Social Media & Body Image

Social media is a big part of all our lives, whether you came upon this blog by clicking a link from our social media page directly, or you are indirectly affected by it with the person on your lunch break putting their phone in your face to watch the latest challenge or funny video doing the rounds on the various sites. It is out there and it’s hard to get away from.

Social media is a great tool. It allows us to keep in touch with loved ones on the other side of the world with post updates and pics. You can share experiences with friends and family in real time with live features, and show people you would never normally reach what you have seen with hashtags and location tagging. It all sounds great, and it is, but it does have an ugly side. Especially when it comes to fitness and body image.

Unrealistic expectations, FOMO ( Fear of Missing Out ), negative body Image, anxiety, depression, unhealthy sleep patterns, envy & general addiction are all things that have been discovered from various studies focusing on Social Media usage.(*3)

“Spending too long on social networking sites could be adversely affecting your mood. In fact, you’re more likely to report poor mental health, including symptoms of anxiety and depression”. (*2) (Anya Zhukova, Makeuseof.com)

In a 2015 Study by the University of Copenhagen's Department of Sociology. 1095 people,  86% of which were women, were involved in the experiment to find out if Facebook had an affect on the users quality of life.

The group were split in half and asked to rate different aspects of their lives on a scale between 1 and 10, examples like: the extent to which they experienced negative feelings of concern, loneliness, anger or positive feelings such as happiness and enjoyment. (*4)

One group were asked to continue their usage as normal, the other was asked to completely stop using Facebook for one week.

At the end of the week researchers asked the groups to again rate the same aspects of their lives using the same scale. The group that had a break from the social media platform showed an increase with a general satisfaction of life, they were happier, felt they could concentrate better and did not waste as much time as they did previously before the experiment. The researchers also asked about negative emotions and there was a drop in feelings of Anger, Sadness, Depression & Loneliness. (*4)

As an average daily user you will be bombarded with posts containing perfect physiques, booty shots, gym selfies, picturesque locations, big mansions, beautifully decorated rooms & amazing sports cars, this is the high polished and extreme filtered version of life, it’s not real. When we are constantly exposed to celebrity lives or the best version of everything as well as the media’s image of what is beautiful and what success looks like we start to make comparisons.  These comparisons can lead to poor mental health or some of the aforementioned findings from the various studies, including a poor body image.

I would like to conduct my own experiment and ask you to really ask yourself if the people or the companies you are following are inspiring and motivating you or giving you negative feelings?

“SOCIAL MEDIA IS A NON STOP GREAT NEWS CHANNEL. A CONSTANT FLOW OF EDITED LIVES WHICH DISTORTS OUR PERCEPTION OF REALITY. ” “ THE HAPPINESS RESEARCH INSTITUTE

I’m sure some or even most of these people & pages have the best intentions, but when they post that six pack pic, that booty pic, that pic in the amazing location/house/car/room for the latest £300 handbag/perfume/bikini or the pic of the “perfect breakfast” How does it make you feel? Inspired?, Negative?, Like your missing out?, Like your involved?, Envious?, Happy? Look at the post, does it help you grow, is it aimed at you or is it a post of look at me, look what I have, look how rubbish my posts make you feel!

Here are 5 easy to follow tips to ensure you have a better experience with the social network sites.

1. Try and avoid using social media an hour or two before your go to sleep.

2. Aim for a daily limit on your social media time to around 30 minutes a day or have days where you are not on it at all.

3. Any post or pages that make you feel like you are not good enough or that you should look/dress/be a certain way resulting in it having a negative affect on your mental health, block or delete the page.

4. Follow organisations that promote a positive body images and positive self esteem for e.g. Eating Disorder Hope, National Eating Disorder Association, Proud2Bme, *(5)

5. Use or search positive #HASHTAGS see https://www.bustle.com/articles/79764-11-empowering-body-positive-hashtags-that-inspire-us-to-love-our-bodies-and-everyone-elses-too for examples and put out positive messages.

   
   

   I will leave you with a wee quote from James Smith, Love him or hate him he does state the facts

“When you walk past a Ferrari you never start comparing your Ford Fiesta to it, but when you go on Instagram you are comparing yourself to other people. You are comparing yourself to the top 0.0001% of the top physiques in the world. Comparison is the thief of joy! Compare you to you” (James Smith PT)