The link between media exposure and pervasive discontent of one’s physical appearance is something that has been long established (reference) in literature that covers a century. In the modern era we now live, technology has transformed the exhibition of ideals, opinions, and capacity of content for which young people can compare themselves. Arguably the biggest platform for a constantly growing library of images depicting idealised body-types is Instagram; with more than 500 million accounts active every day and more than 1 billion existing users (Instagram Internal Data, 2017). Recent surveys show that approximately 91% of women are dissatisfied with their bodies and roughly 80.7% of men speak in anxious prone about their bodies (Robertson, 2015; Cambell, 2012). With consideration of the combination of the shocking number of individuals conveying distain towards their physical appearance, and the growing population of image-comparison sites, one must deliberate this relationship as a prevalent social issue.
Contemporary media technologies encompass the Internet, and an array of social media avenues that allow for the rapid creation of sharing user-generated messages, as well as instantaneous communication with other users on a myriad of hand-held devices (Sunder and Limperos, 2013). Collectively, these technologies differ from the conventional mass media, which have been a focus of much research based on body-image. A key feature that distinguishes contemporary social media from conventional mass media is interactivity (Eveland, 2003). Users are sources, as well as receivers; sometimes virtually simultaneously. Secondly, by affording users of digital communicative technologies the capacity to shape, customise, and direct online interactions, contemporary media transforms formerly passive mass-media receivers into communicators. This enhances autonomy, self-efficacy and personal agency (Sunder et al, 2003). Thus, sites such as Instagram are immensely more personal than conventional mass-media.
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An app like Instagram are available for viewing, content-creating, and editing at all times on mobile devices; allowing for exponentially more opportunities for social comparison and dysfunctional surveillance of pictures of body-types than were ever available before. Conventional mass-media is saturated with depictions of thin women (Holmstrom, 2004, p.210). These images have become so common place (and even lampooned) that they may not even exert the effects they once did. Social Media, with its emphasis on attractive peers, and not exclusively thin models, may lead to a host of potentially significant effects on BI-related attitudes. SM, unlike conventional media, also provides a virtual form of ‘fat talk’ conversation threads about one’s own and others eating and exercise habits, weight concerns, and ideal body-shapes; thus, serving to intensify the influence of appearance comparisons of BI dissatisfaction.
Particularly in the western world, social networking apps are heavily ingrained into modern society. The highest percentage of those who own and use smartphones are aged 18-24 (Neilson, 2016). Thence, for a young individual, who is likely to have a smart phone and access to an app as widespread as Instagram, not being a user is synonymous to isolating one’s self. Being a user of the free app means receiving constant updates from millions of users worldwide, exposure to a never-ending catalogue of personalised image-based content, and a barrage of competing ideals from the newly emerged influencers of Instagram. A recent survey found that 18-25 year-olds are twice as likely to take advice from social media influencers than they are friends and family when it comes to certain decisions (Forrester, 2019); which demonstrates the somewhat hypnotic nature of social media. Moreover, a growing literature suggests that social networking sites, like Instagram, have addictive properties (Ryan T, Chester A, and Reece J, 2014). Consequently, Instagram can impact the risk of negative schemas towards an individual’s comparable self-worth (Fardouly, Willburger and Vartanian 2017), while the addictive qualities of engaging the app create a potentially harmful cycle.
The extent of how being a user of Instagram impacts a young person’s perception of themselves and others can be dependent on the individual. Based on cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) (Cash, 2002), the degree to which individuals are invested in their appearance depends greatly on the core self-schemas related to their appearance (Cash, Melnyk, and Hrabrosky, 2004; Marucs, 1977). More so, objectification theory proposes that self-objectification can lead to negative outcomes, such as body-shame and anxiety, which in turn can lead to depression, sexual dysfunction, and eating disorders (Fredrickson and Roberts, 1991). As Noll and Fredrickson (1998) describe, body self-consciousness and self-objectification occur solely because an individual is concerned with physical appearance, regardless of their level of satisfaction with their personal physical appearance. Both people who are satisfied or who are dissatisfied with their own body can experience feelings of self-objectification and self-consciousness, and the negative consequences of these feelings, simply by being concerned with appearance. Fredrickson and Roberts (1997) report that the internalisation of idealised images often result in many negative psychological effects.
