Quits Social Media Because." Women in the World

in Association with The New York Times WITW. 3 Nov. 2015. Web. 24 Nov. 2015.

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Vries, Dian A. De, and Rinaldo Kühne. "Facebook and Self-perception: Individual Susceptibility

to Negative Social Comparison on Facebook." Personality and Individual Differences:

217-21. Print.

Yamamiya, Y., TF Cash, SE Melnyk, HD Posavac, and SS Posavac. "Women's Exposure to Thin-

and-beautiful Media Images: Body Image Effects of Media-ideal Internalization and

Impact-reduction Interventions." Body Image: 74-80. Print.