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Discussing social media and its influence on people’s views on body image, clinical psychologist Dr. Cortney S. Warren emphasized just how widely used it is around the world; according to Pew Research Center’s data from 2023, more than 80% of adults in the US use YouTube, nearly 70% use Facebook, and close to 50% spend their time browsing Instagram.
“Social media is just one among many types of media that communicate cultural values and ideals—including interactive experiences and reflections of beauty ideals. As such, social media use and interaction often negatively influences people's body image,” she pointed out.
“In general, mainstream American culture holds some strong values that can harm people’s body image. For example, physical appearance is central to a person’s value—that how you look really matters tremendously to how valuable you are as a human being,” the expert said.
“Furthermore, the ideal appearance is very specific and rigid. For women, it’s a thin, fit, youthful body with clear skin and light eyes. For men, it’s a muscular, tough, handsome figure with no fat.
“Finally, there is tremendous pressure to attain the ideal—it’s your responsibility to meet the ideal (or at least, try to) and much of our marketing is aimed at making you feel bad so you will buy products or diet to attain the ideal.”
According to Dr. Warren, our sociocultural values and ideals regarding appearance value beauty and physical appearance so profoundly that staying positive when you don’t look like the perfect person becomes difficult at best. In addition to that, it often sets people on an endless journey to attain an ideal body, which simply can’t be done.
“In essence, our body becomes ‘a project to fix’ instead of a part of us to embrace, appreciate, and love. This fuels weight-based shaming, teasing, and bullying over body image and appearance, all of which sometimes happens in social media contexts,” Warren said.
“All of these factors can interact to put someone—especially young girls—at increased risk for eating disorder symptoms like binge eating, body dissatisfaction, restrictive eating, body image distortion, chronic dieting, and thin-ideal internalization.”
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In the age of “perfect people” on social media and unrealistic beauty standards, photo editing tools are crucial to many. But with a large number of people editing their pictures before posting, the features that make us human—such as wrinkles or stretch marks, for instance—are slowly disappearing.
“The more photo-edited an image is, the more unrealistic our ideals of beauty become because most people see them as ‘real’ even when no one actually looks like the image; not even professional models,” Dr. Warren pointed out.
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In addition to professional models, celebrities, too, tend to not look like themselves in pictures vs real life, as their pics often go through quite a lot of editing. Though some of them are actively trying to shatter the unrealistic beauty standards.
“Some celebrities explicitly request not to be edited or state when they see an image of themselves that ‘doesn’t look like them’ because of photo editing,” Warren pointed out. “This transparency, along with efforts by some celebrities to show themselves without makeup in their natural environment, can be powerful in dispelling beauty myths.”
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“How can people stay positive about their body and appearance despite social media messages and social interactions that cause body dissatisfaction and distress? There are a number of tools and strategies that can help,” the expert in clinical psychology told Bored Panda, pointing out that the first step is noticing and challenging negative self-talk. “Any time you notice you’re being self-critical of your body, pause. Stop yourself from being judgmental towards yourself or others.”
The next step is reducing exposure to people and media that make you feel bad. “If you notice looking at fashion media or being around certain people who are highly critical of their body makes you feel worse, it’s perfectly healthy to set a boundary and limit your exposure.”
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Thirdly, it’s important to embrace gratitude for your body and other aspects of yourself. “Take time to appreciate all of the wonderful aspects of your body and your appearance. In addition, remember to build your self-esteem around aspects of yourself that have nothing to do with your looks.
“Try not to compare yourself to others who you think represent the best (people or media images),” Warren continued. “Try to focus on yourself without comparing your looks to models, media images, or even friends and family who you think represent “the best” because it often will make you feel worse about yourself.”
Finally, she emphasized that it’s important to focus on health, not weight. “The journey of life is a long one. The goal really is to be as healthy as possible, but we’re very focused on weight in this cultural context. If you want to use a scale to track your weight, don’t do it more than once a week. If it’s very triggering, perhaps don’t do it at all for now until you feel unaffected by the number that appears.”