Body-image is a multi-faced psychological experience of embodiment that encompasses evaluative thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and behaviours related to one’s own physical appearance (Cash, 2004, p.1). These perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and behaviours can be positive or negative in nature and effect many aspects of psychosocial well-being and quality of life (Bailey, Gammage, Van Ingen, and Ditor, 2015). The research dedicated to these effects recognise body-image dissatisfaction as an important public health concern; given the risks for association of numerous health behaviours. Among these behaviours are fasting, self-induced vomiting, laxative misuse, and excessive exercise (Alleva, Martijn, Van Breukelen, Jensen, and Kaeros, 2015). According to social comparison theory (SCT), people have a drive to evaluate their progress within various aspects of their lives, and in the absence of objective standards, compare themselves to others to know where they stand (Festinger, 1954). Within this concept, humans have a drive to measure themselves, opinions, and status by comparing themselves to other individuals. The way this relates to BI dissatisfaction is through upward social comparison; which arises when individuals compare themselves to those they believe to be better than themselves (Lewallen and Behm-Morawitz, 2016). Regarding Instagram; the person perceived to be somewhat superior to the user could range from being a friend, to a social media influencer with millions of active followers. Whether the impacting content is an acquaintance or a celebrity, the flow of images can be manipulated by any user to create whichever perception they desire. Carefully selecting the most socially desirable image, displaying rose-tinted daily updates, and adding the touch of thought out captions to accompany said images can generate a seemingly idyllic catalogue of a person’s life; whether that representation is accurate or not. Studies of self-presentation within social networking sites such as Instagram have consistently found that users strategically manipulate their profiles in accordance with societal ideals of attractiveness (Haferkamp et al, 2012). This process does not even consider the added issue of the highly popular trend of airbrushing photos, and the validation and potentially pressure of a post’s reaction. Especially for a young person, this process contributes to learned behaviour and internalisation of physical epitomes (Ridgway and Clayton, 2016).
More on body image
With the subject of media impact, the question is the strength of the effect, and meta-analytic studies indicate the effects are small to modest; they likely operate in cohesion with individual differences in the internalisation of gender-related attributes (Levine and Chapman, 2011). Consistent with Strelan and Hargreave’s (2005) circle of objectification theory, the relationship may be bi-directional. Instagram’s focus on self-presentation may lead to more self-objectification because it offers people who already self-objectify further opportunity to present themselves as an image or persona to be observed. While there are a number of sociocultural factors that influence body image, including the previously mentioned topic of family and peers (Thompson, Heinberg, Altabe, & Tantleff-Dunn, 1999), it is contended that the most pervasive and influential are the mass media (Grabe et al., 2008, Groesz et al., 2001, Levine and Murnen, 2009, Thompson et al., 1999, Tiggemann, 2011, Want, 2009). The majority of individuals encounter media images of thin and attractive models and celebrities on a daily basis; across conventional media and apps such as Instagram. Meta-analyses of both experimental and correlational studies have concluded that there is a consistent and significant small-to-medium negative effect of thin ideal media exposure on women's body image (Grabe et al., 2008, Groesz et al., 2001, Want, 2009). In addition, research has found that thin ideal media has a similar negative effect on a person’s mood (Bessenoff, 2006, Tiggemann and McGill, 2004, Tiggemann and Polivy, 2010, Tiggemann et al., 2009). However, the existing experimental research has primarily examined exposure to fashion models in magazines or television commercials. Although celebrities also feature heavily in contemporary media, as yet there has been little experimental research examining the effect of attractive celebrities on women's mood and body image. Despite peers being the prime focus of Instagram, celebrities understandably dominate the most followed accounts (The Telegraph, 2016); where they share pictures of their personal and professional lives to fans. The combination of celebrity images with peer images, presented equally on the same platform, may result in users viewing celebrities more like their peers. This, in turn, creates the perception that the highly perfected body-type images presented are an achievable standard for anyone.
Careful literature reviews (Levine and Harrison, 2009; Grabe et al 2008) and meta-analyses of research (Groesz et all, 2002; Grabe et al, 2008) indicate that media portrayals of the thin-ideal exert an impact on BI concerns. Bandura’s (1986) social cognitive theory, the mass communication-focused cultivation model (Morgan et al, 2009) and the sociocultural perspective on BI (Thompson et al, 1999; Tiggemann, 2011) assign central importance to media emphasising that exposure to media messages can impart unrealistic images of physical ideals. Internalisation of these distorted images is of concern because it can lead to body dissatisfaction; a key predictor of disordered eating (Smolak and Thompson, 2009). Body image disturbances are a fundamental feature of eating disorders as conceptualized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth 2 edition text revision (DSM-IV-TR), as published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA, 2000). If an individual already has symptoms, or the predisposition to being vulnerable to developing an eating disorder, the environment of catalogued body-ideals on Instagram can possibly be harmful. Body-image is a multidimensional concept, with cognitive, affective, and behavioural aspects (Wertheim et al, 2009). Disturbance in body image appears to be a central factor in the development of eating disorders (DSM-IV-TR; APA, 2000). In recent years, body image and weight concerns have become increasingly apparent to the point of being considered normative, and the standards for socially desirable body-types within social media may be a major influence on both clinical and subclinical eating disorders (Berel & Irving, 1998).
