Eating Disorders And Social Media

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Conor Flynn Professor Rowe Writing for College 2 May 2016 Eating Disorders and Social Media A balanced diet and daily 40 minutes of exercise is a standard, explicit, recommendation by doctors to upkeep health. Between sports, going to the gym, and everyday activities, keeping a healthy body is simple as well as beneficial to an individual. Looking fit and being in shape is something that the average person is concerned about. But what happens when this is taken too far? What happens when the pressures of looking skinny overcomes actually being healthy? Body image has plagued the minds of teenagers and young adults across the world. Social media in contemporary American culture has an immense impact on the body image of young women, oftentimes …show more content…

With social media sites like Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, etc. it is easy to find this message. “Social media, unlike conventional media, also provides a virtual forum for fat talk, conversational threads about one's own and other's eating and exercise habits, weight concerns and ideal body shapes, thus serving to intensify the influence of AC [Appearance Comparison] on BID [Body Image Dissatisfaction]”(Cohen). The amount of body dissatisfaction developed from American society forces the ideal attractive body image to change. “Throughout history, the ideal of beauty has been difficult to achieve and has been shaped by social context. Current mass media is ubiquitous and powerful, leading to increased body dissatisfaction among…women”(Derenne). Eating disorders, such as bulimia and anorexia, develop during ages 15 to 24. This is the same time that the use of Social media is at its peak. “A complex mixture of physical, psychological, and societal factors, eating disorders afflicts some 30 million Americans at some point in their life”, according to statistics from the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA). But the rise of social media has exacerbated eating disorder behaviors through sharing so-called “thinspirational” messages like “Pretty girls don’t eat,” reinforcing obsessions through competition and comparisons, and gaining easy approval for behaviors”

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