Aissa England

Mrs. Ramirez

English IV

November 30, 2023

Social Media is Negatively Impacting Our Young

Social media has been changing society around us, it has been changing the way we think

and see our everyday life. Impacting many adolescents and their families, changing their eating

habits and how they see themselves. 69% of females ages 10-18 have said that models,

influencers, and celebrities being displayed on social media with their edited photos presenting

themselves as “perfect” is reflecting on the teenage ideas of the ideal body image. Cyberbullying

is another cause of these disorders within our adolescents. When teens gain these eating

disorders they tend to begin to isolate themselves. Reducing the amount of time on social media

improves the way these teens view their body image. Social media is negatively impacting the

eating habits of teens and is causing harmful eating disorders.

Adolescents' insecurities with their bodies seem to have increased from the result of

models, influencers, and celebrities' constant usage of ads, videos, and pictures being displayed

on social media. These being posted from them are usually photoshopped or modified and it

begins to start reflecting on the ideal body image that just isn’t realistic (socialmediavictims.org).

My story personally seeing all these beautiful girls being portrayed on social media I find myself

constantly comparing myself to what I see. Which makes you think of how many other girls are

being faced with this problem. Most teens’ tend to focus on how they present themselves online.

Which starts to make them self conscious about their body weight, shape, calorie intake, and

exercise. Just like most I would say one of my biggest focuses would be how I look on social
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Mrs. Ramirez

English IV

November 30, 2023

media. Making sure I look skinny, my acne is hidden, my outfit looks like I’m at least trying,

good hair, and that my makeup looks good. When using social media teens spend lots of time

seeing many photos everyday of celebrities, influencers, fashion/fitness models, which can lead

to an internalization of beauty standards that are usually unrealistic and resulting in a great

dissatisfaction with their appearance. I hate that I let these unrealistic standards get to me but,

just like every other teen, it just happens. You can only imagine how many other girls are

struggling with this same thing. How many girls look at himself in the mirror and start to nitpick

things they don’t like in what they see? Teens In general are constantly comparing themselves to

others and trying to fit into these high beauty standards. Seeing all these pretty people display

such high beauty standards is starting to reflect on these girls to try and what they think is

bettering themselves with possibly facing eating disorders.

Another major factor influencing teens’ eating disorders is cyberbullying, which has led

to binge eating, a fixation with weight gain, the belief that one's weight determines one's value,

and distress during binge eating. When teens post themselves on the internet and other people

start to comment on their size, clothing, or even saying something sexual it can lead to tbem

gaining eating disorders (socialmediavictims.org). Girls have always been known as more

sensitive and fragile. One thing you say to a girl that is offensive, even as a joke, can have a

really big impact on them and how they feel about himself. It’s probably the same case for some

guys too. In general, negative words are so harmful for most humans. A recent study proves that

when you start to limit your screen time with cyberbullying, it increased during adolescence is
Aissa England

Mrs. Ramirez

English IV

November 30, 2023

linked to an increased risk of eating disorders symptoms. Which starts worries about the weight

gain, tying self-worth with weight gain, binge eating, and distress (eurokalert.org). This study is

proving to us that things people say to us really do affect us. Words are so much more than what

people think, they can hold so much power over us. There are so many people out there who

don’t like their appearance due to words other people have said. “Cyberbullying could lead to

low self-esteem, body image dissatisfaction, and unhealthy attempts to control weight. Which

can impact the risk of mental issues, including eating disorder symptoms,” said Chloe M Cheng,

the lead author and senior medical student (eurekalert.org). Cyberbullying is known to spike

symptoms of eating disorders and it is affecting our perspective on our bodies. When

cyberbullying occurs it does/can negatively impact many of the teens’ that are struggling with

their body image.

Socialising will start to become difficult for teens’ with eating disorders, so they just stop

spending time with other people and taking part in social events. As these eating disorders

develop more people will start to notice that these teens’ become more isolated, withdraw, and

avoid social situations. Eating disorders take these teens’ away from living a normal life with

social activities leading to them having more time to scroll on the internet. “When people

develop eating disorders they can become more distant and start to spend more time alone. This

can make their harmful thoughts or low self-esteem worsen.” (Healthtalk.org). Developing an

eating disorder turns you into a low self-esteem, isolated person. A person who’d prefer to be

alone and because they feel self-conscious. When people that had eating disorders look back
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Mrs. Ramirez

English IV

November 30, 2023

they feel as if they had “missed out” on their social life or had been “held back.” Meaning they

tend to start feeling guilty for the things missing the thing they would have enjoyed due to the

disorder. Living life with an eating disorder is known to keep you away from your life. You start

to isolate and become lonely, possibly negatively affecting the eating disorder, worsening it.

