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 part of our everyday lives. We connect with people through it, we see what our friends are up to, and we share photos of our lives. But we all know it isn’t all new friends and inspirational quotes. Most of us recognize that being on social media all the time isn’t great for our mental health. Maybe you even make an effort to take some time away from it. Have you ever considered social media’s impact on body image?

I was inspired to write this blog after watching The Social Dilemma on Netflix. If you haven’t seen it, it is a docudrama that explores the way social media has impacted our society, highlighting the lack of ethical considerations by tech companies. Of course, it felt oh so relevant to my work in multiple ways. For one, I spend a fair amount of time on social media, mainly Instagram, to share my work and the anti-diet message with others. Additionally, the film briefly addressed the connection of social media to body image, which of course piqued my interest and became something I wanted to research further and share with you.

The harms of the media in relation to eating behaviors and body image have been documented for decades now. This 1998 study examines 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 result was a marked increase in body dissatisfaction and disordered eating.

Of course, diet culture is now heavily spread through social media - whether that be advertisements from companies sharing their new diet products, wellness influencers sharing their workout regimens or latest diet, or comments complimenting weight loss or trolling those in larger bodies. It makes sense that all of these stimuli would negatively impact body image and self-worth, but I wanted to do more reading on the literature around this. I’m also interested in exploring if there can be a healthy balance regarding social media? Especially given the current pandemic which limits our ability to spend in-person time with our friends and families, social media has the potential to give us a greater sense of connection with others. We can also form new connections and even discover accounts producing content that benefits us.

One key consideration is that on social media, we are often seeing people at their best, and we compare those snapshots to us at our worst. Furthermore, it is now extremely common for photos to be filtered and/or edited to enhance individuals’ appearances. These touch-ups are no longer limited to celebrities in magazines, but are now used by our closest friends, both of which we regularly see on our social media feeds. Additionally, most social media platforms involve images, which leads us to focus on appearance. The visual imagery breeds commentary around appearance and greater self-objectification. It can lead us to associate our value with our appearance. Furthermore, when we begin to feel lousy about our appearance (and in turn, our value), we can easily turn to diet ads or wellness influencers for their “fix” to our problem. They are marketed to us as a solution. So, 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 $72 billion diet industry that is always seeking our money!

Let’s get to some of the research though. In this study, researchers found that 18-25 year old women who spent more time on Instagram had higher rates of self-objectification. The study led researchers to believe Instagram usage can have negative effects on women’s concerns around appearance. Additionally, this article analyzes various studies regarding social media and body image. It reveals a correlation between social media usage and body image concerns. Note that this relationship was found to be correlational, not causational, meaning, for example, that we aren’t sure if more frequent social media use causes someone to have poorer body image or if those with poorer body image tend to use social media more frequently. More research is needed to determine if this relationship is causational in nature. 

So Do I Delete All My Social Media Accounts?!

You may be wondering if the answer is to delete all your social media accounts. That probably doesn’t seem very doable because of all the ways your accounts benefit you! Just like with intuitive eating, I’m all about nuance instead of black and white thinking. 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 I 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!

1. 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 social media each week or turn your phone off for an hour each day. To help you stick with this goal, you can pick up other engaging hobbies to keep you off the device.

2. Be intentional about what your social media feed looks like

One way to combat the harm of social media on body image is to add diversity to your feed. This 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 (I’m thinking things like embroidery pieces or certain geographical locations). This will also break up body-centric posts that can cause us to think about our bodies too much. 

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.

3. Reflect on your reason for posting a photo or ingesting content

Is your social media usage mostly appearance-based or rooted in a genuine yearning for connection? Are you posting that selfie for external validation? Is posting it really helping you or is it motivated by diet culture? How do you feel after ingesting the content?

You can even turn off the comments on your posts so your page is for YOU and not for the comments. 

If you want help on your journey, I’m here for you.

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