Ditching social media ‘significantly’ improves teenagers’ body image

By Pol Allingham via SWNS

Ditching social media “significantly” improves teenagers’ body image, suggests a new study.

Young people felt far better about their weight and looks by cutting their screen time in half for just three weeks.

Regardless of gender the rapid intervention brought significant improvements in distressed youth who scroll a lot.

Apps are increasingly populated with fashion and fitness influencers, pushing vulnerable kids to internalize often-unattainable beauty ideals.

Already, adolescents are prone to struggle with self-esteem, mental illness, and eating disorders.

As a result, the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute team recommended time off social apps as one treatment for body-image issues.

Scientists report young people are spending six to eight hours a day on screens, on average.

Lead author Dr. Gary Goldfield, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, said: “Adolescence is a vulnerable period for the development of body image issues, eating disorders and mental illness.

“Youth are spending, on average, between six to eight hours per day on screens, much of it on social media.

“Social media can expose users to hundreds or even thousands of images and photos every day, including those of celebrities and fashion or fitness models, which we know leads to an internalization of beauty ideals that are unattainable for almost everyone, resulting in greater dissatisfaction with body weight and shape.

“Our brief, four-week intervention using screen time trackers showed that reducing social media use yielded significant improvements in appearance and weight esteem in distressed youth with heavy social media use.

“Reducing social media use is a feasible method of producing a short-term positive effect on body image among a vulnerable population of users and should be evaluated as a potential component in the treatment of body-image-related disturbances.”

They studied 220 undergraduate students aged 17-25, selecting those who use their phones at least two hours a day, and who also show symptoms of depression or anxiety.

Females made up 76 percent of the group, alongside 23 percent men and one percent “other.”

Participants ranked how they felt about their looks and body on a five-point scale.

Each answered between “never” and “always” to questions such as “I’m pretty happy about the way I look” and “I am satisfied with my weight.”

For the first week they used social media as usual.

Every day they took a screenshot of a screen time tracker counting their hours in the background.

After the first week half the group were told to halve their social media use to no more than 60 minutes a day.

For the next three weeks, those who were instructed to cut their social media use reduced to an average of 78 minutes a day.

Meanwhile, the control group averaged 188 spent chatting and scrolling on social apps each.

Those avoiding screens reaped the benefits, but nothing changed for the control group.

The scientists want to follow up their study, published in the journal Psychology of Popular Media with a large investigation into whether social media use can be reduced for a sustained period of time, and if this can bring even more psychological rewards.