“That perfect Instagram photo? Yeah, it took about 17 takes and Photoshop to create” — Holl & Lane Magazine
Social media is deeply ingrained in the day-to-day routines of millions of Americans. About 7 in 10 American adults report being “almost constantly” online or are online “several times a day”, according to a 2019 survey from the Pew Research Center. As such, social media platforms have become the newest and most coveted breeding ground for advertisements, with major corporations and smaller companies alike hoping to capture a small slice of the over 2.3 Billion active social media users worldwide.
Social media has also created the unique advertising phenomenon of the microinfluencer: individuals with tens of thousands of followers on a particular social media channel. Micro-influencers are typically able to interact with their subscribers more frequently via likes and follows than traditional celebrities, and are also much more affordable for brands to hire. Thousands of microinfluencers, ranging from YouTube and Vine stars to reality TV stars, have been able to who have been able to capitalize on their social media capital and endorse products in exchange for payment, flooding the feeds of everyday users with thinly-veiled advertisements.
Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the consumption of traditional and nontraditional advertising alike, and their respective detrimental effects. In 2018, researchers reported that 70 percent of teenagers aged 13–17 check social media several times a day; this number is a drastic increase from just 34 percent in 2012. Another 2018 study demonstrated that students frequently using highly visual social media (HVSM) (> 2 h/day) reported “significantly higher body image concerns and internalizing symptoms than peers reporting no use of HVSM”. A causal link clearly exists between social media consumption and the way a user perceives one’s own body. Recent literature has suggested that female adolescents are the demographic who have displayed the highest social media related body image disorders. Therefore, a more complete understanding of the role of passively consumed social media advertising on young women will hopefully be informative as to how to more appropriately combat the negative aspects of social media on body dysmorphia, while preserving the positive effects the platforms have to offer.
The “Ideal” Body
Concepts such as the “thin-ideal” are not new to mass media. The ideal marketed body size has shifted away from the Marilyn-esque 6–8 popular in favor of a Twiggy-like 2–4. The models favored in traditional advertising are hardly representative of the average woman; the average waist size of an American woman today is 38.7 inches (which roughly translates to a size 18–20) in 2020. The conversation surrounding women’s beauty on social media is largely “solution” based, as the fashion and beauty industries often offer up clothing and makeup to “fix” oneself.
Psychologist Dr. Vivian Diller states “Photoshopping and airbrushing, many believe, are now an inherent part of the beauty industry, as are makeup, lighting and styling”. The widespread accessibility of photo editing in the 21st century, in addition to the propagation of the thin-ideal by the beauty and clothing industries have sadly cemented an unrealistic body image as the norm.
High end beauty companies such as Louis Vuitton, Fenty, an French fashion house Balmain have taken the concept of the “ideal woman” to the next level by advertising with CGI generated models.
“The new virtual troops reflect the same beautiful diverse mix, strong confidence and eagerness to explore new worlds” — Balmain, via Twitter
A 2018 JAMA report stated filtered images “present an unattainable look and are blurring the line of reality and fantasy”. Current technology exacerbates the presence of retouched images which are displayed on social media. In the 21st century, anybody with a smartphone can instantly edit and modify their pictures with a level of sophistication that used to exclusively reserved for the likes of supermodels and celebrities. However, the influence of the social media “thin-ideal” spread past the digital worlds of Photoshop and Facetune and has come to impact real world beauty modifications. Citing Snapchat filters and other methods of digital modification as inspiration, more people are undergoing plastic surgery; this phenomenon has come to become known as Snapchat dysmorphia.
These body dysmorphic disorders are so severe that governments are getting involved. In 2009, French Parliament member Valerie Boyer, suggested that “all published images that are digitally enhanced” come with a warning that reads, “Retouched photograph aimed at changing a person’s physical appearance.” However, a simple warning may not be enough. In 2014, a study demonstrated simply “telling” children/adolescents that edited images are altered them is not enough to combat body dysmorphic effects of the images. More specifically, “Objectified body consciousness increased and physical self-esteem decreased among … female adolescents.” The “perceived realism’ of doctored can often strengthen the effects of the photography; this is known as the Boomerang Effect.
Influencer and Celebrity Culture
Unwilling consumption of targeted advertisements is not the only way young females are exposed to the “ideal” body image. Rather, much of it is deliberate, through the following of celebrity and microinfluencer accounts. Accounts like these routinely post imagery of “cheat meals”, “fitspiration”, or even just glamorous (often doctored) bikini shots. These images are actually more influential on one’s body-image perception; girls comparing themselves to images of celebrities on social media has been related to body-image dissatisfaction and a “drive for thinness”. In addition, it has been shown that celebrity worship “moderated an increased effect of celebrity images on body dissatisfaction.”
