Downloadable PDF: A1 Conference Paper 

Thesis Statement:

Social media platforms exert a significant influence on promoting unhealthy diets and contributing to the obesity epidemic, shaping consumer behaviors and habits surrounding food choices. This paper aims to explore the relationship between social media, dietary habits, and obesity rates, and provide insights into strategies for addressing this obesity issue in the digital age.

Abstract:

This conference paper goes into the significant influence of social media platforms in promoting unhealthy foods and contributing to the rise of obesity around the world. Through an examination of how social media shapes consumer behaviors surrounding food choices, this paper aims to show the relationship between social media, diets, and obesity rates. Utilising content from social media platforms and survey-based research among users, this paper provides insights into the role of social media in promoting unhealthy eating patterns and contributing to obesity. Furthermore, it discusses strategies for public health interventions and policies aimed at controlling the effects of social media on dietary behaviors and obesity rates. This conference paper further looks into the role of social media trends and the effect on younger users dietary health when attempting to take part in these trends.

Introduction:

Social media platforms have become common in modern society, having many benefits by influencing communication and cultural norms. However, alongside their benefits, social media has also been implicated in promoting unhealthy diets and contributing to rising obesity rates. This paper explores how social media influences the promotion of unhealthy foods, dietary behaviors, and obesity. By examining social media’s impact on dietary habits and body image perceptions, this paper seeks to inform strategies for addressing the obesity epidemic in the digital age. More extensively, this paper will focus on the trends and content on these social media sites which contribute to participation and ultimately contribute to unhealthy dietary habits. One of the biggest trends that supported and promoted unhealthy dietary habits was a mukbang, which is a Korean abbreviation for ‘eating show’ (Strand, 2020). A mukbang involves recording yourself eating excessive amounts of food, while chatting with the audience (Strand, 2020). The amounts of food eaten in these mukbangs tend to approach the daily intake of food for an entire day or multiple, in a singular sitting. This is one of the examples of food trends on social media sites which have gained a lot of attention and ultimately made users of the sites partake in mukbangs, on camera or off camera. Social media influencers tend to take part in these trends and insinuate to viewers that they should give it a go, these trends have gone from casually eating in their own homes, to taking it to the public and taking part in various restaurants eating challenges. These eating challenges done by influencers are typically paid promotions from the restaurant, as they know they will get more participants to take part in their eating challenges from a single influencer posting about it. As a viewer, they do not realise the fact it is a paid promotion and take it as a bit of fun to give a go, this is where the problems arise. Younger users of social media are typically the most vulnerable and therefore are the most likely to attempt these, which will only cause problems for the future.

Literature Review:

This paper reviews existing research on the relationship between social media, food marketing, and obesity. It examines studies highlighting the impact of influencer marketing, advertising strategies, and content on dietary choices and obesity rates. Many of the currently accessible papers on the connection between social media and dietary habits circulate around the connection between social media and fast food consumption as well as consumption of sugary drinks. The connection between social media and fast food has been made and shown through multiple studies however, the connection between social media and overconsumption and obesity has minimal coverage and results. 28 studies were researched to find results, of these 19 were excluded due to wrong study outcomes, and 4 were excluded for wrong population type.

Alanazi’s study in 2022 was done on children and adolescents to find a link between the average daily usage of social media and fast food consumption (Alanazi et al., 2021). The study found a strong correlation between the consumption of the two, showing that children and adolescents who use social media sites have a higher chance of consuming higher amounts of fast food and having an unhealthy diet. Alanazi’s study was a cross sectional study with 300 children and adolescents across Saudi Arabia with 285 of these being social media users. The study found that high usage of social media has an immediate correlation to fast food consumption, prefer salty food over sweet food, and drink soda. This is a positive result to what this paper is aiming to provide, with links between unhealthy dietary habits and social media usage.

Gascoyne’s study in 2021 shows the link between unhealthy drinks and advertisements on social media sites. Gascoyne’s study shows a strong correlation of a high amount of unhealthy drinks consumed to a high amount of unhealthy advertisement on social media (Gascoyne et al., 2021). Both of these studies together show the connection between social media usage and unhealthy dietary habits in different manners. However, they do not go into the subject of obesity and overweight social media users. Gascoyne’s study was another cross sectional study with 8708 adolescents across Australia. This study was heavily focused on advertisement and marketing of harmful drinks and foods, the outcome being a strong link between the two. This study further shows a stronger link for males, with a higher rate of consumption of these harmful foods and drinks than that of the female participants.

Al Ali’s study in 2021 focuses on a higher aged group than the previous, this being university students (Al Ali et al., 2021). This age range is still well within the range of this paper, with typical university students being between the ages of 18 and 24. 1001 university students were in Al Ali’s study, with 960 of these being active social media users (Al Ali et al., 2021). This study again shows the use of social media in proving healthy resources for university students. However, the results tend to sway towards the unhealthy food options being advertised on social media and the negative health implications surrounding them.

Sampasa-Kanyinga’s study on the association between social media usage and unhealthy dietary habits. Sampasa-Kanyinga’s study focuses on the connection between social media usage and a variety of outcomes, these being skipping breakfast, consuming sugar sweetened beverages, consuming energy drinks and being overweight. Sampasa-Kanyinga’s study shows results in which this paper is looking for, however it has gaps in which need to be filled for a more extensive look into the association. This paper intends to look at what type of content users are looking at and which of these has the highest correlation to unhealthy dietary habits. With trends constantly being brought into these social media sites, and different types of accounts and platforms following certain trends, which ones have the highest correlation to a bad diet. Trends such as mukbangs and food challenges have gained lots of attention on social media sites, with influencers eating large amount of foods in a singular sitting. As a viewer we do not see how hard and challenging these challenges are to complete and feel a temptation to do these trends ourselves, possibly recording them to post on our own channels. These trends are constantly developing and getting more views, causing more users to attempt various trends and challenges. This paper will focus more on the trends of these social media sites and how they all individually contribute to the obesity epidemic.

