The study was conducted to examine the effect of social media images on users. The emergence of the internet and social media has changed the behavior of many people as people spend excess time ion social media, either chatting with friends, viewing images, and videos. Spending more time on social media changes the moods and emotions by filling gratification, sympathy, and discontent. The study conducted examines the hypothesis: viewing images on Instagram changes mood?
Interpretation of Findings and Discussion
The use of social media has both positive and negative impacts on the users since the individual has differing personality, lifestyle, and motivation. Results from postTestModd shows that the highest percentage of the population reported being (somewhat happy) after spending time viewing Instagram images. From a study population of 36 people, five reported to be happy after using Instagram, 21 reported being somewhat happy while ten reported being sad. Statistics results show that frequent use of social media, especially viewing Instagram images, affects mood changes in mood. Results show that more than 50% of the study population spend approximately four to six hours per day on social media. Adolescents and young people in their early twenties are the majority population affected by social media images. The frequency of effect on mood change by young people aged 20 is approximately 58.3%. In terms of gender, women revealed the highest percentage of 66.7% compared to men who scored 33.3 %.
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Data derived from the study and various literature reviews and primary data gathered from interviews and questionnaires show that individuals, especially young people, reveal mood change after frequently using social media. Young people are the majority of users of social media platforms, and they change their moods based often based on the images and videos viewed. According to Frison & Eggermont (2017), adolescents reveal a depressed mood upon spending tome browsing, posting, and liking images and videos on Instagram. Most adolescents like posting content on Instagram when they are in a bad mood, an act that leads to more negative moods. However, the kind of pictures posted by people ion Instagram are based on the emotions that they wish to express (Wang et al., ) The use of social media for over three hours per day increase depression due to the nature of the content posted and viewed. Many people use social media for interaction, self-expression, archiving, distraction, and peering others (Lee et al., 2015). Although the use of social media impacts relationships positively, continuous viewing of images on Instagram has a psychological effect on the users (Oeldorf-Hirsch & Sundar, 2016). Increased cases of mental illness and suicidal thoughts are linked to the use of social media, where some young people lack recommended techniques for managing moods.
Women are more possessed with physical appearance and always post images of themselves expecting numerous likes from online friends. The mood of these users changes depending on the comments and number of likes received from the posted content (Lee at al., 2015). The significant influence of social media makes young people, especially women, become stressed as they try to post content to be on the same level with their colleagues. According to Sherlock & Wagstaff (2018), women who frequently view beauty-related Instagram pictures and videos reveal more negative psychological outcomes compared to women who are not exposed to such pages. There is a significant association between the use of Instagram, depressive mood, and negative social comparisons (Lup et al., 2015; Ricard et al., 2018). Elongated duration of the use of Instagram and following strangers on Instagram leads to depression among many users. Depressive symptoms result from the behaviors of people, especially young people, to compare their lives with images and videos viewed online. Research conducted by Fleck & Johnson-Migalski (2015) shows that social media adds stress when creating and maintaining the boundary. Social media makes it challenging to sustain such boundary since the individual will keep on viewing images and video of the person until they become emotionally affected. In the case of an individual whom one feel emotionally attached to, seeking information about their personal lives from social media might affect their mood and future personal and professional relationship.
Limitation of the Study
The involved data analyzed from a sample population of 37 participants who were active users of Instagram. The data was recorded based on age, gender, and effect of viewing images, whether sad, somehow happy, and happy. Since technology has become widespread and over 80% of the population use social media, the study could have used a larger population to ensure accuracy. Also, the questionnaire conducted relied on finding the immediate impact of the use of Instagram use on mood change. The data collected from a randomized study could not allow the researcher to look deeper into the process. The research could have used a controlled method for an easy follow-up to identify the long-term effect of Instagram on users.
The implication of the study
The data from this study indicate a significant relationship between Instagram images and mood changes. Sharing of images on the Instagram have a psychological impact on the users which results to change in mood. The current research findings encourage users of Instagram to keep in touch with friends that they already know to reduce negative consequences. As technology advances, more social media app will be created and will affect people both positively and negatively depending on the usage. While sharing content on Instagram might be entertaining, uncontrolled use of it might lead to psychological torture and mental illness like depression and anxiety. Based on information gathered from the study, it is advisable to be keen when using social media to ensure one gets the desired gratification and helps one grow instead of bringing psychological torture. The information will be useful when educating women and young people on the effect of social media and the best strategy to prevent the negative impact of social media. The growing gratification from advancement in technology can be used to enhance understanding of the psychological appeal of Instagram and other social media apps.
Suggestion for Future Research
Future studies in this field need to focus on addressing the long term effect of Instagram images on mood change. Future research should focus more on longitudinal and experimental methods which encourage the study of large population and follow-up to establish the long-term effect on psychology.
Conclusion
In summary, the study supports the hypothesis that viewing images on Instagram changes the mood. Frequent use of social media, especially Instagram, has a psychological impact on the users, which leads to effects like change in mood, depression, and anxiety. Adolescents and young people in mid-twenties and women's gender are more affected by Instagram images. Women have a high tendency to compare their physical appearance with that of online friends hence the high cases of mood change. Since technology keeps on changing and advancing over the years, there is a need for the users to apply various strategies to achieve gratifications with a minimal detrimental effect.
References
Fleck, J., & Johnson-Migalski, L. (2015). The impact of social media on personal and professional lives: An Adlerian perspective. The Journal of Individual Psychology , 71 (2), 135-142.
Frison, E., & Eggermont, S. (2017). Browsing, posting, and liking on Instagram: The reciprocal relationships between different types of Instagram use and adolescents' depressed mood. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking , 20 (10), 603-609.
Lee, E., Lee, J. A., Moon, J. H., & Sung, Y. (2015). Pictures speak louder than words: Motivations for using Instagram. Cyberpsychology, behavior, and social networking , 18 (9), 552-556.
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.
Oeldorf-Hirsch, A., & Sundar, S. S. (2016). Social and technological motivations for online photo sharing. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media , 60 (4), 624-642.
Ricard, B. J., Marsch, L. A., Crosier, B., & Hassanpour, S. (2018). Exploring the utility of community-generated social media content for detecting depression: an analytical study on Instagram. Journal of medical Internet research , 20 (12), e11817.
Sherlock, M., & Wagstaff, D. L. (2018). Exploring the relationship between frequency of Instagram use, exposure to idealized images, and psychological well-being in women. Psychology of Popular Media Culture . 8(42). 482-490
Wang, F., Yu, C., Zuo, S., Huang, N., Cai, P., & Cheng, L. (2018). “Distant” Pictures Benefit Emotion Regulation in Emotion Disclosure on WeChat Moments. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking , 21 (8), 498-503.
