Over the last few years, as the body positivity movement has grown, Instagram has continued to shrink its users’ confidence and damage their mental health. From cramming users’ feeds with weight control adverts, which promote dieting and rarely represent larger bodies, to providing a platform to accounts which glorify eating disorders or post heavily filtered images, Instagram is warping people’s body image.
Numerous studies have exposed the harmful effects of social media on mental health, particularly on young people. Like counts can encourage unhealthy competitiveness, and it can be easy to lose touch from reality and forget what real bodies look like, when scrolling through other people’s highlight reels. The Instagram algorithm which ensures users see more of the things they ‘like’ makes it even easier for users to become trapped in an echo chamber which promotes unhealthy dieting culture.
With the recent government rulings that calorie counts must be showed on menus, and continuously sub par mental health services, it is more important than ever to help people combat eating disorders.
Positive change
This week, however, Instagram has taken a step in the right direction. It has launched a new feature which enables users to block weight control adverts from their feeds. This move is the latest in a sequence of Instagram updates which have been celebrated by body positivity activists. Users can now hide the like count on their photos, and there is a disclaimer when people add filters to their posts.
It is now easy to block weight control adverts from your feed in a few simple steps:
- Go to settings
- Select ads
- Select ad topics
- Search “body weight control”
- Select “see less”
Not all bad
While social media inevitably has and always will trigger poor self esteem and fuel body shaming, it can also help people who are struggling to access free resources and connect with the body positivity community. @theantidietplan and @bodyimage_therapist are just two body positivity Instagram accounts that I would highly recommend following.
Many fans are highly anticipating the next season of popular Netflix show Heartstopper, based on the comic books by Alice Oseman, which are expected to tackle issues surrounding eating disorders and social media.
If you are struggling with an eating disorder, it is important that you get professional help and contact your GP. The Beat Eating Disorders website offers an online support group, and a 24-hour hotline. It explains how to talk to your GP, and their HelpFinder can signpost you towards additional support for eating disorders.