The Internet and Body Image
In the year following the lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, inpatient admissions for young adults and adolescents experiencing eating disorders rose from a rate of .7% a month to 7.2% on average (Holcombe, 2022). While the exact reasoning behind the drastic rise is unclear, eating disorders can commonly foster when an individual experiences body dissatisfaction, limited social networks, food insecurity, or an appearance ideal (National Eating Disorders Awareness Week | Office on Women’s Health, n.d.). The lockdown resulted in the closing of gyms and other places where people commonly can exercise, limited group hangout ability, and left some with limited access to food and others unlimited access to the internet. An estimated 4.76 billion people use social media, which continues to grow (Kepios, n.d.). Considering the rise in the use of social media and the internet and elevated inpatient admissions for eating disorders, this website examines the possible relationship between the two.
The video below is used as further reasoning behind looking into the topic and walks through the feelings of teenagers across social media.
An individual's weight bias is responsible for the negative attitudes one has toward plus-sized people. Weight biases are the judgments someone makes against another person because of their weight (Washington, 2011). Weight bias can lead to negative internal and external thoughts and behaviors for those who do not portray the thin ideal. These negative attitudes can be harmful to one's self-concept and to others if they are outwardly expressed. Weight bias can lead to numerous issues such as low self-esteem, disordered eating, and bullying (Puhl & Lessard, 2020). As the thin ideal is predominantly represented on social media, those that do not have the ideal body type are targets for cyber-attacks because of their weight (Bedrosova et al., 2023).
Social media is highly regarded as pushing body types that the general population cannot attain while insisting that they follow the standards regardless. Researchers recognized that users who engage in social media such as Instagram, with an increased emotional investment in their self-image, photo taking, and editing, were at a greater risk of developing an eating disorder (Saul et al., 2022). Additionally, "support" for the thin-ideal is often given through the means of "thinspiration" accounts across platforms (Sheppard & Ricciardelli, 2023). As adolescents rely heavily on the online world for external validation and often look to online communities for guidance, their emotional investment towards their virtual presence puts them at risk of developing the behavioral tendencies of an eating disorder (Saul et al., 2022).
Body image control and photo investment practices appear in many normalized ways, with the motivation centered around being aware of one's photo quality, how one appears in it, and how it is received (Gioia et al., 2020). The practices vary between spending hours agonizing over which photos to post, refusing to let a particular side be captured, or even altering one's image through Photoshop. Research suggests viewing editing content increases the inclination of one to edit their pictures, despite the editing of one's images being linked to higher body dissatisfaction (Wolfe & Yakabovits, 2022). Further, regarding the commercial use of Photoshop, women consumers report preferentiality to unedited photos and display a higher purchase intent on ads with disclosers under photo-shopped content (Schirmer et al., 2018).
Body positivity and body neutrality are viable solutions to help reduce the risk of developing disordered eating tendencies. The media's depiction of the ideal body has previously been over-represented in social media and leads to major issues such as body dissatisfaction and disordered eating (Rutter et al., 2023). Due to the rise in social media, the frequency and prevalence of these images have increased and negatively impact many women in society. The body positivity movement was created to encourage women to embrace their flaws and love themselves despite how their body looks (Rutter et al., 2023). The body neutrality movement differs by shifting the focus completely from appearance. Body neutrality encourages people to love their body for how it functions and carries them through life (Haupt, 2022). Although body neutrality has been proven to be the most effective in eliminating self-comparisons, both are solutions that help eliminate the issues social media has caused on self-image.
Made by Elizabeth Russell and Mikayla Henesy, undergraduates at Shippensburg University. Made for the Psychology of Computers and the Internet.