Instagram recently announced Instagram TV (IGTV) meaning you can now watch long-form video content within the Instagram app (Version 50 iOS, Android) in addition to the new IGTV App. The launch of IGTV has big implications for time spent on Instagram’s properties, advertisers and users’ mental health.

So far, I haven’t been enthralled by any of the content I’ve seen on IGTV but recognize were in the very early stages and more will come as content creators get accustomed to this time length.

IGTV Advertising Opportunity

When Instagram launched Instagram Stories, they were able to increase average daily usage time to 32 minutes for users under 25; users over 25 began using the app for 24 minutes a day. The larger the portion of your day that Instagram can have, the more they can appeal to advertisers. Undoubtedly, the intention of implementing IG Stories and IGTV is to increase the time that users spend with the platform.

As advertisers and content creators, this can be a huge game changer for us in terms of how we create content as the medium will support up to 1-hour long video! The app launched available within the IG app to their community of 1B right off the bat with an additional dedicated IGTV app which will start playing content as soon as it’s launched – like traditional TV. 25 minutes of dwell time may seem like a lot, but it’s nothing compared to the 1 hour, 33 minutes per day spent with Netflix and 5 hours and 4 minutes the average American adult watched in 2016. Clearly, moving to a video-only format is a strategic decision that makes investors salivate.

Instagram is only second to YouTube in terms of internet platform for Gen Z. In the great Google vs. Facebook war, stealing more time spent and ad dollars from Google’s video platform and cash cow would make any Facebook Inc. exec salivate.

Being able to tout that IGTV will increase time spent on Instagram properties will please both advertisers and investors. While the stock price has climbed significantly since the Cambridge Analytica scandal, it peaked slightly around the IGTV announcement which indicates that investors are optimistic about the revenue potential for IGTV.

IGTV and Mental Health

As a human, I wonder how this will affect mental health. 63% of Instagram users report feeling “miserable,” which is higher than any other social network. Users reporting feeling “miserable” is not good PR in the slightest.  As such, Instagram founder Kevin Systrom has recently announced that the app would have usage data easily available to users – which I haven’t seen rolled out yet at the time of writing. That being said, we can’t discount the negative effects that traditional TV has on our mental wellbeing. TV, does, in fact, rot your brain and can cause apathy and a host of other unsavoury neurological losses.

The solution? As with all media usage, be mindful and critical of your own habits. Personally, I’ve started measuring and limiting my time on the app. As my absolute most-used app, I learned that I spent over 2 hours and 25 minutes on Instagram one Sunday scrolling through my friends’ feeds, outfit photos and travel scapes. You can measure your usage through apps like Moment (iOS) or Quality Time (Android) but you can also do this within the native iOS and Android platforms that measure time spent, data and battery usage from apps which can also give you an indication of the energy you extend using certain apps. I’ve set a limit of 25 minutes which I end up hitting every day since I implemented the cap, but I feel more in control and I find I’ve been hitting the cap later and later into the day, meaning that I feel like I’m using the app less and less throughout the day.

As IGTV matures, I wonder will the content be uplifting? Will it “steal” timeshare from traditional TV and streaming services or even YouTube? Will IGTV negatively impact user mental health even more? Let me know what you think.