"Teens are hooked despite how it makes them feel... Instagram is addictive, and time-spend on platform is having a negative impact on mental health"

"Instagram is an inevitable and unavoidable component of teens lives. Teens can't switch off from Instagram even if they want to." "Instagram has become the ID card of this generation. It is the go-to tool for both measuring and gathering social prestige." "Instagram sets the standards not only for how teens should look and act but also for how they should think and feel." "Teens feel themselves to be at the forefront of new social behaviours to which there is no consensus on how to behave or cope. They sorely lack empathetic voices to whom they can turn for support." "Teens talk of Instagram in terms of an 'addicts narrative' spending too much time indulging in a compulsive behaviour that they know is negative but feel powerless to resist." "The pressure to 'be present and perfect' is a defining characteristic of the anxiety teens face around Instagram. This restricts both their ability to be emotionally honest and also to create space for themselves to switch off." "Anxiety around what to post and the potential cost involved in posting the wrong thing means teens are switching from proactive to passive engagement with the platform." "Teens are hooked despite how it makes them feel... Instagram is addictive, and time-spend on platform is having a negative impact on mental health" "'Part of it [worst thing about IG] is just that it's just so addictive. Every time I pick up my phone it's the first thing I look at. At night when I should sleep, I just scroll through Explore' - UK, Male" "They have an addicts' narrative about their Instagram use - it can make them feel good, it can make them feel bad, they wish they could spend less time caring about it, but they can't help themselves." "They recognise that without even thinking every time they pick up their phone, they automatically go to Instagram. They know they stay up later than they should and miss out on sleep to stay plugged in." "But they also know that this isn't good for them or their mental health." "At exam time, they recognise their lack of willpower and use apps to control their screen time and get away from social media." "Time-spend was one of the 'worst' aspects of teens' relationship to the platform. They were open to help reducing screen time, or making their experience more constructive."