Social Media on Body Dissatisfaction

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). Most of us all scroll for hours and hours, and it almost seems normal to be exposed to various images featuring individuals with the slim-fit body type, we almost ignore what it could be doing to us subconsciously.

I had conducted personal interviews with two women about their experiences of deleting their social media accounts and their desire to have the slim-fit body type. 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 were unable to meet in person. Body dissatisfaction can be a difficult topic of conversation. I ensured to the both of them that their testimonies would aide in supporting my research and having them being open and honest, we will be well on our way to letting others know the impact social media has our well-being. I asked them the same general questions about their background and who they are as a person. I inquired how much time each of them typically spends on social media on a weekly and daily basis. They both described how they felt before and after deleting their accounts and even though their stories are different, they both described the same feeling of euphoria and their self-growth process began. An interesting factor that I had stumbled across during the interviews were that after each of them had deactivated and reactivated their accounts, they both claimed that they would do it again if necessary.

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. Growing up in the suburbs of Birmingham, Alabama, she describes having a very black and white upbringing. 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, explained in great detail the scrutiny she felt since everyone seemed to know everything about anyone especially through the use of Facebook.

“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 to the point 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 stressed that she would gladly do it again if a situation presents itself that deems it necessary.

The realization Morgan had post-deactivation stemmed from the subconscious notion of social comparison between her and those in her age group. Since her and her entire community was obsessively reading up on all the latest gossip and “news” of the suburban town in Birmingham, they are constantly engaging in social evaluation. 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 a study of 227 female participants, an online experiment was conducted that explicitly asked the time these women spent checking and refreshing their Facebook pages, in correlation to discovering who exactly they are comparing themselves to by pinpointing specified target groups. The results concluded that these women are comparing themselves to friends and distant acquaintances just as much as celebrities and models, thus evoking a negative self-image based on people we interact with on a daily basis (Fardouly, & Vartanian, 2014). This correlational study can easily be attributed to the negative feelings Morgan felt about her Facebook community despite her overwhelming desire to continue to refresh and join in on to the conversations.

Another community arising on social media that has gained plenty of momentum and popularity over the past few years is the new trend called: “fitspiration.” The idea behind this new community, is posting content which promotes a healthy, and fit atmosphere. The focus is geared less toward anorexia and being model-thin to having toned and built muscles. (Tiggemann, & Zaccardo, 2015). With a promising platform of living a healthy life through exercising and less focus on losing weight to look thin-fit ideal, is it really helping the social comparison epidemic? Can following fitspiration pages actually cause a negative self-esteem or discourage people from even partaking in trying to become more fit because they know their bodies cannot compete with certain promoted work out plans and diets?

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. Even though the weight she gained, she still fell under the normal category for her Body mass index (BMI). She explained how insecure she felt and how it impacted her social life and her well-being. She stopped going out with her friends and partaking in the dating world out of fear of rejection and men being disgusted with her body type. 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 the bloggers did” (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. There were a few instances where she forced herself to vomit not to mention taking laxatives to aide in weight loss (Woodward, 2017).

Haley sought comfort in one of her close friends 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 it 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 the 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)

With endless amounts of advice, opinions, tips and tricks, Haley was overwhelmed with information to “better herself” she became obsessed with trying every diet, work out plan, and cleanse to see what would work for her. Upon weeks and months of taking detailed notes and following what the bloggers promoted down to the word, she had no time to focus on her happiness, her school work or her friends. Unlike the men and women who portray a happy, healthy life style through fitspiration, Haley could never find the peace of mind and achieve the body of her dreams, which sent her in a downwards spiral making her question: “why can’t that be me” (Woodward, 2017).

From the extensive amount of information stemming from correlational research and experimental data conducted which generalized that the more time one spends exposed to social networking sites and communities, the more likely he or she would experience some sort of body dissatisfaction, and the possibility of developing 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).

So where does that leave us in terms spending time being logged into various social networking communities? With a generation nearly glued to their phones and tablets, it would be rather far-fetched to claim that deleting social media accounts will be a full proof cure for body dissatisfaction. Social comparison is an unwavering, cognitive action humans make on a consistent basis. An experimental study was conducted where confederates who fit social media’s idea of thin and beautiful met with several participants. After the meeting, the researchers assessed the body dissatisfaction experienced by the participants. It concluded there was a negative self-image and negative mood afterwards (Krones, Stice, Batres, & Orjada, 2015). Although limiting one’s interaction on social networking sites can, indeed decrease negative body image and the possibility of developing eating disorders, there will always seem to be a lingering sense of inferiority.

Both Haley and Morgan can attest that a poor self-esteem is something you cannot over turn in a day. Social communities, despite their entertainment or their desire to promote healthy life styles, can lead to self-loathing and body dysmorphia. Social comparison has been a hot topic of research, for good reason too, with more and more evidence to prove that maladaptive behaviors will become more common in great numbers, there can be new communities to arise to endorse loving the skin you are in and changing social media’s idea of beautiful.

References

Bessenoff, G. R. (2006). Can the media affect us? Social comparison, self-discrepancy, and the thin ideal. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 30(3), 239-251. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.2006.00292.x

Fardouly, J., Vartanian. L. R. (2014). Negative comparisons about one’s appearance

mediate the relationship between Facebook usage and body image concerns. Body Image, 12, 82-88. doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2014.10.004

Harvey, M. (2017, July 10). Personal interview.

Krones, P. G., Stice, E., Batres, C., & Orjada, K. (2005). In Vivo Social Comparison to a

Thin-Ideal Peer Promotes Body Dissatisfaction: A Randomized Experiment. International Journal Of Eating Disorders, 38(2), 134-142. doi:10.1002/eat.20171

Tiggemann. M., Zaccardo. M., (2015). “Exercise to be fit, not skinny”: the effect of

fitspiration imagery on women’s body image. Body Image, 15, 61-67. doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2015.06.003

Vogel, E. A., Rose, J. P., Okdie, B. M., Eckles, K., & Franz, B. (2015). Who compares and despairs? The effect of social comparison orientation on social media use and its outcomes. Personality and Individual Differences, 86, 249-256. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2015.06.026

Want, S. C., Botres, A., Vahedi, Z., & Middleton, J. A. (2015). On the cognitive (in)efficiency of social comparisons with media images. Sex Roles, 73(11-12), 519-532. doi:10.1007/s11199-015-0538-1

Woodward, H. (2017, July 9). Personal interview.