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Hi everyone! In this post, I will be discussing an academic article called The effects of active social media engagement with peers on body image in young women which was written by Jacqueline V. Hogue and Jennifer S. Mills.

    The authors of the article discuss the impact of social media on the body image of young women. Jacqueline V. Hogue & Jennifer S.Mill (2019) explain that women feel worse about their body image after using social media than men. Men usually use social media platforms to make friends and women rather use social media to see pictures of other women and compare themselves to them. By doing this, especially young women adapt the behavior of posting idealized and edited pictures of themselves on their social media platforms. (para.4) 

    V. Hogue & Jennifer S.Mill (2019) conducted an experiment where they gathered 125 undergraduate female students of different ethnicities and ages ranging from 17 to 27 years. Visual analogue scale and body dissatisfaction were measured before and after ASME. The participants with the peer condition were asked to comment or like photos on a profile of a peer female whom the participant followed on social media and considered as more attractive than herself. The family condition group of participants was asked to do the same but with a not peer and not considered as a more attractive female family member.

    The authors of the article hypothesize that "young adult women who actively engaged with the image-based social media of attractive peers(upward social comparison targets) would have more negative body image than before doing so, whereas young adult women who engaged with the image-based social media of family (unlikely social comparison targets) would not" (Hogue V. & Jennifer S.Mill, 2019, para.22).

    The results of the experiment showed that "ASME with attractive peers’ appearance-based social media resulted in worsened body image in young adult women, whereas interacting with that of the family did not affect state body image, supporting our hypothesis"  (Hogue V. & Jennifer S.Mill, 2019, para.24).

    This article shows that many females tend to compare themselves to their peers whom they follow on social media platforms.

   

References:

Hogue, J. V., & Mills, J. S. (2019). The effects of active social media engagement with peers on body image in young women. Body Image, 28, 1-5. Retrieved from https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S174014451730517X?token=7CCDD82DC0F7ADCA20D1E41D61D30A18DB0ABA0D8DB9E42D65B16957C9CAD8EED6D9B4842021EED3989F4BBB270E4BEB.