How long did you bury your head?

Recently, a whistleblower came out and made a statement on Facebook and some of the other apps Facebook owns. In her statement she mentions that Instagram was potentially “toxic” to teenage girls. 

I would just like to ask, when did you learn that? Because I’m pretty sure most people already knew that. (Thanks for sharing though maybe now something will actually be done.) 

Trends alone on Instagram are toxic. Think about the A4 waist trend, girls all over Instagram were trying to make sure their waist could be hidden behind a piece of paper. That’s just one harmful trend off the top of my head, there have been tons more in the history of Instagram. 

Even when you stop looking just at the trends on Instagram, the app is still toxic to its users. 

The way people post on Instagram alone is toxic. Everyone on Instagram appears to be living their best life or looking their best at all times. This can make people feel like they have to be perfect or seem like they are having the best time at all times. 

Posting like that is common on the app and it tricks people- especially teenage girls- into believing that life has to be and look perfect. 

Expecting life to be perfect and believing that people’s lives are like what you see on Instagram creates harmful and unrealistic expectations. 

Follower counts and likes determine your worth on the app and people are willing to do anything for validation on the app, including editing how their bodies look. 

I know more than a few girls who feel like they need to edit bodies and photos on Instagram to be good enough. But at the end of the day, no one looks like that, not in real life and who can compete with an edited picture. 

I still remember the first time that I realized my friends were editing how they looked in photos on Instagram. 

I only noticed once they were doing it right in front of me. I mentioned that I didn’t even notice the editing in pictures and they were proud that they could hide edits that well.

We were 14. 

No 14-year-old girl should be so worried about how they look that they are editing their pictures online for some misguided validation. My friends played sports year round, their bodies were perfectly healthy. They should have had no reason to think they needed to edit themselves. 

It was and still is expected though that you have to pose perfectly and edit yourself to have a good post on Instagram. Anyone with the app could tell you that. 

The fact is the internet doesn’t care and neither do the people running the “toxic” apps we use. They don’t care that Instagram pushes unrealistic body standards and other harmful messages. 

They want our money and attention and we give it to them. 

No matter how many body positive movements are on Instagram or other apps, there always seems to be just as much hate and negativity. For every body positive account there’s an account with edited waist lines and facetuned selfies. 

The point of the app has become showing how cool and interesting you are but only if you look perfect. Of course that’s toxic, life isn’t perfect and it’s unrealistic to believe it is. 

So props to the whistleblower, I am glad you said something but I’m just wondering, how long ago did you realize what we all knew? How long did you decide to stay quiet about it before it got to you?

I’ve known for years and so has the majority of Instagram users but hey, welcome to the fight, it doesn’t end.