Body Image and Media Literacy in Education
About Social Media and Body Image
Here you will find background information on body image and the links to social media.
See the lesson ideas and other resources tabs for how to implement media literacy into your class.
See the references tab for the evidence behind all this!
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What is Body Image?
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Body image is a person’s perception of their physical self and the thoughts and feelings, positive, negative or both which result from that perception (National Eating Disorders Collaboration, 2020). Body image includes the picture of your body, which may or may not actually match your body’s size and shape.
Positive or healthy body image is feeling happy or content with your body and accepting the way you look, your body size and shape. Negative, poor or unhealthy body image is feeling dissatisfied or unhappy with how you look, and often wanting to change your body size or shape (Raising Children, 2019).
Positive body image protects against developing eating disorders, improves self-esteem, self-acceptance and positive health behaviours (National Eating Disorders Collaboration, 2020).
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Poor body image can increase the risk of developing an eating disorder, increases the risk of developing depression and other mental illnesses and reduces the likelihood of developing and maintaining positive health behaviours like healthy eating and exercise, and even sun smart protection (Fardouly & Vartanian, 2016; Mingoia, Hutchinson, Gleaves, Corsini, & Wilson, 2017).
Body Image and Eating Disorder facts
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Adolescents with poor body image are less likely to take part in healthy levels of regular exercise and can be more likely to overexercise
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Poor body image can lead to low self-esteem and increase the risk of depression
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Poor body image is one of the strongest predictors of developing an eating disorder
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Eating disorders are the third most common chronic illness in young women
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Eating disorders have some of the highest mortality rates of all mental illnesses
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Eating disorders have a substantial cost to both the health system and individuals – in 2012 it was estimated that the total socioeconomic cost of eating disorders in Australia was $69.7 billion
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Eating disorders most often develop during adolescence – so this is the time to make a difference
(Cash & Pruzinsky, 2004; Grigg, Bowman, & Redman, 1996; National Eating Disorders Collaboration, 2020; S. J. Paxton et al., 2012; Yeo & Hughes, 2011)
How does media impact Body Image?
Poor body image or body dissatisfaction can be influenced by several external factors, such as others own body image, cultural expectations and media. The relationship between media, poor body image and eating disorder risk has been well studied over the past few decades (Harrison & Cantor, 1997; Morris & Katzman, 2003; Spettigue & Henderson, 2004). Studies have shown that media such as magazines and advertisements promote thinness, diets and contribute to body dissatisfaction and unsafe weight control methods, particularly amongst young women. Young men are also affected, through advertising of “ideal” body shape (slender and muscular), contributing to steroid misuse, intense exercise and eating disorders (Child Mind Institute, 2020; Pope, Khalsa, & Bhasin, 2017).
Social media and body image:
More recently, the impact of social media on body image, nutrition and health status has been researched. Social media use is different to traditional sources of media such as print magazines and television, as it is a projection of ourselves to the world instead of models or celebrities, is often an idealised and stylised version of ourselves and can be edited at the click of a button (Fardouly & Vartanian, 2016). Social media is also made for sharing and commenting on, allowing peers to comment on or share photos of each other, contributing to social comparison.
The number of social media accounts youth have and length of time spent on social media are both correlated with higher body dissatisfaction, higher drive for thinness, body surveillance and body control behaviours (such as dieting, exercise) in both boys and girls (Fardouly & Vartanian, 2016; Saiphoo & Vahedi, 2019; Wilksch, O’Shea, Ho, Byrne, & Wade, 2020).
Social networking use has also been associated with more sun exposure and less sun protection in Australian youth, putting young people at significant risk of developing skin cancer (Mingoia et al., 2017).
How does social media impact body image?
Social media can impact body image by:
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Promoting one body type (thin, white, cisgender and heterosexual, and muscular, athletic and tanned for men)
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Contributing to social comparison and body surveillance
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Promoting dangerous weight control methods
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Allowing easy manipulation of images (e.g. snapchat filters, photo filters on Instagram)
(Fardouly & Vartanian, 2016; Wilksch et al., 2020).