How Social Media Impacts Body Image
According to the University of Pittsburgh (2016), it was recently discovered in a clinical trial that the people who were placed in the top 25 percentile in regards to social media use are twice more susceptible to developing an eating disorder or showing signs of disordered eating habits (University of Pittsburgh, 2016). Not only that, but they're far more common than society make them out to be, affecting at least 30 million people in the US alone (Elizabeth, 2019). It is then safe to say that social media has a huge impact on most of its users' self-image. More often than not, people find themselves comparing the way they look to those around them and are very self-critical regarding such. Such can be attributed to a multitude of factors, including: society's obsession with fad diets and diet culture, the media's portrayal of what the "perfect body" means, and the constant promotion of eating disorders. These issues can easily be prevented through raising awareness and taking action, as discussed below.
The Promotion of Eating Disorders
Though social media isn't the only factor that can contribute to the development of an eating disorder, it has certainly proven the idea that it plays a major role in encouraging disordered eating behaviors.
This is seen throughout various social media platforms that increase its audience's exposure to pages and websites that are glorifying eating disorders rather than using them as a means to raise awareness and share their own thoughts and experiences with such (Muller, 2015). Some of the most prevalent sites being Instagram and Tumblr, due to the platforms' desire to create an aesthetic. These pages and sites are often disguised with words such as "thinspo" or "pro-ed" in order to draw a bigger audience, and will start off seemingly helpful by providing work-out regimens and weight loss routines that are said to effective and successful. However, as one dives deeper into these pages, they are then gradually eased into progressively more disordered habits. For example, these sites will provide its users with diet plans that contain less and less calories and promote them as necessary for weight loss (Muller, 2015). They'll also use images of well-known models and celebrities that are very thin as a form of "motivation." Some website even go as far as to say that such eating disorders are a lifestyle rather than an illness (Muller, 2015). Furthermore, the members will even validate one another when a certain weight is met and will criticize each other if more is needed. As a result, there has been this sense of normalization and desensitization regarding eating disorders. This has not only caused a significant increase in body image issues by creating a distorted image of how a person should look like in order to be accepted in society's definition of beauty, it has also discouraged the idea of recovery and reaching out to get help (Schurrer, 2019). |
Social Media's "Perfect Body"
The perfect body is seen as an ideal or dream created by all types of Media. Right now it is largely influenced by Social Media where all these flawless people post their bodies which then turns into other social media’s user’s dream goals or at least a subconscious thought to be like them. The idea of this perfect body is everywhere we look from tv shows to simple advertisements for clothing. This causes a lot of harm to those with low self-esteem and who have a few mental health issues such as depression or anxiety even OCD, these people are more susceptible to these thoughts so to say. They start to think that their body isn’t good enough and begin to find small flaws that probably didn’t exist in the first place. This is the start of Body Dysmorphia where they become kind of obsessed with having a perfect body. This is made even worse by celebrities who have these ideal bodies, where men are tall and muscular while women whose complexion looks perfect and has the right body type and shape (Vitelli,2013). Then there is the tripartite model of social comparison theory has three steps: Self-evaluation, self-improvement, and lastly self-enhancement(Vitelli, 2013). These are the basic steps that go like: Am I keeping with the Kardashians? Then they would keep up with what that celebrity would do in their situation? Lastly, How can I can look better? As a result of these social media images and promotions of an ideal body, Body Dysmorphia happens as a cause and it is quite common about 1 in every 50 people which makes social media a dangerous for people susceptible to Body Dysmorphia. |
Fad Diet Culture:
Written by Sarah Herstich:
"Diet culture is a system that plants seeds in your mind that thinness is tied to health and fitness, is a moral imperative and that if you don’t achieve that level of thinness, fitness or health, you’re broken, undeserving and/or flawed. Diet culture enforces the idea that hypervigilance around food and body is not only normal but needed. Diet culture encourages us to shrink (our bodies, our voices, our lives) with the promise of enoughness, worth, confidence and achievement. Diet culture praises certain ways of eating and movement that AREN’T connected to your specific cravings, satiety, pleasure and connection to YOUR body. It distracts you from connecting to your body and its unique needs by villainizing food groups, planting seeds of self-doubt and pushing behavior change to achieve external validation. Diet culture oppresses people that fall outside of the cultural thin-ideal. People who live in fat or larger bodies, people of color, differently abled bodies, people living with disability, people who are trans or whose sexuality fall outside of the binary. This oppression increases shame and trauma and contributes to the deterioration of mental and physical health. Diet culture is rigid- often showing up in all-or-nothing, perfectionistic thinking when it comes to food, body and health. It permeates our minds with intentions to fix, to plan, to trust a system or method outside of our body’s wisdom. Diet culture convinces us that willpower is an actual thing (and we’re flawed if we don’t have it), that food is the enemy and should be earned, that guilt and shame are motivators to change and that exercise is another word for punishment or compensation" (Herstich, 2019, para. 5-11). As seen above, diet culture has definitely made its way through social media and into the minds of its users. It affects how we view our self-image and causes us to constantly seek for validation from our peers. It creates such a toxic environment for others and ingrains the idea that weight loss is the only feasible option to look more attractive. However, it is very important that we remember who's truly at fault in this situation and where we should put the blame; on society and not ourselves.
