Instagram use could affect not only how we see our bodies, but also how our brains perceive the bodies we inhabit as ‘ours’. In short, it could erode our sense of self to the point where we no longer recognize ourselves in our bodies or feel “at home” in them.
This is the proposal of a scientific study published in the international journal Computers in Human Behavior and carried out by a team of researchers coordinated by Professor Giuseppe Riva, director of the Humane Technology Lab at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. The study, led by Dr. Maria Sansoni, raises the Digital Erosion of Bodily Identity Hypothesis: the idea is that years of exposure to selfies, filtered faces and digital representations of the self can gradually blur the perceptual boundaries that allow us to recognize our faces as uniquely our own. In other words, if we live for years in a digital world where all faces tend to look alike, the danger is that it will become harder to remember what makes us unique.
Background
Adolescent and young adult mental health represents one of the greatest public health challenges today. According to the World Health Organization, approximately one in seven adolescents and one in eight adults worldwide suffer from a mental disorder. Among the factors of greatest concern are those related to body and self-image. In a culture increasingly focused on our appearance, physical appearance plays an increasing role in the construction of personal identity and relationships with others. Therefore, it is not surprising that body dissatisfaction is now associated with reduced psychological well-being and represents a significant risk factor for the development of eating disorders, depression, social anxiety and low self-esteem.
In recent years, the scientific debate has mainly focused on the role of social media. Platforms like Instagram have turned the body into a key tool for communication and self-representation. In these digital environments, the face and physical appearance are constantly exposed, observed, compared, modified through filters, and evaluated through likes, comments, and visibility metrics. This constant comparison to idealized images and, often unrealistic, aesthetic standards can increase one’s perceived pressure about one’s appearance, contributing not only to greater body dissatisfaction but also to a more critical evaluation of one’s body.
But what if the problem was deeper? The danger is that social media has affected not only the way we value our bodies, but also the way we construct a sense of who we are.
The study
Indeed, in this new study the researchers investigated an aspect that had previously been almost overlooked: the relationship between Instagram use and the processes that allow the brain to recognize one’s face as belonging to oneself. The body is not just an image. Every day, the brain constantly integrates information from inside the body (such as heart rate, limb position, and visceral sensations) with information from the external environment, such as what we see and touch. From this integration arises a seemingly obvious but fundamental sense: the certainty that this body is our body and that we exist as individuals distinct from others.
Neuroscience shows that these processes represent one of the foundations of personal identity. When they function properly, they contribute to emotional regulation, awareness of who we are, and a direct sense of belonging to our bodies. When these senses are ‘cancelled’, it can become more difficult to feel fully ‘at home’ in our body, to clearly recognize our inner states and to maintain a firm distinction between self and others. For this reason, alterations in these mechanisms are a vulnerability factor for various clinical conditions, including eating disorders and dissociative disorders.
The group consisted of 95 young adults, men and women, with an average age of 26 and a history of nearly eight years of Instagram use. Participants were subjected to virtual reality experiences known as body illusions. By synchronizing what a person sees and feels about their own body, these processes can temporarily induce the feeling that another person’s face or body belongs to them. Used for years in neuroscience, body illusions allow us to study the stability of the boundaries that separate self from others and allow us to recognize our bodies as “ours.” Therefore, the ease with which a person experiences these illusions represents an indicator of how malleable and flexible a person’s bodily identity is.
The results of the study revealed for the first time an unexpected phenomenon. The researchers observed a kind of “dosage effect”: the longer the person’s Instagram usage history (and therefore the more years they used the platform), the more likely the participants were to perceive the stranger’s face displayed in virtual reality as their own. This finding is particularly interesting because it concerns the face, undoubtedly the most personal and identifying element of the human body.
Professor Riva affirms:It is through our faces that we recognize ourselves in the mirror, construct our individuality and be recognized by others. In other words, association emerges not in any physical representation, but precisely in the part of the body most closely connected to our sense of who we are.mi.”
According to the authors, these findings suggest that prolonged exposure to image-focused digital environments could affect some of the deeper processes through which the brain constructs a sense of identity, supporting what they termed the “corporeal identity erosion hypothesis.” In other words, if for years we live in a digital world where all faces tend to look alike, the danger is that it becomes harder to remember what makes us unique
The study does not prove that Instagram causes mental health problems, nor that these changes necessarily have negative consequences. However, it opens up a new perspective on the relationship between technology and identity.
Dr. Sansoni explains: “The participants in the study belong to the first generation to grow up with social media: they started using these platforms in their late teens and have integrated them into their daily lives for almost a decade. If these young adults already show associations with processes fundamental to the construction of bodily identity, the question that arises concerns new generations and young teenagers, who come into contact with these technologies at an increasingly young age and for increasingly longer periods of time.“
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