NetGirls: The Internet, Facebook, and Body Image Concern in Adolescent Girls

                It's nothing new that body dissatisfaction is documented in adolescent girls. The article says that one possible reason for this is that our sociocultural influences preach only one type of beauty ideal, often thin. The article has found that there are links between fashion magazine/television consumption and various indices of body dissatisfaction or disordered eating, which really isn't anything new. The article then discusses that even though fashion magazines and TV have a heavy influence on the body image of girls, the rising internet consumption, especially around social media, is starting to affect how young women see themselves.

                The aim of the article was to look at the relationship between Internet exposure and body image concern for young girls. They believed that the amount of Internet exposure would be positively correlated with body image concerns, as would be Facebook use. The article used 1,087 girls in year 8 or 9 of high school. The median age was 13.7 and the girls were from 18 different schools across South Australia. The schools ranged in type, private, public, rural, metropolitan, and they all varied in terms of economic status. The way the study collected data from the girls was though a questionnaire.

                The study found that 95.6% of girls had access to internet in their homes, with 43.4% having internet access in their own bedroom. The girls indicated that their average internet use was about 2 hours a day, with a mean of 2.23 hours during the week and 2.47 hours on the weekend. 46.3% of the girls reported having a Myspace and reportedly spent 34.3 minutes on Myspace per day. 75.1% of the girls had a Facebook and reportedly spent an hour and a half on Facebook every day. Most profiles, 79.3% were private, but 19.8% were public, and the average number of friends was 214.5.

                They found that internet exposure was significantly correlated with each of internalization, body surveillance, and drive for thinness. They found, as predicted, Internet exposure was associated with internalization of the thin ideal, body surveillance, and drive for thinness in this sample of adolescent girls. Their findings also confirm the Internet as an additional form of media, beyond fashion magazines and television, associated with body image concerns. consistent with current statistics for young Australians.5 The girls used the Internet for many purposes, including streaming media and visiting shopping, fashion, celebrity, and magazine websites, all likely to have an appearance focus and to promulgate thin beauty ideals, but, the most common use for the Internet was social media, particularly Facebook. Facebook users scored significantly higher on all indicators of body image concern than their non-user counterparts. It seems likely that appearance concerns are aroused as users construct their personal profile.