Instagram and Social Media Are Making Us Forget What We Look Like

While it might feel like the only way to escape this cycle of conformity is to sign off forever, Emma disagrees. The goal isn’t to eliminate social media, Emma says, but rather to make more of an effort to question the images we consume and to build more diverse and realistic social media feeds.

“Reducing time spent in isolation while increasing connection, and reconnecting with our bodies can all be protective factors for mental health,” Emma says. This can be as simple as getting off your phone for a few minutes, and perhaps calling in help from the Brick app or just putting the device in a separate room. The goal should be to reduce the time you’re spending on your phone in small increments. When you feel the urge to mindlessly scroll, Emma adds, call or text a friend instead. And at lunch or dinnertime—which can be a prime time to scroll—try to make plans to eat a meal with a friend. “Isolation gives more room for body image and negative thoughts to get stronger,” she says.

It’s not just about not avoiding isolation; it’s also about reconnecting with your physical body. To do this, Emma recommends taking a walk without your phone and using your five senses to notice your environment. When you take a shower, notice the sensation of water on your body. You can also practice “box breathing,” which is when you inhale for four seconds, hold your breath for four seconds, exhale for four seconds and hold your breath for the same period before repeating.

Sansoni, the lead author of the study, agrees that getting back into your body is essential, as the research is a reminder for people to sharpen their “inner body signals,” which is information from within the body—like a person’s heartbeat—that helps the brain construct its sense of self.

This is because, when it comes to your brain losing its sense of self, people rely more on what they see—not what they feel. Sansoni’s study suggests that years of scrolling on Instagram can weaken our ability to rely on these inner signals, essentially weakening our brain’s ability to accurately perceive its own face and body. This is a problem because the face—of all our body parts—is most closely linked to our own identity. “More than any other, it’s basically who we are,” she says. If we lose our ability to discern between our own face and a stranger’s face, even for a couple of minutes, we “lose the perception of identity,” she says. “Paying attention to those internal and functional aspects of bodily experience can remind us that we are much more than a photograph or an image on a screen.”

Ultimately, we as individuals should not be the only ones responsible for unlearning what the algorithm has taught us about being beautiful. Tech companies could modify the Instagram algorithm to prioritize all types of faces and bodies, Sansoni says. The change could encourage more self-expression and individuality online and offline. It’s not that social media is inherently bad or can’t be used in a positive way. “It’s like when you drive a motorbike, it’s cool, you can drive to another city, but you also need to be aware that if you go too fast, for example, you can get hurt,” Sansoni says. The same idea applies to social media. “It’s about raising awareness and helping people be stronger to avoid this risk.”