It took 50 years for half of the U.S. to adopt electricity in their homes. So how is it possible that it only took Instagram 10 years to gain 35% of the U.S. population as users?

Phones and Instagram for me became a normal thing that my peers used before middle school had even begun. I felt left out for some time because I didn’t have a phone, let alone social media, until months after my friends. After begging for a long time, I received my first phone the summer before seventh grade. At that age, I only played games, made iMovies and listened to music. I downloaded Instagram a few months before my 13th birthday, after my parents finally gave me permission.

After downloading IOS 12 in 2018, there was a new setting with screen time. The screen time setting can set a certain amount of time that you can be on the apps on your phone. My parents started to use the screen time setting on my phone and restricted the time I spent on games and social media. They felt that I was using my phone too much. Personally, the fact that Apple found it necessary to add this function to an iPhone shows me that something suspicious is happening. Having to warn users about the time they spend staring at a screen shows that many users are unaware of the problems that come with social media.

Eventually, I ended up deleting Instagram and TikTok because I used those apps the most. I would spend hours a day scrolling through TikTok. All I had been doing in those hours were watching 30-second videos of strangers dancing or making comedic videos, which felt like a waste. I ended up deleting TikTok a month before entering this school year as a sophomore. With Instagram, I deleted it more recently since I felt it was also a waste of time to scroll through photos that people posted when I could be doing something more worth my time.

One-seventh of the world’s population actively uses Instagram. I found it insane that such a large portion of the world’s population uses this app and that about 50% of Instagram users post daily. The average time spent on Instagram each day by its users is 53 minutes, and an estimated 107 million people in the U.S. actively use Instagram.

According to 2019 statistics, the average screen time of a tween (8-12 year olds) was almost five hours a day. For a teenager, it’s close to 7 1/2 hours a day. This did not include screen time with school and homework. Screen time in 2021 must be even more since there’s no stopping it now that we’re in a pandemic. In many cases, the internet has completely replaced the typical ways we used to communicate.

The CDC recommends that teenagers get 8-10 hours of sleep every night, leaving most teens with 14-16 hours left in the day. If studies say that the average teen spends seven hours a day on their phones, this means that almost half of a teen’s day is spent online. This does not include school time, which clocks out on average at around six hours of a day, meaning that almost the entire time a teenager is not at school, they are on a screen. Too much screen time can lead to multiple health and social complications, such as problems with sleep, weight, addiction, social skills and self-confidence.

I can’t say that I don’t contribute to the teenagers’ average screen time problem because even after deleting apps that I thought were taking up too much time, I have found other ways to occupy myself on my phone. It feels like an easier way to spend time, and it is a huge factor in procrastination. It gives me a great excuse to not do my work, which is not healthy at all. I have tried to better manage my time, but apps like Instagram that can easily catch your attention will get you spending hours on end scrolling.

Apart from the addiction to phones and apps, I have had many friends let me know that they feel insecure about posting on Instagram. Personally, I do not enjoy posting on Instagram since it feels too formal and forced. The amount of time that people take to prepare a post for Instagram is absurd. Most people feel like they have to edit the photos to look perfect and have to think of the perfect caption. Don’t get me wrong, I was like that, but then I started to barely post on Instagram, which is a lot less stressful. I used to feel stressed when uploading a post. The amount of likes and comments is also a huge factor in stress for people posting. To some, it feels like if you do not receive “enough” likes, then maybe it’s not even socially acceptable to post it in the first place. I have heard multiple girls in my grade in the past stressing over how many followers they have.

The film, “The Social Dilemma,” sheds light on the danger of social media tracking users’ every move. Social media platforms like Instagram have been completely tailored to attract users back to the app and stay on for long amounts of time. Instagram makes it harder for users to put their phones down since there is always something to look at. Some of the images shown in the film create a fear that your phone really can track what you’re interested in. I know, personally, many times I have found myself in a situation where I feel like my phone has been tracking me. Sometimes I will be shopping online and then open Instagram and the first ad that pops up is the store I had just been looking at. I have always felt that, somehow, apps like Instagram had been following what I was doing, and this film helped to show that it is a real thing that people should worry about. Personally, I do not want to have an app on my phone tracking my every move and trying to keep me on it for hours.

When trying to think of the positives from Instagram, I find it hard to think of one. If I’m being completely honest, the only time I actually feel happy from Instagram is on my birthday. Whenever someone wishes you a happy birthday, it shows they care. On birthdays, it is common for people to reach out through social media, or even post wishing you a happy birthday. Actions like this help to cover up the toxicity of social media every other day of the year.

So where does this leave us? Is Instagram a good app for teenagers and adults? Personally, I don’t think so. When weighing the pros and the cons, I believe the cons entirely outweigh the pros.