THE ever increasing popularity of social media, especially among the young, brings mental health concerns to the forefront even more. Social media apps such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok have been on the receiving end of criticism when it comes to affecting the well-being of young adults and children.
As part of improving its stance on these issues, Instagram (which is owned by Meta, formerly known as Facebook), over the last two years has held the #RealTalk Malaysia mental health campaign.
Last week, in conjunction with #RealTalk3.0, Instagram announced the roll out of additional safety and wellbeing features to limit unwanted interactions and give people more control over their experiences.
“We know there are discussions about whether social media is good or bad and that’s why we have done considerable work on well-being for more than 10 years to focus on the positive impact that our products can have on people, and to support their safety and wellbeing, said Philip Chua, head of public policy, Asia Pacific, Instagram.
The launch of these features was accompanied by a panel discussion moderated by Philip that was attended by founder and president of Mental Health Illness Awareness and Support Association (Miasa), Anita Abu Bakar; actress and host, Janna Nick; national diver and Olympian medalist, Datuk Pandelela Rinong; and content creator Hafiz @ Slurpee Crank.
The latter three shared their experiences on social media, specifically Instagram, including navigating what it’s like to be a public figure that falls under the scrutiny of strangers, as well as providing some advice on how to healthily manage online experiences.
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“It is quite hard for me to be here, I don’t really do any live on my Instagram because people can simply approach me, simply comment, because
“As a public figure we know that this is the price we have to pay, where people can simply attack you, people can simply comment offensive things at you or at your Instagram,” said Janna, who earlier this year publicly announced that she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
She added that being a public personality on social media or on television, seemingly gave ‘keyboard warriors’ a false sense of familiarity, which allows them to air their negative comments.
“For me it’s very important not to just focus on the negative impact and also the comments, Pandelela said. “Everyone wants to be well liked by the public but we have to remember and to be able to accept the positive and also the negative.”
Normally, she would post about her pets or motivational quotes on social media, but the diver became the focus of controversy when she took a strong anti-bullying stance.
“Because a lot of young people look up to me for inspiration and motivation, they want to get to know me more as a person behind the sporting achievements too,” said Pandelela. “So I use my social media to tell a story or send a message that I’m also facing struggles and everyday life challenges like normal people experience too.”
“When you talk to the public, it’s great, you get a response, but you don’t know them personally so you feel a little bit disconnected, like you don’t know them but they know a lot about you,” said Hafiz, commenting on the odd phenomena of being a social media personality with hundreds of thousands of fans/followers.
“They know your whole personal life, your pet name, they know what your mum is doing, everything about you. I don’t know how they know, but they know.”
To address these concerns, and the concerns of the everyday public who use its services, Instagram has released a whole host of new features.
Among them are:
- Offering the option to remove ‘like’ counts, to counter the feeling that Instagram and Facebook users need to always be chasing approval.
- Restrict: Allows others to comment on posts, but the comment can’t be viewed by anyone but the account holder.
- Multi-Block: Allows users the option to both block an account and preemptively block new accounts that person may create..
- Limits: Users can hide comments and DMs from accounts that aren’t following them and/or accounts which followed them recently.
- Hidden words: A feature to filter abusive messages.
- Sensitive content controls: ‘Sensitive content’ posts don’t necessarily break Instagram’s community guidelines, but could be potentially upsetting to someone.
- Nudges: Still in progress, this feature will know if the user has been dwelling on a certain type of content, and hopes to point people toward content that inspires and uplifts.
The panellists approve of these new features, while sharing their own experiences blocking and restricting negative comments.
“People who give or send you offensive comments, they want to make you feel bad, they want you to give them attention at least,” said Janna.
“When we block we are giving them the attention they want, so I choose to restrict so they think other people can see their comments, but they can’t.”
Instagram is making new accounts private by default for people under 16, blocking potentially suspicious adults from interacting with teens on its platform.
“When you put yourself out there, for people to scrutinise you, provide all these negative comments, there will always be negative comments, there will always be people who are uncomfortable or they have bad things to say about you, and I think it’s about being ready for when it happens, being mentally prepared,” said Anita.
She added that from August 2020 to August 2021, 96,000 people reached out to Miasa for mental health assistance relating to cyber-bullying.
“Anxiety and depression are very prevalent in teens and young adults hence more must be done for prevention and early intervention.”
Hafiz says that to maintain proper balance between his life and social media, he spends time away from being online by being with himself and his thoughts, pointing out the value of analog activities like journaling and talking walks where he takes stock of the day.
Pandalela stays even by not stressing too much on what is said online.
“Basically the comments from the social media users, are people judging from the outside, they don’t really understand or know you for who you are, so I don’t take it very personally and somehow I take it as a motivation for me to be better.” – The Vibes, November 15, 2021
