Instagram stories allow you to give your followers a temporary glimpse into your life and thoughts before disappearing 24 hours later, and is the perfect happy medium for anything you want to share without fully committing to a dedicated post.
Brought to the platform nearly a decade ago in August 2016, stories are without a doubt one of the most popular features that Instagram has ever introduced, and its widely used by most users on a daily basis.
In the age of curated feeds and meticulously crafted social media personalities, stories give users that level of freedom that they'd otherwise resigned themselves to be without - although it turns out that obsessing over your own story output might be a little bit unhealthy.
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According to narcissism expert Dr. Supriya McKenna, spending too much mental energy on your Instagram stories - and wider social media posts as a whole - is a symptom of self indulgence and is very much unhealthy behavior.
Outlining in an interview with Tyla, McKenna breaks obsessive social media behavior into two contrasting categories.
The first of which involves simply rewatching your Instagram stories, often dozens of times before they disappear:
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"You might find yourself doing this for various reasons," McKenna illustrates. "It could be as simple as you being really proud of what you have produced, so you are just revisiting your post and savoring the feeling of pride you get from it. This isn't actually unhealth in itself, and can actually be the opposite."
This is contrary to humans' innate desire to focus of the negatives and failures, which is likely an evolutionary mechanic derived to aid survival instincts. Instead, this allows you to enhance your self-worth and become more confident as an individual, which is very much healthy behavior even if it might not seem like it at the time.
McKenna even goes as far to argue that "if this type of social media 'self stalking' sounds like you - well, just enjoy it, and give yourself a back on the back."
Where it starts to become dangerous is when that obsession shifts into a desire for validation from others.
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"This is all about craving external validation in order to feel whole and good about yourself," Dr. McKenna outlines, "and if your sense of self-esteem comes predominantly from how other people view you (rather than it coming from an innate sense of worthiness) then this might be a problem for you."
It can lead to feelings of failure despite the post itself being an accomplishment, as you'll end up unfulfilled if you don't get the ever-growing recognition and validation from others that you crave.
It can also lead to narcissism if you do indeed receive the attention and praise that you crave, as Dr. McKenna expounds:
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"Conversely, when the 'likes' do come flooding in, you might feel incredible - successful and maybe even invincible - but if these feelings subside fairly quickly and you find yourself back on the treadmill of creating content for others to applaud you for, then take note."
It's definitely something to think about the next time you're heading back onto the app to check your story, as there's nothing innately wrong with having a peek but if you start worrying about engagement then you might be in trouble.