Colleen Gallagher

NMD 200

10 – 3 – 19

Project 1

Social media and technology have taken the world by storm, nearly everyone has an Instagram or twitter, facebook, or Snapchat. Even kids who you would think would be too young to have something like that or even their own phone in general. One big issue however that has seemingly increased since this digital and social media era has begun is the rise in depression and anxiety among younger generations. Does this have to do with the social media platforms and technology we allow them to have? Is it because of the influence from random people who are deemed “famous” by some standard have on generations growing up with technology? Or is there some kind of underlying psychological factor that has made itself known more because of the access and influence in which we are more susceptible to viewing and being exposed to? These kinds of questions are what we should be asking ourselves and understanding as to why there is such an increase in depression among younger generations, in hopes to change, alter, or completely redesign certain platforms or technology in hopes to understand why depression has become so apparent in these younger generations. As well as trying to understand why depression itself is linked to technology and social media in hopes to improve them for good as they were intended to be when they were created.

I can speak from personal experience witnessing my younger sister and her friends interact with social media. They seem to put a huge emphasis on how many likes something gets or when to post something or to post a picture at all. I remember my sister telling me about how she didn’t want to post a picture because it was not going to get any likes, to her not getting any likes meant not getting over 200-300 likes on a picture. At this time she was only in middle school, typically when you are in middle school you don’t have too many likes or followers because either you know fewer people or your parents may have a factor in who is allowed to follow you or you following other people.

According to a study done by the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) in the UK Instagram was found to be the most negative and detrimental social media app to younger generations (1). The study showed that after surveying around 1,500 people from the ages of 14 to 24, based on 14 health and well-being issues, Instagram was ranked as the most negative platform on mental health and wellbeing while youtube was the most positive, Why is that? Why does youtube have a more positive experience on people’s mental health and wellbeing rather than Instagram? While both YouTube and Instagram have functions where you are able to look up what you want and follow who you want youtube overall seems to give more of a sense of reality than Instagram. It is more accessible to find people who share their everyday struggles or put out into the world that they too are suffering from depression and anxiety. It is easier to find and connect emotionally to someone through youtube than Instagram, after you watch a lot of their content and get to know their online personalities it is more of an intimate setting. It is overall seen more that creators are more apt to being ‘real’ or sharing with their viewers and fans their problems because of how intimate the nature of youtube feels and the accessibility vs Instagram. So why is Instagram so detrimental?

As many social media platforms can be manipulated in some way and edited Instagram seems to take the cake. Pretty much everyone on the platform seems to edit their pictures or “do things for the gram” also known as manipulating their life and surroundings to seem cooler or seem to have a more elaborate fashionable lifestyle than most people. It takes a huge toll on one’s self- esteem, not to mention having to have your likes and follows be a staple of a successful photo. The ideal goal and standard among most of the younger generation is to be famous. The more likes and the more followers you get the cooler you are, there are even people who become brand ambassadors just to get certain deals on clothing or jewelry, even people who are paid to post certain pictures promoting a product. While they usually put somewhere on the post that it is an ad many people try to hide it the best they can, even if they put #ad or in the location put paid sponsorship.

Some pros to Instagram are that it is a creative space where you can share your picture and videos with friends, family, strangers whoever you want. It is a way that you can express yourself and share something you love with others. It is also a great way to stay connected to others whether it is someone in one of your classes, an old friend, a family member, a celebrity that you admire, you can stay up to date on what they are doing based on what they are willing to share with their followers. However there are some cons to Instagram, this app is not designed to the individual’s own preferences and consciousness. By this I mean it would be more beneficial for each individual person being conscious of what information is being relayed to them vis ads and endorsements, as well as being able to decide on the user’s own terms of what they are witnessing and susceptible to.

