Social networks are commonly blamed for fueling eating disorders caused by body image disturbances.
The use of social networks particularly popular with young people – Instagram and TikTok, whose content is focused on the visual – has resulted in the internalization of appearance ideals among young women and, more broadly, in the body dissatisfaction of women. women. Indeed, in the throes of controversy over this issue, Meta (owner of Instagram) has conducted in-house research that demonstrates that the platform harms the body image and self-esteem of adolescent populations.
The main reasons: the processes of bodily comparison and objectification. Social comparison based on physical appearance encourages women to compare themselves to people perceived as more attractive than them. This mechanism is reinforced by social networks which offer a multitude of images of bodies exposed to the gaze of millions of people.
In the case of problematic use of the Internet via social networks, comparing oneself to objectified images of slim, young and toned bodies creates the impression of having easy access to this body, pushes to become this body and persuades that this body stands for success and happiness. Direct consequences: our body is always imperfect, our body is never accepted and loved, our body must be quickly transformed. As a result, women develop negative attitudes and perceptions towards their own bodies, which are fertile ground for dysfunctional eating attitudes and behaviors.
New programs
Mirroring YouTube’s recent and necessary positioning “to access educational information while restricting access to content glorifying eating disorders to those who are most vulnerable”, the fourth and latest generation of programs in (e – ) Loricorps food health education focuses on improving perceptions of the physical self through diversity and inclusion.
That said, the basic principles of these programs are insufficiently applied. Consequently, a deep and radical change in the content offered, on all social networks, or even regulated, becomes necessary.
Limiting access to content that explicitly promotes extreme diets or dysfunctional eating attitudes and behaviors is no longer sufficient.
We need a change in the message offered both explicitly and implicitly: having a perfect body is unrealistic and it’s okay not to be perfect! Talking about bodily perfection is even debatable. Why not move from promoting perfection to promoting acceptance of our bodies? Happiness, success in life does not correspond to a weight, a height or a certain type of body shape.
Why not decenter our bodily perception to favor bodily sensations? The idea of reducing the amount of content focused on physical appearance on social media, while increasing the diversity and realism of appearances in images, represents a possible solution. Finally, decentering oneself from the image through off-screen moments by reconnecting with one’s flavors, one’s proprioception and one’s senses to discover or rediscover a sensed and experiential body becomes an avenue to be exploited.
1. The Loricorps Research Group of the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières (UQTR) is affiliated with the Research Center of the University Institute in Mental Health of Montreal (CR-IUSMM) of the CIUSSS de l’Est-de- the Island of Montreal.