Many of us suspect that the beautiful, often highly-edited images of people we see on social media make us feel worse about our own bodies. But what does the research say?

If you mindlessly scroll through Instagram or Facebook whenever you get a few seconds of downtime, you’re far from alone. But have you ever wondered how all those images of other people’s bodies – whether your friend’s holiday snap or a celebrity’s gym selfie – could be affecting how you view your own?

Much has been made over the years about how mainstream media presents unrealistic beauty standards in the form of photoshopped celebrities or stick-thin fashion models. Now that influencers fill up our feeds, it’s easy to imagine that social media, too, is all bad when it comes to body image.

But the reality is more nuanced, and there may be ways to curate your Instagram feed to make you feel happier in your own skin – or, at least, stop you feeling worse.

It’s important to note that research into social media and body image is still in its early stages, and most studies are correlational. This means we can’t prove whether, for example, Facebook causes someone to have negative feelings about their appearance, or whether people who are concerned about their appearance are more likely to use Facebook.

That being said, using social media does appear to be correlated with body image concerns. A systematic review of 20 papers published in 2016 found that photo-based activities, like scrolling through Instagram or posting pictures of yourself, were a particular problem when it came to negative thoughts about your body.

For read the full text click here:

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190311-how-social-media-affects-body-image

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