Essay Sample on How Social Media Does Not Affect Eating Disorders

Social media is a computer-mediated tool that allows people to create, exchange or share ideas and information in a virtue community and network. Eating disorders, on the other hand, include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and eating too much. They are a complex illness caused by psychological, behavioral, biological, genetic and social factors (Factors That May Contribute to Eating Disorders). Social media, however, brings out this issue in the open by availing websites that explains how to deal with the disorder or by allowing people to share their views on how one can handle the problem.

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Social media like Facebook provides a platform for sharing experiences on the use of the common hashtag example is where people come up with a page and post how they were challenged by eating disorder. And afterwards they point out their road to recovery. Social media, therefore, provides solutions to problems like eating disorder by bringing the affected together so that they can share and help (Marcela, Social media helps fuel some eating disorders).

A lot of misconception has is made that teenage girls are likely to be affected by body dissatisfaction due to reading magazines, watching television and indulgence into social media like facebook and twitter (Sophie, Feeding eating disorders). Nevertheless, it should be noted that most teenagers tend to emulate the looks from their peers whereby they believe that skinny is a beauty. By so doing they succumb to starvation causing them to suffer from anorexia.

Exposure to social media and television does not predict the symptoms of eating disorder. However, competition among teenagers does. The perception that being skinny attracts attention causes many girls to go for it (Social Media's Potential Influence on Eating Disorder). Others starve themselves to death .eating disorder like anorexia and bulimia is highly psychological and emotional triggered. Feeling inadequate or unimportant, low self-esteem, lack of control, being ridiculed; perfectionist tendency will make a girl skip meals so as to lose weight and fit in (Peers, Not TV, Influence Girls' Body Issues)

Although social media educate people on balance diet and issue out examples for others to emulate, teenagers should be cautious on what to follow and chose.

Work Cited

Factors That May Contribute to Eating Disorders. <https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/factors-may-contribute-eating-disorders>.

Kirby, Sophie. Social media: Feeding is eating disorders? March 2015. <http://www.dw.com/en/social-media-eating-disorder-body-image/a-18283683>.

Peers, Not TV, Influence Girls' Body Issues: Study. 30 January 2013. <http://www.livescience.com/26740-peers-girls-body-image.html>.

Rojas, Marcela. "Social media helps fuel some eating disorders." (Westchester County, N.Y. (2014).

Social Media's Potential Influence on Eating Disorder. 08 November 2014. <http://www.elementsbehavioralhealth.com/eating-disorders/social-medias-potential-influence-eating-disorders/>.