Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

Social Media Often Leaves Young Women Feeling Badly About Their Bodies

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on StudyFinds.

In a recent study conducted at York University in Toronto, researchers say many young women feel badly about their bodies after logging on and viewing images of friends they perceive to be more attractive.

Images posted to social media are often far from reality, but this research is among the first to analyze how all of these unrealistic pictures impact young women’s views on their own bodies. Researchers monitored young women between 18 and 27 years old who liked or commented on photos of people they believe to be more attractive than themselves.

“The results showed that these young adult women felt more dissatisfied with their bodies,” says co-lead researchers Jennifer Mills, an associate psychology professor at York, in a university release. “They felt worse about their own appearance after looking at social media pages of someone that they perceived to be more attractive than them. Even if they felt bad about themselves before they came into the study, on average, they still felt worse after completing the task.”

The researchers distributed an online questionnaire to a group of 118 female undergraduate students from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Each student stated their age, ethnicity, years of post-secondary education, and whether or not English was their first language. Participants were also asked to rate how satisfied or dissatisfied they were with their appearance. All of this took place six weeks before the experimental phase of the study.

Then, for the experiment, participants were randomly assigned to one of two possible experimental groups. The first group was asked to view the profile of one peer of the same age on Facebook or Instagram they felt was more attractive than them. After at least five minutes, participants were asked to leave a comment of their choice.

Participants in the second group were asked to complete the same task as group one, except this time with a family member’s social media profile whom they did not think was more attractive than themselves. Subsequent data analysis revealed that interacting with these familial profiles had no impact on the subject’s self-body images.

The study was published in the journal Body Image.

Source: StudyFinds
https://www.studyfinds.org/social-media-often-leaves-young-women-feeling-badly-about-their-bodies/

What a New Study Reveals About Selfies and Teenage Body Image

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on Phys Org.

From Facebook and Twitter, to Instagram and Snapchat, it's no secret social media has become a common form of communication, but have you ever left your feeds feeling bad about yourself? If so, you're not alone, according to a new study conducted by Ilyssa Salomon, doctoral student, and Christia Spears Brown, professor of psychology, at the University of Kentucky.

"If you walk by any group of teenagers, you will notice that most of them are intently staring at their phone. Almost all of them, regardless of social class, race or gender, are on social media," Brown said. "Social media has become ubiquitous among teens, even prominent in the lives of teens too young to get their own account. The problem is that researchers are still unsure of the effects of social media use on teens' development."

On a quest for more concrete facts and figures, Salomon and Brown developed a cross-sectional study titled, "The Selfie Generation: Examining the Relationship Between Social Media Use and Early Adolescent Body Image." Together, they explored the potentially damaging effects of social media exposure among teenagers.

"We were concerned that social media use, with its emphasis on evaluating how people look, might be associated with how early adolescents feel about their own bodies. Previous research has shown that the majority of girls in middle school are unhappy with their bodies. And yet, we also know that they spend every day looking at highly sexualized, highly curated pictures of other people on social media," Brown said.

Visual platforms deliver the tools that allow teens to earn approval for their appearance and compare themselves to others. For some, especially girls, what starts as a fun way to document and share experiences can turn into an obsession.

In the survey, three popular types of social media were examined: Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

The focus group included 142 middle schoolers across four different schools. The sample was very ethnically diverse, with 45 percent white students, 22 percent Latino students, 19 percent black students and 13 percent multiracial students. They ranged in age from 11-14, with 94 percent of them being either 12 or 13.

Based on results from the study, nearly 80 percent of teens, by age 13, have at least one social media account. Most of them spend approximately five hours a week on their account; scrolling through feeds, posting pictures and interacting with other users.

Perhaps even more interesting, according to the study, teens who reported posting more pictures on social media had a heightened awareness of their appearance, which was related to feeling more negative about their body.

"Some teens may be more at risk than others for some negative effects of social media —s pecifically, for adolescents who are particularly focused on others for approval, and for adolescent girls who are already facing societal pressures to have an ideal body. Spending a lot of time on social media taking and posting selfies is associated with thinking about their bodies more frequently and thinking more negatively about their bodies," Brown said.

Teens today are often referred to as the "selfie generation." The act of taking and posting an image of yourself is an interesting phenomenon that zeroes in on physical appearance. That begs the question, does self-imaging boost confidence or lower self-esteem? The answer isn't exactly clear. However, Salomon and Brown said they discovered taking and posting selfies can be associated with negative outcomes, but not for all teenagers.

"It is really teens who are focused on others for approval and try to adapt their behavior to fit in, as well as adolescent girls, who seem to show the strongest links between social media and body image," Salomon explained. "Second, our results found that boys and girls in our sample did not differ in attitudes about their body. A lot of previous research has shown that girls have negative body image, but boys don't think much about their appearance. Our results suggest otherwise, that boys are also unhappy with their bodies."

In conclusion, those who were more invested in their selfies, spending more time choosing a photo or editing it, were more dissatisfied with their bodies.

