Should Social Media Be The Increase Of Eating Disorders?

In fact, media is contributing to many false advertisements and unrealistic images that cause eating disorders. Media gives us these false beauty standards by making teens think they have to be thin and tall. Meanwhile, many teens want to be like the models and they try to be thin but instead of doing it the healthy way. The way they do it is to skip meals and that develops eating disorders. For instance, Arnett says, “Marketing and advertisement agencies focus on models such as tall, thin women or a muscular man with a chiseled jawbone when casting for photo shoots and television commercial” (265.) Therefore, we experience and seen is that the media do give us a false beauty standard which makes teens want to do everything that is possible to become like models. This has contributed

Media has greatly evolved since starting, but has bad evolved with it? Print media, digital media, and now social media surround everybody today. Media surround us when we go to the store and see magazines, when we sit and home and watch TV, and especially when we go online. Over time, media has created its own idea of beauty. Medias influence on body image can’t be overlooked. Media and eating disorders have a cause and effect relationship. In Helens article, “Eating Disorders: A growing problem on college campuses”, she expresses that, “In today’s media-saturated world, young women are bombarded with one message: be thin” (Helen, 2014, Paragraph 9). Today media shows that to beautiful you have to be an unhealthy weight. If media doesn’t change its view of beautiful, then the rate of eating disorders triggered by media will go up. We need to figure out a way to help now.

About one in 200 persons in the United States will develop anorexia nervosa at some time. Ninety Percent are women (Anorexia Nervosa—Part 1 1). Anorexia is defined as an emotional disorder characterized by refusing to diet or eat. This is targeting young girls all across the world! This calamity is struck by something every person loves, social media. The media realm needs to be ceased from the websites that support dieting, celebrities displaying perfectionist bodies, and the social media world: their main victim to such disease are young teens. In particular media plays a role in anorexia in young teens because of social media and celebrities, the model industry, and the “thigh gap”.

“Michelle M. Lelwica author of The Religion of Thinness: Satisfying the Spiritual Hungers Behind Women’s Obsession with Food and Weight declared that ‘Thinness is worshipped in American culture. Unrealistic body images are promoted in the media and entertainment resulting in greater numbers of women and men who feel ‘too fat’ and suffer from eating disorders’” (Shell 1). Eating disorders are characterized by abnormal or disturbed eating habits such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating. Eating disorders have several causes including behavioral, psychological, and social factors, and they frequently appear during adolescence or early adulthood, but it may also develop earlier or later in life. In today’s culture media has a more powerful presence than ever before; this causes the individual to be constantly bombarded by what the media portrays as a “good” body. The mass communication transmits both positive and negative messages about body image to the public. The general public unaware of what a positive or negative body image can do in mental and physical health end up trying to meet those unrealistic standards, thus, so inducing harmful lifestyles. Eating disorders can be caused by sociocultural incitements such as unrealistic standards, set by society and culture, and lack of knowledge about positive and negative body image, but regulations and education must be established to help reduce the problems.

The media’s false portrayal of body image has a great influence on the development of eating disorders. There are three types of eating disorders; anorexia nervosa, bulimia, and binge eating. Eating disorders are major issues in today’s society. Instead of people using the media to influence good eating habits, they use it to influence bad eating habits. The numbers of people who have an eating disorder are rising at an alarming rate. It affects not only women, but also men, teens, and young children of all ages. It is not surprising that the number of young children who have an eating disorder is increasing each year. This is an issue that people do not take seriously. The media gets the attention to continue to

Social determinants are another way psychologists research and try to explain disorders like binge eating disorder. The origins and effects of social interactions includes many different example, but social media is one of the most frequently discussed determinant in eating disorders. One specific study asked the question of what the role of media has in the development of eating disorders. The subjects of this study were college women in the western world. In attempts to answer their question, researchers followed the social media exposure of the women, as well as, the measurement of body discontent and the development of eating disorders. The conclusion of this study was that media exposure leads to a desire for thinness, which in return contributed to the development of eating disorders in women of the Western world.

When it comes to disturbances in a person’s diet or food intake where the person is afraid of eating and becoming overweight, it is hard not to feel spiteful towards the media (Spettigue & Henderson, 2004). Many researches have tried to figure out who are the individuals at risk towards the media’s messages. Eating disorders are psychological disorders that are distinguished by abnormal or disturbed eating habits. The most common types of eating disorders are anorexic nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating. Victims of such disorders are usually teenagers who are unhappy with their own body shapes or sizes, especially in females. With the constant evolution of technology, media now plays a huge role in advertising and it seems to be playing a huge role in placing importance on how ideal body shapes should be like.

