20 million women suffer 40% girls want cosmetic 10 million men suffer

in America surgery in America

disorders that continue to increase every

Eating Disorders: Does Social
year.
Media Provoke Them?
Eating disorders are life threatening

Emily Rosqvist diseases that affect a persons physical and

mental state. Every year since 1950, there

Eating disorders affect millions of
has been a rise in eating disorders (NEDA,
people worldwide. In the U.S. alone, 30

million people suffer from this disease

(NEDA). Because teenagers are surrounded

by a plethora of magazines with thin and

boney models, it influences adolescents

every day to try to start changing

themselves.

Many teenagers will try anything

from fad diets to starving their bodies

completely. The National Eating Disorder

Association says that numerous studies have

been performed proving that the thin, ideal

body that women see in the media leads to

body dissatisfaction and unhealthy eating

styles. Social medias influence on Fig. 1 tells of the alarming statistics of eating disorders.

adolescents results in millions of eating

What are Eating Disorders?). Figure one More people consider eating disorders a choice

explains rather than an actual disease. The world sees

this disease as a way lose a few extra pounds,

that with a rise of social media use, the number
not a mental disease.
of people affected by eating disorder rises too.

However, instead of taking preventative The psychological problems that people

measures, the media continues to target and develop creates a negative body image of

influence girls as young as ten years old. NEDA themselves, negative thoughts about eating, and

reports that forty to sixty percent of girls begin requires months of therapy for many to free

worrying about their weight and appearance in themselves of this

elementary school. disorder. Many people

affected by this
Fifty-one percent of teenagers ages
disorder develop a
thirteen to seventeen use social media daily and
sense of hopelessness,
eighty-nine percent of teenagers have social
struggle with social
media (Social Media). Ironically, ninety-five
relationships, and
percent of people affected by disordered eating
become depressed
fall between the ages twelve to twenty-five (My
(What are Signs).
Southern Health). As social media use
Fig. 2. Ahwahnee painted a
increases, so does the number of children and Figure two picture of the emotional side
effects of an eating disorder

teenagers worried about their body shape and was drawn by the artist Ahwahnee. She painted

weight. The medias influence with models on her true emotions of loneliness and depression

Instagram, Twitter, and magazines continues to because of an eating disorder. The effects of an

grow each year. eating disorder often damage people mentally

more physically.
From a worldly point of view, an eating

disorder is not considered a disorder at all.

 assessed a group of 1,000 women to analyze the
Victim of the disease
affects social media can have on anxiety and
A young kid named Thomas from body dissatisfaction.
Sydney, Australia was a normal teenager who
played sports, had lots of friends, and worked Study 1 gave surveys for amount of
hard in school. However, it all changed when
time spent on Facebook a week and an Eat-26
he started changing his perspective on his body.
test that assesses disordered eating. The studys
Thomas wanted to lose one or two pounds, but
quickly spiraled out of control. It did not take results proved a clear majority of women use
long before the disease anorexia nervosa
Facebook on a weekly basis. A significant
attacked him and took over his life. When
correlation between Facebook use and
asked the cause of his disease, he does not
blame it on social media, however says it disordered eating habits proved positive in this
triggered anxiety and thoughts. Instagram
study.
became a way for him to connect with other
people about his disease. However, instead of In the second study, two groups of
meeting people to help him overcome his
women were put in separate rooms for twenty
disease, he met people that gave him strategies
minutes. One group surfed the web on
to lose weight. Instagram and numerous other
social media websites developed into places for informational websites with no body image
suffering teenagers to share thinspiration or
pictures, and the next browsed through their
ProAna photos. These hashtags helped
Facebook, reading and looking through
teenagers like Thomas to meet online, give tips,
and continue barreling down the road of self- pictures.
destruction (Kirby). In many cases, social
media is not a direct cause of an eating After, the women were assessed with

disorder, but rather provokes adolescents to try Eat-26 and State Trait Anxiety Inventory
these fad diets which, in many cases, causes
surveys. This study proved the same positive
disordered eating.
increase in disordered eating habits for those
In the Do you like my photo? study,
who browsed Facebook for twenty minutes, and
Annalise Mabe, Jean Forney, and Pamela Keel
a small increase in the anxiety of participants eating disorder. These negative thoughts are

using Facebook (Mabe, Forney, and Keel, 516). what goes through victims

heads every day.

These studies confirmed that with an

increase of social media, anxiety and disordered Tara Orr, a dietician,

eating increases too. Social media can worked at Utah Valley

negatively impact body perception and trigger Medical Center where

Fig. 3. Piece of art that
shows the thoughts of a
anxiety in the brain. she conducted victim of an eating disorder
(Hernandez).
group nutrient
Levine and Murnen concluded the risks
classes for patients admitted to the hospital
that social media can have on teenagers through
because of disordered eating.
many studies and surveys. Cross-sectional

studies will show that the extent of exposure to In classes, she taught the bodys

mass media, or to various specific forms of necessary calorie intake a day varies; however,

mass media, is a correlate of that spectrum. the bare minimum is 1200 calories per day. The

(9). body wants to stay in a constant environment

known as homeostasis. As people deprive their

The body images adolescents are
bodies of certain nutrients, their organs slowly
surrounded by on the mass media has become
give out. For most patients, it is all at once.
the norm. No longer are twenty inch waists

questioned, they are accepted. Long exposures When patients are admitted to the

to media causes developments of negative body hospital for organ failure, due to disordered

image (Levine and Murnen, 10). eating, most physical side effects can be cured

quickly; however, the psychological effects

Figure three shows the emotions and
damage many people for months.
thoughts pouring out of someone affected by an
 The majority of people admitted to the
hospital for disordered eating are resistant to
help. Tara Orr describes it as their vehicle for
self-pain. Thousands of other patients go
through the same type of psychological issues
for drugs, alcohol, self-harm, etc.; it is there
choice of abuse. This abuse results in psych
issues that are difficult to treat (Orr).
While working at the medical center,
Tara says most patients were teenage girls;
some as young as 12 years old. At such a young
age, media teaches girls the correct body type
and size. This perception of the correct body
image planted in teenagers brains leads to
disordered eating.
The number of eating disorder victims
rises every year. Instead of ignoring the issue, it
needs to be addressed head on.
Works Cited
Ahwahnee, Jessie Y., Six Myths about Eating
Disorders. Teen Ink. Web. 29 Mar 2017.
Bawdon, Fiona. "No Model for Girls." New
Statesman, vol. 136, no. 4864, 10/1/2007, pp.
28-29. EBSCOhost. Web. 13 Mar 2017.
Hernandez, Daniela. Pinterest. Web. 21 Mar
2017.
Kirby, Sophie. Social Media: Feeding Eating
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2015. Web 15 Mar 2017.
Levine, Michael P. and Sarah K. Murnen.
Everybody knows that mass media are a cause
of eating disorders: A critical review of
evidence for a causal link between media,
negative body image, and disordered eating in
females. Journal of Social & Clinical
Psychology, vol. 28, no. 1, Jan. 2009, pp. 9-42.
EBSCOhost. Web. 12 Mar 2017.
Mabe, Annalise G., K. Jean Forney, and Pamela
K. Keel. "Do You 'Like' My Photo? Facebook
Use Maintains Eating Disorder
Risk." International Journal of Eating
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---. What are Eating Disorders? NEDA. 2016.
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What are Signs of Mood Disorders? Psych
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