Archive Teens’ Social Media and Eating Disorder Statistics Are Scary
[امرأة تضع علامة X على فمها وتحمل هامبرغر في يدها

Eating Disorders Caused by Social Media

Atena

Atena

Table of contents:

    Children and adolescents are growing up in a world where they get overwhelmed with mass media every day. Statistics reveal that a child or adolescent spends an average of six to seven hours a day viewing various media. Several articles have indicated that there’s a link between the thin female beauty and the muscular male body ideal shown by the media and a variety of psychological symptoms, including body dissatisfaction and eating disorders. In this blog, we are going to delve into some social media and eating disorders statistics.

     

    What Is an Eating Disorder?

    Collins defines an ED (eating disorder) “as a medical condition in which a person does not eat in a normal or healthy way”. Eating disorders are often developed due to overthinking body weight and food or negative body image issues.

    Change in eating behavior often results in nutritional deficiencies that can eventually lead to serious illnesses. Eating disorders are common among adolescents and young adults. The most common eating disorders are binge eating disorder, anorexia nervosa, and bulimia nervosa.

     

    Different Types of Eating Disorders

    Shanghai Yangpu District Central Hospital did multiple studies on the lifetime prevalence of eating disorders. The results are shown in the infographic below. The lifetime prevalence of eating disorders indicates the proportion of the population who, at some point in their life, has experienced an ED.

    infographic illustrates lifetime prevalence of eating disorders

    Binge-Eating Disorder

    People with binge-eating disorders overeat regularly and do not try to burn extra calories. The frequency of binge-eating episodes is mostly once a week. People with this disorder are often overweight or obese.

     

    Anorexia Nervosa

    People with anorexia nervosa dramatically limit their consumption of food due to fear of gaining weight. This can lead to severe health complications because of excessive loss of body weight. The main contributing factor to anorexia is an inaccurate perception of body weight or shape. People with this disorder are often underweight.

     

    Bulimia Nervosa

    People with bulimia nervosa eat a lot of food episodically. Then, they try to burn the excess calories in an unhealthy way. The uncontrolled binge eating causes a feeling of guilt, which results in people forcing vomiting, heavily exercising, or using laxatives. People with this disorder often have normal body weight or are slightly overweight.

    Girl hugging plates of processed foods

    Causes of Eating Disorders

    It isn’t certain what causes an eating disorder. Many experts say it might be due to a combination of environmental, biological, and psychological factors.

     

    Genetics

    According to the MRC Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, you are more likely to get an eating disorder if one of your family members has one. This can be caused by a genetic predisposition that is associated with eating disorders. Genetic predisposition is the increased chance of developing a disease based on the presence of certain genes. The cause of a genetic predisposition is a specific genetic variation that is inherited from a parent.

     

    Emotional Well-Being

    According to the WHO, childhood and adolescence are critical stages of life. Nearly one in two adults’ mental health issues start at 14 years old, and 75 percent are in their mid-20s. People with mental health conditions may be more likely to develop an ED. Feelings of low self-esteem and stress may also contribute to these behaviors.

     

    Societal Pressures

    The current Western ideal of body image, self-worth, and success is related to thinness and a desire to achieve this body type. This may be emphasized by pressure from the media and peers. The increase in accessibility to social media cannot go unnoticed.

     

    Does Social Media Contribute to Eating Disorders?

    According to studies, there has been a significant change in the weight and size of female and male models portrayed in Western society’s media, as well as the concept of the “perfect or ideal body”. Katzmarzyk and Davis illustrated in a study that over time, the cultural ideal for women’s body size and shape has become considerably thinner and leaner. Men’s body size and shape have become stronger and more muscular. They found that 70 percent of the women were underweight. Plus, more than three out of four women’s BMIs were 15 percent lower than the healthy average.

    The infographic below shows the researched boys and girls who had an eating disorder. The researched population was asked whether they had a social media account and whether they had Instagram. The group of girls was more active on Snapchat and Tumblr, while the boys were more active on Facebook and Instagram. Of the female population who had a social media account, 68.1 percent had Instagram. Of the boy population who had social media, 61.7 percent had Instagram

    infographic shows the influence of social media on eating disorders of girls

    infographic shows the influence of social media on eating disorders of boys

    How Does Social Media Cause Eating Disorders

    In this section, we go over how social media can cause eating disorders. Social media contributes to these issues in several ways, including:

     

    Mindless Eating

    Nowadays it is common for teenagers to watch a movie, a YouTube video, or scroll through Instagram while eating. This causes non-mindful eating, and can eventually result in binge eating.

     

    Celebrities and Influencers

    The most followed people on Instagram are a collection of slim women and muscular men. These people can project a wrong impression of the ideal body type in their social media posts. A lot of teenagers and children are unaware that these influencers edit a lot of their photos. They often have a skilled team to take the best picture of them and edit every little “imperfection”. In addition, they often have a team of personal trainers and health specialists watching over their health.

     

    Lots of Foods on Display

    There are a lot of food bloggers, especially on Instagram. These people make videos and photos of delicious recipes and put them on display. The more you look at this food content, the hungrier you’ll get. This can cause binge eating, and when it is paired with guilt after an episode it can result in bulimia.

