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It's official - Instagram is the worst social media site for mental health. All social media sites have a potentially detrimental effect on the way we feel, but Instagram, with its heavy focus on imagery, has a particularly negative impact on one specific area: body image. Instagram isn't the instigator of body image issues, of course, but instead a heavily-filtered reflection of a culture that objectifies, sexualises and commodifies the human body, while promoting unattainable and unrealistic standards of what beauty is.

Beauty is subjective, yet rarely seen in the beholder's reflection. Global research by Dove discovered just 4 percent of women find themselves beautiful, while simultaneously, 80 percent acknowledge all women have something beautiful about them. This negative self-perceptions begins a young age, with girls as young as six-years-old having expressed body-related anxiety. If unchecked, such bodily insecurities can turn into Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD), causing "persistent and intrusive preoccupations with an imagined or slight defect in one's appearance," leading to "severe emotional distress and difficulties in daily functioning."

Social media sites, particularly Instagram, have been challenged to do more to combat this growing societal concern. But how can we take control and learn to love our bodies, when the forces of society thrive on us feeling insecure in our own skin?
This article contains anonymous quotes from friends, male (M) and female (F), who have shared their experiences on body image.
Advertising And Beauty Standards

"All we've ever wanted,
Is to look good naked,
Hope that someone can take it,
God save me rejection,
From my reflection,
I want perfection" - Robbie Williams, Bodies

Say hello to the beauty industry, a persuasive and pervasive money-making machine convincing the masses we need to improve our appearance. More and more of us don't like the way we look. As a result, this industry - the cousin of fashion - is growing rapidly. At twice the rate of the developed world's GDP, to be precise. Skin care alone is worth $24 billion per year, make-up $18 billion, haircare $38 billion. A report by the British Youth Council, A Body Confident Future, highlighted the "massive" role such industries have in setting idealised images of beauty. This comes at cost - a third of young people say media influence has made them feel the need to lose weight.

It's not hard to see why. From a young age, we are all immersed in an environment rigidly defining beauty on their behalf, from adverts to fashion magazines to billboards to Hollywood. Look around you, and you'll see a variation of all shapes and sizes, with no two bodies the same. Look at the media, and the same perfectly honed (and electronically retouched) body shapes appear, over and over again. Women are expected to defy logic by attaining the "curves in the right places and not much everywhere else" look. Men are expected to do their best impression of Lou Ferrigno's Incredible Hulk, with bulging biceps, washboard abs, a full chest and muscular legs.

Profit - The Reason Your Body Isn't Good Enough

Sadly, we live in a world where conglomerates like Goldman Sachs question whether curing illness is a sustainable business model. Western culture's portrayal of conventional beauty is moulded by the same profit-making agenda. Body positivity and revenue don't fit. If encouraged to age gracefully and embrace wrinkles, would people spend millions on expensive skin care? If encouraged embrace our natural hair, would people use straighteners, or buy hair-thickening shampoo?

Anxiety around appearance isn't vanity or a case of millions wanting to look nice. Consumer culture consistently tells us we need things to be successful and happy. Advertising no longer sells products, it sells lifestyles. The beauty industry sells us the idea that a beautiful appearance, dictated by their idea of beauty, is the key to success and self-worth. We want to look good because we've been told looking good is living a successful life. But the people shaping this falsehood earn money from our endeavours to look "better."

The Deception And Exclusion Of Mainstream Body Positivity

The Body Positive movement is the mainstream media's response to body image issues. Body positivity is vital, of course, but the profit-agenda is still at play. "Brands may pay lip service to the idea of diversity but continue to emphasise the message that some conventional ideals of beauty are important," according to A Body Confident Future. The movement is defined by ever-so-slightly-altered standards. Or as plus-size fashion blogger Stephanie Yeboah put it, "body positivity seems to only serve those who fit the 'acceptably fat' description: white, beautiful by Westernised standards, and small/hourglass shaped." Anyone outside of these standards - the vast majority - is cast aside.

For example, women of colour are still marginalised in all aspects of beauty. This ranges from a lack of make-up options for women with darker skin, to Grazia magazine editing Lupita Nyong'o's hair to "fit a Eurocentric idea of what beautiful hair looks like." The Western idea that fair skin is beautiful ripples across the globe, too, resulting in worldwide "rampant darker skin stigma," or colourism. Colourism is defined as "prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic or racial group." It's instigated by institutional racism but isn't exclusively race-related.

