Lots of commercials tease a better body in just a few weeks, but researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario have found a strategy that actually works in that time: ditching social media.
In a study, the scientists discovered it only takes a matter of weeks off of TikTok, Facebook and the like to improve the body image of teens and young adults.
The research used 220 undergraduate students between 17 and 25 years old, zeroing in on those who were on their phones at least two hours a day.
Also selected were people who showed symptoms of depression and anxiety; 76% were female and 23% male. The subjects were asked to rank how they felt about their looks on a 1-5 scale, and were posed questions like, “I am satisfied with my weight.”
While a control group scrolled and chatted as usual, another group was told to cut their screen time to just 60 minutes a day for a month, and afterwards, both groups were re-evaluated using the same questions.
While the control group showed no improvement in how they viewed themselves, the researchers found “significant improvements in appearance and weight esteem” in those who cut their screen time as asked, noted Gary Goldfield, PhD, with the hospital’s research institute.
“Social media can expose users to hundreds or even thousands of images and photos every day…which we know leads to an internalization of beauty ideals that are unattainable for almost everyone…” Goldfield expresses. “Reducing social media use…should be evaluated as a potential component in the treatment of body-image-related disturbances.”
The study’s findings have been published by the American Psychological Association.