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| Credit: Search Engine Journal |
All too often I find myself habitually scrolling to see who'd watched my Instagram Stories.
Not that checking it would affect my life in any sort of way. But just knowing that certain people have or have not seen it just affects me in a certain way. I'm quite sure we've all been guilty of this at some point, probably more often than we'd like to admit. From checking the number of views, to trying to see if a specific person has seen it. We check back on what we've posted out there to see who’s seen it - i.e., who's interested.
This urge to check the “viewers” feature on Instagram comes down to validation and wanting to portray a certain image of ourselves to the public, particularly those we associate with/think of as part of our 'in-group'. As social beings, this stems from a hardwired need to feel like we belong.
Instagram is aware of this and is using our deep-seated needs to keep us hooked.
This feature has no substantial benefits to anyone's mental health and does more harm than good. With minimal use, the Viewers feature may be tolerable, but it can become very harmful, especially for those with low self-esteem and are seeking external validation from their Followers.
The Viewers feature can lead to obsessive behavior, which can be detrimental to one’s mental health.