How Does Social Media Affect Body Image?
Social media can have a significant impact on your body image and experience of self-worth. Often, this impact is related to the amount and type of exposure to social media you are facing. Not all social media is harmful, but the way you use social media and the type of content you encounter can affect the way you view your body.
If you’re not intentional about the content you are exposed to, many social media algorithms can start to shape what feels normal, desirable, or expected in a direction towards impossible ideals. This can lead you to question your own worth, desirability, and appearance.
Why It’s So Easy to Compare Your Body Online
We all compare ourselves to each other from time to time. It’s part of being social creatures – we want to make sure we are fitting in well enough with the group. However, this normal human tendency can lead to quite a bit of stress, as the “group” that you are trying to remain accepted within becomes countless faceless people when you go online.
Suddenly, you’re not just trying to make sure that your friends and family accept you; you now feel worried that strangers across the world will accept you. Many social media algorithms also favor beauty standards that prioritize youth, thinness, and flawlessness – standards that may feel difficult or impossible to achieve.
You’re Often Comparing Your Everyday Body to Someone Else’s Curated Image
Social media offers curated, edited photos that can lead to body image dissatisfaction as you compare how you look in the mirror on an average day to how someone looks with all the advantages of photo editing technology. Many influencers are well adept at using lighting, filters, backgrounds, and editing tools to enhance their appearance.
When you see these curated images, you don’t see the effort, and sometimes self-sacrifice, that may go into creating these images. There is likely a level of effort put into achieving these looks that is unreasonable for a person to access every moment of their lives.
How Algorithms Can Reinforce Appearance Concerns
Algorithms are often shaped by dominant beauty ideals, as well as by what you tend to engage in the most. This means that regardless of your actions, the algorithm may drift towards showing you thinner, more youthful bodies. But this can be supercharged if you start to pay more attention to these types of images.
If you tend to follow fitness, beauty, or diet content, your algorithm will likely show you more and more images of heavily curated images of bodies that fit the dominant beauty ideal. Over time, you may grow to become more critical of your body as you see more and more of these difficult-to-achieve bodies.
When Likes, Comments & Attention Become Tied to Self-Worth
Body image concerns don’t just come from what you view online, or what your algorithm shows you. If you post images of yourself, the feedback loop of likes, comments, and engagement can pull you into a more critical view of your body.
You may start to pay attention to which photos and videos of you get more attention, and become hooked on seeking validation through online engagement. Once you look to your social media following for this type of approval, you can get caught in a trap of feeling bad about yourself if you don’t reach an expected amount of positive responses. You may also start to worry about losing the positive attention if your body ever changes, which can leave you feeling stuck maintaining an appearance that might not be sustainable or enjoyable for you to maintain.
Signs Social Media May Be Affecting Your Body Image
Understanding if social media is affecting your body image starts with mindfully checking in on how social media is making you feel. Here are a few questions to ask yourself about your social media usage:
- Do you feel worse about yourself after scrolling?
- Do you check your body more often after time on social media?
- Do you spend a lot of time comparing different photos you’ve posted?
- Do you avoid being photographed for fear of what type of online feedback you’ll get if it’s posted?
- Do you edit images heavily and rely on filters to cover up perceived flaws in yourself?
Why Simply Unfollowing Everyone Isn’t Always the Whole Answer
Changing your relationship with social media doesn’t just involve unfollowing everyone who triggers self-criticism in yourself. Sometimes taking a break from social media or unfollowing people can be helpful and give you a breather, but the deeper insecurities and self-criticism that drive body image concerns may still remain.
Healing from body image dissatisfaction requires a mix of changing how you use social media, and addressing the deeper beliefs you have around worth, appearance, and comparison.
How to Create a Healthier Relationship With Social Media
While you may feel at the mercy of the algorithm, there are intentional steps you can take to build a better relationship with social media. Here are a few strategies to try:
- Notice your emotional responses when viewing social media to become more aware of what exactly is causing a challenge for you
- Curate your feed by unfollowing anyone advocating for extreme dieting or fitness results, and by following accounts that promote more sustainable approaches to eating, moving, and appearance in general
- Diversify the accounts you follow to ensure you’re following people with a wide array of body sizes, ages, and levels of adherence to beauty standards.
- Set intentional limits for yourself to avoid endless scrolling and getting caught in a spiral of looking at content that reinforces negative self-image
Using Body Neutrality Instead of Forcing Body Positivity
Body positivity can feel challenging to achieve when you don’t feel like you’re measuring up to the people you see online. Instead, body neutrality can be a more accessible approach. Body neutrality involves treating your body with respect and care regardless of how it looks.
Body neutrality can help with your relationship to social media by reducing the power your self-image holds over your well-being. Instead of trying to feel good about every photo you post, you might work to identify other values you have around posting – such as connecting with people you care about by sharing more about yourself, and treating yourself as worthy of sharing what you care about regardless of how you feel about your appearance.
Building Self-Worth Beyond Appearance
Becoming caught up in comparing your body to people you see on social media does not just impact your self-worth; it can shrink and limit your life. As you worry about how you look, you may be missing out on things you care about.
Healing from body image concerns involves reconnecting with what you lost when you became caught up in how you looked. Take a look at the relationships, values, interests, and abilities that make up who you are as a person, and how you might expand your idea of self-worth to include these areas. Self-worth can start to become about the things you do in the world, rather than how you look.
How Therapy Can Help With Body Image and Self-Worth
If social media has led you to a place where you struggle to feel good about yourself, therapy can be a helpful option to work towards healing. Therapy offers a space to work through comparison, perfectionism, and self-criticism, so that you can rebuild your self-worth, find greater self-acceptance, and connect with your values.
I’m a licensed professional counselor specializing in acceptance-based approaches to healing from negative body image. I offer virtual sessions for people throughout Texas, and in-person sessions in my Houston office. If you’re interested in working with me, schedule a free consultation call or video chat at the link below.