Long-Term Instagram Use Linked to a Weaker Sense of Self, Study Shows

Researchers in Milan used virtual reality to test whether years of Instagram use affects how people recognize their own face.

Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock

Scroll through enough filtered selfies, and you might start losing track of your own face—literally. A new study from Milan found that people who'd spent years on Instagram were more likely to mistake a stranger’s face in virtual reality for their own, raising questions about what all that scrolling is doing to your sense of self.

The research, conducted by scientists at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan and published in Computers in Human Behavior, explores how prolonged exposure to selfies, filters, and digital self-representations might blur the boundaries that separate a person’s identity from others.

How the Study Worked

Researchers recruited 95 young adults with an average age of 26 who had been using Instagram daily for nearly eight years.

Using a virtual reality version of a classic illusion technique, researchers mapped participants’ real-time facial movements onto a stranger’s avatar to create perfect visuomotor synchrony. This technique forced the brain to remap body ownership to accept the stranger’s face as its own because the visual input matched the participant’s muscle sensations.

When participants later completed self-report questionnaires, those with longer Instagram histories were more likely to fall for the illusion, mistaking a stranger’s virtual face for their own. Researchers called it a “dose effect”: the more years someone had spent on the app, the more susceptible they seemed to be.

Researchers offered several possible explanations for why long-term users may start to lose perception of their real appearance:

Scrolling on social media and posting images of oneself can lead to an overreliance on external input. The brain creates a sense of identity by combining internal signals, like your heartbeat and muscle sensations, with external visual feedback, such as what you see in the mirror. Years of viewing, editing, and sharing digital representations of yourself may cause the brain to prioritize what it sees externally over internal sensations. As a result, it may be more likely to accept a synthetic, external virtual face—especially if it moves in sync with your own—as genuinely “yours.”

Psychologically, what a person consumes may shape who they become.

Exposing your brain to millions of highly stylized and similar faces, often influenced by trending beauty filters, can blur the perceptual boundaries of facial uniqueness. As a result, your brain’s internal template of what a face looks like becomes more like what you see on social media and less like your own face. This can make it much easier to be fooled by the virtual face illusion.

The researchers emphasized that this isn’t caused by a sudden increase in screen time. Instead, it’s a gradual, cumulative shift in how the brain processes identity, built up over years of digital immersion.

Giuseppe Riva, a professor and director of the Humane Technology Lab at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, noted in a press statement. “It is through our faces that we recognize ourselves in the mirror, construct our individuality, and are recognized by others,” Riva said. “In other words, the association does not emerge in any bodily representation, but precisely in the part of the body most closely linked to the sense of who we are.”

The participants in the study belong to the first generation to grow up with social media, having started in late adolescence and continued for nearly a decade.

Lead author Maria Sansoni was careful to note that the study does not prove Instagram directly causes mental health problems. It points to a correlation between years of use and susceptibility to the face illusion, not a confirmed cause-and-effect relationship.

“If associations with processes fundamental to the construction of bodily identity are already emerging in these young adults,” she said, then the question is what happens with adolescents encountering these technologies “at an increasingly early age and for increasingly longer periods of time,” a question the study itself did not test.

Dangers of Constant Comparison

The findings echo broader concerns some clinicians have raised about social media and self-perception, even if this particular study’s scope is narrow.

Sanam Hafeez, a neuropsychologist and director of Comprehend the Mind in New York, who was not involved in the study, told The Epoch Times that constant comparison can contribute over time to lower self-esteem and body dissatisfaction.

“Some individuals may become disconnected from their own preferences and rely more on outside validation,” she added. “Increased anxiety, depression, and social insecurity could develop in vulnerable individuals.” She said that difficulty forming a stable sense of identity during important developmental years is a related concern, though she cautioned that more research is needed before drawing firm conclusions about lasting effects. Hafeez noted that young people may become overly dependent on likes, comments, or followers to feel good about themselves, which may drive heavy use of filters and discomfort with posting unedited photos.

“Heavily editing photos can create unrealistic expectations about how they should look in real life. This can make it harder to feel confident and comfortable with their natural appearance,” she added.

General Guidance for Families

While the Milan study focused narrowly on adults and a lab-based illusion, its themes connect to advice clinicians commonly give families navigating social media more broadly.

Hafeez recommended therapy for people already struggling with comparison and self-image issues.

“Cognitive behavioral therapy may be useful for challenging unrealistic comparisons and negative self-talk,” Hafeez said. “Mindfulness practices can encourage people to focus on their physical sensations and present experiences.”

She also advised that spending time on offline hobbies and face-to-face relationships can strengthen a person’s sense of self. “In some cases, reducing social media exposure for a period of time may help restore healthier habits.”

For parents, Hafeez suggested setting reasonable screen-time limits so social media doesn’t become a child’s main source of entertainment or self-worth, and encouraging offline activities—such as time with friends, hobbies, and sports—that build confidence outside the app.

“It is helpful to remind kids that many online images are filtered, edited, or carefully curated to present an idealized version of reality,” she said. “Explaining that influencers and celebrities often use professional lighting, photo editing, and multiple takes can help children view these images more critically.”

These conversations, Hafeez noted, can make it easier for young people to appreciate their own appearance without measuring it against a curated, unrealistic standard.