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Pause Before You Post It !

I want you to imagine a 12 year old girl who only believes she is pretty if she gets over a hundred likes on the selfies she posts on her instagram.

How do we help her build her self esteem in a way that doesn’t force her to rely on likes and followers?

A neuroscientist by the name of Ali Jennings says that Instagram triggers our dopamine responses in our brains in a risk-reward transaction. We can become dependent and even addicted to this dopamine response and turn to instagram whenever we need it. And according to Diane Wedner of Better Health, this kind of codependency on likes and followers can cause a great deal of emotional instability in teenagers especially. 

Better Health states that a great way to combat this is to spend more time with family and friends without the distraction of technology in order to build upon relationships you have in the real world. According to Gideon Lewis-Kraus of The New Yorker another way to combat this is to find hobbies that don’t include tech. Find a sport that you enjoy, an art form that inspires you, learn a language and seek out learning in a way that can be expanded upon. 

Give yourself goals with this hobby so that you will build your self-esteem by becoming addicted to the dopamine reward of learning and accomplishing something. 

Ali Jennings, “Is The Internet Changing The Way We Think?”

Diane Wedner, “The Real Effects of Technology on Your Health” Better Health

Gideon Lewis-Kraus, “How Harmful is Social Media?”  The New Yorker

Shaelea Perkins – NMD 200 – Task 3