Follow the money and you'll find the continual rise of a skin bleaching industry expected to acquire $31.2 billion by 2024.

Let's Talk About Sex(ualisation)

It's impossible to discuss body image in the media without also discussing sex. Using sex to sell degrades the human body, turning it into an object existing for the viewing pleasure of others. This is a facet of a hyper-sexualised culture, perpetuating objectification in all forms of media. Nowhere is this more evident than the porn industry. The internet has made porn more accessible than ever; in 2017, PornHub received 81 million hits. Daily. Across the year, 28.5 billion hits resulted in 68 years worth of porn being uploaded.

Although porn use in general shouldn't be a cause of shame, the majority of online videos depict inauthentic, friction-heavy and genital-focused intercourse. By portraying unrealistic gender stereotypes, it influences how men and women feel they should look and behave in an intimate setting. It's an industry with an underlying, venomous and sometimes violent attitude toward preserving the status quo of gender inequality. Women are shown as submissive bystanders, existing to serve male desire. Although porn feels distant from mainstream media, they share the same destructive aspects, the latter in a diluted form.

The Beauty Myth

Author Naomi Wolf deconstructs objectification and beauty in The Beauty Myth, a titular theory "prescribing behaviour and not appearance." In her framework, beauty needs to first be approved by men in order to be validated. According to Wolf, this dynamic limits women's freedom because their behaviour, as well as appearance, is scrutinised - including the way they walk, talk, dress, and interact.

The Iron Maiden is a term Wolf applies to societal expectations and assumptions about the female body. Wolf argues unattainable images of beauty are used to punish women. Any female not conforming is made to feel "monstrous," despite being physically functional:

"A man's thigh is for walking, but a woman's is for walking and looking 'beautiful.' If women can walk but believe our limbs look wrong, we feel that our bodies cannot do what they are meant to do; we feel as genuinely deformed and disabled as the unwilling Victorian hypochondriac felt ill."

Though written in 1991, the myth is still relevant. A 2014 report by the UK's Government Equalities Office, The Watched Body, highlights how women in leadership roles are expected to adhere to perceived feminine traits in order to be respected. A 1997 study referred to this as the objection theory, where women are frequently "looked at as objects by society, with a sexual focus being placed on their bodies rather than on their abilities."

Men, Muscle Mass And Eating Disorders

Body images issues aren't exclusive to women, though. Men used to be conditioned for nonchalance, a squirt of Old Spice and a hurried sink wash. But a shift in masculine stereotypes has seen the male population become more concerned their bodies' appearance. Last year it was reported eating disorders had risen 70 percent in men, in only a six year period. In another study, 45 percent of men said they've experienced a period of "bigorexia," an obsession with muscle building. Although gender bias with body image issues can make it more difficult for men to speak openly about their insecurities, the insecurities are certainly there.

"Pressure for body perfection is on the rise for men of all ages, which is a risk factor for developing an eating disorder," Dr William Rhys Jones, of the Royal College of Psychiatrists' eating disorders faculty, told the Guardian. "Images of unhealthy male body ideals in the media place unnecessary pressure on vulnerable people who strive for acceptance through the way they look." These unhealthy images for men focus on an increasingly muscular, low fat physique.

Hollywood is often a reliable reflection of its time, including changing definitions of beauty. Look no further than the superhero genre, the most lucrative and popular in modern cinema. The likes of Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), Chris Evans (Captain America), Henry Cavill (Superman), Ben Affleck (Batman), Chris Hemsworth (Thor) and Chris Pratt (Star-Lord) saturate the media with images of their bulked up physiques. Away from superheroes, contrast Daniel Craig's physique as James Bond with Roger Moore or Sean Connery, or Dwayne Johnson or Zac Efron with David Hasselhoff in Baywatch.

There's also a growing trend of using these examples - attained by 24/7 devotion and support from the world's leading nutritionists and personal trainers - as ways to inspire the Average Joe to pick up some iron. News outlets shared inside scoops on the A-list's workout routines and diet, while social media is awash with behind-the-scenes clips. Apparently it's easy, if only you know how.

