Instagram Influencers: Anxiety vs. Fame on Social Media
This paper examines two contrasting perspectives on social media's impact on influencers. Drawing on Jenni Gritters's reporting that Instagram fosters constant self-comparison, anxiety, and identity loss, and Cheryl Wischhover's findings that authentic, drama-driven content can propel creators to celebrity status and lucrative contracts, the paper argues that social media is neither entirely harmful nor entirely beneficial. Supplemented by De Vries, Gensler, and Leeflang's research on social media as a dominant communication channel, and Heather Murphy's account of real-world tensions between influencers and business owners, the paper concludes that the effects of social media must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis rather than reduced to a single narrative.
- Introduction: Two Sides of Social Media Influence: Thesis introducing competing views on influencer culture
- Social Media as a Dominant Communication Force: Social media's rise and real-world influencer tensions
- The Mental Health Toll: Gritters's Case Against Instagram: Instagram's psychological harms: anxiety and identity loss
- The Case for Authenticity and Drama: Wischhover's Counter-Narrative: Authentic drama content drives fame and revenue
- Comparing the Two Perspectives: Direct contrast of Gritters and Wischhover's arguments
- Conclusion: Multiple Truths About Social Media: All perspectives are valid; social media effects vary
✍️ How to write this paper — guide, tools & examples ▾
What makes this paper effective
- It structures the argument around a genuine tension between two credible sources, making the comparison feel substantive rather than superficial.
- Direct quotations from Gritters and Wischhover are used strategically to let the sources speak for themselves, strengthening the paper's evidence base.
- The paper resists the temptation to declare a winner between the two perspectives, modeling intellectual humility appropriate for a summary-and-synthesis assignment.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates source synthesis: rather than summarizing each article in isolation, it places Gritters, Wischhover, De Vries et al., and Murphy in dialogue with one another. Each source is introduced to add a new layer to the argument — from broad communication research, to a real-world business conflict, to psychological harms, to financial opportunity — building a multi-faceted picture of one phenomenon.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a thesis that explicitly acknowledges two opposing views. The body moves from establishing social media's cultural dominance (De Vries; Murphy) to examining Gritters's negative psychological findings, then pivots to Wischhover's positive counter-evidence. A comparative paragraph directly contrasts the two main sources before the conclusion synthesizes all perspectives and reinforces the paper's central claim: complex social phenomena resist single-sided explanations.
Introduction: Two Sides of Social Media Influence
In her article "How Instagram Takes a Toll on Influencers' Brains," Jenni Gritters argues that social media can have a negative impact on the way people think about themselves. Gritters states that influencers using social media are constantly comparing themselves to others and, as a result, their self-esteem can seriously decline and they can suffer from heightened anxiety. To put it in the words of Churchill, comparison is a thief of joy: the constant use of Instagram can foster negative perceptions about oneself the more one compares one's own profile to what others are doing. However, in a separate article, Cheryl Wischhover notes that social media influencers have created an industry all their own and have become celebrities in their own right, with lucrative contracts from major corporations routinely coming their way. Far from developing anxiety, these influencers are amassing followings, signing profitable deals, and generating drama to increase clicks and ad revenue. This paper shows how an issue is never one-sided or as simple as it may seem. Gritters may have a point about social media causing anxiety for some, but for others who are able to maximize its potential, it can be the pathway to stardom, fame, riches, and celebrity status.
Social Media as a Dominant Communication Force
As De Vries, Gensler, and Leeflang point out, social media is one of the most influential forms of communication of this generation. It is so popular that people are leveraging their status on sites like Yelp and Instagram to obtain freebies — such as free meals or complimentary hotel stays — in exchange for posting favorable reviews on social media. However, as Heather Murphy points out, not every business owner is willing to exchange goods and services for "influence." For example, Gianluca Casaccia, who owns the White Banana Beach Club, wants cash from customers — not Instagram reviews. He views "influencers" as freeloaders who mistake their social media presence for real-world currency (Murphy).
