In late September, The Wall Street Journal reported that FaceBook had research showing the detrimental effects on the Instagrams of teenagers. FaceBook purchased Instagram in 2012. With over 1 billion active users, Instagram has been investigated by Facebook researchers to learn of the effect the app has on its users.

    The report showed that the platform causes problems with the mental health and body image of its users, specifically teen girls. The whistleblower, Frances Haugen, a former FaceBook employee filed complaints with federal law enforcement. FaceBook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, denied Haugen’s claims. 

    There are over 7 billion people in the world and almost half have social media accounts. Westerville North School Psychologist, Dr. Ashley Burrs, has FaceBook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and Pinterest. 24 years since social media surfaced and it does not look like it is leaving anytime soon. 

   “[Social media is] always going to be around and it’s only going to get worse. So the best thing we can do is adjust and adapt and work around it” Burrs said. 

    Senior, Lilly Hammer, is a Snapchat and Instagram user. 

   “[Social media] changed how I saw myself,” Hammer said. “When it’s summer and girls are posting themselves in bikinis I compare my body, and when they post where they are I compare my financial status to theirs.”

    The increase in popularity of social media has led to more teenagers using social media daily. “More than 40% of Instagram’s users are 22 years old and younger, and about 22 million teens log onto Instagram in the U.S. each day” (The Wall Street Journal). 

    In her sophomore year Hammer took a break off of social media for a couple of weeks. 

   “People only post the good things in their lives. It makes it seem like they’re perfect…people don’t think about how edited everything is,” Hammer said, “[the break] gave me time to focus on myself.”

    “We’re basically creating faux characters and living our lives as faux characters,” Burrs said. Instagram has recently made changes to their platform by adding tags to posts with filters on them. The investigation is still underway, and the specific data Haugen reported is still being scrutinized.