Myfitnesspal, Mydailyplate, Sparkpeople. These are just a few examples of several social media applications/websites that are utilized to gain control over ones health by serving as a platform to record food and exercise. It is not uncommon to hear about the growing trend in obesity that is plaguing the United States. The growing waistlines have spurred application and website developers to create something to help the masses find their health. It is the era of preventative medicine. But what happens when something meant to influence the population positively does just the opposite?
According to Ginny Graves’ Huffington Post article titled, “How to Know If You’re Addicted to Exercise”, young women are developing unhealthy obessions with exercise, sprouted from the influence of social media, such as fitspo photos touting near perfect fit bodies and #2aday tweets bragging about daily workouts. Dr. Jordan Metzl, M.D., a sports medicine doctor for the New York hospital for Special Surgery confirms that while daily is helpful and even recommended, “it is possible to take exercise too far.” (Graves, 2009).
Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory (1986, 2009) argues that much of what we learn is done vicariously through media via four processes: attention, representational process, behavioral production process and motivational process (Schneider,Gruman, Coutts, 2012). Applying this theory to the issue of over exercise tells us that one can be influenced by viewing fitness photos in social media, remembering the figures of fitness viewed, figure out how to perform and practice fitness activities such as dieting and exercise and lastly, are motivated by the athletic figures viewed and the goal of obtaining the same.
However, Social Cognitive Theory can also be applied in order to prevent addictive exercise behavior. Similar to Nathanson and Cantor’s (2000) study on reducing reward value in order to reduce desensitization on subject matter, social media can be used to reduce the reward value placed on exercise. Since young women are over-exercising in order to achieve the often unachieveable fit bodies represented in social media, interventions should include promoting realistic figures, diets and exercise plans that include rest. Also, if social media were to post stories of the fitness models describing how extreme and unrealistic their fitness schedules are to reduce the reward value on over exercise, this woud lead to more realistic ideas of what fitness truly is.
There are many approaches to evaluate the impact of this intervention. Social media websites and applications can use metrics to compare before and after rates of views on fitness and exercise themed photos. Gyms can use statistics to track the number of women partaking in back to back classes, or to track the average time spent in the gym during a visit, or how many same day repeat visits occur.
References
Graves, G. (2014) How to Know if You’re Addicted to Exercise. Retrieved from www.huffingtonpost.com/self
Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., and Coutts, L. M. (Eds.) (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Tags: media, social cognitive theory
I agree that an intervention needs to promote a more realistic figure to help counteract the media. As a matter of fact I would take it a step further. According to the “set point theory of weight, ” each individual has an ideal biological weight, which cannot be greatly modified (Taylor, 2012, pg 99). So going below (or above) this point is dangerous. Dropping too much weight with excessive exercise and dieting can actually cause your metabolism to drop, which can contribute to the “yo-yo dieting” effect (Taylor, 2012, pg 99). Which means that if one slows down their regimen, they are likely to gain weight more easily than before they started their routine. Not to mention that it can cause psychological problems like depression and irritability. So I would advise you to put an activity in your intervention that clearly explains the dangers of too much exercise and dieting. Thanks for the post on this rampant problem!
References
Taylor, S. E. (2012). Health psychology. 8th edition. New York: McGraw Hill.