scholarly journals Social media is not real: The effect of ‘Instagram vs reality’ images on women’s social comparison and body image

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (12) ◽  
pp. 2183-2199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marika Tiggemann ◽  
Isabella Anderberg

One recent trend on Instagram consists of posting ‘Instagram vs reality’ images containing side-by-side photographs of the same woman, one an idealized depiction and the other a more natural depiction. This study aimed to experimentally investigate the effect of such images on body image. Participants were 305 women aged 18–30 years who were randomly assigned to view one of three sets of Instagram images: ‘Instagram vs reality’ images, the ‘ideal’ side alone or the ‘real’ side alone. As predicted, viewing the ‘Instagram vs reality’ and real images resulted in decreased body dissatisfaction relative to the ideal images. Furthermore, the detrimental effects of appearance comparison were much less marked for the ‘Instagram vs reality’ and real images than for the ideal images. It was concluded that ‘Instagram vs reality’ and real posts have the potential to bolster women’s body satisfaction, but more research is needed to assess their longer-term impact.

Author(s):  
Giulia Fioravanti ◽  
Sara Bocci Benucci ◽  
Giulia Ceragioli ◽  
Silvia Casale

AbstractSharing and viewing photos on social networking sites (SNSs) have been identified as particularly problematic for body image. Although correlational research to date has established that SNS use is associated with increased body dissatisfaction, only experimental studies can enhance confidence in the conclusions drawn. For this reason, this systematic review synthesizes data from 43 experimental studies (N = 8637; %F = 89.56; mean age = 21.58 ± 1.78) examining the effect of viewing idealized images (i.e., attractive, thin, and fit) and body positive content on SNSs on body image. Two studies were conducted on adolescents. Each study had slight variations in how the images were presented for each category (e.g., selfies and photos taken by others). The wide variability in experimental stimuli and psychological moderators used in the published research make a systematic review more feasible and meaningful than a meta-analysis. Findings indicate that viewing idealized images on SNSs lead to increased body dissatisfaction among young women and men. State appearance comparison (i.e., engaging in social comparison while viewing images) significantly mediated the effect, whereas trait appearance comparison (i.e., the relatively stable general tendency to engage in social comparison) was a significant moderator. Mixed results were found regarding the exposure to body positive images/captions. Viewing images on SNSs depicting unattainable beauty ideals leads young people to feel dissatisfied about their bodies, with appearance comparison processing playing an important role. More research is required to assess the long-term effects.


2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (11) ◽  
pp. 4311-4328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasmine Fardouly ◽  
Elise Holland

This online experimental study examined the impact of viewing disclaimer comments attached to idealized social media images on 18- to 25-year-old American women’s ( N = 164) body dissatisfaction, mood, and perceptions of the target. Furthermore, this study also tested whether thin ideal internalization or appearance comparison tendency moderated any effect. Viewing idealized images taken from social media had a negative influence on women’s body image, with or without the presence of disclaimers. Disclaimer comments also had no impact on women’s mood. They did, however, impact perceptions of the target, with women forming a less positive impression of the target if she attached disclaimer comments to her social media images. Thus, the results of this study suggest that the use of disclaimer comments or labels on social media may be ineffective at reducing women’s body dissatisfaction.


2021 ◽  
pp. 135910532098831
Author(s):  
Zoe Brown ◽  
Marika Tiggemann

Celebrities are well-known individuals who receive extensive public and media attention. There is an increasing body of research on the effect of celebrities on body dissatisfaction and disordered eating. Yet, there has been no synthesis of the research findings. A systematic search for research articles on celebrities and body image or eating disorders resulted in 36 studies meeting inclusion criteria. Overall, the qualitative, correlational, big data, and experimental methodologies used in these studies demonstrated that exposure to celebrity images, appearance comparison, and celebrity worship are associated with maladaptive consequences for individuals’ body image.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 319-341
Author(s):  
Ruvira Arindita

Previous researches showed that there is relation between body image satisfaction and depression in perinatal period. Given this fact, it is important to educate and find ways to enhance mothers’ postpartum self-esteem and body satisfaction. For the last decade body image literature has risen and brought to new discussion about body positivity. This research focuses on women’s body positivity campaign presented by Mothercare called #BodyProudMums. The objective of this research is to identify the storytelling elements used to promote women’s body positivity campaign and whether the issue creates good brand story for Mothercare. The concepts used are body positivity, postpartum, brand storytelling, and social media with qualitative content analysis as research method. The unit of analysis are ten posts of #BodyProudMums campaign on @mothercareuk, while the samples are three randomly chosen posts. This research notes that the body positivity messages of body appreciation, body acceptance, and love, as well as broad conceptualization of beauty are carried out by the elements of storytelling namely: basic plots (the quest), archetype (the change master) with the following story objectives: communicating who they are, fostering collaboration, transmitting values and sparking action. There are only three out of four elements of good brand story present on the campaign. However, the absence of humor element is justified because of the nature of the postpartum story in which it shares mothers’ hardship and how they finally cope with it. Therefore, it can be said that the issue of mothers’ body positivity creates good brand story for Mothercare. Key words: positive body image, postpartum, brand storytelling, social media


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 192
Author(s):  
Qurrata A'yun ◽  
Yor Hananta

So far, in social media, the hadith "ballighū 'annī walau āyah" has been widely misunderstood as a proposition for preaching even if it is only one verse. On the other hand, this hadith is also used as a suggestion for preaching without understanding the full meaning of a verse. This understanding is different from the real understanding, so a comprehensive discussion is needed to describe it. This article aims to identify misconceptions in understanding the hadith "ballighū 'annī walau āyah" on social media twitter and meet them with the correct meanings of the hadith. This study is a qualitative study which classify and analyze data by descriptive analysis. The discussion of this article explains how the hadith ballighū 'annī walau āyah is understood by Twitter netizens. The understanding of netizens is grouped into two categories, namely those that are appropriate and not in accordance with their real understanding. The factors that lead to misunderstanding of the hadith ballighū 'annī walau āyah are the insights of the hadith that are conveyed only a piece (not intact) and the dissemination of understanding through social media twitter with a short number of characters. This phenomenon causes a transformation of the hadith understanding in the form of degradation and distortion


Author(s):  
Aparicio-Martinez ◽  
Perea-Moreno ◽  
Martinez-Jimenez ◽  
Redel-Macías ◽  
Pagliari ◽  
...  

