Abstract

Accessibility to digital communities through the use of social media platforms has increasingly exposed impressionable adolescent girls to potentially physically and mentally harming user-generated content. Positioned as all-encompassing, social media allows individuals, creators, and businesses to communicate, create online communities, exchange ideas, and share user-generated content across multiple platforms. While social media has both positive and negative impacts on the lives of adolescents, research indicates that the negative impact on an adolescents mental health has the potential to be devastating. This paper highlights the risks associated with social media and body dissatisfaction driven by the unrealistic body image standards represented by influencers across social media platforms.

Introduction

While social media platforms offer connectivity and creativity for adolescent girls, the risks associated with body dissatisfaction have increased due to the rise of the social media influencer movement. The social media landscape today is immensely different than it was 20 years ago (Gupta, 2024) ultimately altering the digital environment and the ways in which user-generated content is received and viewed. Allowing self-representation and interaction (Carr & Hayes, 2015), social media provides a stage for adolescent girls to share content and receive feedback in the form of likes and comments, offering a sense of acceptance and acknowledgement. In addition to creating content, social media platforms offer an opportunity for individuals to view and interact with user-generated content shared by peers, celebrities, and influencers. It can be argued that there are benefits and disadvantages for an adolescent girl having a digital footprint across multiple social media platforms. Influenced by both internal and external factors, the experience online can vary depending on the adolescent. Increased accessibility to misleading and filtered influencer shared content has the potential to have a negative impact on an adolescent girl’s body image, ultimately effecting her body perception. Research indicates that constant exposure and access to unrealistic content has the potential to cause severe body dissatisfaction, leading to mental and physical health issues.

The digital world has significantly changed the way in which we raise children – particularly adolescents who can access social media 24/7 thanks to smart phones and portable devices. According to Australian statistics from Roy Morgan, girls aged 14-24 spend 822 minutes on social media each week (The University of Queensland, 2021), equivalating to an average of 2 hours per day spent on a range of social media platforms, including but not limited to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, SnapChat and Tik Tok. Regardless of research conducted in 2020 by the eSafety Commissioner revealing that in a six month period, 4 in 10 teens reporting a negative online experience, adolescents are still gravitating to social media platforms (The University of Queensland, 2021). Negative online experiences reported by adolescents include being contacted by a stranger, experiencing body dissatisfaction, being sent inappropriate content and deliberate exclusion from social groups and activties. With varying negative experiences, adolescents reported the continuouse use of an average of four social media platforms on a regular basis (Chua & Chang, 2015). When asked why they continued to use these platforms; Adolescents identified that they continued to use the platforms due to their peers loyalty to the brands, the sense of belonging they felt on said platforms and the ability to gain information.

Driven by connection with like-minded people, a desire to build a social network, seeking support and strengthening friendships, adolescents are creating online profiles on a range of interactive social media platforms (Mayo Clinic, 2024). With research highlighting that not all adolescent girls have negative experiences on social media platforms, increased peer connection and support and opportunities to learn have been identified as positive aspects for social media (Fisher, Cross, & Papageorgiou, 2022). According to a survey by Common Sense Media, 4% of teens felt that social media had negatively affected their friendships, and 52% of teens felt that it had improved their friendships (Gordon, 2022), the study also identified that there was a connection between social networking and a sense of confidence amongst study participants. Social media has completely revolutionised the way we communicate, share and celebrate with our very own online community. The concept of two-way communication and variation of offerings between platforms is what really separates social media from other forms of media (Buffer, 2024). Features such as profiling, content sharing, direct messaging, feeds and algorithms provide a personal experience for individuals. The way in which individuals interact online varies across social media platforms, offering a sense of control to an individual wanting to share and view content, whether through sharing a short-form video on Instagram Reels, TikTok or YouTube, a snap on Instagram or Threads, or short-form text on platforms such as Mastodon, Twitter or X.

