The Impact of Social Media on Body Image
Written by Isabel Vasquez, RD, LDN
How much time do you spend on your phone? How active are you on social media? Do you often find yourself doom scrolling?
Social media has become a normal and almost unavoidable part of our everyday lives. We connect with people through it, we see what our friends are up to, and we learn about lots of different topics.
But it isn’t all new connections and interesting info. Being on social media all the time can wreak havoc on our mental health, especially body image. In fact, more and more research demonstrates the harms of social media on body image.
Read on to learn what the research says and how to mitigate this harm.
The Long History of the Media Harming Body Image
For decades we’ve known that the media negatively impacts eating behaviors and body image. A widely referenced 1998 study in the journal Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry examined the effects of television, with its Westernized beauty ideals, on adolescent girls in Fiji shortly after the introduction of TV to the island a few years prior.
The results were interesting. The girls had increases in weight and body shape preoccupation, purging behavior to control their weight, and body disparagement. In fact, the study authors concluded:
“Understanding vulnerability to images and values imported with media will be critical to preventing disordered eating and, potentially, other youth risk behaviors in this population, as well as other populations at risk.”
This was back in 1998, and it’s apparent that social media and television have not heeded this warning.
Social Media’s Impact on Body Image
Diet culture and unrealistic beauty ideals are now heavily spread through social media. They don’t just come from TV producers, but also celebrities sharing their eating and workout regimens and wellness influencers endorsing restrictive “quick fixes” for weight loss.
When we begin to feel lousy about our appearance, we can easily turn to these diet or workout “hacks” to try to “fix” our perceived problems just by opening an app on our phones. They’re marketed to us as a solution, after all.
In fact, within the same social media platform we are made to feel like our appearance is an issue and then strategically targeted with a “solution”. How convenient for the $90 billion weight loss industry that is always seeking our money!
Unfortunately, research shows that social media has real harms on body image. A 2017 study in the journal New Media & Society found that 18–25 year old women who spent more time on Instagram had higher rates of self-objectification. In particular, seeing fitspiration images on Instagram was linked with greater body image issues.
More recent research reviews have confirmed the harms of body image on social media. For example, a 2022 study in the journal Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review found that social media is especially detrimental to adolescent girls.
The researchers highlight that for girls, social media causes a heightened focus on their own physical appearance and that of others. This, paired with developmental factors like the prominence of peer relationships and over-emphasis on girls’ physical appearance is a toxic mix that results in poor body image.
Another 2022 research review, this one in the journal Current Opinion in Psychology, found that visual platforms like Instagram are more detrimental than textual ones like Facebook. This makes sense, given the physical comparison photo-based content results in.
There are plenty of other studies that have found similar results—social media is harmful for body image, particularly for girls and young women.
So Do I Delete All My Social Media Accounts?
Now that you know the facts, you may be ready to delete social media entirely. On the other hand, deleting it entirely may not feel doable because of all the ways social media benefits you!
If deleting your accounts works for you, then go for it! But chances are social media is how you found us here at Your Latina Nutritionist, and we hope that is an example of one way social media has served you well!
There are certainly ways to take the information presented in this blog to be a more conscious social media user. Here are a few tips!
Set clear-cut limits on the time you spend on social media
Be intentional about spending some time away from social media. Maybe take a day off from social media each week or turn your phone off for an hour or two each day. To help you stick with this goal, you can pick up other engaging hobbies to keep you off the device or call friends to experience more genuine social connection.
Be intentional about what your social media feed looks like
One way to combat the harms of social media on body image is to add diversity to your feed. In fact, that 2022 Current Opinion in Psychology study we reference above found that body positive content had a positive effect on body image.
It can help demonstrate that you don’t have to have a certain body to be happy, healthy, or fit. Body diversity is real and beautiful, and we can curate our social media feeds to reflect the diversity that exists in the world.
Furthermore, consider following some accounts that don’t primarily post photos of people, but of things you love.
Do you like a certain craft or outdoor activity? Follow accounts that post photos of those things (e.g. embroidery pieces or travel spots). This may help space out body-centric posts that can cause comparison and self-objectification.
Lastly, don’t be afraid to mute or unfollow accounts that trigger your body image concerns or that promote diet culture, even if they’re loved ones.
Reflect on your reason for posting a photo or consuming content
Is your social media usage mostly appearance-based or rooted in a genuine yearning for connection?
Are you editing and posting that selfie for external validation?
Is posting it really helping you or is it motivated by diet culture?
How do you feel after consuming the content?
You can even turn off the comments on your posts so your page is for YOU and not for the comments.
Final Thoughts
With social media, we’re globally connected like never before; however, it’s no secret that social media has serious harms on body image. Numerous studies have shown that social media causes unhealthy comparison, poor body image, and increased self-objectification.
So, if you’re not ready to delete your social media entirely, it’s worth being mindful of your social media usage. Consider the types of content you consume, how much time you spend online, and changes you can make to better support your mental health.
This may mean limiting screen time and taking the time to curate your feed to limit weight-centric, triggering content.
For education on how to ADD nutrition to your favorite Latine cultural dishes, make peace with food, and focus on your health without dieting, join our nutrition library for just $27/month.
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