In spite of what Casaccia thinks, young people today prefer getting their information — on what to buy or what to think — from social media rather than from traditional sources such as television, advertisements, or magazines. The younger generation learns to trust people on social media because they can interact with them, message them, and get to know them over time. It is a way to cultivate genuine relationships. Nevertheless, there is a dark side to social media that can affect one's mental state, as Gritters argues.
The Mental Health Toll: Gritters's Case Against Instagram
The central point that Gritters focuses on is that social media creates a culture of constant comparison among users. One person will post something and obsess over whether it receives as many likes or followers as another user's post. This becomes an unhealthy obsession that, according to Gritters, leads to mental health problems such as anxiety and the erosion of self-esteem. As Gritters states:
"Many of the 12 influencers I spoke with while researching this story said they felt tied to a static, inauthentic identity. They often lamented their inability to put down their phones and laptops and said they were constantly online. If you want to be an influencer, you need to interact with your audience at all hours; taking a break is considered a big no-no."
In other words, those who try to build a social media following essentially have to live online. They cannot form an identity separate from their social media persona — the person they are trying to be online must be performed 24/7. Gritters argues that this becomes incredibly taxing, because the images and identity one projects on sites like Instagram are often idealized and disconnected from reality. Instagram tends to portray only one side of life — a commercialized, aspirational side meant to be appealing. The unappealing sides of life, however, do not disappear, and someone trying to become a social media influencer must find a way to manage them without alienating their followers.
Conclusion: Multiple Truths About Social Media
Since it is clear that social media is the most popular form of communication today, as De Vries et al. have demonstrated, the arguments of both Gritters and Wischhover suggest that there is more than one way to look at this phenomenon. It may have both positives and negatives, but these must be judged on a case-by-case basis. Some may find social media too taxing on their mental health, as the influencers Gritters interviewed implied. Others may view it as a pathway to stardom and enjoy the process, as Wischhover implies. After all, Wischhover states that "drama videos are so popular now that the drama channel creators themselves are getting fame, notoriety, drama, and money of their own, leading to one giant beauty drama ouroboros. It's yet another data point in the continuing narrative about how the powerful ecosystem of YouTube creators is fundamentally changing how people are communicating and consuming information online, and taking a global industry with it."
Wischhover describes her findings as just one more data point in the broader story of social media — she does not claim her perspective is the whole story or that other sides do not exist. The picture Gritters presents, by contrast, can read like a closed case: Instagram causes more trouble than it is worth, and social media inevitably leads to anxiety and low self-esteem. But clearly this is not the experience of everyone, as Wischhover demonstrates, and it is not the complete picture.
Gritters's argument is logical and well-supported by the sources she provides. However, Wischhover offers another dimension of the social media narrative. Gritters is negative toward it; Wischhover is positive toward it; De Vries et al. accept it as an important new form of communication. All perspectives have merit. Some take on a broader scope, while others narrow in on specific elements of the social media phenomenon. Declaring one side definitively right or wrong is beyond the scope of this paper. What this paper demonstrates is that there is typically more to a story than what any single perspective presents — and the story of social media and Instagram is a clear illustration of that fact.
Works Cited
De Vries, Lisette, Sonja Gensler, and Peter SH Leeflang. "Popularity of Brand Posts on Brand Fan Pages: An Investigation of the Effects of Social Media Marketing." Journal of Interactive Marketing 26.2 (2012): 83–91.
Gritters, Jenni. How Instagram Takes a Toll on Influencers' Brains. The Guardian, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/08/instagram-influencers-psychology-social-media-anxiety
Murphy, Heather. No, Your Instagram 'Influence' Is Not as Good as Cash, Club Owner Says. The New York Times, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/03/world/philippines-hotel-influencers-social-media.html
Wischhover, Cheryl. Meet the TMZs of Beauty YouTube. Vox, 2018. https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/10/5/17937690/youtube-beauty-influencers-drama-channels-dramageddon
Create your account
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.