Women who spend more time on Facebook are more likely to be unhappy with their bodies.
If it wasn't enough that magazines, television commercials and hoardings stereotype what a perfect woman should look like, Facebook has also begun playing a role in spreading general dissatisfaction with one's body. In a recent study, UK and U.S. researchers found that spending more time on Facebook leads to negative feelings about one's body image when comparisons are drawn to the bodies of friends.
"The attention to physical attributes may be even more dangerous on social media than on traditional media because participants in social media are people we know. These comparisons are much more relevant and hit closer to home. Yet they may be just as unrealistic as the images we see on traditional media," said study author Petya Eckler, a lecturer at the University of Strathclyde in the United Kingdom in a press release.
For the study, researchers surveyed 881 college women about their Facebook use, eating and exercise habits, and body image. This data helped them predict when a woman user felt bad about her body after looking at someone else's photos or posts, and how often women compared their own bodies to those of their friends.
"We focused on women, and particularly college women, because they are under increased pressure to look a certain way, and for their bodies to have a certain shape. This pressure comes from both media images and interactions with peers," said Eckler, according to Live Science.
Researcher found that more Facebook time led to more negative feelings and more comparisons. Also, women who wanted to lose weight spend more time on facebook and more attention on appearances and clothing.
This is not the first study that looked into how Facebook images affect a woman's perception of not just her own body but also how she judges other women in the social networking site.
A 2013 study found that Facebook usage had resulted in teenage girls becoming more obsessed with thinness. The need to receive more "likes" on their pictures and comments on how "perfect" their body looks has led to many teens developing eating disorders.
"Given the connection between eating disorders and body image distortion and dissatisfaction, it is important to identify contributing factors in this particularly vulnerable group," said Brenda K. Wiederhold, PhD, MBA, BCIA, Editor-in-Chief of Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, in a press release.
The current study however, didn't find any link between time spent on Facebook and eating disorders.
"Spending more time on Facebook is not connected to developing a bad relationship with food, but there is a connection to poor body image," Eckler told the BBC. "The attention to physical attributes may be even more dangerous on social media than on traditional media because participants in social media are people we know. These comparisons are much more relevant and hit closer to home. Yet they may be just as unrealistic as the images we see on traditional media."
A study published in the journal Sex Roles found that Internet exposure and magazine reading were in fact related to greater internalization of thin ideals, appearance comparison, weight dissatisfaction and drive for thinness in a group of Australian female high school students.
Findings of the current study were presented at the 64th Annual International Communication Association Conference.
