This may explain why Instagram, where personal photos take center stage, received the worst scores for body image and anxiety. "I actually feel quite sorry for the bodies involved. There are a lot of fun evenings with friends passed up, amazing meals eschewed for steamed vegetables, and in general, life just passing them by. I love the body-positive movement and seeing people be real about themselves online to some degree. You are literally manipulating or photoshopping your image to conform with social norms, to be evaluated by others,” said Cohen.Stuart believes that when people use Instagram as a photo diary to document their lives, escape daily routines, or express themselves (all forms of benign disinhibition), then it can be useful and safe.Shirley Cramer, chief executive of RSPH, said the positive effect of social media needs to be promoted but there should be checks and balances in place for apps such as Instagram to mitigate their destructive effects on wellbeing.“With fitspiration, a lot of people go to it for inspiration and motivation and they do have some element of inspiration, but there has been some research that has shown experimentally that it makes people feel worse and that it doesn’t necessarily lead to an increase in exercise or health outcomes,” said Cohen.She found that greater investment in selfie activities, such as preparing for photographs and editing them afterwards, was more strongly associated with body dissatisfaction and eating concerns than normal social media usage.Having been behind the scenes of an Instagram account that involved elements of fitspiration during her illness, Belle says she is now saddened by these kinds of images.Cohen and her co-authors found that taking selfies was significantly associated with lower body satisfaction, striving for thinness, and bulimia.Belle recalls experiencing extreme anxiety about maintaining workout routines between demanding call times for shoots and becoming panicked whenever she was offered something "unplanned" to eat.The research into how Instagram affects our psychology is relatively new, but there is a growing body of evidence to say that it has a profound effect on the way we perceive ourselves and the world around us.“The selfie itself — you’re almost starting to objectify, see yourself as this object.”Starting her Instagram account in 2013, Belle began to cultivate an online persona that she knew did not honestly represent who she was offline, and found this had huge consequences for her mental health.Dr Jaimee Stuart, a lecturer in applied psychology at Griffith University, told BuzzFeed News that this online disinhibition effect can be witnessed in action with personalities on Instagram.This is a new area of research, but evidence of Instagram's negative effects is starting to pile up.
"“The problem with Instagram is that celebrity culture has almost become exponentially and infinitely worse — because not only is it now your Kardashians or your elite celebrity, now it’s your everyday person,” Cohen said.Users commented beneath photos of her posing in lingerie with praise such as "Love your body!" "“There's this big part of Instagram which is just, like, exploring and expressing who you are — which I would consider to be that benign type of disinhibition, people can give you feedback — but not in a bad way.”Belle’s negative experiences as a well-recognised personality on the app have left her with mixed feelings.Suler said that online disinhibition is evident when people are in social places in cyberspace and they “loosen up, feel less restrained, and express themselves more openly”.Her Instagram presence came to focus heavily on wellbeing and on posting healthy "clean eating" meals, excessive workout routines, and photographs of her thin figure.Operating under the pressures of the modelling industry, Belle knows firsthand the psychological distress that Instagram can cause, and how deceptive the portrayal of a person's lifestyle can be on the social media platform.The platform was created for the express purpose of image sharing and is now dominated by lifestyle posting, celebrity images, and so-called “influencers” — attractive social media celebrities who act as guerilla marketing figures.Following body- and appearance-focused accounts on Instagram — as opposed to neutral accounts dedicated to things such as travel — was associated with idealising thin bodies, obsessive surveillance of one’s own body, and striving for thinness.“There are so many influencers and people out there who are getting elevated to that status and there’s exponentially more opportunities to compare yourself with people.”"I honestly avoid a lot of 'fitspo' accounts; I know what goes into them, I've lived it, and it is awful.The negative factors included factors such as anxiety, depression, loneliness, sleep quality, impact on body image, and fear of missing out (FOMO).Positive factors included things such as awareness and understanding of other people's health experiences, access to health information, the opportunity for self-expression, and community building.Rachel Cohen, a psychologist and researcher from the Black Dog Institute at the University of New South Wales, told BuzzFeed News that exposure to Instagram influencers online could be having a unique effect on self-perception and body image.“Letting go of that mentality has changed my life, and when I see women still trapped in that cycle, I just hope they are happy and content with their lives.”As a model and Instagram personality, Belle said she relates to this concept.Stuart emphasises that these subtle changes in online personality aren't necessarily a bad thing for our mental health.The report was based on a survey of over 1,400 British 14-to-24-year-olds that asked about the positive and negative implications of each social media platform for health and wellbeing.“When you’re posting things that are the best version of you and they make you happy and they express who you are, then there’s actually nothing wrong with it,” she said.“It’s basically when a woman internalises this objectified view of herself and starts seeing herself as an object,” said Cohen.Based on ratings from the teenagers and young adults, each platform was given a net average score and ranked by their impact.