In today’s society, social media is a prominent tool in our everyday lives. We use it to communicate and keep in touch with friends and family. We also use it to look into people’s lives, such as celebrities or influencers that we might deem as “perfect” or whose lives we find more fascinating than our own. It is easy to get caught up in the idea of a perfect life, body, and appearance when social media shoves it in our faces. 

The idea that Instagram can damage one’s self-image is extensively discussed among young people. Friends discussed how social interactions on Instagram were unreal. They continued by saying that several of their “pals” removed the app since they didn’t feel it was improving their lives. They claimed that “these days, They only use Instagram as a chat app and hardly ever make posts.”

Many teenagers experience Instagram envy daily; everyday teenagers around the world are comparing themselves to influencers that seem to have everything that we do not have. Sometimes, we try to look like these people because maybe if we were as “pretty” as them we would not have any problems. I am guilty of comparing myself to others on social media, but I started to realize that it is not worth it and not worth the strain on my mental health to compare myself to someone that might be faking it all. Social media is fake, so when you see an Instagram model with the perfect skin, body, hair, and smile most of the time that is not what they look like. Editing and posing might make it look like that. Teenagers will say to themselves, “why don’t I look like them?”, “what do they have that I don’t?”. Some teens even feel this way towards people their own age or people they even go to school with. 

Say someone wasn’t loyal to their partner, the person is now left wondering why they chose someone else over them. Instagram or any social media does not make it better when you see that person post and you think, “they seem so much cooler, more attractive, more interesting than me, I wish I was them.”

Instagram envy is a real thing that most people especially teenagers experience which is why it is essential to touch on it. So many people struggle with their insecurities and social media is not honest about normal insecurities that people have which leave people to think that their insecurities are not normal. It is essential to realize that you are perfect in your own way and not what social media thinks is perfect.