Girls in particular are constantly comparing their bodies to one another and seeking to be the slimmest of the lot. Although it may not seem the case, blasting photos of food all over social media can be a sign of obsession, whether its healthy food or junk food.
The impact Social Media has on body image is far greater than imagined and this new found obsession with snapping everything we put in our mouths isn’t making the situation any better! It has been voiced rather a lot that the strong association between social media and issues involving dieting, 
body image concerns, self- objectification from young girls, and a drive for thinness are linked. As women how many health and fitness accounts spam our social media news feeds ? Too many. Instead of focusing on ourselves women have become obsessed with the idea of being the ‘thinnest’ or ‘prettiest’ and the amount of ‘fad’ diets caused by social media impacting young women’s self image is astonishing…
Facebook, Instagram and snapchat allow teens to earn their approval though popularity online, likes and followers are compared to see who is ranked at the top. Although health and fitness accounts are not directly negatively effecting young minds, they are still having a renowned effect.
The seeking for perfection, to look like the bikini models that these young girls see as they scroll through their news feeds daily, influences them into eating disorders and obsessions.
The new found obsession with what we put in our mouths links when searching to find out why such a huge amount of young women fight with their body image. Heather R. Gallivan, who works for Park Nicollet Melrose Centre wrote a paper based on Teens, Social Media and Body Image and talks about U.S teenage girls. Gallivan found out that 80% of U.S women don’t like how they look, and this dissatisfaction mirrors that of women in the UK as well. It was also stated that 50% of teenage girls in the U.S make unhealthy decisions such as skipping meals, vomiting, smoking, taking laxatives and fasting in order to lose weight quickly. These statistics reflect the feelings of women worldwide who see unrealistic images of ‘the perfect body’ and go to extremes in order to achieve unrealistic and unhealthy body weights. Although ‘Foodstagramming’ may not immediately seem a factor within body image issues, it is combining with Social Media as a hole to make the world far more judgemental of what is ‘normal’ by constantly obsessing over every calorie that we intake.
Leave a Reply