Source: Phys Org
https://phys.org/news/2018-05-reveals-selfies-teenage-body-image.html

Social Media Friends Can Bruise Your Body Image

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on HealthDay.

Seeing too many social media posts from friends about their fitness activity can harm your body image, a new study contends.

"When people received more posts about exercise, it made them more concerned about their weight -- more self-conscious -- and that's not a good thing," said study co-author Stephen Rains. He's a professor of communication and an associate professor of psychology at the University of Arizona.

Posts about physical activity were especially likely to trigger concerns about weight if people thought the friends making those posts were very similar to themselves.

"Similarity heightens social comparison," Rains said in a university news release. "So if the person posting about exercise is someone who's in your age group, has a similar build or a similar background, you might think that's a pretty good reference, and that might spark in you even greater weight concern."

For some people, though, exercise posts from friends motivated them to get more active, the study also found.

"If a person is posting a lot about exercise, they must be really fit, so you're using that as a motivator," said study co-author Tricia Burke, a professor of communication studies at Texas State University.

The study included 232 people who viewed posts from their friends for the past 30 days on their favorite social media site. The participants tallied the number of posts about any physical activity meant to maintain fitness and health, such as hiking, walking, going to the gym and more.

The more exercise-related posts that people saw, the more concerned they were about their own weight, the study found. That could lead to an unhealthy body image, the researchers said.

The study was published online recently in the journal Health Communications.

Source: HealthDay
https://consumer.healthday.com/kids-health-information-23/adolescents-and-teen-health-news-719/social-media-friends-can-bruise-your-body-image-731395.html

Teen Girls Obsessed With "Thigh Gap"

It's the latest weight loss craze among American teens striving to emulate the models they see in magazines: the "thigh gap", in which slender legs, when standing with feet together, do not touch.

Experts say the cost of what teens see as an ideal body shape -- but really is for most unattainable -- is self-esteem problems that can lead to eating disorders, depression and even suicide.

On Tumblr, Pinterest and Facebook, "thigh gap" photos abound: close-ups of sometimes unbearably skinny legs published by young girls eager to show off their success -- or bemoan what they see as a failure to whittle away fat.

"Together we can be a size zero with a beautiful thigh gap and flat stomach. Together we can be happy and finally say that we love our bodies," Tumbler user skinnysizezero pledges.

Clinical psychologist Barbara Greenberg warned that for most women, the "thigh gap" is a pipe dream, even via extreme dieting and exercise. "Most women are not built that way to have that space between their thighs," she said. "It is a matter of bone structure," she explained, which "the majority of women do not have."

For teenagers, adopting what Greenberg called an "unrealistic obsession" can be dangerous -- increasing pressures that can lead to depression, even suicidal behavior, as well as to severe eating disorders, which can cause lasting brain and bone damage.

Source: Business Insider
http://www.businessinsider.com/experts-us-teens-have-a-dangerous-obsession-with-the-thigh-gap-2013-10
 

Exercise Has Positive Effect on Teens' Self-Esteem, Mental Health

A study published in the journal Clinical Psychological Science finds that exercise has positive effects that go far beyond physical changes in teens, as it does with people of all ages.

The study, based on a survey of 7,000 Dutch students, found that teens who participated in team sports had higher self-esteem and a more positive self-image than those who didn't. Additionally, these students were less likely to engage in negative behaviors, including "social withdrawal and anxiety, getting into trouble, aggressive behavior with others," according to Alan Kazdin, the editor of Clinical Psychological Science. Teens who participated in team sports were also found to have more friends.

Source: Examiner.com
http://www.examiner.com/article/study-shows-exercise-has-positive-effect-on-teens-self-esteem-mental-health

Study: U.S. College Freshmen Think They're More Special Than Ever

Books aside, if you asked a college freshman today who the Greatest Generation is, they might respond by pointing in a mirror.

Young people's unprecedented level of self-infatuation was revealed in a new analysis of the American Freshman Survey, which has been asking students to rate themselves compared to their peers since 1966.

Psychologist Jean Twenge and her colleagues compiled the data and found that over the last four decades there's been a dramatic rise in the number of students who describe themselves as being 'above average' in the areas of academic ability, drive to achieve, mathematical ability, and self-confidence.

Researchers found a disconnect between the student's opinions of themselves and actual ability.

While students are much more likely to call themselves gifted in writing abilities, objective test scores actually show that their writing abilities are far less than those of their 1960s counterparts.

Also on the decline is the amount of time spent studying, with little more than a third of students saying they study for six or more hours a week compared to almost half of all students claiming the same in the late 1980s.

Though they may work less, the number that said they had a drive to succeed rose sharply.

Still, these young egoists can grow up to become depressed adults. A 2006 study found that students suffer from 'ambition inflation' as their increased ambitions accompany increasingly unrealistic expectations. "Since the 1960s and 1970s, when those expectations started to grow, there's been an increase in anxiety and depression," Twenge said. "There's going to be a lot more people who don't reach their goals."

