Its Instagram time!
Overview
Instagram is a photo and video sharing social media platform. Its like a public, visual diary, where people can share their thoughts and experiences through photos, videos, stories, and messages. Most grown ups I know find Instagram is easier to figure out than Snapchat or TikTok.
Admittedly I spend alot of time on Instagram because I use it to promote this newsletter— @digitalmomming. What I notice most as an active user are uncannily relevant ads, creepy messages in my DM’s and lots of distracting content. All annoying but manageable as a grown up. The bigger issues to highlight is how content can make any Instagram user feel and what we can do about it for ourselves and our kids. But first let’s start with the basics.
Getting Started on Instagram
Create an account: Once the app is installed, open it and tap the 'Sign Up' button. You can either sign up using your Facebook account or create a new Instagram account with your email address. Choose a Username & Password. Upload a profile picture and fill out your profile.
Connect with others: Start following others whose content you're interested in, and connect with people in your network.
Start posting: Upload photos and videos that you want to share with your followers, and experiment with Instagram's filters, editing tools & content formats to make your content more engaging. You can make Posts, Stories or Reels.
Search: from the feed, search for accounts, hashtags or topics that interest you
Interact with Content: As you scroll through your feed to get updates from the accounts that interest you - you can, in addition to following them, also like (heart), share (arrow), comment.
Message (DM): you can message with accounts privately.
Other Things Parents Should Know About
Instagram is owned by Meta which also owns Facebook and WhatApp.
You do have to be 13 to use Instagram.
You CAN be logged into two accounts at once on Instagram which brings us to…
Rinstas and Finstas. Probably there are now cooler terms but these are how I know them: Rinsta = Real instagram account and Finsta = fake instagram account (aka the one they let you see). And yes, there’s a decent chance your kid has both.
Instagram technically has a Snapchat-esque disappearing chat feature. The photos and videos you share to your story disappear from Feed, your profile and Direct after 24 hours, unless you add it as a highlight.
Inappropriate content on Instagram is more than just adult themes. Many parents and mental health professionals worry about the effect of unrealistic content on young people.
Advise your kids not to accept stranger follower requests. I made the mistake of following back anyone who followed @digitalmomming in an effort to grow my presence. Boy was that a mistake! So many creeps in my DMs that I had to go back and block. Yikes!
My $0.02
Instagram is not the worst of the bunch but really it all depends on your kid and how they are using the service.
I have all my regular social media worries about Instagram: screen time, inappropriate content, creepy strangers and peer bullying. But I also worry about mental health. Depression, Anxiety, Eating Disorders & Body Dysmorphia can all be exacerbated by watching unrealistic content, more so when watching ALOT of it.
Instagram with its beauty filters and focus on aesthetics can lend itself to airbrushing and fantasy. Did Instagram create these issues? No. But left unchecked they can fill our feeds with images that make us feel terrible and it doesn’t have to be that way.
What if we looked at filtered content instead of filtered images? More than a few moms I know and trust regularly take Instagram breaks and/or have curated down their feeds to only include experts on subjects they want to learn about. They have deliberately removed the “vacation photo porn”, the “fashion porn” etc. This is an important idea and I am committing right now to filtering my feed!
What Parents Can Do
Decide if you’ll allow your kid to use Instagram. Do the benefits outweigh the risks?
Set up the O/S controls on your kid’s device and set up Instagram’s Supervision to link your account to your kid’s.
If you do allow Instagram, find ways to interact with your kid. Talking about Stories or posts that you follow is a great way to start. Finding accounts you both like and watching them together is also great!
Consider your own usage. Curate your feed, take breaks.
Whether you allow your kids on it or not, talk with your kids about Instagram. Consider talking to them about filling/curating their feed with content that will make them feel good and avoiding content that makes them feel bad.
Additional Resources
A written guide for parents from Common Sense Media
My previous articles on setting up parental controls: time limits, content limits and communication limits.
Ok that’s it from me on the Instagram basics.
Love,
Sarah