Over the years, as social media has become more popular for all ages, it has taken a toll on how people, women in particular, view body image. Through the use of social media apps such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and more, people have changed and redefined how we all view body image in today’s society. The biggest concern that this new perceived body image has created is how women and girls going through puberty, in particular, treat their bodies based on what they believe they should look like in this generation. Many girls develop eating disorders in response to how they see other women who are described as “beautiful” and their specifically thin body shapes. Due to this newly defined “beautiful” that shows women as being thin and fit models young girls believe that the only way they will ever be called “beautiful” is to look the way the social media famous women do. Society expects girls to uphold these expectations of the “thin-ideal” which puts a lot of pressure on an already insecure, and confused adolescent girl in today’s world. Social media plays a large role in influencing how many women view their body image every day in the United States and worldwide through redefining “beautiful” as a the “thin-ideal” and this new portrayal of body image has led young adolescent girls to believe that they must obtain the “thin-ideal,” which young adolescent girls aspire to and which leads to the development of eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa. 

Social media exposure to younger generations in recent years has led to the issue of how media displays body image. Whether it is who to vote for in a presidential election, or how one should view their own body image, the people behind social media allow it to have huge effects on one’s views and actions because they are able to persuade a person into thinking what they want them to. Through the one’s who control social media, they have been able to negatively redefine body image in the recent years, causing a major issue in women’s physical health and mental health. Through redefining “beautiful” as the “thin-ideal”, social media shows young girls that in order to be perceived as a beautiful, they must conform to the “thin-ideal” image. Alexander Ossola mentioned in her article “The Media’s Effect on Women’s Body Image” the basic statistics that support the claim that there is a correlation between body image and media: “…in one study, among American girls ages 7-12, greater overall television exposure predicted both a thinner ideal adult body shape and a higher level of disordered eating one year later” (Ossola). Ossola also interviewed Arielle Cutler, who has evaluated the efficacy of media literacy programs. Cutler discussed a major example of how media has damaged young girls so early in life due to what they think is a necessity in society, “More and more 12 year old girls are going on diets because they believe what you weigh determines your worth” (Ossola). Why do young girls feel the need to go on diets at such a young age? Why do they care about their weight? Social media has been able to corrupt these innocent children’s childhoods all based on how body image is being portrayed and interpreted to these young women. 

The increase in exposure to television and other mediums of social media have caused eating disorders to become more and more prevalent among adolescent girls. Due to the more predominant use of social media, more girls are able to compare themselves to other women or super models that display a skinny figure. In recent years, as app manufacturers have developed numerous social media apps as well as apps that allow people to alter their appearance, women have become more focused on their skinny body image to the point of excessive dieting. Whether it is Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc. or even just the old-fashioned magazines, women are constantly exposed to media images that show desirable body types like the “thin-ideal”. In their review on eating disorders, Helen Champion and Adrian Furnham discuss results from studies that reveal the detrimental effects women show when exposed to media images of other women, “Several studies have been conducted within the clinical sphere demonstrating that acute exposure to media images increases body dissatisfaction in anorexics and bulimics…” (Champion and Furnham).. The more young girls are exposed to images that display the “thin-ideal” on social media, the more they begin to believe that the look they see on their screens is the look they should aspire to have. This is becoming a growing issue because the images shown of women who are the “thin-ideal” are not the average woman and girls should be taught that being “beautiful” is being themselves and not a specific definition or body type. Eating disorders have become increasingly more prevalent because of how much easier it is for younger generations to have access to social media and therefore are exposed to the media images that lead to detrimental outcomes. 

Anorexia nervosa, as defined by Webster’s dictionary, is a serious disorder in eating behavior, primarily of young women in their teens and early twenties, that is characterized especially by a pathological fear of weight gain leading to faulty eating patterns, malnutrition, and usually excessive weight loss. Biological, social and cultural, psychological, and family factors may combine to contribute to the development of these disorders, including anorexia nervosa (Engel). Many who are diagnosed as anorexics or bulimics are described as having personality traits such as neuroticism (emotional stability), obsessiveness, and perfectionism, play a large role in facilitating the eating disorders (Engel). Bridget Engel describes the common ways that anorexics behave and what drives their disorder in her article: 

They tend to compare their appearance and accomplishments against unrealistic standards and typically find themselves lacking. Most of these judgments involve culturally derived or peer-sanctioned standards rather than personal expectations. In other words, people with eating disorders are primarily concerned about what others think of them, rather than what they think of themselves. (Engel). 