A predominant concern among the vast literature covering the connection between body-image satisfaction, and the use of Instagram/ social media is the overwhelming exclusion of male participants or males in general. From one perspective, the dominant focus on female’s association with media and body-image is understandable. As a result of traditional gender role socialisation process, girls and women learn to self-objectify, internalising social emphasis on attending to outward appearance rather than inner qualities. They also come to assign more importance to physical appearance than do males, and are more attuned to appearance management to conform to stereotyped physical attractiveness ideals (Dion et al, 1990, Fredrickson and Roberts, 1997). Having said this, it could be perceived as outdated to think that males do not face these same issues; whether the proportion is completely equal or not. The media’s portrayal of the ideal body size and shape for both genders demonstrates change over the last century (Laurie, Sullivan, Davies, and Hill, 2006) and media exposure in a huge proportion of people’s daily lives illustrates how greatly our culture values the appearance of males and females (Wagenbach, 2004).
Although, there has been less of an interest in how the mass media can have negative effects on men, the idea has increased in the past three decades. Research illustrates that men who encounter a high volume of exposure to the media have decreased self-esteem (Muris, Meesters, Van De Blom e al., 2005) and decreased body satisfaction (Agliata and Tantleff-Dunn, 2004). In a study comparing male and female body-image and experience of eating disorders, 472 participants (337 females, 135 males) were recruited from classes at a large south eastern metropolitan university, and asked to complete a series of surveys. The surveys included a muscularity attitudes questionnaire, The Eating Disorder Inventory, a physical appearance state and trait anxiety scale, and The Multidimensional Body Self-Relations Questionnaire. The results showed that whilst participants believed that men can have just as low body image as women, if not less, some stereotypes still exist in regard to only women having body image issues. The apparent difference in dimensions of body-image experienced with males and females are the divergent desired physiques. Males within the literature admire and desire to have a muscular build, whilst a common theme among females in the western world is the desire to have a smaller body-fat percentage. Cafri, Strauss & Thompson (2002) reported that in their study, on average, males desired an additional 14.96 pounds of muscle mass. Muscularity dissatisfaction, a negative subjective evaluation of one's body as it relates to muscularity and muscle tone, was associated with lower self-esteem, and lower life satisfaction (Bartlett et al., 2008). This study conducted two meta-analyses in order to determine the extent to which pressure from the mass media influenced men to conform to the muscular ideal. A total of 25 studies contributing 93 effect sizes were included in two meta-analyses, which revealed that exposure to the media was significantly related to males aged 12 to 23 feeling worse about their own bodies. Results from the two studies suggested that as men felt pressure from the mass media, they felt worse about their bodies. There is however some contrasting research, denoting that males are not influenced by the media as females are. For example, the sample of 51 men, with ages ranging from 18-64 years old, were shown 17 media images depicting males with a desirable body-image. The results showed no overall difference in level of confidence, muscle tone satisfaction or mood (Mulgrew et al., 2013). Having said this, the fact that the small sample had such a vast variance in age, and showing participants 17 images was the extent of experimentation, one may question the credibility of this literature. Moreover, the participants were exposed to media images from an Australian men’s health magazine. This dimension of media is marginally comparable to the higher concentration and variance of body-types displayed across Instagram.
Within the last decade, psychologists (e.g. Gough and Robertson, 2009; McCreary, 2012; Ricciardelli et al., 2007; Thompson and Cafri, 2007) and sociologists (e.g. Holliday and Cairnie, 2007; Monaghan, 2008) have become increasingly attentive to men’s body image and general male embodiment; largely due to the fact that the male body has become more visible in popular culture; producing interest in the effects of this increased visibility on men’s images of their bodies. As previously mentioned, there is a general consensus that the majority of men aspire to a muscular mesomorphic shape; characterized by average build with well-developed muscles on chest, arms, and shoulders, and slim waist and hips, rather than an ectomorphic (thin) or endomorphic (fat) build (e.g. Franko et al., 2015). Though similarly to the thin-ideal that is conversed among the literature of females, a similar focus on low body fat levels are a crucial part of the arguably ideal male physique, as it allows for more muscle visibility (Thompson, and Cafri, 2007). Although body dissatisfaction in women typically relates to the mindset of being overweight, body dissatisfaction in men generally relates to feeling either overweight or underweight. Averaging has the effect of combining men who believe they are either overweight or underweight compared to their ideal, so that on average they may appear to have no discrepancy between their ideal and current body (Drewnowski and Yee, 1987).
