The Instagram Diet: Social Media’s Influence on Young Women’s Body Image

Abstract

A vast majority of individuals today are active social media users, spending hours on Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Twitter, and other virtual platforms each day. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the content consumed on Instagram and body image concerns in females ages 18-25. The study aimed to explore whether one's social media feed can impact thoughts on body image, by asking randomly assigned participants to follow body-positive accounts (vs. environmental accounts) and to unfollow negative body image accounts (vs. accounts featuring sources of global warming). A sample of 71 Princeton University students completed a self-report survey measuring sociocultural attitudes towards appearance (i.e., comparison with people who appear on their Instagram feed and pressure from social media to be thin), body esteem, body appreciation, and eating disorder symptomatology. After making subtle adjustments to their Instagram feeds for two weeks as instructed, the students completed the same self-report survey again. Results did not provide evidence that exposure to body positive accounts was associated with improvements in young women’s sociocultural attitudes towards appearance, body esteem, body appreciation, and eating disorder symptomatology. A number of possible implications for these findings in addition to intervention targets and future research directions are discussed.