21-Year-Old Luke Thorssen Combats Destructive Mental Health Effects of Social Media: Here's How

MANILA, Philippines - Feb. 12, 2020 - PRLog -- Filipino/Canadian entrepreneur (Global Top 35 Under 35 Game Changing CEO's in esports nominee) Luke Thorssen is revolutionizing the world of social media by creating Vlogmi: a platform pushing genuine, authentic content. While platforms such as Instagram focus on disingenuous content and obsessing over "picture perfect" posts, Vlogmi will effectively make social media a healthier place by promoting and regulating genuine, authentic and original content.

         As stated by a graduate of the Harvard School of Public Health, there are three (3) health-related outcomes from social media use and emotional connectivity: social well-being, positive mental health, and self-rated health (Bekalu, 2020). Social media can be a benefit to one's mental health when used with a healthy routine and mindfulness. When using social media in the context of daily routine and keeping up with others it positively affects the three outcomes. However, using social media in the context of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) and excessively checking the platforms, negatively affects all three outcomes. This can negatively impact people's mental health, especially in developing adolescents (Moreno, 2016).

         This outcome is particularly evident in the use of the popular social media platform, Instagram. When looking at the very architecture of the app, it's built to post the perfect picture or video to show your followers. Most people feel the need to make every post on Instagram perfect in order to match the rest of their feed and look their absolute best; whether that is a posed photo of themselves on a beach or their the beautiful view from their window on vacation in Greece. This is all great and yet it does not showcase the user's genuine lives. This form of posting focuses on inauthentic ideals that can be harmful to one's mental health. One of the better features on Instagram is their use of the Story feature. As of December 2019, 500 million Instagram users use Stories daily (99firms, 2019). This feature is a widely popular form of posting; however, it does not solve Instagram's problem of disingenuous content spread across the platform. Users can still upload edited or photoshopped posts to their story.

         Content on Vlogmi will primarily consist of Story-like posts that are called Vlogs. Vlogmi combats the issue of fake/unrealistic content by really pushing the idea of original and unfiltered content. To regulate this, users will only be able to post pictures and videos taken within the app, rather than uploading from their camera roll or other sources. This feature alone removes all reposts and edited posts from the platform.

Luke Thorssen (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukethorssen/)