The Rise Of Bigorexia

It's not only acting royalty who promote unrealistic mass. Reality television - tabloid in TV form - presents objectification and beauty standards without restraint. Ian Hamilton, a lecturer in addiction at the University of York, apportioned blame in the rise of male body image issues on show's such as Love Island, combined withsocial media. "In some ways young men have been catching up with young women over the last few years, they are more sensitive and vigilant about how they should look and this is becoming more acute," he told The Telegraph. "I think it is to do with appearance and masculinity, and the messages we absorb through social media."

Back in the day a little Burt Reynolds chest fuzz or Sean Connery's realistically slim physique were seen as attractive. Now, muscle is mistaken for "manliness." Consequently, a growing number of men experience muscle dysmorphia, the mistaken belief they aren't muscular enough. It affects 10 percent of gym-going men in the UK (and, important to note, some women too). It's natural to automatically assume vanity is the root cause, but muscle dysmorphia is defined instead as shame over one's appearance. According to a 2016 study, men experiencing muscle dysmorphia mistakenly believe mass is an outward showing of inner strength, an indicator of success, sexual prowess, and so on. The result? In 2017, steroid use quadrupled amongst 16-24-year-olds in the UK. It's the only drug with increased usage.

My Struggle With Body Image And Muscularity

I've always fixated on my body. When I was really young, I was chubby-cheeked and curly haired. Looking at photographs, I look cute (even if I say so myself), but at the time I stressed about being fat. Before going on holiday with family friends who were naturally slimmer, I'd stand in front of the mirror in my trunks and pinch the fat around my body, willing it to go away and wishing I looked different. In my teens I was concerned for different reasons - I was a late bloomer. I was embarrassed as my peers developed hair in strange places, an outward sign of adulthood, while I was left behind.

To make matters more confusing, my body composition changed dramatically when I was 15. Not via exercise or a healthy diet, but glandular fever. Bedridden for weeks, my throat filled with a thousand paper cuts, I couldn't eat and lost around three stone (40+ lbs). Now I felt stickly thin. I felt I lacked muscular definition and strength. I wanted to feel manly. I was insecure, and my insecurity was validated when people would comment on my weight loss. Apparently, it seems socially acceptable to call a guy skinny, despite this being a common insecurity in men.

Weightlifting was the remedy. With trepidation and high anxiety, I signed up to my local gym when I was 18. On my first session, I looked around at brawny, tattooed Bristolians bicep curling my body weight. I attempted to bench press just the bar to "ease into it." It was too heavy. No one warned me the bar was forged from Valyrian steel. Anyway, I persisted and eventually gained muscle. I've continued to train regularly, and my weight has shifted up and down. Even now, I frequently compare myself to men who are much bigger or stronger or more ripped than I am, like chasing my shadow with Men's Health under one arm, a protein shake under the other and a sense of despair as to why I couldn't pack on 30lb of lean mass in 30 days or look like Tyler Durden in six weeks.

Instagram's Influence On Body Image

"I'm so fuckin' sick and tired of the Photoshop,

Show me somethin' natural like afro on Richard Pryor,

Show me somethin' natural like ass with some stretch marks" - Kendrick Lamar, HUMBLE

What about Instagram's influence on body image? Due to its user-driven dynamic, there's an expectation Instagram is authentic. Ideally, social media should be the antithesis of the illusions portrayed in the mainstream. Just normal people uploading normal images of their normal lives. Well, not quite. The feverish quest for profit finds its way into anything if there's opportunity to advertise. Instagram is no different. 'Grammers with a substantial following earn a tidy sum promoting products via the medium. Fitness "influencers," for example, regularly make six figures for campaigns shared on their profiles. Those with six-packs and six-figure followings frequently earn $5,000 or more for a single sponsored post.

Though plenty use Instagram to challenge conventional standards, beauty standards have infiltrated social media. Celebrities like Kim Kardashian (who has 110 million followers) regularly receive millions of likes, but they present heavily-doctored snippets of meticulously pruned unrealities. Often, they'll post airbrushed photographs. Sometimes, they get caught. These airbrushed images mix with photos of friends and family, with no distinction other than a blue tick. Further still, they aren't images taken on the catwalk or during a photoshoot - they're "authentic," behind-the-scenes selfies with everyday, humanising captions. This camouflage erodes the boundaries between the glitz and glamour and us muggles.

I suspect Instagram's influence on negative body image is enhanced because the nature of the platform catches people off-guard. If you pick up a copy of Vogue, you're prepared for what you're about to see. Using Instagram's perceived authenticity to spread the same unattainable standards of beauty is arguably more sinister, more deceitful.