Disordered eating attitudes are rapidly increasing, especially among young women in their twenties. These disordered behaviours result from the interaction of several factors, including beauty ideals. A significant factor is social media, by which the unrealistic beauty ideals are popularized and may lead to these behaviours. The objectives of this study were, first, to determine the relationship between disordered eating behaviours among female university students and sociocultural factors, such as the use of social network sites, beauty ideals, body satisfaction, body image and the body image desired to achieve and, second, to determine whether there is a sensitive relationship between disordered eating attitudes, addiction to social networks, and testosterone levels as a biological factor. The data (N = 168) was obtained using validated surveys (EAT-26, BSQ, CIPE-a, SNSA) and indirect measures of prenatal testosterone. The data was analysed using chi-square, Student’s t-test, correlation tests and logistic regression tests. The results showed that disordered eating attitudes were linked to self-esteem (p < 0.001), body image (p < 0.001), body desired to achieve (p < 0.001), the use of social media (p < 0.001) and prenatal testosterone (p < 0.01). The findings presented in this study suggest a relationship between body image, body concerns, body dissatisfaction, and disordered eating attitudes among college women.


1964 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 531-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick W. Mote

Sinology, and the case for the integrity of it: the one key word in that phrase has been as hard to define as the other has been to achieve in practice. If we can scarcely define it, and if there is no hope of achieving it for the masses, why then talk about it at all in the year 1964?I believe we can try to define Sinology, and we can point to some who have achieved it in practice. It might have seemed wisest to ask someone who has at least come close to achieving the Sinological ideal to be its spokesman on this panel. And, in fact, I urged that course upon Mr. Skinner when he first asked me to participate. He ruled that out, not so much perhaps for fear that we'd have to import one, or that such a one could be expected to speak in an unintelligible accent and would read footnotes in seven languages from original sources only—but perhaps, anomalous as it is, from the justifiable fear that the real Sinologist might speak in a way that would confuse his own green and well-worked fields with the entire province, or his own home province with the whole realm. And integrity is what we are here to talk about. For it is that integrality of the whole realm, or world, of Chinese studies that I think should define Sinology. Therefore, let someone who thinks he sees a meaningful and universal ideal, but who does not expect the ideal to be judged by himself, discuss it with the freedom that can come from having nothing personal to defend. Otherwise, it would be indeed presumptuous for me to appear here as the spokesman for Sinology; this dilemma of the spokesman vis-à-vis his subject today clearly is one that does not afflict my colleagues on this panel (for reasons at least partially nattering to them all).


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-66
Author(s):  
M. Miski ◽  
Lulu Fauziah Priyandini ◽  
M. Rozik Sudawam ◽  
Megawati Ayu Rahmawati Wardah ◽  
Alvian Chandra Alim

This study is intended to answer three main questions. First, how does the Z generation in Malang City responds to the use of hermeneutics as a method of interpreting the Qur'an by Muslim scholars? Second, how is the process of transmitting their knowledge about it? And third, how is the construction of their knowledge about the ideal interpretation of the Qur'an and can respond to socio-religious dynamics and phenomena? This study is a field study, while the primary respondents are Z generation in Malang City. The use of descriptive, hermeneutic, and intertext analysis models on data, the results of this study showed that there are differences conveyed by the Z generation of Malang City related to the use of hermeneutics as a method of interpretation of the Qur'an: some of them accept it, while others reject it. The transmission of their knowledge about hermeneutics also varies; most of them are correlated with social media, some are still conventional, which relies on information from teachers, and so on. This showed that generation Z of Malang city is not entirely averse to issues that tend to be controversial. Moreover, the authority for interpreting the Qur'an has not entirely shifted from the real world to cyberspace, no matter how dependent they are on the new media.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Victor Pollet ◽  
Sarah Dawson ◽  
Martin Tovee ◽  
Piers Cornelissen ◽  
Katri Cornelissen

Verbal denigration of personal body size and shape (“fat talk”) and engagement in social comparison has been linked to the development of body dissatisfaction and eating disordered behaviour. A key question is whether the relationship between these two predictors is additive or multiplicative, as the latter relationship would imply a far more serious impact on body dissatisfaction. A previous report has suggested a multiplicative relationship, and in two separate studies we replicated this study. In each study, female participants filled in fat talk, social comparison and body dissatisfaction measures. In the first study, 189 UK participants took part and in the second study, 371 US participants took part. Both studies found significant correlations between all three measures but no interaction effect, consistent with an additive not a multiplicative relationship. In a further test, we used a mini meta-analysis to combine the results of the two studies reported here with the results of the original study. Again, we found no evidence of an interaction. In conclusion, these studies show an additive relationship between fat talk and social comparison, suggesting their impact on body image is serious but not as serious as previously reported.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document