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)

I had conducted personal interviews with two individuals about their experiences of deleting their social media accounts and body dissatisfaction. For their privacy, I have decided to give them fake names: Morgan and Haley. The interviews were conducted over a FaceTime call since both interviewees are unable to meet in person. I asked the both of them the same general questions in regards to: background information about themselves, how much time they spent on social media, why they decided to deactivate their accounts, what mind state were they in when they decided to deactivate, how they felt after reactivating their account, and if needed to, would they deactivate their accounts again. I made sure to use words and phrases to allow both Morgan and Haley to feel comfortable enough to open up and be completely honest about their experience.

Morgan is a twenty-year-old, Junior in college. She is very family oriented and constantly going to church and talking about her love of Christ. She had a very black and white upbringing, growing up in the suburbs of Birmingham, Alabama. She described that she was a member of a Facebook community called: What is going on in Vestavia. “Members of the community constantly posted pictures and updates to keep the public in the loop of what everyone is doing, saying, wearing, dating, etc.” (Harvey, 2017). Morgan, despite finding herself constantly updating the page and being plugged into different social media outlets, described the lack of privacy she felt since everyone seemed to know everything about anyone.

“I decided to deactivate my social media accounts [Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, Facebook] after my boyfriend, Jeremy, and I broke up. My self-worth diminished and I began looking for reasons as to what was wrong with me physically and mentally, that he so desperately wanted to break up with me” (Harvey, 2017) It was relatively difficult at first, but once Morgan started finding alternative means of spending her time like reading, going to church, studying, and spending face-to-face time with her friends, she started feeling a lot better about herself. “I did not realize how much time I truly spent scrolling through the different networking sites, and how much it affected who I was and how I wanted to present myself online. Taking a break was the best thing I could have done for myself when I was in that self-destructive mindset” (Harvey, 2017). She explained to me in great detail that she would gladly do it again if a situation presents itself that deems it necessary.

Haley is a nineteen-year-old, Junior in college who is heavily influenced by social media. When Haley came to college, she gained weight as many freshmen do their first year away from home. She explained how insecure she felt about her weight gain and how it impacted her social life and her well-being. Despite following “fitspiration” pages on Instagram and researching numerous diet and work out plans from Pinterest, it actually discouraged Haley. “No matter how much time I put into food preparation or working out I felt hopeless because I could never look the same way as they do” (Woodward, 2017). Like many girls who share her demographic, Haley started to feel depressed and alone. She began skipping meals regularly and the food she did eat was not adequate enough to support her physically and mentally.

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” (Woodward, 2017) 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” (Woodward, 2017)

Haley’s relapse can support preexisting research on how fitspiration pages can ultimately be maladaptive despite their self-loving growth platform. Since the content is geared towards being fit rather than having a skinny mentality, it displays tips to a healthy life rather than being model-thin. On the contrary, viewers and followers still find themselves battling self-loathing and eating disorders on the grounds of comparing oneself to the blogger. A study was conducted and found that fitspiration pages actually causes an individual to experience a negative mood and a poor self-esteem, the longer and the more frequent that they are exposed to such content (Tiggemann, Zaccardo, 2015).