By Emily Cafarella. Emily is a 4th year undergraduate student at Stony Brook University studying Health Science in pursuit of becoming a Registered Dietitian. She is passionate about fueling your body with nutrients and movement to create a sustainable and balanced lifestyle! Emily hopes to open up a private practice in the future to further promote and spread awareness about health and wellness.
You’re scrolling through Instagram and start to feel anxious but you don’t know why. Sadly, this can be a very common feeling for consumers on Instagram- especially dependent on who you follow and what their content looks like. Did you know that teenagers spend about 7 hours and 22 minutes PER DAY just scrolling through social media according to recent research? At more than 7 hours a day on social media, it’s bound to become a negative environment for the consumer.
Social media can be a great tool for communication and marketing, and you are free to show as much of your life as you want. Unfortunately, it is also a huge trigger for many, including those with eating disorders and can cause increased self-objectification and body image issues for those scrolling through. There are studies showing that there is a link between instagram usage and increased symptoms of orthorexia nervosa. These feelings most prominently occur when the consumers are on the pages of models, celebrities, and fitspirations, and the consumer believes that what they are seeing is real life- when in reality they are hiding all of their insecurities.
But why can social media cause so much havoc on the consumers? Because the entire basis around social media is influencing others and portraying themselves and their lives to be perfect. There are a few key aspects of social media that can trigger an eating disorder that you should be aware of before we explain how to remove them. Here are some of them:
It enforces an unrealistic perception of body image
But why can social media cause so much havoc on the consumers? Because the entire basis around social media is influencing others and portraying themselves and their lives to be perfect. There are a few key aspects of social media that can trigger an eating disorder that you should be aware of before we explain how to remove them. Here are some of them:
Body objectification
Social media is fueled by placing one’s self worth and esteem into how many ‘likes’ they receive on a post. When someone with an eating disorder is not receiving as many likes as they expected on a post, they think to themselves that their beauty and likes determine their worth, and therefore they are not worthy. This can trigger a vicious cycle of their eating disorder.
It promotes unhealthy lifestyle choices
It can often promote others and trigger some to engage in many disordered eating behaviors and given the nature of social media, all of that negative content is very accessible. Some of these triggers include posts about weight loss, workout routines, and dieting. This can trigger the feeling that dieting,losing weight, or looking a certain way is the ‘healthy’ thing for your body, when in reality that’s not what your body needs. This just promotes a false sense of what health and wellness actually is and defeats the purpose of you consuming this content in the first place.
Make sure to be aware of the essence of social media that many of these posts are a facade and not showing any flaws, issues, or insecurities that they may have. Stay mindful of this and remember that you aren’t seeing the full picture.
Below are some tips to decrease risk of triggers on social media for your eating disorder:
- Be aware of who you are following: This means, follow people who uplift you, bring positivity into your life and motivate you to be the best version of yourself. Don’t mistake that with fitspiration pages that promote health and wellness, but ultimately make you feel bad about yourself and where you are right now.
- Limit your screen time: Some people spend over 10 hours per day on social media, not even including working time. Set timers on your phone to log off from social media. Even if you follow positive pages, too much of one thing is never healthy. Being present in your life and unplugging from social media periodically can be extremely beneficial to your mental and physical health.
- Unfollow people unapologetically: There may be people you know personally that you follow who post content that makes you uncomfortable. Unfollow them. Don’t just follow someone because you know them, they aren’t adding anything healthy to your life through social media. This goes the same for influencer pages, if they bring negativity into your life- there is no reason to follow them.
I hope you take the time to detach yourself from social media and live more presently in your life. Use social media as a positive tool and an enhancement to your life! Don’t allow yourself to get trapped in the negativity that surrounds aspects of social media – YOU choose what you consume!
