The Relationship Between Instagram and Body Dissatisfaction

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Instagram is solely photos, and it is the most popular social media platform. Because Instagram is so popular, it can lead to even more to body dissatisfaction than other social media platforms. A woman who has struggled with an eating disorder was interviewed about Instagram and she wrote, “Instagram makes me so anxious. I’m always looking at other women thinking ‘I wished I looked like that’, or ‘I should get more in shape’... I mean, young girls can now follow Victoria secret models and see what they look like in the ‘every day’. … That has got to make any women, let alone a 12-year-old girl, feel unsure about herself” (Makwana, Lee, Parkin, & Farmer, 2018).

The woman even revealed that she deletes selfies if they don’t get enough likes. The thing is, if teens are getting a lot of likes, they are going to like social media. The bad thing is teens are so engulfed in social media, that when one of their photos doesn’t get enough likes, they will lose their minds. Teens will delete their picture if it doesn’t get enough likes because they will think they look ugly, etc. I am guilty of doing that myself.

Even these ‘fitspiration’ pages on Instagram objectify women. Makwana, Lee, Parkin, and Farmer wrote, “some researchers suggest that even the mere act of watching fitspiration on Instagram can lead to unhealthy eating and exercise behaviors” (2018). An experiment was conducted by them where they tested 130 women and randomly exposed them to fitspiration or travel images. Scientists found that the appearance-based pictures of fitspiration had a negative impact on mood, body image, and self-esteem on the women. I am also guilty of this. I will go on Instagram and look at fitness models’ pages and feel horrible about my body. I will then go to the gym and barely eat 2 meals a day, because I feel like my body isn’t good enough. The research along with the conclusion from the experiment and being able to personally relate to these negative effects from Instagram, further show that these negative effects are very much real on social media.