"Our culture used to encourage modesty and humility and not bragging about yourself," Twenge told BBC News. "It was considered a bad thing to be seen as conceited or full of yourself." Twenge said narcissim is a trait that is often negative and destructive, and blames its boom on several trends - including parenting styles, celebrity culture, social media, and easy credit - for allowing people to seem more successful than they really are.

"What's really become prevalent over the last two decades is the idea that being highly self-confident - loving yourself, believing in yourself - is the key to success," Twenge said. "Now the interesting thing about that belief is it's widely held, it's very deeply held, and it's also untrue." "You need to believe that you can go out and do something but that's not the same as thinking that you're great," Twenge said.

Source: Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2257715/Study-shows-college-students-think-theyre-special--read-write-barely-study.html

Girls as Young as 6 Want to be 'Sexy'

Girls as young as 6 are already beginning to think of themselves as sex objects, according to a new study of elementary school-age kids in the Midwest.

Researchers have shown in the past that women and teens think of themselves in sexually objectified terms, but the new study is the first to identify self-sexualization in young girls. The study, published online July 6 in the journal Sex Roles, also identified factors that protect girls from objectifying themselves.

Psychologists at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., used paper dolls to assess self-sexualization in 6- to 9-year-old girls. Sixty girls were shown two dolls, one dressed in tight and revealing "sexy" clothes and the other wearing a trendy but covered-up, loose outfit.

Using a different set of dolls for each question, the researchers then asked each girl to choose the doll that: looked like herself, looked how she wanted to look, was the popular girl in school, she wanted to play with.

Across-the-board, girls chose the "sexy" doll most often. The results were significant in two categories: 68 percent of the girls said the doll looked how she wanted to look, and 72 percent said she was more popular than the non-sexy doll.

"It's very possible that girls wanted to look like the sexy doll because they believe sexiness leads to popularity, which comes with many social advantages," explained lead researcher Christy Starr, who was particularly surprised at how many 6- to 7-year-old girls chose the sexualized doll as their ideal self.

Media consumption alone didn't influence girls to prefer the sexy doll. But girls who watched a lot of TV and movies and who had mothers who reported self-objectifying tendencies, such as worrying about their clothes and appearance many times a day, in the study were more likely to say the sexy doll was popular.

Mothers' religious beliefs also emerged as an important factor in how girls see themselves. Girls who consumed a lot of media but who had religious mothers were protected against self-sexualizing, perhaps because these moms "may be more likely to model higher body-esteem and communicate values such as modesty," the authors wrote, which could mitigate the images portrayed on TV or in the movies.

Source: NBCnews.com
http://moms.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/16/12774097-girls-as-young-as-6-want-to-be-sexy-study-says?lite

80 Percent of 10-Year-Old Girls Have Been on a Diet

A study published in the Journal of Christian Nursing finds that 80% of 10-year-old girls have been on a diet.

The study also revealed that 53% of 13-year-old girls are unhappy with their bodies, a number that increases to 78% by age 17 and three out of four teenage girls feel depressed, guilty and shameful after spending three minutes looking through a fashion magazine.

According to the study, the number one wish of girls 11 to 17 is to be thinner. On top of this, 43% of first to third grade girls want to be thinner.

Source: Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2166673/How-staggering-80-PER-CENT-10-year-olds-diet--young-girls-number-wish-thinner.html

Teen Cosmetic Surgery on the Rise

According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, teens are undergoing more cosmetic surgery than ever before.

Over the past decade, teen breast enhancement and reduction surgeries have grown by some 200%.

In 2011, almost 250,000 teens underwent cosmetic procedures.

The following infographic breaks down teen cosmetic surgeries for 2011:

Source: The American Society of Plastic Surgeons

Culture Surfing - May 31, 2012

Came across these culture stories of interest...

New York City to Ban Sales of Sugary Drinks over 16-Ounces.
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/05/30/here-he-goes-again-bloomberg-set-to-ban-all-sugary-drinks-over-16-ounces/

Not sure how this helps fight obesity. I'm guessing it won't take long for New Yorkers to figure out how to purchase two medium-sized drinks.


Teen Cosmetic Surgeries Skyrocket
http://www.thedaily.com/page/2012/05/31/053112-news-teenage-plastic-surgery-1-3/

In 2011, about 250,000 teens oped for plastic surgery. Nose jobs and breast surgeries were the top two procedures performed.


Florida Mom Allegedly Chokes Teen Boy Over Facebook Comments About Daughter
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/30/debbie-piscitella-chokes-teen-facebook-florida_n_1556485.html

Mom has been charged with child abuse. Protective instincts are good, but assault is probably not the best method for addressing Facebook bullying.


Millennials Switch Mediums 27 Times an Hour
http://www.ypulse.com/post/view/redefining-social-as-millennials-switch-mediums-27-times-an-hour

By the time you say "attention deficit," millennials have already moved from a laptop to an iPhone.