Social media, body image and eating disorders
with the compliments. This makes recovery extremely hard because their emotional relations with food are completely misaligned.
Unregulated consequences
Research has been done into the impact of sexualized content versus non-sexualized content on body dissatisfaction. The theory was tested by exposing men and women to athletes in performance situations and in sexualized context. 28 They found that those exposed to sexualized content were much more likely to be self-objectifying and this is worrying because it often leads to low self-esteem as they see themselves more as objects than people. The content that is posted on social media is often placed in a sexualized content, with models and influencers using it to cultivate followers. Traditional media is also guilty of using sexualized context in advertising, news stories and television programmes. However, traditional media is repeatedly reviewed, edited and regulated because it is very expensive and difficult to get something on TV. On social media, the only approval someone needs to post something is their own, and there is very little regulation. This is because regulations are slow to come into place and often must be founded on indisputable research. Social media has continually outpaced governments. Social media companies do from time to time come under fire for their overly sexualized content, but policing the issue has proved hard. Although now they are beginning to use moderators and reporting, the scale of the issue is much larger than their response. This means that social media is much more dangerous than traditional media and has the capacity to have a larger negative impact on self-esteem.
Positive influence
All of this is not to say social media is inherently bad; it is the current content and usage of SNS (social networking sites) that has such a negative influence. For example, social media sites can be the perfect platforms for positive social change, allowing campaigns against everything from sexism to body- shaming to be distributed extremely quickly and to every corner of society. The #metoo movement in America has helped overturned decades of prejudice and abuse within Hollywood, bringing to light the harassment and predation that pervaded the industry. The overwhelming popularity of social media could be used to reverse perverse social norms, such a body- shaming and the ‘ideal image’. Social media could be the perfect tool to re -educate the next generation and share positive cultural ideas and ideals. These sorts of campaigns are already underway: note, for instance, the huge popularity of plus-sizedmodels in brands, and the success of celebrities like Lizzo, who a decade ago would not have been accepted by the music industry as a pop star. Lizzo has 8.5 million followers on Instagram and her followers can see that to be successful you don’t need to be skinny or to conform to what other people want. Social media allows her to reach a huge audience and it multiplies her influence exponentially. She proves that social media can be an agent for positive social change. However, the evidence now is that it is still overwhelming negative.
28 Linder, J.R., Daniels, E.A (2018) 'Sexy vs. Sporty: The Effects of Viewing Media Images of Athletes on Self- Objectification in College Students', Sex Roles 78 : 27 – 39.
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