     

    Sleep Deprivation

    One of the negative impacts of social media on your child is sleep deprivation. Because of the continuous scrolling and checking of their phones, their sleep might be sacrificed. Research has shown that a lack of sleep can cause binge eating and making unhealthy food decisions.

     

    Personal Trainers

    Since the COVID-19 outbreak, online personal trainers and “food experts” have become increasingly more active. A lot of these online personalities give out free generalized meal plans to social media users, and your teenager can be tempted to use these. These meal plans can be presented as a weekly or monthly challenge. The influencer plans what foods to eat at any time of day. These plans seem to offer some sort of benefit for your child, but because they are not personalized, they can be more harmful than beneficial.

     

    infographic shows How social media causes eating disorders

    Help Your Child

    Children can create a social media account on their thirteenth birthday. When they create an account, a pop-up appears asking them to verify that they are actually 13. They can verify this even if they have not yet reached that age, there is no proper control. There are safe social media platforms for children that your child can use without you worrying about the negative effects of these platforms.

    To help your child prevent eating disorders caused by social media, you can think about limiting or monitoring social media activity or using therapy. Medication has shown little effectiveness in the treatment of anorexia, but some medications seem to be effective in treating bulimia.

     

    Therapy

    Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a combination of behavioral modification techniques and talk therapy. CBT can address previous trauma or question the motivation behind extreme weight loss. The therapist will help your child deal with possible triggers and develop body positivity. For young people, it can be beneficial to get into family therapy to improve communication between the child and parents.

     

    Medication

    Few trials showed that Olanzapine may stimulate appetite and encourage eating in people with anorexia. People with bulimia can be treated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) to help treat underlying mental health disorders and reduce bingeing-purging cycles. Other antidepressants like monoamine oxidase inhibitors and tricyclic antidepressants have been shown to reduce bingeing-purging cycles as well.

     

    Limit Time on Social Media

    The time limit on social media can be set up with parental controls. A parental control app that can help you is Safes. With Safes it is possible to not only limit time on social media apps but you can also:

    • Receive detailed activity reports: Parents get informed about their children’s devices, social media usage, and the content they consume.
    • Filter website content: This feature blocks out inappropriate websites. Parents can also select specific content categories.
    • Track your child’s location: Children’s live location is shown and their movements will be logged.

    Download Safes and try out all the features to protect your child. Start your free trial of Safes to gain peace of mind with advanced parental control features.

    Atena

    Atena

    At auctor lacus fusce enim id tempor etiam amet. Et consequat amet eu nulla nunc est massa dui consequat. Facilisi adipiscing nec condimentum sit laoreet non turpis aenean in. Aliquam cursus elementum mollis sed accumsan nisl ullamcorper in.

    Want to know more about digital parenting?

    Our newsletter is your go-to source for staying updated with the latest information on parenting and online child safety. Subscribe to our once a week must have tips, to simplify parenting in the digital age. Read the editor’s top pick of the week to ensure a safe online experience for your child.

    More from Our Blog

    emotional child using phone
    Discover essential strategies for safeguarding your child from the online disinhibition effect (ODE) in the digital age.
    Atena

    Atena

    Best Science Apps for Elementary Schoolers
    Although mobiles and computers have proven to be fabulous tools to entertain kids, they can do more than that. In fact, kids can use apps and sites to learn while being entertained. Here, you can find a list of educational apps and sites for elementary schoolers. We update this list every year to bring you the most up-to-date and popular apps. This year, we’ve included a category of question and answer websites for students. 
    Sina

    Sina

    Xbox Games for Kids: A Parent's Ultimate Guide to Safe and Fun Gaming
    Discover the best Xbox games for kids. Our guide helps parents choose age-appropriate games, balance screen time, and maximize educational benefits.
    Sina

    Sina

    Stranger Things has teenage protagonists, but in this Stranger Things parent guide, you’ll see that the violence and language might make you think twice.
    Faraz Daneshgari

    Faraz Daneshgari

    Get Weekly Parenting Must-Knows in Your Inbox

    Deepen your parenting knowledge with our tips and tricks. Receive our editor’s top picks in your inbox once a week—no spam guaranteed.

    Download Safes Kids for Chrombook

    1. Install the Safes Kids app on your Chromebook from Google Play. 
    2. Pair Safes Kids with parent app. Follow the instructions in the app to pair your child’s device with your parent device.  
    3. Add the Safe Kids Chrome extension. Open Chrome and go to the Chrome Web Store. 
    4. Navigate to the Manage extensions page. Click the three dots in the top right corner of Chrome and select “Extensions”>”Manage Extensions”>”Details”
    5. Turn on “Allow in incognito mode” This will allow the Safe Kids extension to work in incognito mode, which is important if your child uses incognito mode to try to bypass the parental controls.
    6. Select Safes extension and follow on-screen instruction

    Download Safes Kids for Android

    Download the Android Kid’s app directly to get the full features!

    Download Safes Kids App on Play Store

    Download Safes Kids App on Safes.so

    Safe Kids is available on the Google Play Store, but if you download it directly from our website, you will get access to Call and SMS monitoring feature, You can monitor the phone calls of your child’s device, as well as the contacts and messages they have sent and received, including those containing inappropriate content.