Impact Of Social Media On Eating

    To begin, social media is intended for people to communicate with other people across the world through information, pictures, and posts. Even though this advancement in technology provides forms of new communication to the world's fingertips, it brought about many unintended consequences. The majority of people in the world use social

Once upon a time, hand-held devices such as cellular phones were invented to provide security during emergencies. Nowadays, food advertisement not only found its way through TV commercials and billboards, but in the last few years, social media has flooded the Internet through computers and cellular phones. Consequently, advertisement companies are not the only ones using social media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) but people in general are also using it as an announcement tool by continually checking in the foods they are eating (posting pictures) and the restaurants they are in. Nevertheless to say, nobody projected the immense influences this technology has implemented on food choices. Therefore in this paper, I will discuss the advantages and disadvantages social media has on food influences.

Moving forward, social media has been a major convenience and reward to virtually everyone. On an individual basis, social media allows friends and family both near and far to communicate with one another. Also, businesses are flourishing through the use of social media. Advertising has never been easier. Horn (2013) states, “Our profession, unlike any time before, is demanding we become social media (…) experts” (1). Horn (2013) also states, “More than half of reporters (55 percent) use Twitter and Facebook to source stories” (1). Social media has greatly benefited business life and personal life.

Social media is ?forms of electronic communications (as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos).? (Merriam-Webster.com, 2018) Social media has developed into a platform that is effortlessly available to anybody that can log on the Internet. The ability for businesses to be able to communicate easily with customers promotes the company?s brand, makes the brand more visible, and, often makes customer service better. (Wikman & Cottrell,) The key social media platforms that are used today are: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. (Standberry, 2017)

The world around us is constantly evolving due to the increased emphasis on social media. Around the world, billions of us use social media every day, and that number just keeps growing. As a young adult, we usually imagine social media as being our virtual way to connect to individuals across the world through Instagram, Facebook, and even Snapchat. These three sources of media along with a vast amount of many others bring humor and entertainment to our daily lives. Our growing appreciation for Social media is redefining the global landscape. It affects how we communicate with individuals, how we keep up to date with the latest news, and how businesses and brands now operate. there is much more to the world of social media that we have not

Poet Allen Ginsberg once said that “whoever controls the media-the images-controls the culture”, and nothing could be truer than this. Media plays a larger role in society within this generation more than many of us are aware of. It can easily impact people’s lives through aspects such as sports, fashion, movies or hobbies, but unfortunately, one of these impacts is how we view our body. Media constantly posts images and messages promoting a nearly unachievable and unrealistic image of what beauty looks like and it almost always has negative fallout when we struggle to meet this. This is known as an eating disorder. An eating disorder is a psychological sickness that results in dangerous eating habits and both short and long term affects on the body. People with eating disorders generally have a negative perception of their self will try to control their weight through unnecessary dieting, exercising or purging. But how does this illness begin? Social media sites, advertising, celebrities and other forms of media through society are all social pressures that are influencing people to be “perfect” and causing this expanding matter.

We live in a society ruled by the media. At every turn we’re bombarded with images of what a girl is supposed to look like, what she’s supposed to wear, and how she’s supposed to act. Models range from stick thin to plus size, with no representation of average size six girls to be found. All around the world, girls are starving themselves to look a certain way, with terms like “thigh gap” and “collarbones” running rampant in their minds. But why? What are those things really worth?

In America, the words “beautiful”, “fit”, and “thin” are often used to describe someone that has the ideal “perfect” body, everyone’s perception of it can vary and about half of the population has the body that many people adore or aim to have. However, not everyone has or can achieve the ideal body type, some people will go to extreme measures to either gain or lose weight just to feel accepted in today’s society. These dangerous actions can result in a person developing an eating disorder that can alter their lives both physically and mentally. “An eating disorder is an illness that can be defined as having irregular or abnormal eating habits while being concerned about body weight or shape”

