We blame Facebook for everything nowadays. Should we blame Facebook for eating disorders, too? A new study says, probably.
Let’s back up. The easiest way to make yourself unhappy is to compare yourself to other people. Like this:
- Her house is bigger!
- His girlfriend is prettier!
- She has an easy job!
- Why does he always get all the compliments from the boss?
There. Feel unhappier now?
We’ve known that comparison are the source of pain since cavemen complained about other cavemen having better caves. Facebook, however, brings these kind of unhealthy comparisons to new heights. For starters, it’s kind of like the Big Data or the Moneyball of comparing. Rather than simply look around the office or the classroom and realize everyone else has nicer clothes than you, Facebook users can compare attire with thousands of people simultaneously — literally, allowing near real-time rankings among everyone you’ve ever met.
But that’s not all. For every photo you see on Facebook, there’s probably 500 that have been deleted. That means you are only ever seeing the best of other people. When I was a kid, I was warned against comparing how I feel on the inside against how people appear on the outside. Well, forget that. Facebook makes it easy to compare your worst with everyone else’s best.
You might think only the weak-minded get caught up in such unhealthy comparisons, and maybe that’s true. But now that ComparisonBook is such a critical part of so many lives, I’m guessing there are quite a few more weak-minded people in the world.
Sign up for Bob Sullivan’s free email newsletter.
With that backdrop, I’ll recap for you now the Florida State University study that made the rounds last week. Basically, researchers found that young women who spent a lot of time on Facebook were more likely to self-report eating-disorder-like behaviors. In one of two studies, researchers asked college-aged women about their Facebook habits, and then asked questions designed to test for eating disorder potential. A second, smaller study, seemed to hint that people exhibited increased eating-disorder behavior even after looking at Facebook for a few minutes.
In other words, looking at pictures of thin people can immediately impact your appetite, and your self-image.
The study comes with 1,000 caveats, of course. For example: Is this impact worse than simply looking at pictures of thin people in magazines? The study can’t say. And of biggest import: Is there any kind of causation, or is this merely a correlation (and perhaps an obvious one)? Does Facebook make people behave in unhealthy ways, or do folks with eating disorders simply happen to use Facebook a lot? Again, no answers.
I don’t need iron-clad research to make me worried, however. Spend a little time on social media — to not pick on Facebook, let’s say Twitter — and you’ll quickly spot alarming connections between technology and eating disorders. There are countless anonymous accounts maintained by women who glorify their vomiting habits (“I puke, therefore I feel”) and encourage each other towards less and less healthy behavior. Nearly 20 years ago, I wrote about online suicide pacts and their unhealthy groupthink. This is not that, but it strikes some of the same chords. This is incredibly worrying, and if anyone suffers from an eating disorder they should seek help immediately to start the healthier road to recovery. People suffering with an eating disorder have plenty of treatment options available, including Monte Nido Centers.
Again, as with every argument like this, you can’t blame technology. It’s hard to find evidence that Facebook or Twitter turned even one person bulimic who wouldn’t have been otherwise. And, there is quite an upside to all this: People who need help have a way to cry out that didn’t exist before. Also, these posts offer an additional opportunity to find folks who need help.
Anorexia and bulimia are complicated conditions that require tender care and understanding far beyond the scope of this column. Potentially even professional support (click here for more information). So I’d like to broaden the discussion, and the study, just a little. If you’ve never suffered from an eating disorder, simply think “There but for the grace of God go I.” And if you’ve never looked at social media and felt a little bad about yourself, well….you are probably lying.
Now, to brutally borrow from Shakespeare, does the problem lie in out profiles or in ourselves? The answer is a little bit of both. Technology takes what we are and makes it more extreme. It’s also new, and so we humans haven’t built up our natural defenses to it. That means now is the time to familiarize yourself with the issue and make it a special emphasis with yourself and your children — young women and men — who are at risk.
The National Eating Disorders Association hotline is 1-800-931-2237.
Be the first to comment