Anti-bullying organization Ditch the Label has released its Annual Bullying Survey 2017 research paper, something it calls the ‘largest annual benchmark of bullying behaviors’ in the UK. The report, which is free for anyone to download, set its focus on technology this time around, seeking to understand the current state of cyberbullying, online behaviors and other things concerning modern youth. More than 10,000 volunteers aged 12 to 20 were surveyed for this report.
According to the report, 69% those surveyed reported having engaged in abusive online behaviors at some point, and 1-in-2 reported having experienced bullying of some sort. The second half of the report looks specifically at online bullying, and concludes that out of the popular social media sites and apps, Instagram is the worst offender. Of those surveyed, 42% report having experienced cyberbullying on Instagram, with Facebook coming in second at 37% and Snapchat in third at 31%.
This isn’t the first study to find a correlation between Instagram and negative experiences. A study published earlier this year by the Young Health Movement and Royal Society for Public Health found that Instagram was the worst social network for mental health among young users. Per that study, Instagram was found to fuel anxiety, depression, fear of missing out, body image issues and more.
Ditch the Label exposes one of the biggest issues related to these negative mental effects via its video above. Many users report editing images in some way before posting them on Instagram and similar social networks; high exposure to these staged, edited, and otherwise carefully-presented images can create unrealistic expectations about life and how others are living, causing many users to feel inadequate or as if their lives are less interesting than others’.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)