Body image dissatisfaction and eating disorders tag with athletes and young women who are stereotyped to be the only groups suffering from body issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Young adults in this generation are tagged with the label of eating disorders, and body image obsession. A book called, \u201cThe Hidden Faces of Eating Disorders and Body Image.\u201d 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s 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\u2019re from or descended from a Pacific Islander because a person on Instagram has a \u201cperfect\u201d body type and is from\/descended from the Pacific Islands as an example. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/em>. 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 \u201cattractive\u201d 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 \u201cattractive\u201d than themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The tests showed that the women left\/showed they were dissatisfied with their bodies more when comparing their appearance with a peer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When young adults are dissatisfied with their appearance or athleticism, most would resort to dieting plans and exercise activities to \u201cachieve\u201d a body appearance social media\/society will accept as a \u201cgood body.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Phrases such as \u201cI overate and I hate my life\u201d or \u201cstarved\u201d after going over 1 kcal of their meal. Lots of these hostile feelings posted on these apps were by the thousands. Anything \u201cover\u201d or \u201ctoo full\u201d was considered a red flag. It\u2019s been in people\u2019s minds they can\u2019t enjoy regular foods or eat to sustain their strength. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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. \u201c…it really fed into this false warped illusion of control that I was in control–but it was controlling me.\u201d 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\u2019t want to go because they either think they\u2019re fine and that it\u2019s normal on the journey of weight loss or they perceive that they are crazy in their peer\u2019s eyes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Treatment for new generations should be that they\u2019re educated on how to use social media and how it\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s natural people want what others have, some go the extra distance to get it but losing themselves with it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n