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Prevention and Taking Action:
As of today, there have been many efforts made to ban the use of pro-ed and thinspo websites as a means of support and communication in social media. Platforms such as Instagram have created an algorithm that filters out any content related to the promotion of eating disorders or anything else that could possibly be a trigger for some. It can be argued, however, that although these extra measures are enough to prevent issues from further increasing, there are still a few things that we can do to protect ourselves from falling into the trap of comparing ourselves to others.
Rather than using social media to tear each other down, we can all work to help improve one another's self-confidence while also empowering ourselves to advocate for these issues. In order to do so, we can follow the steps recommended to us by LCSW Greta Gleissner (2017): 1. Unplug.- Engage in activities that allow you to be free from the digital world. Sign off from your accounts, deactivate them, or put them away when you are experiencing a moment of difficulty or stress. Instead, do something enjoyable with supportive friends and family, and then you will forget the digital world ever existed. 2. Unfollow.- Block unfriendly social media users and body shamers and only use the digital world to celebrate friends and family. Escape from the constant images of thin models and diet fads by not engaging in those accounts. You should only follow the accounts that are inspiring and motivational and encourage you to love and respect yourself for who you are. 3. Unwind.- Put away your phone and engage in mindful eating behaviors. Replace time on social media with mindfulness techniques such as yoga, meditation, or cooking healthy meals. When you unwind from the day’s events without always checking social media, it will allow you to be present in the moment. By doing these steps, we are not only working towards creating a supportive environment for ourselves, but also our community and those within it. |
References:
Gleissner, G. (2017, May 10). Social Media and its Effect on Eating Disorders. Retrieved April 26, 2020, from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/social-media-and-its-effect-on-eating-disorders_b_591343bce4b0e3bb894d5caa
Herstich, S. (2019, January 14). How Diet Culture Impacts Us All. Retrieved April 27, 2020, from https://www.sarahherstichlcsw.com/blog/diet-culture-impacts-us-all
Muller, R. T. (2015, August 5). "Pro-Ana" Websites Encourage Anorexia. Retrieved April 26, 2020, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/talking-about-trauma/201508/pro-ana-websites-encourage-anorexia
Perfect Body Image. (n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2020, from https://www.mirror-mirror.org/perfect-body-image.htm
Schurrer, M. (2019, June 26). The Correlation Between Social Media and Eating Disorders, HealthyPlace. Retrieved April 26, 2020, from https://www.healthyplace.com/blogs/survivinged/2019/6/the-correlation-between-social-media-and-eating-disorders
Vitelli, R. (2013, November 18). Media Exposure and the "Perfect" Body. Retrieved April 27, 2020, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/media-spotlight/201311/media-exposure-and-the-perfect-body
Gleissner, G. (2017, May 10). Social Media and its Effect on Eating Disorders. Retrieved April 26, 2020, from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/social-media-and-its-effect-on-eating-disorders_b_591343bce4b0e3bb894d5caa
Herstich, S. (2019, January 14). How Diet Culture Impacts Us All. Retrieved April 27, 2020, from https://www.sarahherstichlcsw.com/blog/diet-culture-impacts-us-all
Muller, R. T. (2015, August 5). "Pro-Ana" Websites Encourage Anorexia. Retrieved April 26, 2020, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/talking-about-trauma/201508/pro-ana-websites-encourage-anorexia
Perfect Body Image. (n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2020, from https://www.mirror-mirror.org/perfect-body-image.htm
Schurrer, M. (2019, June 26). The Correlation Between Social Media and Eating Disorders, HealthyPlace. Retrieved April 26, 2020, from https://www.healthyplace.com/blogs/survivinged/2019/6/the-correlation-between-social-media-and-eating-disorders
Vitelli, R. (2013, November 18). Media Exposure and the "Perfect" Body. Retrieved April 27, 2020, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/media-spotlight/201311/media-exposure-and-the-perfect-body