Interestingly, this response is actually rooted in evolutionary biology. Via advertising, women have been exposed to a “number of unrealistically provocative female models”, which take them through “needless reinforcement of indirect aggression responses.” This reinforcement, in turn, may “promote an unhealthy culture of indirect aggression among women, by magnifying the frequency and intensity of the behaviors which are characteristic of female intrasexual competition.” In the 21st century, this does not manifest as physical aggression, but instead engagement in unhealthy dieting or exercise strategies to try and achieve “the celebrity ideal” they so often come across in their social media feeds.
Real Life Implications
So why has social media had such detrimental effects since it’s recent conception, when the the “thin-ideal” has been perpetuated for years through traditional marketing? Sadly, the answer is the very characteristic which instigated its popularity: speed. “Mainstreaming of thin body imagery is also facilitated by the much more public nature of Instagram, its easy searchability and the speed at which large volumes of images are shared across multiple hashtags of varying relevance”. Given that 10 million new photographs are uploaded to Facebook alone every hour, it is clear that social media provides women with a platform for (albeit subconsciously) engaging in appearance-related superficial social comparisons.
Recognizing the harmful features built into their platforms, social media companies have taken action to mitigate the backlash. For example, Instagram banned accounts, images or hashtags “dedicated to glorifying, promoting, or encouraging self-harm” in 2012. More recently in 2019, Instagram and Facebook both blocked users under age 18 from seeing posts that promote certain weight loss products/cosmetic procedures. “We’re re-evaluating our policies — we want our filters to be a positive experience for people,” an Instagram spokesman stated in 2019.
Personally? The jury is still out as to how effective these measures truly are.
Body Positive Communities on Social Media
A grassroots trend has emerged among social media users known as “body positivity” (BoPo). Body positivity aims to support all body types, while challenging the external, often unrealistic, beauty standards imposed on women. #bodypositive has over 8 million posts on Instagram alone,. These posts often feature women displaying their “imperfections”, empowering words, and photos focusing on the functionality of the body rather than physical perfection.
Studies have shown that brief exposure to body positive social media content (vs. “idealized” or even neutral content) has improved self-perceived body image in young women, in addition to their moods.
Examples of body positive communities on social media include I-Weigh (founded by the Good Place’s Jameela al-Jamil), which has over 15K followers to date, and mybodygallery, which attempts to “change the way women see themselves, one photograph at a time”. While social media advertising content may often be flawed in its impacts on young women, I am confident that body positive communities are a step in the right direction.
Power to the Consumer!
Wait — so social media isn’t completely evil?
I do not believe social media operates on a binary of “positive” or “negative” mental health. It has been shown that social media can positively impact body image through health, wellness, food, and body-positivity accounts as sources of community and inspiration.
Unlike traditional mass media consumers, social media users hold unique power in that they are able to tailor their feeds through following specific individuals, and are able to create their own media content for others to view.
We as consumers need to be more cautious of the content we choose to follow, and vigilant about the content we are forced to view; spreading awareness to the toxic effects of social media content that is passively consumed, particularly advertisements and posts from influencers with very specific agendas, might help other social media users “curate” a social media experience that helps built a healthy positive body image.
Works Cited
Cohen, R., Fardouly, J., Newton-John, T., & Slater, A. (2019). # BoPo on Instagram: An experimental investigation of the effects of viewing body positive content on young women’s mood and body image. New Media & Society, 21(7), 1546–1564.
Coy-Dibley, I. (2016). “Digitized Dysmorphia” of the female body: the re/disfigurement of the image. Palgrave Communications, 2(1), 1–9.
Ging, D., & Garvey, S. (2018). ‘Written in these scars are the stories I can’t explain’: A content analysis of pro-ana and thinspiration image sharing on Instagram. New Media & Society, 20(3), 1181–1200.
Harrison, K., & Hefner, V. (2014). Virtually perfect: Image retouching and adolescent body image. Media Psychology, 17(2), 134–153.
Marengo, D., Longobardi, C., Fabris, M. A., & Settanni, M. (2018). Highly-visual social media and internalizing symptoms in adolescence: The mediating role of body image concerns. Computers in Human Behavior, 82, 63–69.
Pila, E., Mond, J. M., Griffiths, S., Mitchison, D., & Murray, S. B. (2017). A thematic content analysis of# cheatmeal images on social media: Characterizing an emerging dietary trend. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 50(6), 698–706.
Sidani, J. E., Shensa, A., Hoffman, B., Hanmer, J., & Primack, B. A. (2016). The association between social media use and eating concerns among US young adults. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 116(9), 1465–1472.