Instagram and Self-Objectification

This desire to conform to beauty standards is tantalising and has a drip-down effect into everything we do. Unwittingly, as we assimilate the media's powerful messages, we internalise and reproduce those same ideas. Uploading images to social media conforming with beauty standards is a form of self-objectification. This occurs when objectification is internalised and the person views their body as an object to be evaluated. This is far from a superficial issue, either. There's a whole host of evidence highlighting the damaging impact self-objectification has on one's well being, including body shame, appearance anxiety, eating disorders and depression. In men, it has been identified as a precursor to steroid use.

This isn't a modern phenomenon, but social media accentuates the process. Most of us will be guilty of doctoring our appearance on Instagram, whether in the form of filters, choosing an image from a selection of many, or using set angles and lighting that is flattering on the body. I'm guilty on all of these counts. Additionally, each and every like becomes a signal of approval, and for some, Instagram becomes an avenue to temporarily boost feelings of negative body image. In presenting ourselves as objects, virtual feedback provides validation and a fragile sense of worth.

Fitspiration is a trend often falling into this category. Its aim is to provide motivation for exercise and encourage a healthy lifestyle, but most posts emphasise aesthetics over health. Studies show browsing #fitspo posts on Instagram, for as little as 30 minutes, increases self-objectification. Further, another study discovered women who shared their own "Fitspo" photographs scored higher in charts monitoring a drive for thinness and compulsive exercise. Eighteen percent of the same group were at risk of developing an eating disorder.

Comparison And Negative Body Image

Body image issues rise in the space between how our bodies really are, and the projection of what our bodies should be. On top of mainstream media, social media - in particular Instagram - leads to information overload and incessant streams of people with seemingly perfect bodies. It creates a vicious cycle of comparison and negative self-perception.

It's possible to change our bodies through diet and exercise, to try and reach levels of perfection. But such is the nature of comparison, no physical change will ever bring lasting contentment. Losing weight or gaining muscle becomes an "I'll be happy when." The body is always changing, from the moment we're born, to the moment we die. We are flesh and bone, a constant flux of regenerating cells. We get pimples, shadows under our eyes, hair in random places. Beauty standards defy human nature because they are designed to be unattainable.
Has Instagram influenced your body image? Let me know your experience in the comments section below.
Next up:

Ricky

Writer. Coach. I'm devoted to understanding the human psyche and spiritual growth. Undergoing a life-long process of minding my ego.

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Instagram's Influence On Negative Body Image

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Instagram's influence on body image is causing a crisis in how we feel about our appearance. It's not the cause, but a reflection of a hyper-sexualised culture that freely objectifies the human body. With society working against us and beauty standards unattainable, how can our relationship with our bodies change?

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Is Social Media Hurting Your Mental Health? | Bailey Parnell | TEDxRyersonU

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This website highlights how Instagram focus heavily on imagery, and its content is typically a reflection of a culture that objectifies, and sexualizes the human body, which therefore sets unrealistic standards of what beauty is. It goes on to discuss how Dove did a study and found that just 4% of women find themselves beautiful. Already, women and even men from a young age grow up with body image standards and are expected to look a certain way, and apps like Instagram unfortunately play into this insecurity. It also highlights that Instagram has been challenged to do more to combat this growing concern, stating that it is hard for people to learn to love their own bodies when apps like Instagram and the forces of society thrive on proper feeling insecure in their own skin.

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This video highlights how humans have this dialogue going in their head about how they look in photos, saying they look “fat”, and then checking how many likes they get, focusing on that. She states how people don’t even realize that they have this conversation with themselves. Talks about how high levels of anxiety, depression, and stress come from high use of social media. She says people spend about two hours a day on social media, saying that the effects from this are lasting. She says how people are constantly comparing themselves to others, by looking at their “highlight reel” and comparing it to their “behind the scenes life”. People strive to have lots of likes, comments and shares, and that is highly valued by people and most important. She says we are letting others create out value, and this is changing our self identity and people are so obsessed with it.

