Looking at the photographs of the fitness pursuits of your friends on the social media, whether on the elliptical at the gym, hiking through the wilderness or crossing a 10km finish line, can make some of you feel terrible about your shape, while others may be inspired by them, says a study on the impact of the social media on health.
According to the study by researchers at Texas State University and the University of Arizona, no matter what the goal of the posters, whether it is to brag or simply to share a part of their lives, the pictures end up influencing the health of their social media pals.
During the study, researchers have found that the more exercise-related posts a person sees on social media, the more concerned they feel about their own weight, which could result in unhealthy body image.
“When people receive more posts about exercise, it makes them more concerned about their weight — more self-conscious — and that’s not a good thing,” says Stephen Rains, co-author of the study, which appears in the journal ‘Health Communication’. People are especially likely to feel concerned about their weight when they perceive their friends, who post about physical activity, as being very similar to themselves.
“We thought about this from the perspective of social comparison theory, and the idea that we use others as benchmarks to figure out where we stand,” explains Rains. “Similarity heightens social comparison; so if the person posting about exercise is someone who’s in your age group, has a similar build or a similar background, you might think that’s a pretty good reference, and that might spark in you even greater weight concern.”
But this isn’t all bad news. For certain people, friends’ exercise posts seem to have a motivating effect when it comes to attitudes about exercise. Researchers found this to be true for people who are more likely to engage in ‘upward social comparisons’ or look at themselves in the light of people whom they aspire to be like. Says co-author Tricia Burke, “With upward social comparisons, you tend to compare yourself to those you perceive as superior to you. So, for example, if you’re in a classroom, you’d compare yourself to the smartest kid in class. In terms of exercise, if a person is posting a lot about exercise, they must be really fit, so you’re using that as a motivator.”
In contrast, the study says that those who engage in ‘downward social comparisons’ use as their benchmark people who they perceive as doing less well than they are. Tendency to engage in downward comparisons did not have an impact on weight concern or exercise attitudes in the study. The findings suggest that social media’s impact on health is indeed real, if nuanced, and deserves additional attention.