ipl-logo

Eating Disorders And Social Media Essay

1035 Words5 Pages

An investigation into the effect of social media (particularly those online communities that rely on images and pictorial content such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr) on the mindset of female adolescents concerning eating disorders.
Reasons why the topic was chosen:
At least 400 web sites attract young people with “ana” and “mia” nicknames for anorexia and bulimia. These online communities offer tips on crash dieting, binging, vomiting and hiding weight loss from concerned friends and family. They depict eating disorders as a “lifestyle choice” rather than accept it as a mental illness.
Group dieting is a growing phenomenon. Whilst organisations like Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers adopt a responsible attitude towards group dieting, stressing mutual encouragement, face to face meetings and positive reinforcement, these organisations appeal mostly to older females. On the opposite end of the age spectrum, a scary number of young females use web sites and blogs where the true identities of individuals wont be known and the purpose is to challenge females to …show more content…

As a relatively new trend, understandably much less has been written about the impact of social media on eating disorders. Nevertheless, there is a growing body of evidence that suggests that social media is perhaps even more persistent and destructive than mass media when it comes to promoting eating disorders.
According to an Internet Trends study reported in the Sydney Morning Herald on 6th March 2014, the number of pro anorexia and pro bulimia sites increased 470 per cent between 2006 and 2008. Since 2008, the number of postings has continued to rise, causing many social networks in recent months to introduce policies aimed at minimising users' self-harm. all the same, the #ana hashtag on Instagram has more than 3 million posts, and #thin has more than 900,000

Show More
Related
641 Words | 3 Pages

This article focuses on a diet book called “The Beverly Hills Diet” which written by a women named Judy Mazel who has been suffering with an eating disorder since early adolescents. This diet book relates back to the main point of mass media affecting body image issues just from the tile and emphasis on Beverly Hills. When one thinks about Beverly Hills what comes to mind is tall, blond, sun kissed skin, and blue eyed girl and just in the tile an ideal is clear. The targeted customers for this book is anyone but it is more appealing to those who suffer from obesity and “this is the first time an eating disorder- anorexia nervosa- has been marketed as a cure for obesity” (Wooley and Wooley 57).

Read More
835 Words | 4 Pages

"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.”

Read More
1269 Words | 6 Pages

This makes it very credible and noteworthy. It also provides a lot of logos because it shows statistics and actual evidence of eating disorders since That can be trusted coming from such a credible

Read More
554 Words | 3 Pages

Body images and the ensuing and inevitable body shaming, has grown to become a pressing problem impacting the Canadian youth. With overweight rates at 65% and 30% for adults and children, respectively, one may see weight loss as the necessary solution to solve all body images stigmas. On the contrary, eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are climbing steadily amongst today’s Canadian youth. (Derene & Beresin, 2006). With such drastic sides of the spectrum, many have pointed toward different potential reasons for this trend however, a key determinant that must be tackled in the role the media play’s in the lives of today’s youth.

Read More
251 Words | 2 Pages

Since we've recently discussed the topic of eating disorders, this particular article caught my eye. In this Teen Vogue article, Jean Godfrey-June addresses emotional eating; what causes or triggers it and how people who suffer from it can make their snacks healthier. June starts the article off by referencing one of comedian Louis C.K.'s jokes about how easy it is to overeat at parties. The central idea of this article is to inform readers about how having food cravings differ from being actually hungry. June also interview a few college students about their craving driven eating problems.

Read More
478 Words | 2 Pages

3 Nov. 2015. Harrison, Kristen, and Joanne Cantor. "The relationship between media consumption and eating              disorders. " Journal of Communication 47 (1997): 40-67.

Read More
456 Words | 2 Pages

Americans tend to value thinness while shaming those who are overweight. With the rise of technology and social media, social comparison is ever-present which is culminating a series of issues related to body satisfaction. This combined with limited research on eating disorders in people who don’t fit the white woman persona leads to misdiagnosis and mistreatment of patients. With time spent on social media platforms increasing, the rates of eating disorder is also on the rise, “…respondents who spent more time on Facebook were more likely to display eating disorders, have negative body image, eat in dysfunctional ways, and want to diet” (Comer 2015). With social media being as prevalent as it is, there are countless opportunities for users to compare themselves to fitness models, celebrities, and even their peers, perpetuating issues such as cyber-bullying, body shaming, and ultimately, eating disorders.

Read More
1808 Words | 8 Pages

“I’m so fat, why can’t I be skinny just like her!” “How does she get the perfect body, while I’m stuck with all of this fat!” These statements are common among teenage girls of today’s society. Social media of today shows unreal pictures of photoshopped models and the “perfect life”. This leads to discontent of young women with their body and lives.

Read More
1181 Words | 5 Pages

According to the internet, did you know that 10 million American women suffer from eating disorders? Eating disorders are a serious illness which is caused by irregular eating habits and concerns about body weight. Eating disorders are caused psychological and environmental behavior which can often result in a fatal illness. This is what Kathryn Arnett experiences in her life. She explains how she developed an eating disorder in her essay, “Media and Advertisement: The New Peer Pressure.”

Read More
488 Words | 2 Pages

a. My career vision is to become one of the best neurosurgeons in the United States. I plan to attend medical school in the near future, however, Chemistry has always been an interest of mine. Chemistry class in high school sparked an interest that goes beyond curiosity for the subject. I find Chemistry to be challenging, but at the same time encouraging to study and understand. Everything that affects me: the water I drink, the food I eat, the blood flowing through my veins, is a result of the Chemistry of the human body.

Read More
1152 Words | 5 Pages

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).

Read More
735 Words | 3 Pages

Social Media has a way of spreading false information. Unfortunately, untrue information about fake or unhealthy diet trends and exercise trends are abundant on the Internet. This campaign will need to be monitored closely for activity that crosses into the boundary of spreading miss information in posts or linking information that is not fact checked or supported with valid research. This will be a fine line and difficult to control. Over control of the Social Media Tool will cause people to not use it and failure to control it will cause people not to trust it as being credible.

Read More
825 Words | 4 Pages

Social media makes teenagehood harder by creating a stereotype of what a perfect body should look like, celebrating extremely thin, unhealthy

Read More
552 Words | 3 Pages

SSP: The media has a strong hold on people's perceptions of what beauty is supposed to be. Because of this, many people have experienced eating disorders like bulimia. 1.1 to 4.2 percent of females experience bulimia at some point in their lives, according to "Nutrition Health Review" Subpoint: Anorexia is an obsession about weight and how much they eat. People limited the number of calories they consume.

Read More
964 Words | 4 Pages

The main points is: Humans have feeling; Humans have thinking; Humans have social media. Nancy Clark, who wrote for American Fitness, states that “comparing yourself to your friends, and friends of friends, on social media can easily put you in a bad mood, harboring negative thoughts about your body.” It is a quite evident why people go to social media, not all, but many. Many would never admit how social media really affects them mentally and emotionally. The risk factors of social media vs body image are frequently overlooked, npt by a variety of authors writing for International Journal Of Eating Disorders, they constructed and experiment to test out the effects of social media on, specifically, young girls; “Results showed that girls who regularly shared images on social media, relative to those who did not, reported significantly higher overvaluation of shape and weight, body dissatisfaction, dietary restraint, and internalization of the thin

Read More

More about Eating Disorders And Social Media Essay

Related Topics

Open Document