BODY IMAGE
Impact of social media on body image
Reducing social media use significantly improves body image in teens, young adults
WASHINGTON — Teens and young adults who reduced their social media use by 50% for just a few weeks saw significant improvement in how they felt about both their weight and their overall appearance compared with peers who maintained consistent levels of social media use, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.
“Adolescence is a vulnerable period for the development of body image issues, eating disorders and mental illness,” said lead author Gary Goldfield, PhD, of Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute. “Youth are spending, on average, between six to eight hours per day on screens, much of it on social media. Social media can expose users to hundreds or even thousands of images and photos every day, including those of celebrities and fashion or fitness models, which we know leads to an internalization of beauty ideals that are unattainable for almost everyone, resulting in greater dissatisfaction with body weight and shape.”
However, much of the psychological research on social media, body image and mental health is correlational, according to Goldfield, so it is uncertain whether people with body image and mental health issues spend more time on social media or if social media use leads to greater body image and mental health issues.
To better understand the causal effects of reducing social media use on body image, Goldfield and his colleagues previously conducted a pilot study with 38 undergraduate students with elevated levels of anxiety and/or depression. Some of the participants were asked to limit their social media use to no more than 60 minutes per day, while others were allowed unrestricted access. Compared with participants who had unlimited access, participants who restricted their use showed improvements in how they regarded their overall appearance (but not their weight) after three weeks. Due to the small sample size, though, the researchers were unable to conduct a meaningful analysis of the effect of gender.
The current experiment, involving 220 undergraduate students aged 17–25 (76% female, 23% male, 1% other) and published in the journal Psychology of Popular Media, sought to expand the pilot study and address the gender limitation. In order to qualify, participants had to be regular social media users (at least two hours per day on their smartphones) and exhibit symptoms of depression or anxiety.
For the first week of the experiment, all participants were instructed to use their social media as they normally would. Social media use was measured using a screentime tracking program to which participants provided a daily screenshot. After the first week, half the participants were instructed to reduce their social media use to no more than 60 minutes per day. At the start of the experiment, participants also responded to a series of statements about their overall appearance (e.g., “I’m pretty happy about the way I look”) and weight (e.g., “I am satisfied with my weight”) on a 5-point scale, with 1 indicating “never” and 5 “always.” Participants completed a similar questionnaire at the end of the experiment.
For the next three weeks, participants who were instructed to restrict their social media use reduced it by approximately 50% to an average of 78 minutes per day versus the control group, which averaged 188 minutes of social media use per day.
Participants who reduced their social media use had a significant improvement in how they regarded both their overall appearance and body weight after the three-week intervention, compared with the control group, who saw no significant change. Gender did not appear to make any difference in the effects.
“Our brief, four-week intervention using screentime trackers showed that reducing social media use yielded significant improvements in appearance and weight esteem in distressed youth with heavy social media use,” said Goldfield. “Reducing social media use is a feasible method of producing a short-term positive effect on body image among a vulnerable population of users and should be evaluated as a potential component in the treatment of body-image-related disturbances.”
While the current study was conducted as a proof of concept, Goldfield and his colleagues are in the process of conducting a larger study to see if reduction in social media use can be maintained for longer periods and whether that reduction can lead to even greater psychological benefits.
Source: https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2023/02/social-media-body-image
Social media can negatively impact how young people and adults view their bodies. But there’s also encouraging content that aims to promote healthy lifestyles.
Social media can have a significant impact on body image, both positive and negative. On one hand, social media can provide a platform for body positivity, community support, and health and fitness inspiration. But it can also contribute to unrealistic beauty standards and unhealthy comparisons. Understanding how certain content can affect your relationship with your body may help you decide which profiles and platforms best support your well-being.
Negative effects of social media on body image
Unrealistic beauty standards
Social media platforms often feature images of people with seemingly perfect faces and bodies, often using filters and photo editing tools to enhance their appearance. This can create unrealistic beauty standards, leading to body dissatisfaction and low self-esteem in both women and men.