The current study does not create a picture of any specific body-type within the questions, nor does it focus on the idea of the desire to lose weight, rather if the individual has the desire to change their body, if they are satisfied with their body, and if they are actively seeking to make changes. This is a conscious decision when contemplating the existing literature that some may argue is inconsistent in the inclusivity of males and females; when considering the differing ideals. Marc Mishkind et al (1986) took this methodological problem into account when designing their study. The investigation found that when shown a similar set of silhouette drawings of male body types ranging from very thin to very fat, 75% of men stated that their ideal was discordant from their current body size. Interestingly, approximately half of participants ideally wanted to be bigger, and half wanted to be thinner than they were. In this respect, there is an significant difference between men and women on these silhouette tasks. Whilst females consistently pick a slimmer ideal than their current shape, males are equally likely to pick a thinner or a larger ideal. Wanting to be larger and wanting to be thinner both represent body dissatisfaction; but these differences between males are lost when researchers average across groups. Mishkind et al.’s data ultimately found that a significant proportion of men were dissatisfied with their body shape. The mythological issue among old and new research is the variance among desired body-type in males; more specifically, the concentration on the degree of muscularity of the target figures, rather than the size. Lynch and Zellner (1999) found that their sample of US male college students chose ideals that were significantly more muscular than their current shape, and that these men assumed that women preferred a significantly more muscular body than the men’s current size. The findings are interesting in showing that young men, on average, desire to be more muscular. However, their methodology did not enable men to indicate any interaction in preference between fat levels and desired muscularity.
The literature covering body-type and media is, as mentioned, focused on the experience of females. This is somewhat comprehensible when assessing the shocking findings. For example, one study, comprised of 203 teenage girls, had their BMI calculated, and were asked to indicate which of five categories (‘thin', `slightly underweight', `just right', `slightly overweight' or `fat') they felt they belonged to. Secondly, each participant was then presented with a pictorial scale consisting of a series of seven-line drawings of the female figure, labelled from A-G, and ranging from extremely thin on the left, to obese on the right. In response to this scale, the sample was asked to specify which figure they considered to be most like them, which they considered the norm and finally, which figures they would most like to look like. The subsequent results concluded that a majority of participants believed themselves to be slightly overweight or obese, when in actuality, only 32% of the sample could be defined as this. Additionally, 54.1 % of the girls desired to have a thinner body shape, and 53.8% even wished for a body shape thinner than that which they perceived as normal (Champion and Furnham, 1999). Within Instagram, the top 8 out of 10 most followed Instagram accounts were thin, toned, and universally attractive female celebrities (with only two men in the category of the top 10). It can be assumed that the focus of beauty within Instagram is dominantly that of female influencers; which then adds to the comparison theory among female users on the app. The tripartite influence model (Keery et al., 2004) encompasses the idea that the internalisation of body ideals and appearance comparison (the two mediational mechanisms), influenced by three formative influences; peers, family, and media. All three of these influences are accessible to many through Instagram. In support, research has found that women report comparing more with their peers than with thin ideal media (Heinberg and Thompson, 1992, Wheeler and Miyake, 1992) and that these peer comparisons result in greater thoughts about dieting than comparisons to media (Leahey & Crowther, 2008). In reference to the discussion among literature of males and females, there is no intended debate as to which gender is more affected. The conclusion of this exploration is the validity and demonstrated necessity of involving both males and females in the current study.
For better understanding the influence of media on negative BI perception and subsequent negative health behaviours (e.g. disordered eating, substance abuse, and surgical fat reduction), it is essential to analyse the processes and examine how thin-ideal media use is associated with BI disturbance. Eating disorders are serious and often fatal illnesses; which is a worrying prospect, considering the associated risk factor of effected body-image. Moreover, body scheduling is of global relevance, given the abundant evidence showing that individuals suffer from body-dissatisfaction in numerous countries and regions across the world. From extensive review of the existing literature, the inclusion of both genders in research concerning body-image is very sparse, and much scholarly research is focused on impact of the thin-ideal (Wang, 2010). At present, the only large-scale experimental body image research to use Instagram images (Tiggemann & Zaccardo, 2015) found that exposure to fitspiration images leads to increased negative mood and body dissatisfaction in comparison to travel images. As illustrated across the prior review of literature, there is a vastly small percentage of studies that focus on Instagram, when investigating the effect of media. The present study seeks to offer more information on the potential effects of Instagram. The social significance of growing the literature on a dominant faction of contemporary media and the potential risks this widely used app may include is justifying of the indirect and direct costs of the project. Biometric image dissatisfaction is a problem that effects the individual and the general public across many regions (Perloff, 2014). Within the current study, the hypothesis is posed that there will be a relationship with time an individual spends using Instagram, and their results on the scale of body-image satisfaction. Moreover, it is hypothesised that the more time a participant claims to spend on Instagram, the higher their display of body-image dissatisfaction, compared to a participant that spends less time using the app.
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