Social Media, Body Image, and Eating Disorders

I recently watched a docu-series called Social Studies, which is about the impact of social media on teens, and it’s definitely not for the faint of heart. The issues addressed may be familiar to parents of teens, but the reality was new to me.

While it was all pretty eye-opening, the parts that particularly struck me related to body image and eating disorders.

Body image and social media

I don’t think it’s a surprise to anyone to know that what you see on social media is carefully curated to be only what someone wants you to see, generally only the good parts of their life. And for many, the main goal is to post things that will get a lot of likes and followers.

Unfortunately, what usually gets the most attention among teens tends to be very sexualized videos and photos, leading girls in their young teens to wear revealing clothes and pose in inappropriate ways. (A lot of them also posted pictures of their feet because it seems that quite a few people out in the world have a foot fetish.)

Even teens who know this isn’t the best idea still try to get attention. For example, a young woman trying to get into a party at a fraternity commented that you had to have a certain look to be invited and that no one cared about who you were, just how you looked. So, she tried to look that way to get the invite.

As if that’s not bad enough, generally speaking, the “look” is a thin white girl with no body hair to speak of, which reinforces white ideals of beauty. That came up from others who had darker skin and different body types.

One kid who was overweight and had darker skin said he was a magnet for cyberbullies, and I really felt for him. It was bad enough for me being a fat kid in high school in the 1990s. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be that way in the age of social media, where you’re comparing yourself to people from all over the country and constantly finding that you don’t measure up.

It also doesn’t help that what you see on social media may not be real at all. In fact, in most cases, it’s probably not. People can use filters or other editing techniques to make them look thinner, remove blemishes, etc.

As a result, one girl said that it got to the point where she didn’t like her body as it was, even though she was very attractive. She wanted the version that she made for herself online, the version that was smaller and, she thought, prettier.

Eating disorders and social media

And that brings me to the problem of eating disorders. Because how these young people try to get those smaller bodies is to change how they eat – or rather, don’t eat.

At one point, the woman who did the series, Lauren Greenfield, was in a room with the teens who participated, and she asked, “How many of you have had an eating disorder, or disordered eating?”

Every single hand went up.

One girl said it was pretty much impossible to avoid going down that path. She had simply liked a video that had a skinny girl in it, and then the algorithm started to feed her all these other videos with skinny girls talking about little they ate, how others could lose weight, etc.

Another girl talked about looking for videos that were “pro-ana”, which means they promoted anorexia. I didn’t even know such things existed, but apparently, all too many of these videos and sites exist. She showed images from those sites of girls whose ribs and other bones were jutting out, which was very disturbing. She also said that even though tagging something as “pro-ana” isn’t technically allowed on most sites, kids found ways to work around that, like by replacing the letter “o” with the number “0”.

Another girl talked about having fasted over 90 times – and that was only counting fasts that were over 24 hours, because she figured anyone could fast for at least 24 hours. She admitted that usually after she did one of these fasts, she binged.

What struck me as somehow even worse is that these girls weren’t only getting these ideas from others their age, but also from adult women who are “influencers”. These women talk about fasting, juicing, cleansing, and more, and because they’re adults, it serves to normalize behavior that shouldn’t be normalized.

It was painful listening to those stories – and this isn’t even getting into other issues the show addressed, like pornography and suicide – but it was even more difficult thinking about just how many young people are in a similar situation. I suspect it’s far too many.

The dangers of comparisons and algorithms

Watching all this, I couldn’t help thinking how this all highlights the dangers of comparison. All these young people are trying to fit in by being like their peers, even when that’s not advisable or even feasible. At the same time, it’s nearly impossible not to fall into the comparison trap, especially as a teen.

And it doesn’t help that the algorithms used by these sites are designed to keep people scrolling, to keep coming back for more, all of which feeds the problem.

From what they showed in the series, what can really help is reducing time on social media, which may be easier said than done. But one girl’s parents gave her $50 a day for each day she stayed off TikTok, and others got support and encouragement to delete the apps from their phones.

I’d also add that all of us benefit by getting support and having someone tell us why we’re important and special to them. That’s something to keep in mind if you have any young people in your life – or just in general. Hearing those things can help remind those we care about that they don’t need to compare themselves to others to be noticed or loved.