Marketing Analysis: The Psychological Impact of Instagram on Users

This assignment analyzes the psychological effects of Instagram on its users, drawing from a provided PowerPoint presentation and relevant literature. The findings indicate a direct link between Instagram usage and user emotions, with positive comments and likes boosting self-esteem and negative comments potentially leading to psychological issues like depression. The study references the theory of social comparison, highlighting how users evaluate themselves by comparing with others. It also discusses narcissism and emotional dependency on Instagram, alongside the issue of loneliness despite increased connectivity. The assignment references key studies that explore these themes in detail, with the literature review bridging the findings of the model based discussion, including the impact of strangers and the association between Instagram use and depression symptoms. The assignment suggests that frequent Instagram usage has negative associations for individuals who follow many strangers, while it has positive associations for those who follow fewer strangers.

Running head: MARKETING
Marketing
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1MARKETING
Discussion on the provided power point presentation on Instagram
From the findings it has been found that instagram possess direct connection with the
emotion of the users. The number of likes and positive comments imposes positive impact on the
self-esteem and self-confidence of the Instagram users. Not only this, positive comments and
appreciation in the form of likes helps the same to deal with negativity in their real life. However
majority of the Instagram users stated that negative comments not only discourages them to
continue using the application but also possess the potential to enhance their tendency of
developing psychological issues like depression. As being stated by Tiggemann and McGill,
(2004), negative comments obtained from Instagram raised the body image concern, facial
dissatisfaction as well as appearance comparison.
According to the theory of social comparison. Individuals evaluates their own abilities
through comparing themselves with others for reducing uncertainty as well as to defining
themselves. As per the findings, the number of likes is more important and thus impose greater
impact on adolescents (Pittman and Reich, 2016). This fact denotes that lack of real life
experience and social communication and bondage enhances the urge to perform narcissist acts.
Narcissism can be defined as the pursuit of gratification from egotistic admiration of a self
idealized, self image as well as attributes. It has also been found that participants have developed
an excessive emotional dependency on Instagram. However, in spite of the enhanced
interconnectivity, a good amount of Instagram users especially young adults are found to be
lonelier than other age group. According to Ahadzadeh, Sharif and Ong, (2017), photos posed
with friends , regardless of gender and age are found to receive more likes compared to selfish.
In case the likes and comments on instagram contribute to intimacy which is required to ensure a
simulated social presence, loneliness can be mitigated with the help of social media platforms.

2MARKETING
Instagram, being a photo-sharing social network, possesses specific characteristics which often
make the users susceptible to a good number of negative consequences. The usage of instagram
can be considered as positive at a marginal level (Lup, Trub & Rosenthal, 2015). However
addiction to the application is highly common and it is found to be directly associated with
negative emotions, positive social comparison and depression symptoms. Finally it has been
suggested that, frequent usage of Instagram possess negative associations for individuals who
follows a good number of stranger as well as positive association with individual who follows
fewer strangers.

3MARKETING
Reference List
Ahadzadeh, A. S., Sharif, S. P., & Ong, F. S. (2017). Self-schema and self-discrepancy mediate
the influence of Instagram usage on body image satisfaction among youth. Computers in
Human Behavior, 68, 8-16.
Lup, K., Trub, L., & Rosenthal, L. (2015). Instagram# instasad?: exploring associations among
instagram use, depressive symptoms, negative social comparison, and strangers
followed. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 18(5), 247-252.
Pittman, M., & Reich, B. (2016). Social media and loneliness: Why an Instagram picture may be
worth more than a thousand Twitter words. Computers in Human Behavior, 62, 155-167.
Tiggemann, M., & McGill, B. (2004). The role of social comparison in the effect of magazine
advertisements on women's mood and body dissatisfaction. Journal of Social and Clinical
Psychology, 23(1), 23-44.