Social media, body image and eating disorders
Firms and businesses in the fashion and beauty industry create adverts using beautiful and thinmodels to contrast and exploit our own body dissatisfaction. One study showed the direct correlation between an increase in the body weight of average female Americans and a decrease in the average body weight of models. 18 They use this dissatisfaction to sell consumers gymmemberships, diet plans or cookbooks. Furthermore, it creates a culture of body dissatisfaction, and it becomes the norm for women to be unhappy with themselves and they find constant confirmation of this within adverts for fitness or beauty. This process is called internalization: slowly over time the ideal pushed in social media becomes so engrained in the psyche that it isn’t questioned. Internal ization of an ideal of thinness is considered one of the main causes of body dissatisfaction and correspondingly an increase in eating disorders. The impact of this influence can be also be seen through the lens of the Social Learning Theory. 19 This states that behaviour is dictated by external and internal factors and that the environment children are exposed to has a very large impact on their behaviour. We can use this to examine the influence that social media may have on adolescents. There is a constant stream of thin, fit models and influencers on social media, they aim to try and create a career for themselves through cultivating followers. The adolescents viewing the content aspire to achieve similar behaviours and body types, seeing the popularity and compliments it brings. The body image consistently displayed on social media is simply unattainable for many but is displayed as the goal adolescents should be aiming for. The social learning theory shows us that children growing up viewing these posts and videos are more likely to accept that body type as the social normand replicate the behaviour they see. Although inmost cases this may only lead to someminor dissatisfaction or even a drive for a healthier lifestyle, in some it can lead to a vicious spiral of starvation and/or purging. Once you have seen one of these videos or posts and liked it, more and more similar content is pushed towards to you. Slowly all the content available to you mirrors this view until you have no meditating influences and you begin to accept that point of view without criticism. You find like-minded individuals in online communities or forums who encourage your habits and offer new tips to control your eating. Even if your family, friends or teachers begin to warn you that you are looking too thin or that you should eat, you are justified by the content you are consuming online and it is easier to ignore the opinion of those around you. Social media feeds that only offer one point of view are a broader issue than just eating disorders, but in this case it can have a devastating effect.
Vicious cycles
There are a multitude of factors that can trigger eating disorders and many of them are not related to social media. Individuals living with dysfunctional families or who have relatives exhibiting negative behaviours are at a much higher risk of developing an eating disorder. Family has a huge influence on us as we are growing up and in adverse situations children can blame themselves for their parents ’ abuse or suffer extremely low self-esteem. As a coping mechanism for these emotional and mental strains, they can turn to eating disorders or self-harm as way of punishing themselves for their supposed failures 20 or as result of their low self-esteem and their desire for attention and compliments 18 Wiseman, Claire and Gray, James, 2002 Cultural Expectation of thinness in women: An update. International Journal of Eating Disorders. 19 Bandura, A. and Walters, R.H., 1977. Social learning theory (Vol. 1). Englewood Cliffs, NJ. 20 Meltzer, H., Harrington, R., Goodman, R. and Jenkins, R., 2001. Children and adolescents who try to harm, hurt or kill themselves. London: Office for national statistics .
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