Mental Health with the Body

Nicholas Larios
Jun 2
4 min read

Updated: Oct 14

One of the biggest ways teenagers are able to make connections with others in their age group is through using social media. Social media is beneficial towards creating a form of communication for teenagers to relate to each other and find others in their age group who are able to understand them. It’s not surprising this makes teenagers dependent on social media to have social interactions through their screen, but what happens when these platforms can spill over into changing your perception of your own body?

92% of teens had reported there was an extended usage of their screen time due to the need to constantly use the social media on their phones to talk to others. The constant need to be on social media has led to an effect on body image due to the constant scrolling of looking through different photos of other people’s lives. This screen time has created an unrealistic beauty standard for teenagers to fit into the generalization of what teenagers are supposed to look like which causes a low self-esteem. 15.8% of teenagers themselves have reported they faced cyberbullying themselves which can largely be associated with the general belief of what beauty looks like based on social media. If teenagers feel ashamed of their own body from social media, this might encourage them to do the same to other teenagers which can lead to a nonstop cycle of people bringing each other down. This leads to a more harmful environment on social media in which teenagers attack each other based on the way their own bodies look (Compass Health Center).

The life teenagers see through their eyes in social media reflects the false reality from those who want to fabricate the truth. The manipulation of photos from editing, causes a lower self-esteem as it creates a need to make their body appear as slim as they see in edited photos, making them believe this is what makes them attractive. Influencers also contribute to the constant comparison from teenagers as they may look up to the lifestyle of influencers as what they aspire their life to mimic. Many teenage girls have felt they needed to lose more weight in order to look like those they see on social media while boys felt they needed to over exercise at the gym in order to fit the masculine stereotype portrayed by social media (Boston Children’s Digital Wellness Lab).

The appearances depicted of others on social media can become extreme as it may lead to mental health disorders stemming from the constant comparison caused by social media. Body dysmorphia can be caused from the distorted appearance of someone from social media which ultimately leads to neglect of their own body which can be in the form of not eating anything, leading to the development of eating disorders. This can cause disruptions throughout the day as someone may constantly check their appearance in the mirror or change their clothes which they perceive as showing their flaws. It was found that those who mainly used their phones for social media were found to mainly use it to compare their bodies to others in order to control their weight to look like others. Those who had a lower amount of screen time were found to have a higher body awareness and focused less on others bodies on social media as their comparison to their own body (Krzymowski).

In the data collected, teenagers had a greater appearance in their self-esteem and would have less care about their weight. Social media scrolling greatly contributes to the unhealthy amount of comparison which is caused through constantly looking for photos to evaluate your own appearance. By lowering this screen time, this effectively eliminates the amount of usage of social media to compare your body to others and instead be able to appreciate your own body. Body appreciation comes from recognizing and understanding the uniqueness of your own body by no longer wanting to fit a generalized beauty standard but instead learning to love your own body (Goldfield).

There are many ways to limit the excessive amount of screen time spent on social media by being able to take control and monitor the amount of time being spent. Just using social media for less than 30 minutes a day is able to reduce the anxiety and depression which can be caused by social media itself from comparison to others. Disabling social media notifications is able to keep your mind occupied with other thoughts while using your phone which can distract you from having the need of constantly checking your phone. If you find yourself still feeling an impulse to check, you can create a limit check starting at about 15 minutes and slowly extend the break amount until you no longer have the impulse to constantly check social media. In more extreme cases where these strategies might not work for you, you can delete the social media app itself completely if you find yourself obsessing over constantly checking it (Robinson).

It’s important to also understand the contrast of the life being portrayed on social media compared to your reality when having less of a focus on social media and actually being with people face to face. By making an effort to make time out of your day to spend time with friends by creating plans with them, this allows you to focus more on the environment surrounding you rather than the fantasy existing within social media. This will remove the feeling of disappointment which exists when looking through life with the lens of social media rather than being with those already in your life which can ground you back to reality. This will allow you to recognize the positive aspects of your life rather than obsessing over what you don’t have which can make you see yourself in a more negative light. Spending time with those who value you beyond just your looks, can give you the self-confidence needed by seeing you’re more than just your looks (Robinson).