Social Media and Body Image

Some scientific studies have found that the amount of time spent on social media negatively affects the body image of adolescents and young people.

Body image is the concept used to understand how each of us has a mental image of our own body, including the silhouette, the volume, and the way we mentally believe our body represents us in the eyes of others. It is a concept that has gained much importance in recent years, not only because it has been found that our body image is often distorted or does not correspond to what we mentally think, but also because body image (that mental recreation) is formed not only by the way we “see” our body, but is influenced by ideas, images, opinions, and external representations of different types of bodies.

Repeatedly, the concept of distorted body image is one of the symptoms of other disorders related to eating. Thus, this extremely complex mechanism does not respond only to the influences of bodies that are seen, but to the ideas received about what a body “should” be, especially in an era where the body is a social marker and a sign of belonging to certain groups. Through various rigorous historical studies, we know that this normativity regarding the body has changed throughout history depending on different social conditions.

However, a persistent question among the scientific community, and one that is widely accepted, is how media, especially social networks, influence the perception of body image. The simple and widespread answer is that media influence people, but where do media take their influences or consensus from to elevate or disparage certain types of bodies? Isn’t this a response to the events and ideas that prevail in a given era? These questions are extremely complex to establish scientifically, but we do have studies that reveal a correlation (not causality) between the hours young people spend on social media and their negative perception of body image. In other words, the more time spent on social media and the more bodies of others are viewed, the worse one feels about their own body. Causality is not established, since it is unclear whether adolescents who already feel bad about their bodies spend more time online, or if spending time online causes them to feel worse about their bodies.

In any case, it is a fact that social networks influence how we perceive ourselves. Limiting their use seems complicated in an era where our activities inevitably pass through internet connectivity. What can be started, however, is to observe a hygiene of social media use, where not only awareness of time spent is practiced, but also attention to whom one follows and what is consumed, so that this has a positive influence day to day. It seems a complicated task, especially for adolescents, to foster positive consumption on social media, but it is not impossible.

— This article was originally published in Spanish by Liliana Martínez Lomelí. Translation generated with AI from the original text.