For years, women have been subjected to society’s extreme and unrealistic beauty standards. Through movies, TV, and magazines, the primarily thin ideal has been impressed upon women, especially young women. While men also struggle with these beauty standards and norms, the standards for women are far more perverse, resulting in the widespread development of eating disorder (ED) culture. With the development of social media, this ED culture is readily accessible, and increasingly so. While research has suggested that social media and the internet have opened up platforms for fat acceptance and body positivity movements, the overwhelming consensus by researchers has been that greater media exposure has had a positive correlation with disordered eating habits and body dysmorphia, particularly in young girls and women. Even preceding digital and more ubiquitous forms of media, women were the primary group impacted by unrealistic beauty standards as they were constantly being bombarded by the unrealistic and borderline unhealthy images seen in magazines, movies, and TV. With the invention of social media, these standards have been projected everywhere and are always accessible, meaning more and more women, and especially young women as they are more likely to use social media, are struggling with self-esteem and body image issues, often resulting in disordered eating patterns. Social media and the resulting constant exposure to unhealthy and unrealistic images of women who are esteemed as the beauty ideal is especially damaging for teen girls as self-esteem is already fragile and minds are particularly impressionable during this time. Thus, the converging biological and environmental factors likely increased eating disorder diagnoses, as well as general mental health issues. Although social media does provide space for body positivity and acceptance movements, it is overwhelmingly detrimental to the mental health and body image of young girls (ages 10-24) as it projects a false narrative to impressionable minds, worsening the body image of young girls and reinforcing any possible doubts or uncertainties about their already fragile body image.

This topic has been in the news recently as Facebook has been conducting research for years regarding its impact on teen mental health and body image. The company found that Instagram and Facebook both make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls and one in five teens saying Instagram makes them feel worse about themselves (Wall Street Journal), despite these companies' public denial that these sites make mental health worse. Thus, it is primarily on these companies to not only recognize the damage they cause but also rework their platforms to be less damaging in general. The link to the referenced article about this topic is here if you would like to read more, as well as a link to resources to help in eating disorder recovery here.