In fact, social media filters have led to a condition known as “snapchat dysphoria,” in which people become desperate to look like the filtered version of themselves. The authors of a 2018 research paper state that several plastic surgeons have shared that they’ve encountered people requesting to look like a “filtered” Snapchat picture.
Comparison and competition
Social media can create a toxic culture of comparison and competition, where individuals compare their bodies to others and strive to meet the same beauty standards.
Many people tend to post only their best photos, which may not be representative of their everyday appearance. For both men and women, this can contribute to negative body image and even lead to mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety.
Cyberbullying
Social media can be a breeding ground for cyberbullying where people are attacked for their body size, shape, or appearance. This can have a damaging effect on body image and self-esteem.
A 2018 Pew Research Center survey found that 59% of U.S. teens have personally experienced cyberbullying. This includes offensive name calling and the spreading of false rumors, among other types of bullying.
Worsening of body-image disorders
Social media can make just about anyone feel like they don’t measure up, but it’s even more detrimental for people with eating or body-image disorders, such as body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). According to the International OCD Foundation (IOCDF), this is a serious condition affecting about one in 50 people in the United States.
People living with BDD are typically preoccupied with at least one nonexistent or slight defect in their physical appearance, and experience repetitive and compulsive behaviors around their appearance, such as mirror checking and reassurance seeking. These symptoms can be excessively worsened by social media.
Research shows that sexual minority men experience elevated rates of psychiatric disorders for which body dissatisfaction is a central component, including eating disorder and BDD.
A survey of 2,733 sexual minority men found a pattern of associations between:
- social media use and body dissatisfaction
- eating disorder symptoms
- thoughts about using anabolic steroids
Positive effects of social media on body image
Body positivity
When social media is used in a healthy way, it can be a platform for promoting body positivity, where people share images of their bodies as
they are, promoting self-love and acceptance.
Body-positive content often portrays non-enhanced, non-sexualized images of people with diverse bodies. These images feature various body shapes and sizes, races, physical abilities, and gender identities.
In a 2021 study, researchers looked at whether body-positive social media can lead to improvements in body image. The experiment involved 233 female-identifying participants who were randomly assigned to one of the following groups:
- The body-positive group: This group viewed a number of Instagram images reflecting the body-positive movement.
- The body-positive group with captions. This group viewed the same Instagram images, but with accompanying captions and hashtags.
- The control group. This group viewed a series of Instagram images containing only cityscapes, without people and without captions.
Based on the findings, participants who observed body-positive social media—either with or without captions—experienced improvements in body satisfaction. These effects were slightly stronger for the images with captions, suggesting that words and phrases reinforcing these ideals may intensify the positive impact.
Health and fitness inspiration
Social media can provide inspiration for leading a healthy and active lifestyle. There are numerous accounts promoting healthy living, exercise, and nutritious food choices to encourage people to take care of their bodies.
Community and support
Social media can host supportive communities for people working through body image disorders. Support groups and online communities can provide empathy, understanding, and encouragement to help people in their journey toward body positivity.
source: https://psychcentral.com/health/how-the-media-affects-body-image#postive-effects
Body positivity - to follow!
Celeste Barber
Celeste Barber is an everywoman. That is, she is every woman who has ever rolled her eyes at social media’s attempts to make us feel less than. She is every woman who has had moments of self-doubt thanks to rampant body-shaming and unrealistic beauty standards. And she is every woman who has been enraged by industries that have raked in billions by feeding off our insecurities.
TOP BODY POSITIVITY INFLUENCERS IN 2023
Fifteen-time GRAMMY awardee, singer-songwriter, and actress Alicia Keys is world-renowned for her soulful music, but her staying at the forefront of the body positivity movement is what makes her even more admirable. Being one of the top body positivity influencers, Alicia is all about loving her body and preferring her curves over anything else. As she says in one interview, ” I’ve found that to be very beautiful. I love a beautiful booty; I just love curviness. I have a certain style of the body that I feel that everybody wants, and I love that.”
