The Role of Social Media in the Development of Eating Disorders

Topic Explanation

Each generation has been confronted with different standards of what "attractive" people look like. Since about the 1990's, since the rise of supermodels, the standard has been thin. There has been very little representation of bodies that are not very thin, toned, white women. Women, and men, are told and shown a standard that does not represent the majority of people on the planet. This standard is different for the genders, but there is one for male and female.

The standard is told to us by celebrities, Hollywood, fashion companies, makeup companies.

Many of the examples in a magazine or advertisement for the standard are not what the model looks like. The model may be tall and thin (many times underweight) and they are edited. The women are made up with professional makeup products by a professional makeup artist. They are put in the best poses to emphasize certain areas while minimizing others. At the end, the photos are edited to remove anything that wasn't fixed by the other tactics.

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The final product is all people see. So, they show an unrealistic, and unachievable standard. The magazine also gives unhealthy tips to achieve the given standard. These tips are diet tips, and diets create unhealthy relationships with food that often lead to eating disorders.

Eating disorders are mental disorders focused on weight, body image, food intake and situational control. They primarily occur in young women, but can occur in men and people of varying ages. "Eating disorders are among the deadliest mental illnesses, second only to opioid overdose. 10,200 deaths each year are the direct result of an eating disorder-that's one death every 52 minutes" (ANAD.org). So, if eating disorders are so deadly and damaging, why are people falling into it? Eating disorders do not start that way, because they are gradual.

They start with thoughts of inadequacy. "I feel bigger than my peers, so I want to lose a little bit of weight," or "Women on the magazines are getting attention, so I want to be like them." Adolescents are vulnerable to this when they are discovering who they are. Adolescents want to fit in and feel connected. If they are told by media to do that via dieting, they will. Eating disorders effect a large population, "28.8 million Americans will have an eating disorder in their lifetime"

The internet and social media are avenues for people to share thoughts with likeminded people through text, videos and photos. According to the Pew Research Center, social media users have risen from 5% in 2005 to 72% by 2011, the majority of which are 18-29 year olds. Young people spend a large chunk of their day online.

Many people feel connected to others through online means, and post their lives online. There is a lot of pressure to have an online presence, and to have a similar online presence to others online. It is important to be popular online to many people, and a lot of time and energy is spent cultivating an online life. Celebrities set the stage for what is popular, but do it on their social media accounts. Many non-celebrity people want the same attention and model their own lives and social media accounts to match what celebrities are doing. Their posts are about their body, their makeup, hair, clothing, diet, and exercise routines. To have a popular profile, you need to do what the popular accounts are doing.

This is school-house peer pressure on an exponential scale. Like the magazine example mentioned previously, there is manipulation of reality. People only post the single best, posed, photo out of 20, and then proceed to edit that photo further. The content of the photo plus how the photo is edited is the recipe for a popular photo. Focusing on hair or makeup is one thing, but emphasizing what a proper body looks like, creates a toxic environment. Celebrities with millions of views and likes on a specific photo emphasizing a specific body type, leads women and girls to believe that to achieve that level of attention, they need to have that same body.

It is common knowledge that these celebrities have plenty of resources and time to focus on molding their body and environment. They have a lot of help to achieve the body in the photo which also was further edited before the photo was even posted. Many people know this, but are still effected by this negatively. People still get into an unhealthy relationship with food and exercise. This environment of comparison has led to numerous people feeling not enough and harming themselves in the pursuit of achieving what a celebrity has. The western world has made thinness, and more recently extreme fitness and health, with being worthy and successful.

There is another level to this that is not the stereotypical celebrity. There is a phenomenon online called influencing. Influencers are "average" people on the internet documenting their day, more specifically the best or trendy parts. They show what they are wearing, what products they use, what they do all day. I think these people and this environment started off as fun or entertaining, but has now lead to an even more toxic mindset in people than celebrities. These people are perceived as every-day people. They are not multimillionaires, but some girl attending college.

Their lifestyle seems attainable if you just live your day just like they are in the video or photos. Young men and women watch these videos or scroll through an account, and see that they are getting plenty of attention and admiration. The viewers often want this attention as well, and feel pressure to look and act like them. People will follow other people's example to fit in. If that is a specific body type, and there are tips online to achieve that, people will follow it. Almost all of these tips are not healthy, physically or mentally. They focus on results and how to achieve them. Some of these people struggle with eating disorders themselves, and are not the best people to be showing their lifestyle to others.

If they achieve their body based off unhealthy eating and over exercise, they will show that online. People see that and copy them. The way society tells us what proper bodies are supposed to look like, almost provides "proof" that it is the proper way to eat and live. That seems like a bold assumption about those people, but as someone who has had an eating disorder for over 10 years, it becomes easy to recognize people with the same behaviors.

Case Study

My eating disorder began partially in middle school. I was always an underweight child due to genetics. My friends went through puberty and developed as such. I remember a specific time where in a fight with my friend, she insulted me by calling me anorexic. She was heavily made fun of for her body, and I knew she was insulting me as a projection. Society tells women that what I looked like as a child was right, and what she looked like was wrong.

