Body image dissatisfaction and eating disorders tag with athletes and young women who are stereotyped to be the only groups suffering from body issues.
Young adults in this generation are tagged with the label of eating disorders, and body image obsession. A book called, “The Hidden Faces of Eating Disorders and Body Image.” the stereotypes attached to this generation breaks down and investigates the subjects that cross over on the topic of body image. Subjects such as ethnicity, age and gender. People who fall into the categories are normally those who end up seeing specialists for this particular area.
It’s unfair that young adults are assumed to have body issues based on their body types and their heritage. Assuming someone should have an exotic body type because they’re from or descended from a Pacific Islander because a person on Instagram has a “perfect” body type and is from/descended from the Pacific Islands as an example.
A research study by Jennifer Mills and Jaqueline Hogue have researched the effects social media has on body image and impact on young women in the journal, Body Image. Their experiment divided 118 female undergraduates, having their first group log into Facebook or Instagram for 5 minutes, asking them to find a peer around their age and decide if they were more “attractive” than themselves. In the control group, the women did the same thing, but had to leave a comment on a post of a family member they did not consider more “attractive” than themselves.
The tests showed that the women left/showed they were dissatisfied with their bodies more when comparing their appearance with a peer.
When young adults are dissatisfied with their appearance or athleticism, most would resort to dieting plans and exercise activities to “achieve” a body appearance social media/society will accept as a “good body.”
Diet plans include calorie tracker apps that are supposed to “increase body awareness” for an individual who is trying to lose weight. Tens of millions of people use this method to manage weight, set weight loss goals and log their calorie intake. BBC has investigated calorie counting app users of MyFitnessPal, Lose It! and Lifesum who would post disturbing content on the apps as they updated their food logs for the day.
Phrases such as “I overate and I hate my life” or “starved” after going over 1 kcal of their meal. Lots of these hostile feelings posted on these apps were by the thousands. Anything “over” or “too full” was considered a red flag. It’s been in people’s minds they can’t enjoy regular foods or eat to sustain their strength.
User of an app such as these, Jack Henderson said using his calorie tracking app allowed his eating disorder to spiral out of his hands. “…it really fed into this false warped illusion of control that I was in control–but it was controlling me.” This obsession drives millions of young adults over the edge. The fact they based it off of social media and their peers develops long term mental issues. Many people have been referred to therapy but don’t want to go because they either think they’re fine and that it’s normal on the journey of weight loss or they perceive that they are crazy in their peer’s eyes.
Treatment for new generations should be that they’re educated on how to use social media and how it’s used to make them feel about themselves. In any class, store, car there are people self-conscious about their body image and how they look to other people; if they could have the extra effort of awareness from professionals anything and everything would help.
Reaching out to the young generation, identifying their dilemma would show them they could be linked to stringent dieting, eating disorders, or excessive exercise. Those who are extremely vulnerable to this body image exposure expectation are constantly triggered by social media content. It’s natural people want what others have, some go the extra distance to get it but losing themselves with it.