مهسا کردزنگنه

This research studies the role of Instagram in the mental well-being of teenagers and examines the effect of this social network in improving or decreasing the quality of mental well-being of teenagers. The current research is based on Martin Seligman's flourishing theory, which considers people's psychological well-being to consist of ۵ components (PERMA): positive emotions, attraction, relationships, meaning, and achievement. This research aims to investigate how teenagers use the Instagram social network and to study the impact it has on various dimensions of their psychological well-being. In this regard, psychological well-being theories of Carol Reif and Edward Diener were also used. In the meantime, the theories proposed in social communication sciences such as use and satisfaction theory, dependency theory, digital natives theory and network society theory have been pioneering in the advancement of research. To reach the results, the qualitative method and interviews with adolescents aged ۱۳ to ۱۸ years living in Tehran were used, and the effect of Instagram on each of the components of perma was studied separately by thematic analysis method. According to the results and theories used in this research, it was found that Instagram plays a role in the mental well-being of teenagers and has a different effect on each of the components of mental well-being. As the amount of use by teenagers increases and the type of use leads to spending time and aimless searching, Instagram harms the mental well-being of teenagers, and on the contrary, balanced, useful and constructive use of Instagram helps to improve the quality of well-being of teenagers. The results showed that although useful and balanced use of Instagram helps to increase positive emotions, improve relationships, find meaning and achieve success in life; But the indiscriminate and aimless use of this social network can lead to the production of feelings such as laziness and boredom, loss of concentration and weakening of family relationships.