In 2021, one-third (30.8%) of students in Ontario reported spending five hours or MORE on social media (Boak et al., 2021).

Mental Health

Research has shown that using Instagram has a variety of benefits for adolescent mental health. Take a look at the studies below to learn more.

Using the Close-friends Function (Chen et al., 2022)

Research focusing specifically on the Close-friends function on Instagram shows promise as a tool to increase adolescent mental health through social media. The Close-friends function allows users to pick and choose specific followers to be viewers of private stories that are invite only. This function offers users a private while still sharing through social media.

Chen et al., 2021 has described the Close-friends function as beneficial to adolescent mental health as it creates a sense of individualized community that students can use to create a safe space online. Students experience positivity through these interactions with their close-friends that not only gives them the opportunity to express themselves freely, but also to increase their comfort with online communications to add a new layer of communication with friends.

The Importance of Self-expression during Adolescence (Vaingankar et al., 2022)

Adolescence is a critical period of self-expression in one's life span. A large part of adolescence is establishing personal identity and self-expression through social activism. These researchers have established that Instagram can be used effectively as a tool to increase adolescents' mental health positively (Vaingankar et al., 2019). Instagram provides a platform for social activism, allowing individuals to form a community and integrate their ideologies within these communities.

Instagram has the power to bind adolescents together as they establish their identities through self-exploration in and within their social media ecosystem. These researchers have demonstrated that Instagram has five positive mental health components, including:

(1) Building positive relationships with their curated Instagram community;

(2) Increased self-concept and social identity;

(3) Increased individual coping and positive coping within the larger social context;

(4) Aggregate increases in overall happiness as adolescents have the opportunity to express their authentic self, unapologetically and openly; and

(5) Increase positive personal growth (Vaingankar et al., 2019).

Using Instagram for Social Connections (Khalaf et al., 2023)

Research has already established that Instagram can influence adolescent construction of self and interpersonal experiences (Cipoletta et al., 2020). Through personalized experiences (Chen et al., 2022) Instagram gives adolescents a new way to experience social connection. Adolescents can use Instagram to leverage opportunities to interact with pages centring on humour and entertainment and they can use these pages for identity formation and for creative self-expression (Khalaf et al., 2023).

Creating their personalized ecosystems, adolescents can gain a sense of novelty as well as self acceptance and affinity as they interact with their peers on Instagram (Khalaf et al., 2023). Forming these interactions can help adolescents increase their mental health by increase social connectivity. Social connections play a pivotal role in the lives of young people (Public Health Agency of Canada, 2023). Policymakers, educators, and other professionals should ensure that they equipt adolescents with the proper recommendations on how to use Instagram, and other social media sites, to leverage their overall mental health as the literature published by Khalaf et al., 2023 and many other researchers (e.g., Cipoletta et al., 2020; Chen et al., 2020; Nesi et al., 2019; Sampasa-Kanyinga et al., 2019) highlights Instagram's multitude of uses, especially considering the apps ability to promote social connection.

Recommending Scheduled Screen-time for Increased Mental Health

Encourage your students to use Instagram to increase their mental health by providing them the opportunity to use Instagram for their own digital wellness. Students can use Instagram for fifteen minutes every Friday to identify an account that provides them with increased mental health resources.

Teachers could go first and they may identify a mindfulness quotes account, helpful study habits account, or even an account that shares funny animal pictures. The goal is that the teacher will lay a foundational network of acceptance for any Instagram account, so long as it increases mental health for their students.

The class will have one to two people share their Instagram page each Friday and the class will keep an ongoing resource list available for students to access year-round. Students will also be required to put their phones away unless they are presenting the Instagram account and they will be allowed to take note of the Instagram account via pencil-and-paper or their phones briefly following the presentations.

Creating this scheduled screen-time for positive interaction has a two-fold benefit for students. First it encourages students to cultivate an Instagram ecosystem that encourages conversations about mental health and thus, normalizing the conversations surrounding mental health. Creating scheduled screen-time also teaches adolescents that Instagram, and other social media sites, can be consumed in short experiences yet still benefit knowledge acquisition and mental health of youths. Cultivating a personalized ecosystem has been shown to increase mental health through increasing social connections (Khalaf et al., 2022). Allowing students to express their selected accounts gives them the opportunity for self-expression with their peers which has been established by the research as critical for adolescents (Vaingankar et al., 2022).

Research shows that approximately 80% of teens belong to at least one major social media site (Nesi et al., 2019).

Academic Performance

Adolescents have the opportunity to increase their academic achievement through the use of Instagram. Click below to see how research has shown Instagram can benefit academic performance.

Using Instagram as a Language Learning Tool (Erarslan, 2019)

This study aimed at exploring how students can use Instagram as an educational platform as they learn English. Their findings indicate that Instagram has a positive impact on English language acquistion and it should be used to supplement traditional in-class learning experiences (Erarslan, 2019). Students' achievement scores showed a significant positive increase.