The study found which most closely relates to this paper’s thesis is Social Media Influencer Marketing and Children’s Food Intake: A Randomised Trial by Coates (2019). This study focuses on the advertisement side towards children using social media, with participants being shown mock instagram profiles with images of influencers promoting unhealthy snacks (Coates et al., 2019). There were 176 children in this study, 58 of which were shown unhealthy dietary profiles, and 59 were shown a healthier side (Coates et al., 2019). Rather than focusing on trends surrounding social media, this study directly focuses on paid promotion and advertisement done by famous influencers. The results were as expected, with the children who viewed the unhealthy content having an overall average intake of 448.3 kilocalories whereas, the children shown the healthy advertisements had an overall average intake of 357.1 kilocalories. Furthermore, the study had a control group which only showed advertisements for non food products, this control group then had an average overall intake of 292.2 kilocalories. Along with these statistics, the group showed the unhealthy products had an increase in unhealthy snacks being consumed. The results from this study align closely to what is wanted, with a different procedure and implementing advertisements rather than trends on social media (Coates et al., 2019).

Methodology:

This study employs a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative content analysis of social media platforms with survey-based research to explore the perceptions and behaviors of social media users regarding dietary habits and obesity. Qualitative analysis involves examining popular social media platforms to identify themes related to the promotion of unhealthy foods and obesity related content. Quantitative surveys are distributed among social media users to assess their exposure to and engagement with food related content, as well as their attitudes towards their diet and obesity as a whole. Researching current trends and seeing the high rate of involvement of these trends. Associating individuals who regularly take part in these trends and the correlation to obesity and unhealthy dietary habits when not taking part of the trends. Online surveys is a key part of the methods used, with questions associated around how much social media is used, what types of social media is used, what trends users have taken part in and what food users have purchased after seeing it on a social media site. The target audience for these online surveys are users of social media aged between 12 and 24, as these are likely to be the most influential users and the most active users. These participants are then sorted by age and most used social media site, to justify which social media has both the most common use among ages, and which sites have the most trends surrounding unhealthy foods. Once a baseline is set on these controls, a further breakdown is down with how many of these have consumed unhealthy foods after viewing it on these sites. Some of these trends consist of healthy foods in an unhealthy amount, these would also need to be considered and taken into account. Is it just the food amount that is represented in the trend that is causing the problem, or is it more directly associated with the unhealthy food being consumed.

Results and Discussion:

The findings reveal patterns of food promotion, dietary behaviors, and user engagement on social media platforms. They highlight correlations between exposure to unhealthy food advertising, dietary behaviors, and obesity rates. Moreover, the paper discusses the implications of these findings for public health interventions, media literacy programs, and policies aimed at promoting healthier dietary habits and reducing obesity rates in the digital age. Social media sites such as TikTok and Instagram have the highest rates of use among the target audience, with all these food challenges being prominent in both. Young users of these sites take part in these trends, whether they post it publicly, post it privately or simply don’t record it to post. Results of other studies surrounding the subject have shown similar results however, never touched on the growth of trends surrounding these dietary habits and the effect they have on younger users. There has been a clear and obvious link between unhealthy dietary habits and social media usage, especially in the younger generation.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, this paper synthesises key findings to provide a comprehensive understanding of how social media platforms contribute to promoting unhealthy diets and contributing to the obesity epidemic. By making the mechanisms through which social media shapes individuals’ attitudes and behaviors clear, this study informs strategies for addressing the obesity epidemic and promoting healthier dietary habits in the digital age. With the constantly changing sites and trends on these sites, there is a constant bait of unhealthy dietary habits being held out in front of users of these sites. Through user engagement and the need to participate in various trends and challenges, the need to regulate and mitigate these habits is constantly needed, especially with younger users. There have not been previous studies surrounding the topic of social media trends in which social media influencers promote and take part in, trends have caused a lot of participating accounts and by that, they have caused a lot of unhealthy eating.

References:

Al Ali, N. M., Alkhateeb, E. A., Jaradat, D., & Bashtawi, M. (2021). Social media use among university students in Jordan and its impact on their dietary habits and physical activity. Cogent Education, 8(1), 1993519

Alanazi, N. O. S., Alhawiti, M. M. E., Almuzini, S. A., AlBalawi, M. Z. M., Alsuwaidan, M. F. A., Alanazi, A. A., Alanazi, A. M. M., Alharbi, S. M. R., & Alsuwaidan, M. F. A. (2022). Impact of social media as a risk factor of increased fast-food consumption and increased bad health habits in children and adolescents in Saudi Arabia. Medical Science, 26, ms538e2590

Coates, A. E., Hardman, C. A., Halford, J. C., Christiansen, P., & Boyland, E. J. (2019). Social media influencer marketing and children’s food intake: a randomized trial. Pediatrics, 143(4)

Gascoyne, C., Scully, M., Wakefield, M., & Morley, B. (2021). Food and drink marketing on social media and dietary intake in Australian adolescents: Findings from a cross-sectional survey. Appetite, 166, 105431

Sampasa-Kanyinga, H., Chaput, J.-P., & Hamilton, H. A. (2015). Associations between the use of social networking sites and unhealthy eating behaviours and excess body weight in adolescents. British Journal of Nutrition, 114(11), 1941–1947. doi:10.1017/S0007114515003566

Strand, M., & Gustafsson, S. A. (2020). Mukbang and Disordered Eating: A Netnographic Analysis of Online Eating Broadcasts. Culture, medicine and psychiatry, 44(4), 586–609. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11013-020-0967