With over one billion monthly users, Instagram is the world’s most popular social network after YouTube and Facebook. Nearly half of those on Instagram check it multiple times a day, and 71% of its audience is aged under 35.

However, research into how Instagram is affecting self-image and mental health is struggling to keep pace with the platform’s meteoric growth.

The data that is available points to a few worrying trends. This 2018 study from York University in Canada found that young women felt worse about themselves after interacting with a post of someone they perceived as more attractive than them.

Another survey published at a similar time by the University of Pennsylvania concluded that undergraduates who limited their time on Instagram and other social media platforms over a three-week period felt significantly less lonely and depressed as a result.

In 2017, the network was rated as the worst social media platform in a UK poll, in terms of its negative impact on young people’s mental health. Instagram said it was working to keep its feeds a safe and supportive place.

This latest experiment is part of a bigger effort to fulfill this aim, although academics have previously said that it’s the content – rather than a like count per se – that is most damaging when it comes to self-esteem.

“The biggest impact of Instagram is the content,” Renee Engeln, a psychology professor at Northwestern University tells CNN. “The exposure to this constant stream of perfected images is what seems to hurt psychologically.”

Images: Julián Gentilezza and Paul Hanaoka on Unsplash

Instagram hides likes in groundbreaking self-esteem trial