Instagram's Best Kept Secret

What do you think of when you hear the word Instagram? Filters that make your eyes stand out more, blurred edges and something that looks picture perfect, even if the image didn’t start off that way. I don’t know about you, but I can sometimes find social media hard, I become weighed down with seeing images of peoples “perfect” lives and their always happy families. Sometimes, just sometimes I feel like I don’t want to be around that or always be happy. Social media can be great on so many levels and whenever the big bosses of such social media platforms do things that raise awareness around self-harm it is always so positive.

Imagine my delight when I realised the beauty magazine Elle had compiled a piece about an introduction by the CEO of Instagram that allows people to do a few things if they are suffering with or have suffered with self-harm. Instagram already have a heap of tools available, such as deleting and reporting comments as well as blocking and reporting accounts. Now users can go to their settings icon and make a list of words that they find upsetting or triggering and ensure that posts containing those words do not appear in any of their feeds. If you want to know about Facebooks best kept secret, you can...here

Here is a helpful guide to show you the tools I am talking about on Instagram

If you have an Adroid look for this icon in the far right hand corner:

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If you have an iPhone, look for this icon in the far right hand corner:

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Hit that button and scroll to settings;

When you are there hit the comments button, you will then see this:

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From there you can hide all things that are innoproriate or put in your own key words, like this :

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I will leave you with some words from the CEO of Instagram himself...

"My commitment to you is that we will keep building features that safeguard the community and maintain what makes Instagram a positive and creative place for everyone. To learn more about comments on Instagram, check out help.instagram.com." Kevin Systrom CEO & Co-founder, Instagram (Taken from the post made on Instagram by Kevin System).

ALUMINA

Alumina is a free, online 7 week course for young people struggling with self-harm. Each course has up to 8 young people, all accessing the sessions from their own phones, tablets or laptops across the UK. The courses take place on different evenings of the week and are run by friendly, trained counsellors and volunteer youth workers. You don’t need an adult to refer you or sign you up, and no-one will see or hear you during the sessions – you’ll just join in via the chatbox. We want to help you to find your next steps towards recovery, wherever you are on your journey.

Find out more