Children & Adolescents
Social Media & Body Image for Adolescents
Adolescents (ages 13-17) are online daily, whether on their smartphones or through computers/tablets. Specifically, adolescents spend a majority of their time online on social media, 24% of teens reporting being online “almost constantly” (Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2015). Adolescents are particularly perceptive to body dissatisfaction through social media as this is the demographic group of most social media users. Age restrictions are put forth on certain SNS such as Facebook to prevent those who are younger than 13 to gain access to these sites, however it is still fairly easy to find loopholes around these restrictions. (Burnette et al. 2017)
Why Can this be so Detrimental to Adolescents?
Adolescents can be affected differently by the internet than adults as their brains are still developing. Adolescence itself is a developmental period involving changes in one's identity, autonomy, and interpersonal relationships. A focus on relationships with peers is a huge aspect of adolescence, as social status is tied closely with appearances. Generally, adolescents view the person who is the most beautiful by societal standards to be the prettiest, and all the others ranked below. This is more common amongst adolescent girls, as they frequent higher levels of body dissatisfaction and mental health issues relating to body image than do adolescent boys. Since this is a a time period in which there is higher concern on body image and its relation to social status, use of the internet and social media can lead to increased body image issues within adolescents (Roberts et al., 2022).
The Psychology of Selfies
Generally, "Selfies" and selfie-related activities on SNS play a huge role in body image issues on the internet. While both men and women post selfies, it has been reported that adolescent girls post more selfies than anyone else on SNS. This makes sense as self-objectification is more common amongst young women as according to objectification theory. Self-objectification is both a predictor and consequence of selfie-related behaviors online. Taking/posting selfies can lead one to perceive their body through the gaze of an outside observer, and thus evaluate themselves based on their appearance in their selfies compared to others online. Body concerns can cause photo editing and enhancing, such as applications like FaceTune, thus altering one's entire appearance to resemble what is deemed correct by beauty standards online.
A study had shown that for Chinese adolescents, editing photos resulted in self-objectificationand dissatisfaction with facial appearance, however other studies done have shown no correlation between selfie-editing behavior and self-objectification. Thus, it is not entirely proven that selfies and selfie-related behavior causes self-objectification and body image issues, however it can be a contributing factor (Schettino et al., 2022).
How Can Parents Help Their Children Cope with Body Image Online?
Have a conversation with your child about body images online- why they're unrealistic, how we might compare ourselves to them, etc
Influence your child to focus on what they love about their body and what their body can DO, rather than what they dislike and would want to change
Encourage healthy diet and exercise in your child, and have a talk about why excessive dieting or exercise can be detrimental to physical and mental health