According to Forbes (Rahal, 2020), social media influencer marketing has experienced unprecedented growth over the past decade. As a result of this growth, social media has become mainstream (Rosenthal & McKeown, 2017), leading to an abundance of content created by ‘influencers’. Defined as individuals who have built a reputation for their knowledge and expertise on a specific topic or brand (Geyser, 2024), social media influencers post regularly on multiple platforms in an effort to generate online communities of engaged followers. Traditionally celebrities were ‘influencers’, sharing influential user-generated content across Podcasts, YouTube, Blogs and Social media platforms (Geyser, 2024), however the nature of influencing is changing. Social media platforms provide adolescent girls access to a diverse range of content and influencers. Based on the number of followers, influencers can be categorised as a ‘Mega-Influencer’, ‘Macro-Influencer’, ‘Micro-Influencer’, or a ‘Nano-Influencer’ (Gupta, 2024). With one million followers or more, Mega-Influencers are generally celebrities who have built their online community based on their social and online activities. Macro-Influencers are considered to be more accessible to brands wanting to engage, with 100,000 to one million followers, these influencers have the ability to influence their community with frequent paid or sponsored content. The most common content shared by Macro-Influencers relates to unrealistic body images, unhealthy diets, substance use and inaccurate medical advice (Engel, Gell, Heiss, & Karsay, 2024); all potentially dangerous content to me sharing with impressionable adolescent girls. Regardless of an influencers following, they have the ability to build a sizable community of individuals who share common interest.

Whilst the media can be widely regarded as an influential factor in developing undesirable beauty ideals (Termizi & Herwan, 2021), brands see the value in engaging social media influencers because they have the ability to create trends and encourage followers, particularly adolescent teenage girls who seek acceptance and recognition online. Although the majority of influencer marketing occurs on social media platforms, predominantly with micro and macro-influencers, an increased interest in video has resulted in the rise of influencers (Geyser, 2024) sharing ‘ideal body’ content on YouTube and TikTok, both highly used platforms amongst adolescent girls. Based on the sharing of vertical short video content (Mileva, 2023), TikTok and Instagram Reels provide a platform for brands and influencers to communicate “body-perfect” ideals (Dittmar, 2009). Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat have become common vernacular amongst adolescent girls, with the short-form video sharing application TikTok becoming extremely popular among the younger generation. Saturated with ‘influencers’, TikTok enables individuals to share manipulated and filtered short-form videos that appear natural and realistic to impressionable individuals. Unrealistic depictions of physical appearance user-generated content shared on platforms such as TikTok has the potential to harm how adolescent girls feel and think about their bodies (Knight, 2023). Recently identified as a key aspect of an individuals social media experience, social comparison is driven by the saturation of manipulated content shared by influencers on social media platforms (JED Foundation, 2024). Although the tendency to compare ourselves to others is natural, it can be associated with having a negative impact on an individuals mental and emotional health.

When logging onto social media platforms such as Threads or Instagram, adolescents are bombarded with images of unrealistic and unobtainable bodies (Health Direct, 2024) shared by social media influencers. Although these images may not be true portrayals, it is often difficult to not question the way you look, paricularly if you are constantly exposed to these depictions. With applications such as Snapchat and Fotor enabling editing, photo manipulation has become the norm, however we must not discount the affect that these ‘picture perfect’ images have on adolescent girls. Research has indicated that social comparison is common for both adolescents and adults on social media platforms, with them comparing their social and physical attributes to both celebrities, peers and influencers (Anschutz, Carbaat, Daalmans, & Kleemans, 2018). This constant exposure and comparison is proven to have a negative effect on an adolescents mental and physical health.

A 2019 study identified that social media use was associated with sleep disruption, online harassment, and body image concern (Sacker, Booker, Zilanawala, & Kelly, 2019). Body image concern (BIC) is an issue for adolescent thought to be exacerbated by social media (Dent & Martin, 2023) and awareness about the potential negative consequences associated with social media and body dissatisfaction has accumulated over the last decade (Van Oosten, 2021). Referring to the way an adolescent girl sees and feels about her body, body image can have a significant impact on ones self-esteem and mental health  (Health Direct, 2024). Research indicates that although body dissatisfaction is driven by an internal process, it can be guided by external social factors such as media influence. Increased accessibility through mobile devices and smart phones enables access to media platforms that are saturated with ‘ideal body’ user-generated content shared by social influencers and media.

