"The Instagram Algorithm ate my Mental health"
Did you guys ever use the phrase “The dog ate my homework”? Or at least ever heard someone say it at school? Well if you did, lucky you man, none of my classmates or friends even had the guts to use such excuses lol. Because well we knew that none of our teachers would buy into any of it! But what if I told you that, this excuse is a real-life problem and not an excuse anymore? Frightening isn't it ?! Recently, I was conversing with one of my friends about the very same topic, and they were the ones who fed this idea to me. The conversation ended with this eerie moment of realization—whenever we open Instagram, we start with a quick 60-second laugh, scrolling through cute cat videos or hilarious memes. But a few minutes later it gets creepy—as we keep scrolling, our mood shifts.
You ask why, because one minute, you’re giggling at a fluffy kitten; the next, you’re slapped with a heavy reel about the state of the world. Like, what just happened? It’s as if the algorithm knows exactly how to take you from “cute and carefree” to “full-on existential crisis” in 3 swipes. And here's a reality check: unlike those cute memes we scroll through on repeat, our brains find it hard to just flip from one emotion to the next. Instead, they’re left to ponder on with a lot of stress, anxiety, and well with a pinch of laziness about what all they viewed. So, how about we get to the bottom of this as a team, shall we? I mean, who doesn't love a good investigation? So hop on to prove the case of “The Instagram algorithm ate my mental health.”
Ok firstly let’s lay out what all we know on the table:
Social media is draining us physically and emotionally.
2. Social media is attractive, and we want more from it mainly because of the colourful stimuli it provides our eyes. It gives rewards to the brain in small portions, and it is a good distraction from people's mundane lives.
3. Instagram’s algorithm is just like an observer (well that was the easiest way to put it) so it does in a way tap into the way that you are liking the content that you like, and curate a feed that would favour you.
4. But to get there, Instagram does play a tiny little game with you by mixing all the content, and based on your likings and interests, it does the rest of the work. (Damn, these people are smart, so hats off to that)!
Evidence 1: “The instagram bubble”
If we take any recent incident, or even any old one, that is happening around us in the world, Instagram’s various news pages try their level best to cover every minute detail of the incident, but what about the people who do not have a definitive stance on which side to take? With the content that they are exposed to, they would most likely think that only that one part is true, and the other person(who might or not be the victim) is at fault. And with their views on the reels, images, and comments, the algorithm would most likely trick your brain into thinking that whatever stance is true!
For instance - we take any kind of social movement, even though there are always 2-sides to the story, however the algorithm based on our digital movement would want us to only believe in one. While yes, there are also newspapers and channels out there that would have different evidence based on these topics, but I am just going to stick with the social media bubble as of now!
Evidence 2: "Is Instagram fuelling a bit more to different attachment styles in kids” ?
The way your parents react to you does manifest the kind of attachment style that you have towards them since childhood. And with this new upcoming generation of over usage of instagram and other social media handles, research also suggests that these attachment styles are visible through the way the users are reacting towards the algorithms. So in this case, let’s imagine that instagram is a parent, and the viewers are its kids. In order to imagine that let’s evaluate its different situations (i.e. different attachment styles)
Anxious - Avoidant attachment style occurs in a child when the parent's love and care for them is “inconsistent” towards them. This causes a lot of confusion in the child as to whether or not they are loved by their parents. When individuals with this style are presented with glitches (such as logging back into your account, not being able to repost some kind of content) on Instagram, according to research, these people tend to overly panic and try out all the different and extreme ways to get it fixed. This in a way is also manifesting as if trying to seek reassurance from the (parent- i.e. Instagram) as soon as possible. So with unpredictability in the parenting style, the same reaction is also manifested in the app usage.
Secure attachment manifests in a child when the child is raised in a safe, loving, and caring environment. The love that they receive is consistent. Their engagement with social media also is very minimal or manageable, the algorithm changes do not tend to hinder them as much, instead, they use Instagram as one of their community connection places,and tend to draw the line between what is real and what is not.
Disorganised attachment manifests in a child because of extreme childhood trauma. Here they would need to be in a relationship, but at the same time not be in one. In terms of Instagram algorithm and usage, research suggests that these people also have the same love-hate relationship with Instagram. For instance, one user’s account got deleted because they did not follow one of the community guidelines, and the expected response to this was, that they completely detach themselves from the app, as if they don’t need to use it anymore. And secondly, they desperately wanted to get back onto the app yet again to seek reassurance and love from the parent (i.e. Instagram).
And if for some reason, you don't believe me - read this paper (attached below) which has done this test on 1100 people and published its results. It will add credibility! So your honour (i.e. you the reader), what is your verdict regarding this ? Does the evidence provided add up to anything ? Would love to hear more about your views about this topic !
References: https://dl.acm.org/doi/full/10.1145/3544548.3581257