These tendencies of anorexic individuals could very well be driven by what they see on social media, where they compare themselves to the most perfect body image they can find and therefore want to obtain. Anorexia nervosa is becoming a common “side-effect” or illness that young adolescent girls are developing from constantly being exposed to “thin-ideal” images found on social media. 

In recent years, as media has become popular and of access to mostly everyone world wide, researchers have performed many studies in order to determine if there is a relationship between how media portrays body image and eating disorders. In Jennifer Derenne and Eugene Beresin’s article, the authors discuss Becker’s landmark study of the comparison of the rates of eating disorders before and after the arrival of television in Fiji in 1995, “…there was only one case of anorexia nervosa reported on the island prior to 1995. However, in 1998, rates of dieting skyrocketed from 0 to 69%, and young people routinely cited the appearance of the attractive actors on shows like “Beverly Hills 90210” and “Melrose Place” as the inspiration for their weight loss. For the first time, inhabitants of the island began to exhibit disordered eating” (Derenne and Beresin p.259). Before ethnic Fijians had the exposure of television eating disorders were not prevalent among their culture, until media came into their lives. Due to the characters in shows such as “Beverly Hills 90210” who portray the “thin-ideal” body image, the young people who then were exposed to these new shows had an influence and desire to look like these characters and lose weight. 

The effects of social media are similar for all girls although they vary due to many different factors including race. White American girls are the worst effected by this issue based on their ideal body size. In Renee Botta’s article comparing the ways which black and white adolescent’s view body image, she discusses how white females are more likely to obtain eating disorders because they desire to be the “thin-ideal,” “American adolescents are twice as likely to perceive themselves as overweight, six times more likely to use pills and vomiting and nearly four times as likely to use diet and exercise to maintain weight” (Botta 145).  This comparison shows that many white American girls look to television and social media and aspire to become what they see in the images on the screen. Botta mentions specific data that shows how media does have an affect on eating disorders in young white women, “Communication researchers have recently published empirical evidence to suggest there is a relationship between media and body image disturbance and eating disorders and the perceived influence of media on body image attitudes and behaviors” (Botta 145). Because many girls and women have access to a variety of different media accounts and television channels, they constantly are exposed to the images of beautiful, thin women. Adolescents turn to social media and television to find images of those whom they want to look like, they compare themselves and become motivated to act on the discrepancies they perceive as a result of the comparisons they make. 

In comparison with the results and effects of white adolescents view of body image, Botta’s article also discusses results of black adolescents view of body image in response to media. African American women watch more television than American women, yet studies have shown that, despite being heavier overall, twice as many African American women as American women are satisfied with the shapes of their bodies; African American women have less of a desire for thinness than American women (Botta 145). In Botta’s observations within her study, she noticed that the black adolescents in the sample were more satisfied with their bodies and had a larger personal ideal size than white adolescents, but they engaged in no fewer behaviors and had no less drive to be thin (Botta 154). Further, they were equally likely to have made comparisons with television images while viewing, and they were more impacted by idealizing television images (Botta 154). These results from Botta’s study comparing the effect of media on white and black adolescent girls shows us that no matter the factors, such as race in this case, social media has a way of impacting girls negatively through exposing them to such body images like the “thin-ideal” in which the girls end up comparing themselves with. 

Another study done by Dove surveyed 1,027 women between the ages of 18 and 64 and the results showed that women are more than twice as likely to say that their conception of beauty is shaped by “women in the public domain” and social media, than they were before they entered high school (Katz). Women have admitted to the fact that they do indeed use social media as a guide to how they desire to look, where they scroll on their feeds and come across numerous women who portray the “thin-ideal” look. Despite the negative impacts the social media feeds have on women’s body image, in another study by Dove, 82 percent of women said they believed that social media can also change the prevailing standards of beauty (Katz). Essentially, because social media is able to create such a controversial, negative portrayal of body image through re-defining beauty through the “thin-ideal,” it also has the power to reverse what it has done and change the standards it has set. Dove was able to prove that women believe social media does have an impact on how they view and define beauty, but also Dove in their other study was able to show a positive way which social media can change the standards of beauty and make the use of social media a good thing in women’s live rather than being so detrimental. 