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Selfie-Esteem: The Relationship Between Body Dissatisfaction and Social Media in Adolescent and Young Women

Social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook have become ingrained in the lives of countless individuals. With adolescents and young adults, particularly young women, being the primary users of such platforms, it is an important question whether social media use has an impact on self-concept, self-esteem, body image, and body dissatisfaction. Researchers have started to empirically investigate these questions, and recent studies show mixed results. The present article attempts to review these findings and offers possible explanations for effects of social media use on body dissatisfaction, with a focus on Instagram, Facebook, and other popular image-based platforms.

"Social media is not real life," stated Essena O'Neill, a 19-year-old Australian Internet star who quit social media in November of 2015 to prove the point that social media is just a means of fake self-promotion. Essena was a star on Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube, and other social media platforms, with over 600,000 followers on Instagram alone (McCluskey, 2016). As soon as she went silent, her fans and friends created an uproar. They called the Australian teen out and accused her of intentionally closing her social media accounts in an attempt to attract more fame and attention. Her fans, friends, and followers began posting blogs and videos in reaction to Essena quitting social media, with some going so far as sending death threats.

The same week Essena quit Instagram, The Guardian's Mahita Gajanan (2015) asked other young women about their self-esteem and experiences with social media. Her findings were in line with Essena's; most of the women that were interviewed felt insecure. Many young women reported obsessing over the number of "likes" they were getting, feared not looking beautiful in their photos, thought individuals would think they looked different on social media than in real life, and questioned what aspects of their life people would get a glimpse of. It was a common theme that women were dedicating extensive amounts of time to thinking about what image to upload, photoshopping it and regularly checking their personal page to see the updated "like" counts, which in turn increased their own insecurities. Even though many women were aware of these actions, they were consumed by their need to fit in on social media and struggled to disrupt their habits. Numerous young women reported that they lived their lives via social media and regarded media presence as more important than real life. This preoccupation with social media and the compulsive behaviors that follow may potentially contribute to body dissatisfaction. However, to this day, research findings have been mixed, and the exact relationship between social media behavior and body dissatisfaction is unclear.
The Influence of Media
Social media usage in particular has increased dramatically over the last decade and continues at an incline. Pew Research Center indicates that 71% of 13- to 17-year-olds use Facebook, 52% use Instagram, and 41% use Snapchat in 2015. Teenage girls are also using image-based social media platforms more frequently than their male counterparts; 61% of girls use Instagram versus 44% of boys. This increase in usage of social media, especially Facebook and Instagram, may negatively affect adolescent girls and young women in regard to their self-confidence and body satisfaction (Lenhart, 2015).

Some researchers have portrayed links between body dissatisfaction and eating disorders with exposure to fashion magazines or television shows in women (Grabe et al., 2008; Levine & Murnen, 2009). These studies examined exposure to media forms and body image to show that there may be a link between viewing images of thin bodies and personal body dissatisfaction. Another study by Becker and colleagues (2011) suggests that media effects can even take place indirectly. The authors studied whether direct and indirect exposure to mass media (i.e., television, videos, CD players, MP3 players, internet access, mobile phone access) were associated with eating pathology in Fijian adolescent girls. They found relationships between both direct mass media exposure (i.e., personal media exposure) and indirect mass media exposure (i.e., media exposure to the people in one's peer group) with eating pathology in Fijian adolescent girls. Despite its limitations, such as the question of whether the findings can be generalized (Becker et al, 2011), the study suggests that at least in this case,social networks played an important role in the relationship between media and eating pathology, which may extend to a relationship between media and body dissatisfaction.

However, these findings must be taken with knowledge that some other researchers have found no link between viewing image based media and body dissatisfaction. Holmstrom (2004) conducted a meta-analysis on the pre-existing literature focusing on general media exposure and body dissatisfaction, body image and eating disorder pathology. Holmstrom focused on 34 studies that used media as the independent variable and a form of body image dissatisfaction as the dependent variable and the overall effect size was small. Surprisingly, the research showed that women reported feeling better about their bodies after viewing overweight images and had no change in body image after viewing thin bodies. These findings blur the potential relationship between body image and media and suggest a need to further investigate.

