Use of Instagram by Women and Their Mental Health

In research, Sherlock and Wagstaff tested the hypothesis that the time women spent on Instagram was closely related to body dissatisfaction, general anxiety, anxiety related to body image, depression and relationship comparisons. The authors also hypothesized a negative relationship between Instagram use and women's self-esteem. Another important aim of the study was to find out whether viewing attractive pictures and social comparisons would reduce personal attractiveness and self-esteem and increase life uncertainty.

Although there are those who control the participants, the study is related to the nature since the researchers did not intervene and change the behavior of the participants, but he loves it . The main objective is to identify the behavioral patterns of women and to examine the relationship between Instagram use and participants' psychological well-being. Although many previous studies focused on similar topics, they focused on Facebook usage.

An independent variable is one that is controlled or modified by the researcher. In the current study, one such change is the use of Instagram. Researchers manipulate independent variables by having different groups of participants look at images from different categories: health, beauty, travel, and nothing for the control group. Meanwhile, dependent variables are defined as independent variables, which are tested and measured by experts. In the present study, the dependent variables included anxiety, depressive symptoms, self-esteem and dissatisfaction.

Functional description of using Instagram is not provided in the article. However, it can be considered as engaging in social networks, using search options and hashtags, and sharing personal data when viewing other people's content. A functional description of dependent variables can be presented as follows:

• anxiety
• self-esteem
• body dissatisfaction
• depressive symptoms

The study involved 129 participants, all women between the ages of 18 and 35, who confirmed that they used Instagram. Some of the respondents were obtained from the pool of participants in the author's university, and others volunteered to join the survey after seeing the school newspaper and advertisements on social networks. Data collection was done with the help of SurveyMonkey.

The procedure consisted of two parts, which took approximately 30-40 minutes to complete. In the first part, respondents were asked to fill out random scales such as the Center for Epidemiological Studies' 20-item Depression Scale, Heatherton's Self-Esteem Scale, Anxiety of Attitudes, Anxiety of Situations and Physical Behavior the body and the image. The scale of the crisis question. Additionally, respondents were asked to self-report their physical appearance and rate their use of Instagram.

Physical appearance anxiety, trait anxiety, social comparison orientation, body image disturbance, and depressive symptoms were found to be positively correlated with Instagram use. The hypothesis that there is a negative relationship between self-esteem and time spent on social networks was proven correct. Researchers also discovered a negative correlation between the number of followers and self-esteem and a positive correlation between the trait of anxiety and depression. It was discovered that a female's level of depression was positively correlated with the number of accounts she followed. In addition, researchers were unable to confirm the hypothesis that Instagram use affected self-esteem, general anxiety, and appearance anxiety.

Overall, the research was well designed, with core components appropriately labeled and variables and procedures explained in detail. However, there are some suggestions for enhancement. The study's sample is the first topic of discussion. It was too few people to be considered representative of the population.

The degree to which the findings of the study measure what was anticipated to be measured is known as validity. In the current study, the measurement of dependent variables appears to be quite valid. Researchers wanted to measure respondents' level of apprehension regarding their physical appearance and whether or not they matched the idealized images when assessing anxiety. The authors aimed to assess respondents' personal perceptions of their physical appearance by measuring self-esteem.