Frequent Facebook users are more prone to develop an eating disorder a new study shows.
Facebook is no longer just a friendly social media site. A mere 20 minutes online pressures women to maintain their weight and get into shape, which in turn increases their anxiety.
"Facebook provides a fun way to stay connected with friends, but it also presents women with a new medium through which they are confronted by a thin ideal that impacts their risk for eating disorders," psychology Professor Pamela K. Keel said in a press release.
Keel led researchers at Florida State University in conducting a study on 960 women. The results showed that participants who sought more 'likes,' untagged themselves from photos and compared themselves to friends' pictures were more likely to develop an eating disorder.
Women who are already plagued by images of their peers that are seemingly more thin and beautiful than they are now have to worry about their image elsewhere.
"Now it's not the case that the only place you're seeing thin and idealized images of women in bathing suits is on magazine covers," Keel said. "Now your friends are posting carefully curated photos of themselves on their Facebook page that you're being exposed to constantly. It represents a very unique merging of two things that we already knew could increase risk for eating disorders."
Past studies have shown the link between eating disorders and Facebook, but the FSU research is the first to conclude that 20 minutes of Facebook time is when the association starts to take shape.
The results, published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders, notes that eating disorders are a severe type of mental illness that causes more fatalities than other psychiatric disorders, and this study may set the stage for early intervention and prevention.