American supermodel Ashley Graham is one of the Top Body Positivity Influencers to look up to for inspiration. Ashley began her modeling career at 13 and later became the first “plus-size” model to grace the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover in 2016. Ashley has been using her platform to fight for size inclusivity in fashion. As a body positivity influencer, she encourages women to love their bodies as they are.
Serena Williams is a fully accomplished professional tennis player who inspires a younger generation of women athletes and women of all shapes, colors, and sizes. Being constantly told that she was too muscular or not pretty enough to be a tennis player, Serena is now one of the body positivity social media influencers that learned to ignore the negativity. As she said to Elle.com, “I realized I was in control of my feelings and focused on rising above the negative chatter and the unrealistic societal ideals placed on me. I love who I am”. She added, “I love my body, my skin, my confidence, and I fully embrace everything about me.”
Winnie Harlow is a Canadian supermodel and one of the top body positivity influencers who has paved the way for other models with skin conditions in the fashion industry. Despite being diagnosed with vitiligo at the tender age of four, Winnie didn’t let it define her. “I don’t find my beauty in the opinions of others. I’m beautiful because I know it.” Winnie has grown from being a model to a spokeswoman and one of the leading body positivity social media influencers, openly speaking about her battle with body image issues and her skin condition vitiligo.
American singer, songwriter, TV personality, and one of the body positivity influencers, and social media influencers, Kelly Clarkson, is truly admirable when dealing with body shamers. In her exclusive interview, she casually said: “I’ve just never cared what people think. It’s more if I’m happy and confident and feeling good. That’s always been my thing. And more so now, since having a family, I don’t seek out any other acceptance”.
Iskra Lawrence is a famous British model and one of the top body positivity influencers who will inspire you to love yourself more than anything else. Since coming to terms with her changing body, this curvy model has decided to share her un-retouched pictures on Facebook and Instagram, and it started gaining her millions of fans around the world. Iskra has become the face of a body positivity brand Aerie and continues to “share her spark” with other women to embrace every inch of their bodies.
American plus-size model, blogger, one of the most famous body positivity influencers, and makeup artist Tess Holliday is a force to be reckoned with in the plus modeling industry. In 2013, she started her #effyourbeautystandards movement on Instagram, where she calls on women to love their bodies (big or small) and that their size should not dictate their fashion choices. As a self-described body advocate, and one of the best body positivity Instagram influencers, she embraces the word ‘fat’ and encourages people not to let their body size and other people’s opinions stop them from living the life they deserve.
Danae Mercer is an American health and travel journalist, public speaker, and one of the top body positivity influencers who is best known for exposing social media fakery in promoting her advocacy for the body-positive image. Danae posts before and after photos of herself on her Instagram, revealing the tricks Instagrammers use to look flawless and flattering versus what they look like in real life. While she has no problem with models and influencers editing their pictures, she aims to tell ordinary people that “online is not real” and should let go of unrealistic expectations of people’s bodies.
Danielle Brooks is an American actress and singer widely known for the Orange Is the New Black series. As one of the top body positivity influencers, Danielle started a body acceptance campaign with #voiceofthecurves. Danielle graced the cover of the September 2019 issue of Shape and shared a heartfelt video speaking about her journey: “I feel like the world has built these invisible bullets to bully us in telling us who we’re supposed to be and what we’re supposed to look like. And I’ve always had this desire to prove people wrong—to say that this body that I’m in is enough.”
Canadian internet celebrity and one of the top body positivity social media influencers, Giselle Loren Lazzarato Getty, known professionally as Gigi Gorgeous Getty, began her online career by posting makeup and beauty tutorials on her YouTube Channel. Identifying himself as a gay male, Gigi once shared in his old video what he thought about body image and self-love, wishing that people should stop worrying about what they aren’t and start caring about what they are. In December 2013, Gigi came out as a transgender woman. Now, as one of the most famous body positivity social media influencers, she wrote her 2019 memoir, “He Said, She Said: Lessons, Stories, and Mistakes from My Transgender Journey,” which received accolades for its message on radical self-love.
For more - see: https://www.amraandelma.com/top-body-positivity-influencers/