Name: Naseema Paruk
Student No. 212541522
Psyc 301
Assessment: Research Proposal
“Qualitative vs. Quantitative Approaches to Research”
Tutor : Larissa Pillay
Study Title: Instagram’s effect on eating disorders in youth
A) Study Title - Instagram’s effect on eating disorders in youth
B) Literature Review:
There have been a lot of variations in the "perfect" body type due to the media and its influence on youth from ages 12-25. With millions suffering from eating disorders such as Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa, the issue of body image amongst the youth is a huge concern. This Literature review explores social factors that sway an individual 's opinion of body image, and the burdens of gratifying the societal expectations of one 's physical appearance that is displayed and to see if Instagram has any promoting factors towards these eating disorders.
Social media as a whole has become a necessity amongst the youth.Instagram is a worldwide famous app that allows users to upload and share pictures and videos of their choice. It is an app based off of the amount of likes. These simple likes on pictures are taken as validity of a person’s beauty. This logic causes youth to thrive in order to show off and as a result, to get more likes (Karges, 2014). With many instagram users displaying “idealistic” and unattainable body types that are often photo-shopped, youth– both male and females – that follow those pages are at great risk of developing a negative body
Annotated Bibliography: Social Media’s direct correlation with eating disorders Hellings, Bridie, and Terry Bowles. "Understanding And Managing Eating Disorders In The School Setting." Australian Journal Of Guidance & Counselling 17.1 (2007): 60-67. Academic Search Complete.
"Now, I don 't like to compare. Facebook and Instagram are very image-driven, so I try to avoid that.” Rojas added, “Users support one another 's self-destructive behaviors through shared tips and tricks — and promote the notion that an eating disorder is a lifestyle choice, not a serious mental illness.” We need to realize how it can lead to damaged and unrealistic ideas of women 's ultimate body’s type. Rojas added, “An estimated 30 million Americans suffer from a clinically significant eating disorder (20 million women and 10 million men) at some time in their life, according to NEDA.”
Dissatisfaction amongst today’s youth regarding their personal body image is increasingly common, warranting a necessary change in the norms and behaviours that are portrayed to Canadian youth. The necessary change that must be implemented moving forward is the portrayal of healthy and attainable body images through media. A 2012 ABC News article stated the average model weighs 23% less than the average woman (Lovett, 2012). Such an appalling statistic is something that must be tackled as we progress toward the future seeing as it showcases to the youth of today that anorexia and unhealthy body weight is seen as desirable or attractive. The relation between such a statistic and anorexia is clear.
“Many teenagers feel that the best way to gain social acceptance and avoid being ridiculed by their peers is to achieve society’s ideal body,” (“Introduction to Dieting”). By having such presumptions about their self-image, teenagers change the way they see themselves and in turn, cause problems for themselves. In an interview, forty-seven percent of girls wanted to lose weight because of media influences while only twenty-nine percent of them were overweight (“Introduction to Dieting”). By creating these unrealistic expectations, social media gives teens false hope about their body image, which reflects how the women in Brave New World see
These expectations can cause insecurities in adults, teens, and even children who normally have little to no insecurities. Young children should not have to worry about the way they look or what they are wearing. Therefore, society needs to address the problem of creating negative body images. It can start by recognizing that unreal and unnatural body image can cause eating disorders and mental disorders. “50% of teenage girls and 30% of
Body image is defined as perceptions, feelings, and behavior toward one’s body (Common Sense Media P13).There is an unrealistic body misconception of being “flawless” like celebrities that make teens want to modify their bodies. This refers to the exposure to increased media through the years; Media is contributing to dangerous behaviors that include but are not limited to: cyber bullying, unhealthy eating habits and self-harming. Communication is critical to humans. The most common communication tool now is the Internet.
The media portrays the average person as flawless, thin, tall, and beautiful. They advertise products that can help a person achieve what they call “perfection.” They slap photos all over the place, on billboards, magazines, and ads, showing us what a “real” person looks like. The media brainwashes us into believing that we need to meet their standards in order to achieve ultimate beauty and should we stray from the path they pave, we will not be considered beautiful. Our society places too much emphasis on our appearances, forcing many to undergo drastic changes to become “beautiful.”
