January 26, 2023

Are students who use Instagram happier than we think?

The connection between mental well-being and social media has been a hot topic over the last few years. From lawsuits about social media hurting students’ mental health to surveys revealing that social media makes a lot of students feel stressed or anxious, many point fingers at social media platforms as the source of students’ declining mental well-being.   

However, a new study from a research team out of the University of Amsterdam has introduced a new perspective. This research looked at over 200k Instagram direct messages from around 100 8th and 9th graders and analyzed the language. What they found was surprising– students’ experiences on Instagram are much more positive than we thought. 

Can Instagram help with emotional development in students?

210,000 direct messages belonging to around 100 8th and 9th graders were collected and analyzed by the University of Amsterdam’s School of Communication team to determine how frequently adolescents expressed a positive sentiment, as compared to a negative sentiment. The participants were also asked to complete a dozen biweekly surveys that asked them to describe how happy they felt in the last week. 

The results showed that students sent direct messages (DMs) containing expressions of happiness 4x more frequently than expressions of sadness. The research also revealed no significant relationship between the emotions in the users’ DMs and their real-life emotions. Tim Verbeij, one of the coauthors of the paper, interpreted the findings to mean that Instagram can be beneficial for normal emotional development. Verbeij said this could partly be attributed to the timeframe in which the experiment was conducted. Starting in November 2019, the surveys took place over the course of the pandemic, and it can be presumed that Instagram acted as a way for students to stay connected with their friends during an extremely stressful time. 

What makes this study different from past research is that the connection between content consumed and well-being is being studied, rather than the connection between time spent on social media and well-being. Regardless, the results still surprised the research team, who “didn’t expect to find that Instagram would be positively associated with well-being.” 

This study also stands out because it collected different types of data. Tama Leaver, a professor from Curtin University, explains the significance of the data donation of adolescents’ own archives and how it gives important insight into non-public spaces on social media. Leaver describes how non-public spaces are studied less compared to public spaces because access is harder to get, so participants providing their personal data provided a significant, previously unseen insight into adolescents’ direct messages. 

The fact that Instagram– or social media in general– can be a happy experience for students contradicts many past surveys. But with social media here to stay, it is reassuring to know that platforms can be a positive space for students. 

TSI’s Take

It is no surprise that students are using Instagram to stay connected with friends and loved ones. And it is encouraging to hear that many students are using Instagram as a way to share happy sentiments and ideas. 

At The Social Institute, we take a positive approach to empowering students to navigate social media and technology in healthy ways. In our #WinAtSocial Handle the Pressure Lesson, Rising Above the Pressures of Likes, Followers, and Perfect Posts, we teach students how to make their platforms a positive place by equipping them to handle the pressure of being “perfect” on social media. Contact us to find out how you can access this lesson to have this important conversation with your students. 

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The Social Institute (TSI) is the leader in understanding student experiences and creator of #WinAtSocial, a gamified, online learning platform that equips students, educators, and families to navigate social experiences — online and offline — in healthy ways. Our unique, student-respected approach incorporates topics like social media, technology use, and current events that have a significant impact on student well-being. Lessons teach life skills for the modern day to inspire high-character decisions that support the health, happiness, and future success of students, while capturing data that provides insights to school leaders to inform school policy and communications, and enable high-impact teaching and a healthy learning environment. For schools, our turnkey technology allows for easy implementation and a comprehensive game plan to support the well-being of school communities. For schools, our turnkey technology allows for easy implementation and a comprehensive game plan to support the well-being of school communities.