Although social media has portrayed body image in a negative way to young girls leading them into developing eating disorders, some may argue that social media has a positive effect on young girls and their relationships with one another. In her article, “Social Media and Friendships,” Amanda Lehnert discusses the ways that media positively impacts teens and their relationships with one another. Social media plays a critical role in connecting teens to new friends, allowing them to learn more about new friends and get to know them better (Lenhart). Instead of identifying and discussing the negative ways in which social media allows teen girls to tear each other down and make one another feel bad about themselves through defining one another’s body image, Lenhart takes a different approach and analyzes positive effects media has on teens. Not surprisingly, teens who have access to smartphones and use social media are more likely to report that they feel “a lot” more connected to what’s happening in their friends lives than teens without a smartphone (Lenhart). The information Lenhart examines may, in fact, be accurate, but overall social media’s negative impacts outweigh the slightly positive impacts, especially when looking at the long-term damage it has on young girls. Social media portrays body image through the “thin-ideal” on Instagram (and other media apps), where teens are able to both show off their versions of the “thin-ideal” while others are emotionally harmed because they do not have that same thin body image. The media’s ability to allow anyone to showcase their body, especially with emotionally vulnerable adolescents, gives them a way to put others down and make them feel bad for not having the body image that the media defines as “beautiful.” In this way, the media does not connect teens to new friendships; it harms them emotionally and potentially causes detrimental effects, such as the development of an eating disorder. 

From learning about this important issue, what can society do in order to prevent social media from having this effect on young girls and their view on body image? People behind social media should focus on re-defining “beautiful” as something more than the “thin-ideal” by showing women that being “beautiful” is being yourself. As mentioned above in the study done by DOVE blogs, Instagram accounts, and Twitter hash tags galore call for a celebration of different body shapes, ethnicities, and ages (Katz). There are many women whose presences on social media are shaking up pervasive definitions of what is and what is not beautiful (Katz). Since social media has proven to be able to define beauty in such negative ways towards girls, it also has the power of redefining it once more in a way that celebrates all different body images. Women have been able to use Instagram as a platform to share with all other women worldwide that no matter one’s body shape or size, everyone is beautiful. Like Rachel Hollis shared on her Instagram post:

 “I have stretch marks and I wear a bikini. I have a belly that’s permanently flabby from carrying three giant babies and I wear a bikini. My belly button is saggy… (Which is something I didn’t even know was possible before!!) And I wear a bikini. I wear a bikini because I’m proud of this body and every mark on it.”

Women like Hollis show ways that society can alter and change the definition of beauty from the “thin-ideal” to something much more meaningful and accurate. 

Another alternative solution to fixing how young girls are exposed to negative body image through social media is to educate them on body confidence. As Meaghan Ramsey proposes in her Ted Talk, we, as a society, must help educate teenagers on developing strategies to overcome image related pressures and building self-esteem (Ramsey). There are, at the moment, many programs already established that serve the purpose to educate children on body confidence, but they do not work, are ineffective and almost do the opposite actions as they should. Ramsey mentions six key areas that the programs should address when educating children on body confidence. They include: family, friends, and relationships, teasing and bullying, talking about appearance, respecting and looking out for yourself, competing and comparing looks, and media and celebrity culture. If the body confidence education programs were to address and cover all six areas listed above, strides should be made in helping children avoid body confidence diminishing, such as calling their peers fat or inappropriate names, from social media and society in general. Ramsey also mentions that everyone should work together to help change culture to make sure kids grow up valuing him or her for their whole self (Ramsey). Older women should work on being better role models who judge people by what they do, not by what they look like, which will encourage the younger generation of girls to do the same. These solutions will help address the issue of social media’s impact on body image and change the way young girls view themselves and each other. 

Social media has posed negative effects on adolescent girls through re-defining “beautiful” and creating a body image known as the “thin-ideal” that girls admire and show desire for. Through this newly re-defined “beautiful” and “thin-ideal,” many girls show signs of development of eating disorders like, anorexia nervosa, because they believe that acquiring a body image of the “thin-ideal” is the way to being “beautiful”. Through apps like Instagram, social media allows young girls to look through images and compare one another, which leads them to believing they, should look a certain way, which then causes them to develop or show signs of anorexia nervosa. This is a big issue in today’s society and should be resolved immediately, as it is creating detrimental effects on adolescent girls and their health. The best solution to this issue is to educate the younger generations, who are completely absorbed by social media, on body confidence and what is truly the meaning behind the word “beautiful”. Judging people for what they do and their accomplishments rather than for their body image will help teach young girls that it is okay not to portray the “thin-ideal” and it is better to accomplish something great in life rather than to be the “thin-ideal”. Girls should grow up in a world where they are comfortable being who they are because of what they have done throughout their lives, and not feel self-conscious because of how they look (physically) in society’s eyes. 

 