Does your teenager have 'duck syndrome' because of social networks?
Decaffeinate Instagram to alleviate anxiety: out of likes and stop suffering in the networks
In an article in the culture and leisure magazine 'Vulture' quoted by
Marian Donner
in her 'Manifesto against self-help', a digital retoucher stated the following: "The next generation of adolescents will find it increasingly difficult not to physically hate themselves. themselves, since everything we show them is so divine! " He was referring to the photos that feed social networks, especially Instagram, that 'place' where
imperfection
simply does not exist. Of course, at an enormous cost that ranges from dissatisfaction with one's own body to suicide. Big words? Keep reading.
The leak to the
Washington Post
of a series of internal
documents
(more than 10,000) has for the umpteenth time cast doubt on the integrity of the social network. Provided to the American media by a former employee,
Frances Haugen,
reveal among other things that Facebook executives knew perfectly, through studies carried out by the company itself, that
aggravates the
self
-
image
problems
of
one in three girls.
"The documents detail the company's investigations into how it spreads
hatred
, incites
violence
and, through its subsidiary Instagram, contributes to
negative body images
and
suicidal thoughts
of adolescent girls,"
Elizabeth Dwoskin
wrote in the Post.
and
Craig Timberg.
The 'sin' of Facebook this time would not have been legal, but ethical, but it has enough substance to have reached the US Congress.
INSTAGRAM IS NOT INNOCUOUS.
FOR YOU EITHER
But does this new scandal really reveal something we didn't already know? The studies on the negative impact of social networks on human psychology in general and on the self-image and self-esteem of girls, adolescents and young people are so many that they are already boring. "In what has been leaked there has not been any spectacular revelation," says
Enric Soler,
a relational psychologist and tutor of the degree in Psychology at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), an expert in the field.
What did we know about networks like Instagram and now we corroborate? What
Rae Jacobson
wrote
some time ago
from the
Child Mind Institute
in New York
, that "for adolescents, the combined weight of vulnerability, need for validation and desire to compare themselves with their friends is capable of originating a perfect storm of low self-esteem ".
And furthermore, it is a storm that falls equally on everyone, the 'winners' and the 'losers'.
"In social networks these very young people always appear confident, happy, relaxed and successful. But it is usually at the cost of making tremendous efforts not to disappoint the expectations of others."
What is known as
duck syndrome
since, like the duck, the individual strives madly to keep moving forward while on the surface he appears to be a relaxed and happy being.
IF YOU DON'T COMPARE, YOU ARE MARCIANA
The mechanism by which this tsunami of discomfort is triggered is marvelously explained by Marian Donner: "If we see only perfect bodies around us, it will be increasingly difficult for us to feel good about what we see in the mirror." And hey, hardly anyone is immune. Isabel P. studied Fine Arts in Madrid, where she now works in a publishing house. Day in and day out he also uses
Photoshop
to do photo retouching, so he knows very well that practically no photo is published today without a minimum of retouching.
Even so, when she looks at Instagram (which she does many times on a daily basis) one of her rituals is to take a look at the accounts of some of the models that she follows. The sensations it produces in him are, in his own words, "a mixture of
fascination
and
frustration
. I can't help but compare myself," he says. Isabel went through
anorexia
five years ago, and although she managed to get out of it with a lot of work, today she confesses that she cannot help wondering every time she sees one of those models: "Was I that thin? For me, still today, that was my ideal look. " It refers to a skeletal appearance, from when his meter seventy held only 40 kilos of weight.
So, let's see, if Instagram is capable of emotionally affecting an adult, how can it not have a decisive influence on adolescents, who have also 'raised' the digital skirts of this social network?
"My 13-year-old daughter uses the networks, mainly to interact with her friends. Friends ... whom she sees every day. But the
exchange of likes
has been installed in their lives as in the past that of stickers. And also, you need the
'public' approval
of all the clothes you wear or the activities you do, "explains DN from Malaga.
THIS SOCIAL NETWORK MAY HARM YOUR HEALTH
The
solution
to the problem has many legs. To begin with, it is worth asking: are Facebook and its platforms part of it? The expert Enric Soler thinks so: "Facebook has the same responsibility as any other company that produces products that are harmful to people. What responsibility does someone who produces alcoholic beverages have? To
report the risks of their product.
Likewise, in my opinion , Facebook should inform. Companies that know that the development of their activity can cause damage have to warn ".
According to Soler, the case of
betting websites
clearly shows that
psychological risks
should also be the object, like physical ones, of warning to consumers. "And then each user must decide, based on that information, whether to assume the risks or not."
In any case, with or without information on risks, the solution in this case is, if we are talking about minors, in the hands of the
parents
. "It is true that parents face a very powerful force: 'How am I going to take Instagram from my son if everyone has it in his class?' The answer is that parents must
learn to train in the field digital.
you must teach your children that do not have the same weight the valuation that makes you a friend of a
lifetime or a relative, a stranger makes you a like. a like is just like that often becomes without stopping to think ". And, above all, Soler recommends, we must never forget this maxim: "If something is free, the product is you." And Facebook, one of the largest companies on the planet,It's free.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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