Social Media and Adolescents

Physical Activity and Diet

Diet and physical activity are very prevalent in the social media scape and there are a lot of positives and negatives that go along with this. 


Advantages of social media & improving physical activity 

I study by Gillian Williams et al.(2014) Studied advantages of social media and improving physical activity is that it is a popular thing right now because this platform is so huge we can reach a diverse and large viewers. In the study with Tana Otto et al. (2020) they saw the use of Social media it was shown that people would use pictures and fitness news as inspiration. Another way to increase participation in physical activity through social media was having online challenges.

 

Disadvantages of social media & improving physical activity 

In Josiah Markell et al.( 2018) they studied disadvantages of social media and improving physical activity is in studies they see a lack of participation. Articles found that if people where not posting about there fitness journey on social media where doing less physical activity.

 

Diet

One of the main benefits of social media is a sense of reliability and camaraderie.  It is so easy to find a community to help with your diet and/or weight concerns. 

Positives

 A study by Victoria Goodyear et al. (2021)  looked at a variety of studies to see how social media affected physical activity and dietary behavior in young people and adults.  They looked at social media platforms like Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter.  Most of the studies Goodyear et al. (2021) reviewed said the same thing: social media interactions can have a beneficial effect on physical activity and diets.



Here are some of the dietary benefits depicted by the study:

  • Increases in fruit and vegetable intake
  • Increases in water consumption
  • Reduction in junk food intake
  • Reduced snacking
  • Reduced fat intake




This shows that finding a good support group through social media, you may be able to positively impact your diet and weight. A good amount of people in these studies not only improved their diets, but they also showed decreases in weight and an improvement in their BMI.

Negatives

Even though there have been many cases of social media helping with diets, it can also do the opposite.  Many social media platforms like Instagram for example use “likes” to determine status, and a fair amount of these influencers posts are edited.  According to Victoria Goodyear et al. (2021),“ disordered eating was associated with the perceived importance of receiving comments on a status or photos, receiving likes” (p.15) Another study by Theo Lynn et al. (2020) said, “Our analysis suggests that the discourse is dominated by non-health professionals. There is widespread use of bots that pollute the discourse and seek to create a false equivalence on the efficacy of a particular nutritional strategy or diet” (p.1).  So even though social media can help manage one's diet, it can also cause problems.

 The adverse effects of social media on diet include:

  • Malnutrition
  • Improper use of diuretics
  • Incorrect information from non-health professional
  • Development of an eating disorder


This being said, before starting a new diet, it is important to notify your physician or find a nutritionist to help you create a new diet plan.