For teens, navigating the mental health pitfalls of Instagram is part of everyday life

Gloria Wetherbee, 20, took a social media marketing class as part of her coursework at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, Texas, where students learned the best ways to compel audiences to interact with content. The class made her more aware of the ways content creators and social media companies drive engagement as she tries to avoid images of idealized bodies on Instagram, she said.

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She’s careful not to tap on images of influencers, fashion tips or weight-loss content. Even sending them to a friend to make fun of the images means she’ll see more of them, she said. Instead, she carefully scrolls past them…

“A lot of stuff is about the way you look and feeling pretty, or how to get skinnier or more toned or, ‘This is how you do your makeup so that guys will like you. Wear this perfume so that guys like you,’ ” she said. “But a guy’s Instagram, it’s like, ‘Oh, look at this car, it makes a cool sound.’ ”

Discrepancies in the ways boys and girls use social media — and the content they’re served — ring true for many teens, Wagstaff said. As Stieby put it: Boys see cars, girls see beautification tips.

But that doesn’t mean boys don’t struggle with self image, according to Wagstaff.

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