My discomfort escalated my senior year of high school. My boyfriend at the time ended our relationship so he could pursue another girl in our class. I perceived her as better looking and smaller than me, and that kicked off over 10 years of anorexia. The following year I was paired with a girl that also had an eating disorder. We did not get along and she moved out of the room. I did not have friends in college and I did not leave my room. During this time I found eating disorder communities on social media. These sites were sources of connection to other people that felt how I felt.

The eating disorder communities encourage triggering each other in hopes that you lose as much weight as possible. Many posts give tips and guides on how to keep going efficiently and often in secret. Some posts encourage participating in these behaviors to get sick enough to pass away. This environment is not as much about not eating, but more about achieving acceptance and love. As mentioned earlier, there is a standard of what you are supposed to look like. If you do not look like that, it is assumed that you will not be accepted. Many people in the community believe that they would rather die trying to achieve that standard than risk not being accepted and loved. I still battle feeling this way, and participating in these behaviors and thoughts.

Disagreement

The first amendment of the United States Constitution states that people are free to "express themselves without government interference or regulation" (law.cornell.edu). The first amendment allows people to say or write anything they want, as long as it is not a lie or intended to cause violence. In regard to the internet the American Civil Liberties Union, fights to have the first amendment apply to the internet. "We brought the first case in which the U.S. Supreme Court declared speech on the Internet equally worthy of the First Amendment's historical protections.

In that case, Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, the Supreme Court held that the government can no more restrict a person's access to words or images on the Internet" (ACLU.org). In December 2017 Tumblr.com, in accordance with Apple's regulations, banned and removed all pornographic content on its platform (Rosenberg 2018). That ban on adult content effected the community as well, but did not remove it entirely. Instead they added a transparent alert asking if the viewer of the tag is okay, mentioning eating disorder recovery resources, and the phone number for a suicide hotline. This alert can be canceled and the user can continue on with the content. With the protection of the constitution and no concern of social media admins, why is it a big deal that people use it?

An article done by Brittany Bohrer, Una Foye, and Tom Jewell, submitted in the National Institute of Health Research, explores the benefit of social media in eating disorder recovery. Their research and sources indicate that social media provides support and resources for suffering individuals. "Eating disorder recovery and remission estimates range between 25% and 84%" (Bohrer, Foye, Jewell, 2020). There is a large gap because the definition of recovery is not measurable and is subjective. They found that there was previously not enough data regarding eating disorder recovery. These online communities are helping to define recovery in this field. With a better definition, there can be better support.

For some people, these communities are the only thing they have in regard to friendship. If they did not have their account and the connection to others, they would be completely alone. That aloneness is extremely distressing. Losing their account could cause someone to hurt themselves. Leaving the accounts and tags up is better than the alternative.

Some people would argue that free speech entitles people to post anything and everything. Other people would believe that the recovery community online far outweighs the negative aspects. That would be true if the majority of posts were about recovery.

"Encouragingly, pro-ana was in the minority" (Branley, Covey 2017). From my experience, recovery posts are the minority. People teach others how to starve successfully, and hide it from their families and friends. Eating disorders are deadly, and it is not a free speech issue. It is a physical and mental health emergency.

Many people do not realize that the majority of people in the communities, or online are underage. Teenagers with accounts, going into these tags, teaching each other how to do be successful in this. Children are getting this disease, and are victims of it into adulthood and or until they die from it. Adults that have this issue pass it onto their children. Children see the behavior of their adults and model it into their own lives. This does not affect just one individual, the buck does not stop there. This environment is multi-generational.

A way to combat this has to do with mental health treatment. Historically mental health problems are considered to be shameful and kept secret. Therefore, mental health treatment has lagged behind. Mental health services are often inaccessible due to finances or location. Combined with the social stigma, many people will not seek or receive help.

An article written by Sara Heath for Patientengagementhit.com says, "Limited health insurance access or in- network care are keeping many patients from visiting a mental healthcare professional. And even when a patient can find an affordable provider who will accept insurance, clinician shortages, fragmented care, and societal stigma are getting in the way of adequate care access." People with eating disorders are more complicated because they don't believe they need care, do not want to receive care, or both. However, easier access and working with the community to end stigma will reduce mental health problems like eating disorders.

Another way to combat this is a societal change. Society is hyper focused on material and physical reasons for worth. The only way you can be worth anything is to have money, have a perfect body, have a nice house, have a nice car, go on vacation, and have numerous friends. There is very little focus on, as Dr. Martin Luther King says "the content of their character.” When people compliment others, it almost always consists of body related content.

There is an emphasis on complimenting the physical, which makes the physical the most important. The emphasis needs to change to what people are capable of, how they treat others, and how they treat themselves. It needs to be less important as to what someone looks like and more of what kind of person they are. Social media is not going anywhere, but these changes can lead to a healthier online environment.