Social media has an overwhelming presence, and it has become impossible to escape these days. It has become overwhelming and exhausting to keep up with the multiple social media accounts that people have from Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Snap chat to name just a few channels (Strasburger et al., 2013). Social media is one the invaluable communication tool ever invented, and it has changed the way people engage with one another. Social media plays a vital role in our daily lives in that it allows people to obtain news, communicate and also connect with anyone anywhere and on any device. On the other hand, social media is responsible for producing negative effects to its users as it has begun dominating more of our lives.
Body image can be defined as the way an individual perceives himself/herself when s/he looks in the mirror. In the error of social media culture, there are more types of “mirrors” than we could have ever imagined. Young people spend a lot of time on social media platforms such as Instagram on a daily basis going through thousands of images and in turn they use them as personal benchmarks (Mabe, Forney & Keel, 2014). The portrayal of digitally altered and unrealistic beauty images has led to the misrepresentation of reality. This has, in turn, led young adults not having the ability to identify the differences between the perceived reality of stars and celebrities and the realities that an actual mirror shows and those with negative body images try and look for ways to feel in control and accepted.
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It is through this intense desire to accomplish an impossible standard that eating disorders are born from(Syed-Abdul et al., 2013) . Social media alone is not involved in the development of eating disorders, but it plays a vital role to those that are vulnerable along with other contributing factors such as genetics and individuals who are inclined to having eating disorders. Unhealthy eating behaviours and body image dissatisfaction are important issues among young adults, and they often believe that they are overweight and hence want to weigh less. There is a standard for body image that is mediated in today’s culture, and it is mainly characterized by bodies that are extremely thin (Perloff, 2014). There are women who mainly focus on viewing thin-ideal media, and this leads to them developing the attitude that a thin body is socially desirable and hence experience body dissatisfaction which leads them to get involved in weight loss behaviours and cosmetic surgeries in an attempt to measure up to the standards that they observed. There exists a social misconception in the society that is not only reinforced by social media but through social interactions with parents and peers. Thin-ideal bodies are always seen as a positive indication that signifies success and social desirability as attractive people are always viewed to be more successful and happier with their lives.
Literature Review
Disorders Associated with Body Image
Poor body image causes various types of disorders and this depends on the social comparison is high or low. They vary from binge eating, intense workouts, purging and limiting food to the minimum (Strasburger et al., 2013). Examples of such disorders include binge eating disorder, anorexia, bulimia and orthorexia. Bulimia is defined as an emotional disorder that involves distortion of the image of the body desire for weight loss that is rather obsessive and can lead to depression, fasting or purging (Mabe, Forney & Keel, 2014). According to the psychological and Medical literature, anorexia is a disorder associated with drastic loss of weight resulting from intense physical workouts, limitation of food intake and use of purgation drugs.
Influence of Social Media on Eating Disorders
Social media has proved to be one of the most significant communication tools. Through the social media platform, individuals are able to communicate and interact with one another. For instance, updating a status, sending a tweet or posting a picture (Syed-Abdul et al., 2013). Social media has the ability to wreak havoc on a person suffering from eating disorders and can be more disastrous to persons under recovery (Ferguson et al., 2014). Enmity lines exist between eating disorders and the social media. However, social media alone cannot be blamed for causing an eating disorder. For those who are susceptible to the eating disordered behaviours, social media plays a vital role in addition to other factors.
According to the 2016 Social Media update carried out by Pew Research Centre, social media has a lot of influence on individuals. For instance, the report stated that 69% of adults use more than one social media site, 81% of millennials usually check twitter at least once each day. Instagram is accessed by 51% of its users daily, and over 200 million people use the Instagram stories on a daily basis (Mabe, Forney & Keel, 2014). A recent study done by the National Eating Disorder Association on women between the ages of 18 to 25 years demonstrated that a link exists between Instagram and body image concerns as well as increased self-objectification. This mainly involved those individuals who often viewed fitspiration images.
Americans who spend about two hours daily on a social media platform frequently get exposed unrealistic ideals including diet talk, beauty, a post relating to weight loss, body shamming and others (Ferguson et al., 2014). Since almost everything is shared through the social media, it has evolved to become an important tool used to influence others and placing a lot of emphasis on the perfect appearance in many ways (Strasburger et al., 2013). For instance, through the objectification of the body by the pictures on the social media. Many of the pictures and usually altered and hence has a role in how a person seeks validation, mostly by the number of comments or “likes” that he or she receives. On the social media, selfies have a potential to send a message on how our body or worth is determined by beauty.
Comparison is another way in which social media can influence people. Individuals usually judge themselves against others peoples highlight reels of happiness and success. This can be toxic for someone who has an eating disorder in case they compare their body image to the ones they see on social media. Social media frequently offer triggers for engaging in the eating disordered behaviours (Perloff, 2014). For example, a person may post many photos before and after he or she loses weight and this may cause others to develop the urge to lose weight by whatever means necessary(Ferguson et al., 2014). Social media can also prove to be useful when it comes to the eating disorders because it can be changed to toxic and triggering space to that of support, encouragement and learning
Discussions
In examining the social comparisons that are based on the social media, a significant number of participants admitted that they compared themselves to other people on Facebook. Attractiveness was the primary basis of the comparison. Other minor causes of comparison include success and accomplishment. Women have many profiles at their disposal. One in seven people makes use of Facebook, and this means that when a young woman engages in the "comparison game" there will be a person considered prettier, skinnier and more successful. Comparison has been shown to lead to restrictive attitudes when it comes to eating and increase in body image dissatisfaction.
Conclusion
To conclude, there is considerable evidence the body image and self-dissatisfaction among the women and young girls are strongly influenced by the social media. The body image, especially in women and adolescents, is often created from many factors including the individual, cultural and peer. Women and the adolescents should have access to healthy social media messages that focus on robust health or activity and instils pride in taking care of the body they have. Women and youths can be encouraged to create media products of their own which have the possible effect of countering the prevalent dangerous models of the body image in the social media. Interventions aimed at reducing the sociocultural pressures that require a person to be thin as well as educating and encouraging people to be more critical in evaluating the messages from the social media has an impact decreasing incidences of body dissatisfaction. This ultimately improves self-esteem and positive body image. Also, the risk of harmful emotional and physical outcomes are reduced.
References
Ferguson, C. J., Muñoz, M. E., Garza, A., & Galindo, M. (2014). Concurrent and prospective analyses of peer, television and social media influences on body dissatisfaction, eating disorder symptoms and life satisfaction in adolescent girls . Journal of youth and adolescence , 43(1), 1-14.
Perloff, R. M. (2014). Social media effects on young women’s body image concerns: Theoretical perspectives and an agenda for research. Sex Roles, 71(11-12), 363-377.
Strasburger, V. C., Hogan, M. J., Mulligan, D. A., Ameenuddin, N., Christakis, D. A., Cross, C., ... & Moreno, M. A. (2013). Children, adolescents, and the media. Paediatrics , 132(5), 958-961.
Mabe, A. G., Forney, K. J., & Keel, P. K. (2014). Do you “like” my photo? Facebook use maintains eating disorder risk. International Journal of Eating Disorders , 47(5), 516-523.
Syed-Abdul, S., Fernandez-Luque, L., Jian, W. S., Li, Y. C., Crain, S., Hsu, M. H., ... & Liou, D. M. (2013). Misleading health-related information promoted through video-based social media: anorexia on YouTube. Journal of medical Internet research , 15(2).
