How do your teens use Instagram? Share with us for the chance to win a £300 voucher!

[EmmaMumsnet]

Instagram is now a huge part of our culture and is a staple for many teens (and adults alike!) whether they use it to share moments with their friends, run an account for your family pet, or simply to browse memes. We would like to find out how your teens use Instagram and what accounts you’d recommend for teenagers to follow?

Do your teenagers follow foodie, beauty, or music accounts for inspiration? Are they creative and use Instagram to share their own art or photography? Perhaps they are keen activists and use the platform to spread awareness and gain support for good causes?

Instagram have also pulled together this handy guide which explains all about the safety features you and your teens can use to make sure they are getting the best experience on Instagram.

Everyone who posts below will be entered into a prize draw to win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks

MNHQ

Terms and conditions apply

My daughter turns 13 in 3 weeks. She uses Instagram to message her friends, share videos, upload pictures/videos of her & her friends. She is also tagged in other people’s posts and they jorammly ask for opinions on the pictures they post

Both my daughters (17 and 15) use it. Both have a main account and a private account just for close friends. Mainly used for sharing photos. Much more popular these days than Facebook for that age group.

1-account to be private
2- parents check who been added
3-share memiroes with family
4- share memiroes with friends
5- follow beauty, utubers , make up, hair
6-communicate with long distance family

Parents have to take control.of social media, only problem.starts when the children is secretive

My daughter follows bands and has her own fan account with likeminded individuals. Her and her friends also use it to follow each other and keep in touch

My eldest son (16) doesn’t post anything on IG. He’s more of a lurker but follows funny videos and Marvel things.

My youngest (14) is a keen photographer and has a couple of accounts. He follows lots of photographers and photo accounts.

I have three children with instagram accounts.
The eldest a 15 yr old man child does not post anything at all, occasionally will use it to message but tends to use it more to watch his female peers upload photos for likes as most of his male friends also have blank accounts with no photos.

My 2 daughters both use it to follow other people depending on their interests so things like swimmers, dancers, tv shows, make up people like James Charles.
They both tend to only upload their own things of it has been someone’s birthday or an evening out with their friends.
One of my dd friends uses it to upload photography while another takes hundreds of hamster photos on secondary accounts.

I have 2 teens n one just gone 20. They all use Instagram, mainly to follow music stars. 15yr old follows an American couple with kids who do YouTube videos. Oldest uses it for photos,her friends and just obsessed with selfies lol

My daughter is 13. She struggles with anxiety and finds social interaction difficult. She had a smartphone from the age of 11 but after a year she gave it up. She now has no phone at all and is so much happier. There's definitely a link for her and I'm very glad she was mature enough to get out when she did.

My ds is 18 and he follows his favourites musicians and his college friends. However, he won’t follow too many people as ‘he has to keep his ratios’ (I think he means he doesn’t want to follow more than he has followers)

My daughter always has about 3 photos max on her feed and she will only post selfies - same as all her friends! They delete and post a new one.

She uses it to watch her friends stories and keep in touch that way. They also post polls and questions and interact that way, as well as in dms.

She has started to use the highlights for posting her make up looks as she is very creative at this and amazes me anyway!!

Her friends and her also tag each other in memes from other account which they can relate to and find funny.

I know she would definitely recommend everyone to follow @arianagrandae and she seems to enjoy the postings from @memezar

Oops - obviously i meant @arianagrande!! xx

My dd quit all social media as she thinks it just there for showing off and isn't good for her mh. She is 13 and chose to do this off her own back.

DS recently opened an Insta account as he'd taken a few really good photos on his phone and I recommended he share them. He is a gamer so he follows other gamer type people. Pretty harmless really.

My son posts a few holiday photographs on Instagram, but he follows very few accounts as he realises that it is a very shallow medium, overun with people obsessed with looks & what they own

my kids use instagram continuously, they share stories, selfies, chat with friends and communicate with family. Often its the best way to find out they are safe when they are out as I know where they are and what they are doing

I’m lucky as my teens never been interested in Instagram, she went on it for a short period because her friends were, got bored so came off it

I am glad to say that they don't use any social media.

My son loves photography so he posts the photos he’s most proud of on his page. It’s a great way of sharing pictures which otherwise only a few people would see.

My son uses Instagram as a way to communicate with friends. Lots of the teens have accounts but don't post pictures. My son follows his favourite films like star wars and harry potter as well as bongo the cat. I know that Instagram has been used for bullying with some schools but my son is sensible with it and just uses the group chats.

Endless "niche memes" and "mood boards" plus the odd dramatic spat with someone she thinks has stolen her ideas.

She does also follow some pretty cool stuff tbf, art related and a few make up or tattoo type accounts.

My teen ds uses insta as he calls it

He follows 'skills' so cardistry, begleri, pen spinning, contact juggling. All quite innocent as yet! We all follow him and love his own attempts at boomerangs (is that right?) with his cards.

My daughter uses it for our dog Lady, so she's mostly only post photos of Ladys Adventures xx

I think mainly for general social and group conversations.

Mine is too young for insta but I do worry about the future as I think it's full of false set up images of people trying to portray perfection. I personally use it for posting photos of scenes and follow similar pages but I have seen a lot of the other images and I think it has the potential to cause problems

my daughter loves photography and literally posts just about anything she takes a picture of