Jedna od negativnih pojava koju tinejdžeri navode je potreba za validacijom u vidu broja lajkova Some of the platform’s negative aspects cited by teens include the need for validation in the form of the number of likes
sion of the majority of them is that Facebook is very well aware of the negative impact its business has on people. “Time and again, the docu- ments show, Facebook’s researchers have identified the platform’s ill ef- fects,” notes the Wall Street Journal. Media have long speculated about the problematic impact of a platform that emphasises physical appearance and idealised aesthet- ics while encouraging intense so- cial comparisons, but Facebook’s PR team has always been there to insist that this research is unfounded and provides only a partial picture of Instagram. The most striking obser- vation of the research is that more than 32% of teenage girls who feel bad about their bodies said that Ins- tagram makes them feel even worse. And the many negative effects of this network are even more pronounced among teens with pre-existing men- tal health issues. Some of the plat- form’s negative aspects cited by teens include pressure to fit into existing social norms and show their mon- etary wealth and perfectly sculpted body, the need for validation in the form of the number of likes and fol- lowers, but also peer violence. If these are the standard reac- tions to the newsfeed among “kids” who we consider as being part of the
rule the peeling window frames of Lower Dorćol and all those perfect- ly imperfect Belgrade experiences. However, the two of them compre- hend this social network for posers in an almost identical way: when they don’t post their (popularly speaking) content, they mostly spend time on Instagram in a desire to briefly es- cape into other people’s lives, in or- der to avoid negative feelings or sheer boredom. Do they think that all the other users of this social network are having a better time in life than them? “No way, though I’m inter- ested in where they get the money for those trips to Zanzibar and Tan- zania, and spontaneous weekends on Kopaonik,” says Jovana. Draga- na, on the other hand, responded in her self-referential hipster man- ner: “No, everyone on Instagram is boring, except me!” I was interested in how much time they spend on Instagram throughout the course of a day – they both responded by saying that it was a period exceeding three hours. Could they give up this ritual that results in the whitish light of the explore feed putting them to sleep night after night? Both of them stat- ed categorically: “No!”. And what about you? How are you doing?
widespread digital generation - I was interested in what the situation is like among those of us who are old- er? Does all this calibrated pomp and tuned leisure have a similar impact on us - or did we escape Zuckerberg’s mousetrap in time? I decided to re- search this among my friends – or, more precisely, to conduct a com- parative analysis of the two girls in my social circle that I estimated as being the most active on Instagram. In one corner of my feed is Jova- na, who works at a marketing agen- cy and uses her Instagram profile to share sanitised, highly aesthetic se- quences of life in the Vračar neigh- bourhood. Her entire handbag is nonchalantly hung on the backrest of a mid-century chair in one of the Belgrade bistros that suffer from not being located in the 11 th arrondisse- ment and that whole hip style. The only more neutral thing on her camel hair coat of a profile is the girl herself, to the extent that one would think that a Swedish lady has wandered into Belgrade’s Mileševska Street. In the other corner is Dragana, whose situation is much less filtered, but not without Insta premeditation for a nanosecond: she prefers to take a picture of the first failed pancake, “back in five minutes” signs on gro- cery shops in Zvezdara, lazy cats that
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