Social media and its impact on adolescents’ sense of body image in Sri Lanka

Abstract

This study is based on how social media affects an adolescent’s sense of body image in Sri Lanka. Social media images have a significant impact on body image or potential deviant behavior of an average adolescent. However, one major difference between adults and adolescents is that adolescents are facing the most vulnerable and sensitive period of their life. For this study, the survey method was used to evaluate the social media footprint on adolescents’ body image. Participants in this research study consisted of 100 grade 12 students, 50 females and 50 males (age 18) from 10 selected schools in the Colombo district. The questionnaire consists of 15 questions. Students are asked to indicate their level of agreement on a four-point scale ranging from “definitely disagree” to “definitely agree”. The objectives of the study were to study the importance of social media platforms as attractive & fashionable media outlets, to understand how adolescents compare their body image with those of celebrities that they see on social media, and to determine the pressure adolescents experience from social media to have perfect body images. The following questions were asked: How do social media platforms influence the sense of what constitutes attractive and fashionable body images? Do adolescents feel any pressure from social media to lose weight? Do adolescents compare their body images to celebrities that they see on social platforms? As results it was revealed that social media has a great influence on adolescents’ body images; the researcher measured general body dissatisfaction among adolescents. Secondly, social media has a great influence on how adolescents perceive what is attractive and fashionable. Social media influence a sense of pressure on adolescents to look a certain way (thinner and more beautiful for girls, stronger and more muscular for boys). The study has revealed that the higher the time adolescents spend online the more they are unsatisfied with their bodies, which also leads to the conclusion that media has a negative influence on adolescents’ body images.

KEYWORDS: Adolescent, Body image, Internet, Social media, Sri Lanka