A more recent meta-analysis conducted by Ferguson (2013) extended the work of Holmstrom (2004), Grabe and colleagues (2008) and other researchers, and incorporated findings from 204 studies. A major point that Ferguson honed in on was publication bias; more specifically, that statistically significant results are more likely to be published and null findings are not, with meta-analyses being a collection of biased findings. Ferguson (2013) found little to no relationship between media and body dissatisfaction in males, however, there was a higher, but very small, prevalence in females, especially for those with a predisposition for body image issues. Overall, the meta-analysis encouraged researchers to be more conservative in their assertions of a relationship between social media and body dissatisfaction due to inflated effect sizes, study design limitations, and publication bias.
Social Media Usage
Social media offers a collaborative space for social interaction between seemingly infinite numbers of people. Several benefits have been identified in relation to the routine use of social media platforms. "The six key overarching benefits were identified as (1) increased interactions with others, (2) more available, shared, and tailored information, (3) increased accessibility and widening access to health information, (4) peer, social, emotional support, (5) public health surveillance, and (6) potential to influence health policy" (Moorhead et al., 2013, p. 8). Although there are several benefits associated with the use of social media, specifically image based social media, some uses of these platforms may lead to potentially unwanted effects. The primary image based social media platforms this review examines are Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook.

Lewallen and Behm-Morawitz (2016) suggest that adolescent girls and young women following fitness boards on Pinterest were more likely to report intentions to engage in extreme weight-loss behaviors, such as crash dieting or a radical exercise plan. In response to images viewed on the fitness boards on Pinterest, these adolescent girls and young women initiated a process of self-reflection, which increased intention to engage in extreme weight-loss behaviors. Overall, the results of this study revealed that social media environments might influence adolescent girls and young women to engage in social comparison leading to feelings of inadequacy and body dissatisfaction (Alperstein, 2015). Furthermore, based on the results of this study and others, negative body image concerns appear to be higher for those who internalized negative messages and images (Alperstein, 2015; Bell, 2016).

Currently, studies link social media platforms with body dissatisfaction in adolescent girls (Tiggemann & Miller, 2010; Tiggemann & Slater, 2013). In order to investigate the underlying processes, one study investigated over 100 seventh graders and found that adolescent girls who shared more photos online, such as selfies, and used more photoshop felt worse about their appearance and exhibited greater eating concerns (McLean et al., 2015). Specifically, some studies suggest greater usage of social media heighten body dissatisfaction due to an increase in appearance-related comments from friends (de Vries et al., 2015).

Using applications and other editing devices, such as Photoshop, to alter selfies is nothing new for many teens and women. Thanks to an array of free applications, people can alter the way their bodies look in photos with a swipe or a click. Teens can cover up blemishes, alter their facial shape, and manipulate their bodies to look thinner and more attractive (e.g., making their waists smaller or their breasts bigger). Even the popular socialites Kim and Khloe Kardashian have utilized Photoshop to post edited selfies for their Instagram accounts. As pointed out in an article by Mirror Magazine, many fans have criticized the sisters for unrealistic alterations to make themselves look thinner and more toned (Rutter & Strang, 2016).

Instagram and Body Dissatisfaction
Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms (Kharpal, 2015). It allows users to communicate solely through posting and sharing photos. Researchers have looked at the role of Instagram on body image with adolescent girls and young women, the most frequent users of the social media platform. Anecdotally, in an interview with Elle Magazine, Emily Bryngelson, an associate designer at Ann Taylor, who admitted to struggling with an eating disorder as a teenager, revealed that she deletes selfies if she doesn't receive enough "likes" (Fleming, 2014). She explains, "Instagram makes me so anxious. I'm always looking at other women thinking, 'I wish I looked like that,' or 'I should get more in shape.'...I mean, young girls can now follow Victoria's Secret models and see what they look like in the 'every day.' ...That has got to make any woman, let alone a 13-year-old girl, feel unsure of herself."

Studies on Instagram have mostly focused on fitspiration pictures and content in the young adult population. Fitspiration is a movement that promotes a healthy lifestyle, primarily through food and exercise. Despite its good intentions, researchers have suggested dysfunctional themes in the images and messages. For instance, when over 600 fitspiration images were studied, one major theme regarding the female body emerged: thin and toned (Tiggemann & Zaccardo, 2016). In addition, most images were found to contain elements objectifying the female body. However, we must wonder whether the blogs themselves are problematic or if the viewers are construing the content in a negative way. In other words, are certain individuals viewing a toned or thin body, comparing themselves to it, and then feeling bad about their own body?