Teens’ with eating disorders will find it harder to socialize, therefore they will just quit hanging

out with friends and attending social gatherings, leaving more time on their hands, possibly too

much time.

Adolescents who want to feel better about their bodies ought to begin establishing time

limits on social media. “Adolescents should limit their social media that encourages eating

disorders and appearance comparisons. Parents should advise their children to avoid

cyberbullying and encourage them to report online harassment if it occurs.” Said senior author,

Jason M. Nagata, MD, associate professor of pediatrics (eurokalert.org). Teens start comparing

their appearances with what they see online as we said, usually aren’t real. It starts to put false

realities into their heads. According to research published by the American Psychological

Association, if adolescents would reduce their social media use by 50% for a few weeks, it

would improve how they felt about their weight and overall appearance while the others who

kept a high use of social media still felt the same way, obviously. I do agree that reducing time on

social media for everyone can and will be beneficial towards how you see yourself everyday. It's

easier for time spent on social media to reflect on the beginning of dissatisfaction with one's

overall body image in adolescence because this is such a vulnerable age for the development of
Aissa England

Mrs. Ramirez

English IV

November 30, 2023

eating disorders, mental diseases, and body image struggles. There are a lot of benefits that will

come from reducing time on social media and the internet in general and reducing our time is

something we should all start doing for our overall health.

The constant usage of social media at a young age is negatively impacting the eating

habits, increasing their dissatisfaction with their body image and eating disorders. About 90% of

teenagers are on social media and the average time used for them is about 8 hours and 40

minutes. Imagine what the majority of them are doing… In most cases I’ve seen they're just

scrolling, looking at all these people displaying themselves as such pretty, perfect people. With

these cases young teens are constantly comparing and picturing themselves and these “perfect”

people. Seeing influencers and celebrities being displayed on social media as they're editing their

photos to present themselves as “perfect” is starting to reflect on teens’ ideal body image. The

effect of cyberbullying has been increasing the risk of eating disorders in these adolescents.

When teens gain these eating disorders they begin to isolate leading to more free time alone.

Reducing time on social media improves the teens views on their ideal body image. Teens' eating

habits are negatively impacted by social media causing them to feel less confident about their

bodies and it can lead to unhealthy disorders. Overall everyone needs to be less hard on

themselves about everything, their body, their clothing, and all the things they cannot control. No

one is perfect and everything we see being displayed on the internet isn’t as perfect as we might

think they are. Social media is probably something that’ll forever linger around but, we just need
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Mrs. Ramirez

English IV

November 30, 2023

to learn how to better it and use it as an advantage rather than a disadvantage to our adolescents

and everyone in general.

Aissa England

Mrs. Ramirez

English IV

November 30, 2023

Works Cited

“Reducing Social Media Use Significantly Improves Body Image in Teens, Young Adults.”

American Psychological Association,

www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2023/02/social-media-body-image. Accessed 07 Nov. 2023.

“Eating Disorders (Young People).” Social Life and Public Places,

healthtalk.org/eating-disorders/social-life-and-public-places#:~:text=When%20people%20develo

p%20eating%20disorders,and%20this%20can%20be%20difficult. Accessed 08 Nov. 2023.

Dutta, Dr. Sanchari Sinha. “Eating Disorders and Social Media.” News, 28 Mar. 2022,

www.news-medical.net/health/Eating-Disorders-and-Social-Media.aspx#:~:text=Eating%20disor

ders%20are%20characterized%20by,increased%20prevalence%20of%20eating%20disorders.

Accessed 08 Nov. 2023.

UofTNews. “Cyberbullying Linked to Eating Disorder Symptoms in US Adolescents.”

EurekAlert!, www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1000864. Accessed 13 Nov. 2023.

“Social Media Effects on Eating Disorders.” Social Media Victims Law Center, 3 Aug. 2023,

socialmediavictims.org/mental-health/eating-disorders/. Accessed 08 Nov. 2023.

Aissa England

Mrs. Ramirez

English IV

November 30, 2023