Despite influencers sharing unrealistic and often photoshopped images to promote the ‘ideal body’, impressionable adolescent girls perceive this content as “reality” (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan , Signorielli, & Shanahan, 2002). Adolescent girls are believing everything they read and see on social media and the impact of this can be extremely damaging both mentally and physically. Extended exposure to social media has been found to be associated with a variety of mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, sleep disturbance and obsessive compulsive symptoms (Franchina & Lo Coco, 2018). More recent studies have examined the relationship between social media and body perception (Carter, Forrest, & Kaida, 2017) causing specific body concerns and body image avoidance among adolescent girls aged between 13-19. With limited control and continued access, social media platforms draw increased attention to physical appearance, social comparison (Weaver, 2023) and promote the ‘ideal body’, promoting an unrealistic and potentially dangerous picture for developing and body conscious adolescent girls.

Concern about the impact of body dissatisfaction on adolescent girls mental health and wellbeing has become widespread (Hart, Paxton, & Jorm, 2012) due to an adolescents vulnerability and development. Although research rearding the correlation between social media use and body dissatisfaction is evolving, an Australian study concluded that internet exposure was significantly correlated with internalisation, body surveillance, and drive for thinness (Tiggemann & Slater, 2013). Using a questionnaire designed to measure any potential correlation between internet consumption and body dissatisfaction, 1,097 adolescent girls in Year 8 & Year 9 communicated their experience with social media and how this experience may or may not have impacted their body image. Exposure to social media influencers and the unrealistic body image messaging evidently impacted the subjects experience with social media. Managing the use of social media in Australian schools has become difficult with adolescents having access to mobile devices, personal laptops and internet. As social media has become a prevalent part of modern society, most schools have banned mobile devices from being used during the school day and all social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok are blocked on school devices (Cumberland, 2023). Cyberbullying, sharing inappropriate content, accessing harmful content, improper use and distraction are all factors driving the ban of social media platforms in education facilities.

It can be argued that a world without social media would mitigate issues such as body dissatisfaction, however if individuals aren’t exposed to idealised thin bodies on social media, then they will be through other media forms such as advertisements, magazines, television and movies (Anschutz, Carbaat, Daalmans, & Kleemans, 2018). As we continue to raise adolescent girls in an evolving digital world, education and awareness for adolescents, parents and educators to help counteract the influence of social media and negative body image. Although there is legislation surrounding cyberbullying, privacy, advertising and anti-trolling on social media platforms, there is no rules or regulation regarding user-generated content and the level of manipulation. Despite the affect this manipulated and unrealistic content may have on vulnerable adolescent girls body image, it can be argued that it is encouraged by certain platforms that actually provide the tools to alter an image or video.

Conclusion

Throughout this conference paper, I have identified that despite the potential negative impact that social media influencers have on impressionable adolescent girls, there has been limited research and data collated to identify cause and effect. As a parent of adolescent girls and a business professional who is employed at an all-girls high school, I have lived experience with how dangerous social media can be, particularly the impact that influencers can have on an adolescent’s body image. Platforms allow influencers to manipulate and edit their content, providing misinformation to their online community. Setting unrealistic health and body image standards online is dangerous and can have everlasting consequences for an adolescent, their family, and friends. Social media is not going to disappear from our devices, it will continue to demonstrate innovation and grow at an expediential rate. Perhaps we need to look at how we can support our adolescents better to create a safer online space for them. By understanding the risks associated with these platforms and forming a partnership with our adolescent girls, we can ultimately inflict change and alter the narrative online.

“Social media isn’t always toxic. Whether it is or not, usually depends on you” – Author unknown.

 

 

 

 

 

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