Instagram enabled students to create a personalized social media ecosystem filled with both social and learning content to aid in their academic achievement. Students created a cooperative and collaborative sharing atmosphere that made Instagram an effective tool for language acquisition since students felt comfortable learning with their peers. They were also able to interact directly with language learning content creators to further aid in their development (Erarslan, 2019). The overarching benefit to Instagram as a language learning tool is that majority of the content is free, therefore, making language learning and academic achievement accessible.

Parental Education Level and Socioeconomic Status as a Moderator for Adolescents (Gebremariam et al., 2020)

Understanding the biopsychosocial influences on student academic performance is critical for policymakers, educators, and parents looking to help adolescents use social media in impactful ways. Especially when looking at adolescents in the context of academic performance, understanding how parental education levela nd socioeconomic status can act as a moderator for adolescent social media use is extremely important.

It has been established by researchers that parental educatation (either high or low), total screen-time activity, and socioencomic status are all consistent moderators for adolescent screen-time (Gebremariam et al., 2020). Adolescents do not have the opportunity to change these variables in their lives, therefore, it is of paramount importance that educators encourage adolescents to overcome these adversities as it is still possible for them to increase their overall academic achievement (Gebremariam et al., 2020). Adolescents are on a complex journey of self-exploration (Vaingankar et al., 2022) and research has shown that when students are able to connect with their school and peers they have the ability to overcome these moderators to achieve postive increases in academic achievement (Gebremariam et al., 2020).

The Importance of Percieved Connectivity in the Context of Academic Achievement (Public Health Agency of Canada, 2022; Schwartz et al., 2019; Liu et al., 2017)

Perceived connectivity has been established by multiple researchers as an important characteristic for adolescents as it can help them increase their overall academic performance (e.g., Public Health Agency of Canada, 2022; Schwartz et al., 2019; Liu et al, 2017). Specifically, adolescents value their perceived connectedness with peers and it has been established as a moderator for academic performance (Public Health Agency of Canada, 2022). It has also been established that 91% of students surveyed in the 2021 Ontario Student Drug use and Health Survey felt safe at school (Boak et al., 2021).

All of these statistics are crucial in our understanding of Instagram, and other social media platforms, to increase academic performance for students. Instagram has the ability to promote connectivity amongst adolescents as they use the social media app to promote effective communication and collaboration with peers (Erarslan, 2019). As students feel more connected to their school environment and their peers trhough Instagram, an established pattern of positive academic achievement can be identified (Schwartz et al., 2019). As students significantly value perceived connectivity with their peers (Public Health Agency of Canada, 2022), it is critical that policymakers, educators, and professionals understand how to leverage Instagram and other social media sites to promote interconnectivity amongst adolescents.

Recommending Educators use Instagram as a Supplemental Digital Learning Tool

Enhancing the learning experience of adolescents can involve the use of Instagram in the classroom. Multiple different research sources has shown that Instagram has a variety of uses in the classroom that can benefit academic learning (e.g., Chen et al., 2022; Latha et al., 2020; Vaingankar et al., 2022). Erarslan, 2019 as significantly established Instagram as a tool for academic achievement for ELL learners. In the Canadian learning environment, we are lucky to be surrounded by a multitude of cultures, languages, and students. Instagram offers a unique opportunity for adolescents to connect socially as well as to learn languages in a barrier-free classroom. Since social connection has been established as a critical motivator for adolescents (Public Health Agency of Canada, 2022) educators can use Instagram as a tool to increase social connectivity and language learning for ELL learners.

Teachers working with ELL adolescents can pose in-person traditional classroom lessons that centre around a particular language acquisition skill. Educators can propose the use of a private class Instagram page where students can access lessons and short-form content that their teacher shares with them. Instagram also allows for the creation of specific stories and re-sharing of content: educators can use these functions to create specific stories on, for example, verb conjugation, proper pronunciation, and even pose quizzes through Instagram. Adolescents can also have the opportunity to take control of the Instagram as an assignment for one day to share some content that helps them learning English.

Using Instagram as a supplementary tool to traditional classroom learning has the opportunity to increase adolescent academic achievement. Research shows that when adolescents use Instagram for education purposes, they incorporate their learning better (Erarslan, 2019). Instagram also acts as a community and communication building tool (Ponti, 2023). As students interact with their peers in a judgement free environment, they are also simultaneously increasing their self-confidence which is critical for adolescents during this sensitive developmental stage (Vaingankar et al., 2022). By building a class Instagram page educators use social media for positive impacts on academic performance for ELL students.

74% of students in Ontario surveyed in 2021 indicated that they feel close to people at school and 47% of Students in Ontario stated they like school a lot/very much (Boak et al., 2021).

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