Media Influence on Eating Disorders
There are quite a few websites known as Thinspiration, Pro Ana and Pro ED sites which promote eating disorders such as anorexia. Anorexia is a serious eating disorder that does not discriminate against gender, age, race, or social status. The users of these sites share stories about their goals of losing an extreme amount of weight. They also use photos of celebrities who have had experiences with eating disorders.
As adolescents are still learning their identity and building their self-esteem. These sites can have negative effects on their lives, by promoting unhealthy behaviors which can be life-threatening. An article written by Lewis, Klauninger and Marcininova, (2016) discuss that the number of searches for thinspiration sites soar on search engines when there is a story in the media or tabloids about a high-profile celebrity experiencing an eating disorder to lose weight (Lewis et al., 2016) In a 2012 study, researchers chose Lady Gaga as their high-profile celebrity. They wanted to see if media coverage of Lady Gaga’s eating disorder would cause a rise in the number of searchers for pro eating disorder websites. Results showed an increase in pro eating, pro-ana and thinspiration sites the same month that Lady Gaga’s story was covered in the news media (Lewis et al., 2016). It continued to increase in the following month. The results of this study show how people especially adolescents can be easily influenced by the media. Celebrities are role models who have millions of people who follow their every move on social media. Since being thin is heavily promoted in the media, there are so many individuals who are literally killing themselves to be thin. Thankfully researchers are trying to counteract these searches with sites that promote pro-recovery sites that will pop up when an individual searches for these sites.
References
Lewis, S. P., Klauninger, L., & Marcincinova, I. (2016). Pro-eating disorder search patterns: The possible influence of celebrity eating disorder stories in the media. Journal of Eating Disorders, 4, 5. doi:10.1186/s40337-016-0094-2
https://newsfromthemargins.wordpress.com/tag/eating-disorders/ Web. Accessed 28 October 2016.
The media’s emphasis on unhealthy thinness is disgusting in my opinion, and a way for the fashion and fitness industry to make money off of vulnerable young adults. Pro-anorexia websites claim that anorexia is not in actuality a severe mental illness with a high fatality rate, but a lifestyle choice. The stupidity of this argument can only be understood by individuals who have been affected by the enormity of eating disorders.
Helen Sharpe from the Section of Eating Disorders, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK claims that one-third of patients with eating disorders access pro-eating disorder “thinspiration” websites, that encourage disordered eating by pictures of emaciated models and tips and tricks for purging and starving. The ABC diet (Anorexia Bootcamp) is particularly famous and social media sites like Tumblr have entire communities encouraging its members to stick to the diet and “stay strong.” I have no words sufficient to deplore this kind of glorification of a deadly disorder that has ruined the lives of millions.
Interestingly enough the media has a great influence on individuals and how their eating is affected. An article from June 1st 2014 by Marcela Rojas from the Journal News discusses an individual who refuses to have a Facebook or Instagram account. Donna, age 27 from White Plains, New York refuses to have any type of social media account to protect herself. She suffered from bulimia from age 12 to 25 and had tons of health issues – dental erosion, swollen glands, loss of her period etc. She was affected by social media. She saw messages such as “Pretty girls don’t eat”, “Skip dinner, be thinner”, “You have to exercise for a week to work off the thigh fat from a single Snickers.” All of these messages were not worth it in comparison to living her life.
So with that being said, the social media has a greatest affect on an individuals health than we may believe. I attend the gym planet fitness and I have to say they are amazing in terms of their mottos. They call themselves a Judgement Free Zone. The people that work there are not thin, medium or fat. They are healthy.
Rojas, M. (2014, June 1). Social media helps fuel some eating disorders. . Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/06/01/social-media-helps-fuel-eating-disorders/9817513/