Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, many people find themselves experiencing social isolation due to quarantines and limited social interaction with friends and family.
Even without experiencing quarantines, COVID-19 has changed life as they know it for millions of Americans. With the abnormal time being spent at home, many people find themselves spending copious amounts of time on their electronics.
Senior Addie Menke recently self-quarantined and dealt with the impacts of excessive phone usage. “With being at home I was spending a lot more time on my phone,” she explained. “It was just very hard to go that long without being able to see friends and feel connected to the world and knowing there wasn’t anything I could do to change or control what was going on around me.”
Social media negatively alters many individuals’ perceptions of their body image through promoting unrealistic beauty standards. “The media plays a vital role in formulating what is attractive in society, increasing the thin beauty ideal among females being unattainable [29,30],” the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health reported. “This contradiction between what society portrays as a role model and the real body that many young women have has resulted in body concerns.”
Previously, social media fostered body confidence issues. However, the pandemic has only served to worsen the severity of the issue, as more and more individuals resort to social media for entertainment. “The pandemic requirements of social distancing likely increase social media use as a means of communication, which may therefore heighten risk for disordered eating,” the Wiley Public Health Emergency Collection noted.
During this tumultuous time especially, these sites especially have taken advantage of vulnerable young people.
Senior Naomi Hains’ body image is impacted by social media. “It just encourages people to compare themselves to other people and that causes them to not see their own beauty,” Hains stated.
More than ever, prevention is key when dealing with eating disorders and body image issues. “Prevention efforts may involve reducing negative risk factors, like body dissatisfaction, depression, or basing self-esteem on appearance, or increasing protective factors, like a non-appearance-oriented self-definition and replacing dieting and body snarking with intuitive eating and appreciation for the body’s functionality,” the National Eating Disorders Association said.
