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17 December 2013

Facebook Photo Activities Linked to Body Dissatisfaction

Keywords: survey, teens, North America, body image, happiness, internet, media, social media,

A study in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking investigated whether Facebook use is linked to body dissatisfaction among teen girls. The study shows that teen girls who spend a lot of time using specific Facebook photo activities are less satisfied with their bodies.

Take aways

  • Teen girls who spend a lot of time using Facebook photo activities are less satisfied with their body and internalize a thin body ideal. 
  • This is only true for specific photo activities, and not for overall Facebook use
  • Policy makers and caregivers should be aware that using Facebook photo activities may make teen girls less satisfied with their bodies. 

Study information

  • The question?

    Is Facebook use linked to body dissatisfaction among teen girls? 

  • Who?

    103 12- to 18-year old girls (mean age: 15 years); primarily European-American

  • Where?

    United States

  • How?

    The teen girls completed a survey at school containing questions about their total Facebook use, specific Facebook feature use (e.g., creating events, posting status updates, and updating profile pictures), weight satisfaction, drive for being thin, internalization of a thin body ideal, and seeing their body as an object. 

Facts and findings

  • Time spent on Facebook photo activities (e.g., posting a photo, creating a photo album, or updating your profile pictures) was linked to greater;
    • internalization of a thin body ideal,
    • seeing own body as an object, 
    • weight dissatisfaction,
    • drive for being thin.
  • Unlike earlier research, this study showed that overall Facebook use was not linked to greater body dissatisfaction among teen girls. 
  • Critical note: This study does not allow for any conclusions about cause (using Facebook photo activities) and effect (body dissatisfaction). The results only show that using Facebook photo activities is associated with greater body dissatisfaction among teen girls.