As many as 10 million woman and girls suffer from anorexia or bulimia in the United States (Steele). Anorexia and bulimia are very serious eating disorders. Many women and young girls feel that these disorders are the only way for them to be accepted by others. However the strive for acceptance only ends up causing pain, emotional harm, or death to those affected. Being a sufferer of anorexia, I know the emotional and physical damage this disease can cause. The root cause of having an eating disorder is still undetermined, yet some doctors and physiologist believe the new focus on a perfect body, shown by the media is to blame. Society’s portrayal and promotion of a thin body image as the ideal female body contributes to eating

The media’s influence on the development and preservation of eating disorders has dramatically increased in the past decade. This is due to the influx of social media users who are influenced by the thin ideals of others. Social media delivers numerous influencing messages to females “regarding attractiveness, ideal body and shape, self-control, desire, food and weight management” (Munsch, 2014). Frequently, the unhealthy and unnatural body shapes that are shown by the media are often sought out by young women. These unattainable body shapes are easily accesses by simply getting on social media and other various forms of media. A new trend that has exploded on the internet is pro eating disorder websites. These websites usually “involve individuals

In a health care setting there is a lot of pros to the use of social media. More than 1.4 billion adults are overweight and 500 million are considered obese (Christiansen, 2014). A study from Dr.Huntan Ashrafian says that if you use social media people will almost always lose weight along all the study’s shown (Christiansen, 2014). This is a major pro that can help fight obesity in the U.S. Another pro is for research, seeing how teens and young adults

Social media is a variety of platforms provided to the public as a medium for expression and communication. Seemingly, social media could be viewed as a positive contribution to society, but one must consider the underlying effects of society. Many of us don’t take into account the role that social media plays in the way we perceive things, think, and live our lives. Social media plays a critical part in societal norms. “Social norms are rules of conduct that governs interactions among individuals within a reference group. Norm violations can often provoke disapproval and loss of esteem,” (Young, 2007). People seek approval or validation by their peers or other individuals in society; in effect, societal norms are generally abided by many individuals. “People want to be accepted by others in their social environment and often end up conforming to behaviors that they believe the majority holds as appropriate,”(Power, 2011). Often times societal norms create a strong scrutiny of individuals, which in turn can create poor body image, body dissatisfaction, and more. Poor body image and body dissatisfaction can be the basis for development of an eating disorder. “ The best known contributor to both clinical eating disorders and sub clinical cases of disordered eating is negative body image and high body dissatisfaction,”(NEDA). There are various types of eating disorders; “All feature serious disturbances in eating behaviors and weight regulation,” (Eating Disorders: More Than

The influence of social media on eating disorders has caused people to ban social media in their households because of the harmful effects exerted onto so many people. This influence causes girls to take a huge blow to their self esteem. Due to the possible repercussions of social media people have resorted to banning the use of social media within their households, such as Oscar-winning actress Kate Winslet. Winslet told Fox News: “Let your kids climb trees. Take the device out of their hand. Play Monopoly! You go to a cafe and grown-ups are at one end of the table and children the other, on devices, not looking up.” Kate Winslet is not the only one who feels this way; Donna from White Plains, New York was previously a victim of bulimia, a

Social media has now become a part of our modern day society and has a huge impact on our lives on a daily basis. Social media is the use of web and mobile-based technology to support interactive content. This content tends to be user generated and then might be promoted by other users to a new outlet or audience. Social Networking is a great

Obesity is one of the many global epidemics. It impacts all age groups. Childhood obesity is a major public health problem. Considerable research has shown that the media contribute to the development of child and adolescent obesity, although the exact mechanism remains unclear. The aim of this paper is to show the relationship between childhood obesity and social networks. Media use — including time spent watching television, playing video games and using a computer — has been identified as one of the contributing factors. Food and beverage advertising is frequently aired during children’s television programming and much of the foods being advertised are of poor quality. Media use is displacing physical activity as children spend more and more time watching television and playing video games and less time being physically active. In conclusion, it shows the understanding of impact of social media on children to become obese at early ages of life.