The Instagram Effect: BBC Three’s hard hitting documentary deep dive into the murky waters of social media harm
And what Instagram and Meta are doing with the alleged $5 billion committed to improving online safety and wellbeing for users on their platforms.
I watched with interest I have been a pretty regular poster on Instagram, I spent about 5 years working diligently every day to grow a legitimate following. I thought I was doing everything right, I began posting around 2012 before the site exploded but it never worked for me. My account ended up getting hacked. At the time I thought it was the end of the world. Later I realised it was the blessing I needed to stop the repetitive, getting you no where behaviour, posting, scrolling, watching, the likes, the visitors. Despite how hard I was working it wasn’t producing the results, the rewards it appeared other accounts were getting.
When I saw the Instagram Effect marketed I was immediately drawn to the content. And for anyone with an account on Instagram watching the documentary will change your relationship with the app. I had no idea this film was made over four years ago.
When think about stats like half the world globally using social media and 87% of teens aged between 12-15 having some account online.
Years ago the online safety bill was government proposed legislation pre ported to stamp out harmful and illegal content circulating, which allegedly would force social media companies to act faster when it comes to super disturbing content that follows impressionable teenagers around like a bad smell, content that goes as far as suggesting young people should starve themselves, self harm, even take their own life with active hashtags directing users to said content and the algorithms keeping users trapped in a cycle of this content, even if they have the will and presence of mind to stop themselves viewing it.
Sadly the social media companies know how to keep the scrolling and ex employees and whistleblowers like Frances Haugen and Arturo Bejar have been fighting hard addressing the concerns and observations made whilst working at Meta who purchased Instagram the photo sharing app in 2012, 18 months after it launched for over $1 billion in cash and stock, a move considered visionary at the time.
The documentary specifically looks at how the app undermines self confidence, especially affecting body image and body dismorphier and exacerbates self harm and eating disorders especially in young people.
The film features three young women especially memorable the first a fashion blogger and influencer who suffering with an eating disorder driven by attempts to reach an unrealistic Instagram norm from spending up to 14 hours a day on the app comparing her self to over edited images of other women she was copying and competing with, now a healthy weight after realising she needed help she now has a completely different relationship with the app and her followers.
Another who underwent a BBL, Brazilian Butt Lift with drastic consequences. She got a significant with a clinic in Turkey in exchange for sharing her experience online with her followers except she was unable to tell the truth and found herself in a very difficult position with the service provider. She later discovered this particular procedure kills more people than any other cosmetic surgery procedure.
The third and saddest story of all was a young 16 year old who ended up down an Instagram rabbit hole of self harm, bullying and suicide, young people telling each other they are worthless, suggesting they harm themselves and viewing disturbing content of actually suicide the Instagram platform should be immediately deleting. There safety measure a banner warning saying this content is sensitive. Like that’s going to stop a curious young mind from clicking. Not.
She ended up in a residential psychiatric unit for her own safety and after 18 months without her phone completely had recovered sufficiently to start using the phone at home at the weekends with her family, sisters and mother there to help her in her rehabilitation.
The personal stories are interwoven with interviews of former executives and consultants working at Instagram, explaining the growth curve and how they saw things going wrong as the audience, especially young people grew exponentially. It was as fascinating as it was exposing and deeply worrying for parents, Arturo Bejar a safety consultant at Instagram spoke to the US congress about his experience as a parent in 2023. He testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law on Tuesday, November 7, 2023 saying his recommendations and concerns had been ignored by Meta the parent of Instagram.
If you are using the app, or have kids using the app, which frankly is most of us the documentary is a very insightful and thought provoking watch. It will help Everyone get a clear understanding of how the app works and how it is designed to keep you scrolling to satisfy advertisers not users. At what cost, well about 98 billion last year and a lot of pain and suffering.
Arturo Bejar said after blowing the whistle on Meta it’s unlikely he’ll ever work in the industry again.