Some of the reasons people don’t do well in school could be for a number of reasons. One of the biggest reasons I can think of would have to be a lack of sleep due to constantly scrolling on Instagram. Instagram can have effects in so many negative ways, especially if it is being used too much. Today I will share ways that Instagram has and can be really harmful to teenagers. I’m going to go into depth about 5 different categories which consist of:

Comparing ourselves to others
How and why it can be so addicting
How it can cause and lead to sleep problems
How it can lead to us being cyberbullied and even cyberbullying others
First I want to talk about how it can make us feel when we see others and we become jealous. According to How Does Comparing Yourself To Others On Social Media Impact Your Mental Health written by BetterHelp Editorial Team posted on February 22, 2024. A recent study showed that 87% of women and 65% of men compare themselves to others online. Being unhappy with things like our bodies, the amount of money we have, our social life, etc can lead to serious depression and anxiety. It is especially horrible for young teen girls. There is so much going around on Instagram for girls and even men trying to toggle school while being addicted to Instagram really is not good for us or the other people around us. Comparing ourselves to one another is one reason why it can be so addicting, so this brings me into my next point.

Second, addiction; Everyone at one point or another in their life has just sat down and scrolled through social media on their phone, iPad, computer, or whatever device they were on for hours. But when something catches our eye It’s one of 2 things: It's either something we’re interested in or it’s something we see that catches our eye and makes us feel horrible about ourselves. We begin to become very jealous and angry about things they may be saying or the way they are acting. We keep building up that rage and it sits inside of us and just causes us to be infuriated. With all this rage being built up and nothing to cool it down we most likely end up taking it out on our loved ones or the people around us. The people around us do not deserve this and will only cause them to not like us. This is the impact that social media has on young teens. A recent study from Onlinethearpy updated on June 6th, 2022 says that over 58 percent of Americans have had negative impacts on social media and 64 percent say it causes them a lot of anxiety and worry. Being addicted to social media leads into my next problem, and it’s a really big one; Sleep problems.

Furthermore, sleeping problems. The biggest problem with Instagram is the impact it can have on our ability to sleep well at night. A recent study from Sleep and Social Media written by Rob Newsom and overlooked by Dr. Anis Rehman updated on December 22nd, 2023 analyzes that a whopping 70 percent of U.S. citizens lose sleep at night because they are on their phones. There are way too many teenagers in this world losing sleep and not succeeding in school because of it. I know that we have all had nights where we can’t put down our devices and we just scroll for hours on end. This is not something we should be making a habit though. In order to prevent this from constantly happening I recommend we put our phones in a different room about 30-35 minutes before we go to bed, or if we use our phone as an alarm we should put it on the other side of our room around 30-35 minutes before we go to bed. That way, it is still around us and forces us to get out of bed in the morning and not just turn it off and go right back to sleep. Not getting enough sleep I think is the number one reason why teens do badly in school. The later we stay up the later we want to sleep in. Kids who come to school and look depressed most likely fall into this category. These are also the kind of kids that don’t care about their appearance at all whatsoever: they don’t try in school, they don’t have many friends, they have no confidence in themselves, etc. Not getting enough sleep can and will make us feel really bad about ourselves. It can cause us to have low self-esteem. When we begin to develop these habits of not caring about our reputation at all we begin to be picked on. Eventually, after being picked on enough we will be so fed up that we will begin to pick on others. 

This brings me to my final point; Cyberbullying. 

Finally, cyberbullying. Being a victim of cyberbullying is super common. It’s happened to me and I'll bet one time or another it has also happened to everyone else too. A recent study from WebPurify posted on April 9th, 2023 supports my entire case on cyberbullying saying that 42 percent of individuals who use Instagram are cyberbullied. One of the most common ways we can be cyberbullied online is if we post a picture of ourselves online and then kids save that photo and begin to mock us. They can add captions to it, share it around the school, or even change how it looks into something more cruel. One thing we always have to remember about the internet is that when something is out there, it’s out there for everyone to see and share. If this happens to someone I can guess 1 of 2 things: 1, they straight up don’t care about what anyone has to say or 2, they took that photo down and never posted anything of themself again. We may begin to flip how we feel. If someone is so fed up with being cyberbullied, they may start to do it to others. If we are at a point in our life where we are trying to fit in with the so-called “cool kids” we may even begin to cyberbully others ourselves. I remember 1 time I was really confused in my life and I cyberbullied a kid and I honestly felt really bad but I wanted to fit in. Later that night I had a discussion with my mom about it and she said that I needed to be myself. The next day I apologized to that kid and he understood. I have never made that same mistake in my life again.

So in conclusion, I used to have a lot of experiences with problems and issues with school and Instagram but I changed my perspective on Instagram and now only use it for short amounts of time during the day. This has caused me to succeed a lot more in school and get back to getting at least 9 hours of sleep per night. I feel as if I am a better person to myself as well as others around me. And just remember that a lot of kids don’t do well in school for these reasons:

Comparing ourselves to others
How and why it can be so addicting
How it can cause and lead to sleep problems
How it can lead to being cyberbullied and even cyberbullying others
I really can’t tell anyone not to be on Instagram but I would advise them to not use it for long periods of time and be careful with what they do and post on it.