Social media plays a big role in how society portrays body image. “Alternatively, an increased number of Facebook friends may provide girls with greater opportunity to rapidly make multiple social comparisons, itself shown to be associated with body image concern”(Tiggemann and Slater 82). According to the survey that was taken by Marika Tiggemann and Amy Slater, the more Facebook friends the girls had, the more likely it was that they had body image concerns. They were able to compare themselves to the other girls that they were friends with, which led to them to have an increase in their drive for thinness. “Further, these comparisons are likely to be with somewhat idealised images, in that girls mostly post photographs in which they look good or are doing something ‘cool’ (and can be digitally altered)”(Tiggemann and Slater 82).
In the article Body Image & the Media: An Overview, the author describes the ways in which people’s opinion of themselves are being altered due to the unrealistic standards being viewed in the media. Since the growth of media and internet, people have been greatly exposed to what a “perfect” body should look like. These unrealistic standards have taken a toll on people’s physical and mental health. One envisions a perfect body image and is concerned about how others will perceive them and how they perceive themselves.
What social media is doing to teens Social media is a very dangerous place that makes teens feel insecure. Teens spend more than one-third of their day on social media looking at stereotypical images of “perfect” bodies and people. As a result, they become insecure about themselves because they are not like the people in the pictures. The media states that a perfect person is skinny, tan, has shiny hair, straight teeth, and completely clear skin. However, because teens are going through a lot of physical changes they do not usually look like social media 's definition of perfect and they become insecure.
Nowadays, many teenagers imitate famous people that they followed on Instagram. This could have an effect on another factor such as their self-esteem. Following strangers such as celebrities and models may cause the individuals to have a lower self-esteem and feel dissatisfied with their life by seeing the pictures celebrities post day-to-day about their lavish lifestyles, “perfect” bodies, and pretty faces (Wallis 2015). Next, other studies done to test the exposure of images of models to girls have found that participants who viewed pictures of the models reported a significantly lower body satisfaction and self-esteem report than those in the control group who were not exposed to any models (“Social Media and Self Esteem - Dos &Don’t for Teens and Parents”). In addition, another study in Germany call this phenomenon the “self-promotion-envy spiral,” and it happens when Instagram users compare themselves to the people they’re connected to on the platform (Dion, “The Effect of Instagram on Self-Esteem and Life Satisfaction”).
Social media is a powerful source in today’s society, 81% of the population in the United States alone has set up a social media profile. Many use the media for useful things, like educational opportunities and business inquiries. Although there are people who may look at it more in a concerning aspect. Many people today view the social media as a stage where they are judged and told what the real way to look and act is, more specifically, body image. Social Media has a negative impact on body image, through creating a perfect view physically which affects someone mentally, targeting both male and female, and turning away from the real goal of social media.
For example, girls will style their hair to “become more attractive” (Berger 2014), or they will purchase ‘minimizer,’ ‘maximizer,’ ‘training,’ or ‘shaping’ bras, hoping that their breasts will conform to their idealized body image” (Berger 2014). This all appears to be harmless activities, yet when body image is only addressed outwardly and not psychologically, there can be an increase in poor and destructive behaviors. For instance, body image dissatisfaction can lead to poor self-esteem, which can create a cycle of increased body dissatisfaction, followed by decreasing self-esteem (Stapleton et al., 2017). Ultimately, a teenage girl can find herself in a cycle of “depression, eating disorders and obesity” (Stapleton et al., 2017). On study in 2012 revealed, “Two-thirds of U.S. high school girls are trying to lose weight, even though only one-fourth are actually overweight or obese” (Berger 2014).
Today everyone is obsessed with social media. People are easily influenced by almost everything they come across on the internet including appearance and body image. In todays generation it is so common to be unhappy with the way you look. All this is due to societies high standards on the way we “should” look. With social media you can do many things, including pretending to be someone you are not.
We see social media as a great way to communicate and socialize, but most of us did not realize that social media “secretly” link to the Depression. Depression is a common mood disorder that affects the way we think and feel. One of the characteristics of depression is low self-esteem, and it can easily come from the unrealistic body figure comparisons and harsh judgments from the social media. According to a 2017 study by The Royal Society of Public Health indicted Snapchat and Instagram were the two to inspire feelings of inadequacy and anxiety in the age group between fifteen to twenty-five. Seven out the ten said Instagram made them feel worse about body image and half of the age group in between fourteen to twenty-four reported Instagram and Facebook exacerbated the feeling of anxiety.