What are some ways in which we can redesign Instagram so it can be a more positive environment and platform especially for younger generations who are easily influenced? To start, we should look at how we can redesign branding and advertising on Instagram to acknowledge the difference between real life and social media. If someone is a brand ambassador or influencer who advertises for brands they should have a more visible indicator on their profiles. For example in having the headers of their pages be a vibrant red color or bright blue, that way when people look on their profiles their eyes will go directly onto the color, indicating that they endorse brands so many of their posts may be an alternate reality rather than real life. By adding a red banner on a specific post that is endorsing or promoting an object or brand is also a much more noticeable approach to marketing and for younger audiences to recognize that the picture or video posted may not be as true as it seems. This can be another method used to educate children in fake news and glorified lifestyles vs what reality. Below is an example of these re-designs, Kim Kardashian West is known for doing brand endorsements all the time in her posts, the left picture is by adding this banner at the top of her page allows people to consciously and psychologically realize that many of the things she posts maybe product placement or an endorsement. Another way to acknowledge ads and make them more apparent in feeds is by adding a red box around the advertisement to warn the viewer that it is an ad and not a random post. This is shown in the ad for Florence by Milly Bobby Brown which is being endorsed by Ulta Beauty, this is more apparent that it is an advertisement.

BEFORE.                      RE-DESIGN                                                BEFORE.                       RE-DESIGN

Advertisements are mainly based off of other apps you use and things that you search up, for example, I always get many ads based on beauty and skincare because I am always clicking or following or looking up things based on skincare because it is important to me. It can be very annoying to and overwhelming when ads just pop up out of nowhere or an ad pops up about something you and your friend were talking about. There is always the occasional ad that does not relate to you at all that you just really do not want to see or deal with seeing any ads. To change this I decided to add a special spot just for advertisements, on the explore page in the upper right corner next to the search bar. When there is a new advertisement that may peak your interest there will be a small pink circle next to the explore page icon on the bottom of the screen. This gives the user the freedom to decide on their own terms when they want to look at advertisements. Advertisements are not always bad which is why they should not go away completely, since they are directed towards the viewer and their interests the user should be able to decide when they want to scroll through ads. Especially when users are looking for a new product or ideas of something to buy for a Halloween costume, for example, they can just click on the ad button which would bring them to a feed of just advertisements that are specifically for the user. The icon consists of a partial box with only the outline of the corners on the inside is a triangle with a smaller one inside of the bigger one, when the triangle is colored in the pink color as shown below it means that there are ads to be watched similar to the way Instagram direct message notifications work. Once the ads are watched then the triangle will not be pink anymore.

BEFORE.                      RE-DESIGN

Part of Instagram that can also be very mentally straining and psychologically hurting to one’s mentality are likes and followers, which can be seen as determining if someone is “cool” or accepted in our society. To combat the psychological aspects of gaining likes, while it does release dopamine it can be triggering and upsetting when you don’t get as many likes as you thought you would or as someone else, a good way to improve on this is not to take away the concept of likes completely but to change the way it works. If we took away likes completely then Instagram would essentially be another app called VSCO. So instead of completely getting rid of likes, we can change them to only being able to be viewed by you. So you can still like other people’s pictures and other people can like your own posts, but the public eye would not be able to notice how many likes other people have gotten on their posts. Thus taking away the psychological aspect of feeling depressed or upset with the number of likes achieved on a post compared to one of your friends or an influencer, only you would know the number of likes achieved. The whole like system would not completely go away as many companies and people guarantee on likes to get their name or brand out to the public, it will still be in effect but it will not be visible to the public that way the psychological effects of the liking system do not affect the majority of the public.

WHAT THE USER SEES         WHAT THE PUBLIC SEES

For this redesign I decided after doing research on different personality types and how social media may affect them/ who is more susceptible to what when it comes to depression and social media, that Instagram ideally should be redesigned to cater to each individuals own terms. While Instagram is for many people making small changes like these can help it become more inclusive to the majority of people’s different personality types and which may affect them in a more negative way. My hope is with these redesigns is to bring some positivity back to the app so people don’t need to feel the way that my sister felt that she couldn’t/ didn’t want to post something that she liked just because it may not seem up to some untalked about society standard. Instagram should be acknowledging and celebrating the individual not the ratio of likes and follows.

References

1.

https://www.rsph.org.uk/about-us/news/instagram-ranked-worst-for-young-people-s-mental-health.html 

2.

https://time.com/4793331/instagram-social-media-mental-health/