An eating disorder is any of a range of psychological disorders characterized by abnormal or disturbed eating habits such as anorexia or nervosa. Due to the high volume of time spent on social media from teenage girls encourages them that thin is beautiful and they would take any necessary approaches to live up to that standard. According to a research conducted from the University of Haifa 248 girls ages 12 to 19 found that the “more time girls spend on Facebook, the more they suffered conditions of bulimia, anorexia, physical dissatisfaction, negative approach to eating and more of an urge to be on a weight loss diet.” The media have a huge effect on young women because it is now a part of their everyday lives and it is hard to depart from it because of the easy accessibility that came from cellphones. “The internet and social media have brought us amazing things. The downside, specifically related to the clients with Facebook and Instagram, in particular, is it floods us with images that are very often unrealistic,” said Dr. Constance Quinn. The media can be used for positive things such as marketing, endorsing, and etc., but it does more harm for the young women who look to the internet for conformation of who they could possibly become. The media is a huge source of comparison between celebrities and their peers. “The effect of media on women’s body dissatisfaction, thin ideal internalization, and disorder eating appears to be stronger among young adults than children and adolescents. This may suggest that long-term exposure during childhood and adolescence lays the foundation for the negative effects of media during early childhood.” (National Eating Disorders Association) Spending an ample amount of time on the internet, social media, or watching TV encourage young women to become these “skinny and fit” women and that’s where the eating disorders come in place. Young women don’t correctly diet and also in the midst of dieting

Thirty million eating disorders exist in the United States (Get The, 2013). Thirty million people manipulate their caloric intake and exacerbate their workout regimens. However, this number fails to include the number of people who simply are at fault with their bodies. It does not encompass the number of women who hate their wide hips and the way their thighs gently brush as they climb through life. The statistic disregards the number of women who look in a mirror and are nauseated by what stares back at them. It forgets the number of women who simply do not honor their body as the temple that it is. The twenty-first century brought sweeping waves of technology and the construction of social media, but it brought edited photos, unrealistic

Mass media, especially social media and the internet, exposes people to ideas and information and is a powerful vehicle that can be used both positively and negatively. Its role cannot be underestimated in the influence of current societal attitudes towards eating, body image paradigms and self-esteem.

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 plays an immense role in the way that stereotypes about attractiveness is conveyed in regards to body image. As Gerbner and Gross wrote in 1976, the cultivation theory states that high frequency viewers of television are more susceptible to media messages and the belief that they are real and valid. The subjection to social media can cause an idealistic view amongst young girls and women alike. Among the mechanisms of human agency none is more central or pervasive than beliefs of personal efficacy (Bandura, 1997). This belief that these body types are achievable can lead to females being dissatisfied within their own skin. The result of the discontent can potentially lead to eating disorders. Body dissatisfaction occurs when views of the body are negative and involves a perceived discrepancy between a person 's assessment of their actual and ideal body (Cash and Szymanski, 1995 and Grogan, 2008). It is estimated that approximately 50% of adolescent girls report being unhappy with their bodies (Bearman, Presnell, & Martinez, 2006). Surveys have revealed that the exposure to social media can cause body dissatisfaction, eating disorder symptoms’ and the concept that thin is “beautiful” amongst young girls and women (Botta 1999; Harrison and Hefner 2006; and Stice et al. 1994). With media influence, the question is the strength of the effect, studies indicate the effects are small in scale; they are likely to operate in accordance with particular differences in

Lastly, social media has a negative impact because it can create and encourage mental disorders. It claims “… Fiona Bawdon, a legal journalist, reports on the connection between images of unrealistically thin women in the media and the high rate of body dissatisfaction and eating disorders in girls and women”, as well as “But the final piece of the jigsaw is the social context… Add the media, which celebrate impossibly skinny bodies over all other types, and numbers of sufferers are bound to increase”, and lastly “’You can immerse yourself in this world of other people who have the same exaggerated focus on an unachievable body-image’ says Guarda. ‘The more you look at this stuff, the more likely you are to… increase your preoccupation with

“The attention-grabbing pictures of various high-flying supermodels and actors on different magazine covers and advertisements go a long way in influencing our choices” (Bagley). The media is highly affective to everyone, although they promote an improper image of living. Research proved says those with low self-esteem are most influenced by media. Media is not the only culprit behind eating disorders. However, that does not mean that they have no part in eating disorders. Media is omnipresent and challenging it can halt the constant pressure on people to be perfect (Bagley). Socio-cultural influences, like the false images of thin women have been researched to distort eating and cause un-satisfaction of an individual’s body. However, it

media is an integral part of everyday life and has become a leading player and influence of