Social Media And Eating Disorders

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 How has the evolution of social media affected adolescents in terms of body image? Especially related to the instances of eating disorders? Have eating disorders gotten worse as the popularity of social media has grown? Does social media promote unattainable body standards? Has social media made it easier to find resources to help teens who are suffering from eating disorders? Will eating disorders ever become a topic that is discussed openly like other mental health issues such as depression and anxiety? Has the whole "body positivity" movement helped teens to accept themselves more?

I do not really know much about eating disorders, other than how it was portrayed in Wintergirls. I know my own struggles with body image, and how that has affected my life overall, but I would love to see statistics of how many young girls and boys are affected by this disease, and how social media has played a role in encouraging or discouraging eating disorders.

I selected this topic because after reading Wintergirls I realized how easy it is for teenagers to become obsessed with their body image.  It also made me think back to my own teenage years and how I too was obsessed with being "in shape", which basically meant being super skinny, and how that was also encouraged by my coaches.  Since social media impacts adolescents so much now, I think it would be interesting to see if it has made teenagers more obsessed with being skinny, or if the whole "body positivity" movement has helped teens to be more accepting of themselves.

I plan to use the most recent data related to this topic.  I will probably start with articles from Psychologists and then go from there.  In terms of researching the social media aspect, I will probably start looking for articles from people in the field of communications or people who run social media sights, perhaps even some articles from influencers who have spoken about this issue.

I am not sure what books I will use as of yet. I know Wintergirls will be incorporated in some way.

My preliminary claim to this topic is that social media has in fact contributed to higher instance of eating disorders, and that eating disorders are still something that people who suffer from them do not feel comfortable talking about.  

The only real challenge I foresee is there not being a whole lot of research done on the social media side of eating disorders.  I also may not be able to find a lot of articles about this because it is not openly talked about.


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