How Facebook Influences Girls About Their Physique and How Can Parental Control Apps Help?
A recent study entitled The Mediating Role of Appearance Comparisons in the Relationship Between Media Usage and Self-Objectification in Young Women, published in the psychology journal Young Women – Psychology of Women Quarterly, attempts to answer this question by investigating the relationship between the image they have women of their own bodies and the use of different types of media: Facebook, internet, television and magazines.
In particular, the study examines the phenomenon of self-objectification of the female body.
The premise is that the image of women offered by the media often focuses on their physical appearance, rather than on their abilities or personality.
For this reason, exposing oneself to media that promote the image of women as a sexual object causes adolescents to see themselves through this key to reading.
This theory, called the theory of objectification, warns against the most dangerous aspects of this phenomenon: self-objectification can lead to eating disorders, anxiety disorders, to be ashamed of one’s own body, and to depression.
The survey was conducted in the United Kingdom on a sample of 150 girls between the ages of 17 and 25, who answered questionnaires regarding:
- How they use the media;
- Your tendency to compare your physical appearance with that of others;
- The habit of comparing your body with that of specific groups of people – like friends or acquaintances – on Facebook.
The results have shown that the use of Facebook is linked to the phenomenon of self-objectification since it is the social network par excellence of the physical aspect.
Indeed, Facebook is the place where personal photos are shared and valuable comments are received from virtual friends, reinforcing or weakening their self-confidence.
In 2013 alone, Facebook shared 250 billion photographs; this, together with the growing popularity of the medium among young women, and the time they dedicate to social networks (about two hours a day, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics), illustrate the power of the images we see parading in the timeline for the construction of the perception of the female body.
The study concludes that the phenomenon of self-objectification arising from the use of Facebook is related to the fact that girls have a tendency to compare their physical appearance with that of other women.
How parental control apps can help?
Girls stay active on social media and get trapped in the vicious circle of self-comparison. To save them, one best approach is to limit their Facebook use to the best possible time using parental control apps such as FamilyTime.
The app has all the features a parent may think of. With this app in hand, parents can allow their kids a specific hour for device use and can even schedule auto screen-locks.
Not only this, with the app in hand, parents can blacklist addictive and over engaging apps for their kids or can allow them limited time for use. There are many more features.
The comparison between the physical aspect and that of others takes place above all with their contemporaries, friends or acquaintances, rather than in relation to celebrities.
This is because the lifestyle is more similar, and the contemporaries represent a physical ideal more easily achievable.
This is why it is easy to understand the power of new media, especially social networks such as Facebook, on the perception that young women have of their bodies. And it is fundamental to make girls understand -especially adolescents- that there is a clear separation between reality and the online world.
We must teach them that each woman is unique and unrepeatable, splendid in herself; that the stereotypes with which we stumble every day are non-existent models.
Every woman has her faults, even those that seem perfect.
What makes the difference is to accept our own imperfections and like ourselves.
This is the secret to having a serene relationship with yourself and the world around you.
That’s why, dear girls, we have to close the smartphone and stop obsessing.
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