Furthermore, some researchers suggest that even the mere act of watching fitspiration on Instagram can lead to unhealthy eating and exercise behaviors in young adults (Holland & Tiggemann, 2016). In one experiment where 130 female undergraduates were randomly exposed to either fitspiration or neutral travel images, scientists found that the appearance-based pictures of fitspiration had a negative impact on mood, body image, and self-esteem (Tiggemann & Zaccardo, 2015). In other words, the college students who viewed fitspiration images felt worse about themselves and their bodies compared to the students who viewed neutral images. Limitations of these studies need to be kept in mind when interpreting the findings. Using travel photos as a control to fitspiration may not have isolated the variable of interest and resulted in inaccurate findings. We expect humans to socially compare themselves to other humans more than they do with landscape. Future studies should consider incorporating control photos featuring attractive, but average-sized women, for example, to produce more comparable results.
Facebook and Body Dissatisfaction
Alongside Pinterest and Instagram, Facebook is common among adolescent girls and is associated with body dissatisfaction (Kimbrough et al., 2013; Tiggemann & Slater, 2013; Fardouly, Diedrichs, Vartanian, & Halliwell, 2015; Fardouly & Vartanian, 2015). For example, Tiggeman and Slater (2013) found that teenage girls who used Facebook were more concerned with monitoring body appearance, idealizing thinness, and pursuing thinness, than were teenage girls who did not use Facebook. Furthermore, in comparison to viewing an appearance-neutral website (i.e., a home craft website), viewing Facebook was associated with more negative mood and body dissatisfaction for women who tend to compare their appearance with others (Fardouly et al., 2015). However, rather than the time spent on Facebook, the way people use it, such as interacting with photos, seems to explain the relationship with body dissatisfaction (Meier & Gray, 2014; Fardouly & Vartanian, 2015; Kim & Chock, 2015). Meier and Gray (2014), for example, found that time spent on photo activity, rather than time spent on Facebook generally, was linked to thin-idealization, self-objectification, weight dissatisfaction, and pursuit of thinness.

Similarly, Kim and Chock (2015) found that "social grooming" behaviors such as "liking", visiting, and commenting on friends' posts and photos were linked to body image concerns. The researchers explained this link through the notion that "social grooming" activities lead to viewing other individuals' profiles, particularly their photos. People tend to post attractive images of themselves on social media platforms (Manago et al., 2008), and increased exposure to these images may lead to a distorted and idealized conceptualization of body shapes. In October 2016, model and actress Gisele Bundchen posted a photo of herself on Facebook and within three weeks received 105,000 likes, 1,125 shares, and 1,437 comments such as "I want that bronzed skin!" and "Can I use it as a profile picture?" This type of social comparison has the potential to lead to poor body image, especially for adolescent girls and young women (Fardouly & Vartanian, 2015).
In Summary
The popularity of media, particularly social media, in youth makes it a potentially influential force. The findings discussed above provide a foundation for future research and have opened up important discussions on how social media use may influence body dissatisfaction. However, many studies are correlational, and the causal mechanisms behind the potential relationships are still unknown. Much of the findings may be applicable to an individual and not generalizable to the general public. Much work is needed in the future to parse apart potential factors for causation such as peer pressure and photo editing capabilities. Scientists have identified specific areas to focus on, such as the need to clarify the construct being measured (i.e., whether the outcome is eating disorder pathology, body dissatisfaction, and so forth) and to design the overall experiment by addressing the limitations of past research (Holmstrom, 2004; Ferguson, 2013). All in all, despite the mixed findings and limitations of past studies, past research seems to suggest a relationship between social media and body dissatisfaction, although the exact nature and strength of the relationship remains unknown.
References
Alperstein, N. (2015). Social comparison of idealized female images and the curation of self on Pinterest. The Journal of Social Media in Society, 4, 5-27.

Becker, A. E., Fay, K. E., Agnew-Blais, J., Khan, A. N., Striegel-Moore, R. H., & Gilman, S. E. (2011). Social network media exposure and adolescent eating pathology in Fiji. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 198, 43-50.

Bell, K. (2016). Social media and female body image. In BSU Honors Theses and Projects. Item 173. Retrieved from: http://vc.bridgew.edu/honors_proj/173

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Selfie-Esteem: The Relationship Between Body Dissatisfaction and Social Media in Adolescent and Young Women | Magazine issue 1/2018 - Issue 35 | In-Mind

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Social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook have become ingrained in the lives of countless individuals. With adolescents and young adults, particularly young women, being the primary users of such platforms, it is an important question whether social media use has an impact on self-concept, self-esteem, body image, and body dissatisfaction.

