Project II Draft

Social media has made a lasting impression on society for the past decade. In a booming generation of advanced and readily available technology, more and more individuals are constantly sharing pictures, ideas, and personal information. Dealing with posting content on social media, users tend to post the most polished version of themselves. With that, there is an increasing number of individuals experiencing negative mood, eating disorders, body dissatisfaction, and the overwhelming desire to be thin (Bessenoff, 2006).

Plenty of correlational research and experimental data was conducted which generalized that the more time one spends exposed to social networking sites, the more likely he or she would experience some sort of body dissatisfaction, and possibly maladaptive behaviors such as eating disorders. The unwavering and unintentional act of comparing oneself to others, socially, is the driving force behind the body dissatisfaction. Since it is a cognitive action to compare oneself to others, there is a lingering negative self-esteem experience (Want, Botres, Vahedi, & Middleton, 2015). Those individuals in which are heavily influenced by social comparisons, tend to experience an amplified sense of awareness for other individuals and are more likely to be undefined and unpredictable in decision making and with self-concepts (Vogel, Rose, Okdie, Eckles, & Franz, 2015)

In this study, they are primarily focusing on social media effect on adolescents and the reasons behind what they choose to post online. Girls digitally edit their pictures in order to create a more physically attractive representation of themselves in order to receive likes and comments on their post stating they “look good.” They hypothesize that the more frequently a teen is using social media, the more body dissatisfaction one will feel and the more one will be inclined to fit society’s idea of beautiful. They also believe that there is an indirect effect of social media on body dissatisfaction, but on peer appearance-related feedback will in turn, lower self-esteem. In this study, a survey was conducted and it asked questions about sexual media use along with attitudes and behaviors toward it, it also asked about body image and self-esteem. BMI was also taken in this survey as an added variable in the research. The results were that girls were more likely to receive peer appearance feedback and have more of a dissatisfaction to their physique than boys did. Their hypothesis was supported which showed that social media predicts body dissatisfaction, but body dissatisfaction does not predict social media use. Their second hypothesis sating that teens that are posting on social media predicts and increased use of peer appearance-related feedback, but the feedback does not predict social network frequency.

The sample came from 323 college students from a public university who were enrolled in a psychology class. These individuals participated in an online survey about their exercise schedule and eating habits. They were also asked about their social self-esteem over self-esteem because they wanted to assess how they compare themselves to others, since this is a study on effect of social pressure. They were surveyed on media influence in regards to response to social media, peer-pressure, and ways to achieve the perfect body. Women displayed a higher drive to be thin and felt body dissatisfaction in all social media aspects besides athletic images. Both men and women experienced body dissatisfaction. Men’s body dissatisfaction for thinness was significantly attributed when they were exposed to media models.

This study focuses on the cognition distortions of self-image in regards to beauty. They gave ninety-three, undergraduate women surveys to assess the consequences and how often one would partake in social comparisons. They found that more people compare their body shapes to their peers and focus in on their beauty as well, in regards to this, it showed a greater level of cognitive distortions. Due to the images of the women being portrayed in social media, it emphasizes the unattainability of such beauty, which individuals who suffer from cognitive distortions, will be more affected by the appearances of these women rather than their peers.

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Haley sought comfort in one of her sorority sisters who had been struggling with the same insecurities and eating behaviors as she did. The two of them vowed to support each other in times of weakness. “I deactivated my Instagram because my friend told me how much it helped her when she decided to give up. She was completely right. The time I would typically spend on finding meal plans and work out regiments, I used it to focus on what my body and mind needed.” Haley contributes her growth completely on deactivating her Instagram and the help of a friend experiencing the same troubles. “I guess you could say I relapsed when I reactivated my Instagram. I saw a lot of the old fitspiration pages I used to religiously devote my time to and I did experience negative body image.”