In social networks, the old man arrived quickly. If Instagram remains one of the most used social networks in the world, its use has constantly evolved since its creation in 2010. In recent years, a substantive trend there has been installed there: if adolescents and young adults are still there, publish content on the platform is now considered “shameful” by them.
In France, the social network has more than 42 million accounts, according to the figures communicated at the end of 2024 by its parent company, goal. In 2023, in France, 66% of 15-24-year-olds connected at least once a day on Instagram, according to mediametrie figures. This made it the second most used social network among young people, behind Snapchat.
“A vacation publication with a description, ‘a small pink and happiness’ is hilarious,” Judge Agathe*, 16. The Parisian teenager never publishes photos in her thread through the tool dedicated on Instagram. But, like many young people of their age, sometimes they share their photos in the stories and fix them in their stories on the cover.
In February, in a survey on digital uses of adolescents, the CNIL, the control authority in terms of protection of personal data, said that most of the university students questioned were “simple consumers” of social networks.
The authors of the study distributed adolescents according to their digital uses: “a minority in search of notoriety” that he effectively publishes, “a majority of consumers in search of anonymity” and “between the two, a proportion of intermediate users that publish content in an occasional way that is often not identifying (on a sport, or in the end of sharing a passion for the example).”
Protect your privacy
The survey also stressed the paradoxical nature of the use of social networks among young people: the need to be present to be linked to the world, while preserving its intimacy. Because many young people highlight their desire to protect their privacy.
“I am quite modest, so I don’t want to publish photos that can be what I consider intimate,” said Robin, 19. This Lille student never publishes photos on the platform and, when he wants to share content that shows his face, he does it in the story “close friends”, is to have a list of accounts he has chosen. Agathe, opted for a second private account, where he shares his photos and videos for about fifty people, which says he knows.
“It is a generation that has been extremely aware of the overflow of self -examination. There is a real awareness of what the online publication means, particularly in high school students and young adults, and a real reflection in relation to their academic, professional and social projects,” says Anne Cordier, professor of Universities in Information and Communication Sciences.
This caution goes through several strategies, observed by Jennifer Elbaz, co -author of Cnil’s research. Therefore, put less photos, but also blur your profile photo, or use a black square, for example. But these techniques can be “banking”, according to this manager of digital education projects.
These young people can also tend to use “very simple” passwords and, above all, to share them with each other, which gives the other immense power in case of a relational problem. “
Avoid the shame of adolescents
When he installed the Instagram application about three years ago, Agathe had published photos of family trips. Snaps that ended up eliminating, no longer satisfied with its appearance. The high school student is not the only one who performs regular cleaning in its online content.
“Today, young people realize that they are playing a lot of year after year and do not want to see what they were the previous year. That is why they often erase what they have published before,” said Jennifer Elbaz. And who has never been ashamed for a photo taken in adolescence?
Another factor that can push young people to publish on Instagram is the awareness that they have time we can spend on social networks. “HE displacement (The fact of moving the content on your phone, sometimes compulsively, editor’s note), can happen in it. But for a year, I have been trying to go less in Tiktok or the Real in Insta, “Robin said.
In his work, one of the significant observations made by Anne Cordier is that of “disconnection phenomena, even application uninstallation, often temporary and sometimes definitive, to deal with the feeling of doomscrollingespecially among young adults and high school students. ” doomscrolling Designates the compulsive consumption of content that provides anxiety in your topical children on social networks.
Out of parents’ gaze
A final element can explain this reluctance of young people to be shown on Instagram. Like Facebook before him, this social network, also very popular among other generations, may have become a platform associated with their parents.
To maintain what she calls her “secret garden,” Agathe has restricted his great sisters and his mother on Instagram, eliminating them the opportunity to look at their stories. “Teenagers, when their elders are on platforms, go and go to others where adults are not, because they are built with adults, in other spaces.” From this point of view, publishing on Instagram would be annoying because it is a “old” practice.
A small minority attracted to the “influencer fantasy”
However, this observation does not concern all young people, because, as Anne Cordier points out, “a generation is not homogeneous.” And, although certain personalities of social networks have made their presence online their profession, to expose themselves, on the contrary, it can be attractive.
“For those who have an intense publication practice on a personal level, there is an influencer fantasy, because it is an absolute model of success,” explains Anne Cordier. In addition, the uses are not necessarily the same according to the age of young people. The Cnil pointed out a difference in practice among young people with only a few years of difference: “In the university, practices are different between 6 and 3,” said Jennifer Elbaz.
But then what do these young people do on Instagram if they don’t want to be active? “This is where I talk to my friends, that there are class groups,” said Robin, a 19 -year -old student. When conducting his study with a hundred university students, Jennifer Elbaz observed on Instagram, for this kind of age, the most widespread use is in fact “peer messaging and instant history in the form of history.”
It is much more reasoned than certain adults. “It is a bit of the story of the spray sprayer. All these quadras, fifths, Sixties, who punish this irresponsible youth are great editors,” for example, “Baby photos that are their children and their grandchildren,” says Anne Cordier. “They have, on Instagram and Facebook, an intimate management that is not as reflective as young people.”
*The first name has been changed
Source: BFM TV