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Talks about how Instagram has become ingrained in the lives of countless individuals, and it is adolescents, young adults, particularly women, who are the primary users of this. States how social media is not real life, and although everyone knows this, almost everyone who uses this app compares themselves to others and feels insecure. People look different in their photos that are uploaded, only posting the absolute best selfie they took out of 50. Many young women obsess over the number of likes they get on photos, and use that number to determine if they are beautiful or not. People think social media is more important than real life, and their biggest concern is to be able to fit in on the platform.

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Video #2

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The Impact of Instagram On Your Body Image

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This website discusses how a study was done at the University of South Wales and it found that spending even 30 minutes on Instagram, can make women fixate negatively on their weight and appearance. Also that women display dissatisfaction about their own bodies after looking at “fits P.O.” images of other women. It talks about how this has a negative affect on our mental health, and it creates an unrealistic body standard presented by society. This is because constantly scrolling through perfect photos from friends, or celebrities leaves you feeling bad about yourself, but people still do it anyways, even though it makes you compare yourself to others, and feel jealous about their lives. It is best to remember the photos are not entirely real, and that everyone goes through struggles and insecurities.

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This photo highlights how 80% of women feel insecure after comparing themselves to women in advertisements, photos, or tv, and that 42% of girls in first to third grade want to be thinner. Body image is a major concern and I feel like everyone experiences it. It starts at a young age, and only gets worse over time. Now with apps like Instagram this insecurity is worse, because people only post the absolute best and filtered photos of themselves which creates a false reality. However, people are addicted to social media so now they are always comparing themselves and their lives to the people they see on the app, and typically its people you know so that makes it worse and it is becoming more of a concern.

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This video discusses how people are starting to get nose jobs, and eye lifts for their photos on social media. He is discussing an app called Snapchat, which is similar to Instagram. People create this electronic image of themselves, that they’ve created with filters and apps that change your appearance, they use special lighting, cameras, and angles to make them look a certain way. They then use this electronic almost false image of themselves and post it on social media and then obsess about the likes and comments they receive. He calls this a distorted self image. He goes on to talk about how people create this unrealistic and unattainable body image on social media, just from a certain way they stand or light they are in, and people compare themselves to this false image and believe they should look like this too. This leads to plastic surgery, drugs, and others outlets people use to try and look this this too.

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Website #3

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Unrealistic Social Media Portrayals May Contribute to Body Dissatisfaction

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In today’s culture, social media has begun to dominate even more of our lives, and its influence can quickly turn negative, according to a new study that focuses specifically on the effects of Instagram.

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This photo shows an example of how a person may look in the photo they post on Instagram. She looks skinner, more fit, tanned, her face looks better everything. This was achieved because she posed a certain way, or number of ways, in a certain light extra. After choosing this photo it was then heavily edited to fully achieve this outcome. The photo on the right displays “reality”, what the women actually looks like, and although she still looks great there is absolutely nothing wrong, it is very different than the photo on the left. It is an example to show that people only post their best selves on the app so you should not believe everything you see.

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Reflection

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Video #3

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Image #3

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This image shows how a photo may be shown on social media were you think there would not be photoshop, however as the circle shows on the right photo, this photo had been retouched. Some people even go as far as photoshopping their body for a picture posted to Instagram, to make them appear thinner, or more fit than they actually are. This is dangerous because celebrities especially, have so many people viewing their photos, and comparing themselves to them on a daily basis. This is why Instagram impacts body image because people look to this and think they should look like this too, and if they don’t they are fat and unattractive. Almost, if not everyone, on Instagram has insecurities like this which is awful because like this photo, most of the images you see are not real.

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This video discusses how Instagram influences body image, it creates comparisons between people. People are always asssking themselves, “why don’t I look like that, why don’t I have muscles like that”, etc. But it is important to remember people only post their beat selves on instagram and everyone goes through struggles, and typically no one looks they way they do on Instagram in real life. People only post positive photos from their lives, you never see anything negative posted, or any posts about how people actually feel on the inside. Also talks about how Instagram is so accessible to people, and you can go on at anytime and see hundreds of photos of people with a crazy physique. He says most of these people are doing dangours things like fat burners or steroids to attain that look and it is not safe so that is another thing to be aware of.

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Biblography