Why the perfect body is a load of bull

In this study, I found interesting qualitative data by asking three different women within the same age range (18-25) specific questions on social media and body image. A few of the questions asked consisted of the following; how active they were on social media, what type of content they followed, if they had disliked or been disappointed by the content they follow, and if they have ever wanted to change something about their appearance because of what they saw. 3/3 of girls concluded that they have or did change something about themselves because of what they saw on social media and 2/3 had to delete social media because their mental health and body image became so bad. Now although this was a small study within my community I found that most women struggled with the same negative concept of social media; this was not looking or being good enough.

​

Why the amount of time on social media matters

It was shown that spending more time on social media was associated with greater body image concerns in females and that appearance comparisons in general, frequency of comparisons to peers (close friends and distant peers), and direction of comparisons to distant peers and celebrities accounted for this relationship. (Fardouly & Vartanian, 2014). This reveals that the more frequent use of social media the worse women's ideas on body image got. This was also seen in my qualitative study because the one girl who used social media for 10+ hours a day had a worse reaction to body image than the girls who used it less. Many times as we scroll through social media we don't realize all the negative factors we subconsciously take in and when you spend hours doing it you can find yourself getting stuck in an endless loop of it. 

​

The Mental and Physical effects of social media 

Have there ever been times you are scrolling through social media to see a peer, influencer, or even family member and compare yourself to them? If the answer is yes then how many times do you get off of that social media app to then obsess over the differences between you and them? Depending on your answer you could be experiencing several mental/ physical effects of body image. For some, there is the physical effect of having an eating disorder because they find themselves too big or too small. This is found more often than people know and many times it gets pushed under the table. When it comes to social media, constantly seeing the "ideal body" can be a trigger for some, and in the cases of internalized beauty standards women put themselves to the test to look like their ideal selves. Eating disorders are characterized by dietary restriction, obsessive thoughts about food and body, compensatory exercise, and psychological distress (Marks, Foe & Collett, 2020). This also goes hand in hand with the mental effects of social media. Having depressing or negative feelings after you find yourself comparing can put a big strain on your health. One of the biggest mental factors is anxiety/stress towards social media and this can be because there is a fear of missing out or a fear of not being/ looking good enough. Having the constant worry about why you don't look like them or why isn't the new diet working enough can put a major negative impact on the body. (Bashir & Bhat, 2017). In my study, it was found that all 3 girls had stress about the idea of the body that had to uphold and anxiety about keeping up with social media beauty standards. Fearing they would be missing out on something new if they stepped away from social media they found themselves in a tough position of trying to catch up and untimely feeling as though they failed in the fast-paced beauty industry. 

​