At some point, most people will have found themselves looking through someone's Instagram feed without commenting or engaging with it. Canvas8 spoke with Ruoxu Wang, Fan Yang and Michel M. Haigh, authors of ‘Let me take a selfie’, to understand how lurking affects our self-esteem.

If you make a friend online, are they ‘real’? Would you count them as someone to depend on? For an increasing number of teenagers, the answer is yes. A study by Pew has found that young people are forging and maintaining numerous meaningful relationships entirely online.

Documenting one’s life through Instagram snaps has become a daily ritual for teens; 52% of 13- to 17-year-olds in the US have an account. Yet the pressure to maintain a picture-perfect digital presence is driving many to open ‘Finsta’ accounts, which are open to select group of trusted friends.

Compared to billboards and the big screen, Instagram might seem innocuous in shaping damaging body ideals – but it’s actually at the forefront of image problems. With social media masquerading as honest and real, people are forgetting that it can be just as airbrushed as other media.