By Maya Bourne
Unlocking my phone and automatically clicking on TikTok, I search for a mental vacation after slogging through my mountain of nightly homework and practice. The clock on the top left corner of the screen glares brightly up at my face, reminding me of the time: 3:30am. My late-night For You Page is incredibly different from that which subtly darkens in the bright sunlight. The cracked screen protector of my phone displays young women flaunting their unhealthy bodies, triggering videos about mental health, and an overall darkened atmosphere. I always think about the people in these videos: girls showing off their extremely prominent cheekbones, women sharing their extremely healthy “What I Eat In A Day to stay in my 800 calorie deficit!”, young boys speaking too carelessly about their own lives. What made them feel this way? How did this video end up on the internet? Is this really spreading awareness for mental health, or is it just triggering to everyone involved?
Many people take to social media as an outlet to share their personal experiences and growth, which I find to be one of my favorite aspects about these apps. I love the personal aspect of social media and the ability to foster connections with people halfway across the world because of shared views. The problem with social media for me is when people become too comfortable sharing their lives for thousands—and sometimes millions—of people to see. The line between appropriate and inappropriate content on social media is so blurred that it becomes almost non-existent. The disturbing content some people post can be extremely harmful to other, more vulnerable people who just want to use social media as a form of escape from their lives.
The glamorization of eating disorders has been widely adopted by social media platforms and their users today, creating a damaging environment and relationship with food for many people, including young kids. Little girls and boys see their favorite influencer doing 4 workouts a day while eating next to nothing with a side of Erewhon ice cubes every day, and they compare themselves to those people. What people, especially kids, don’t realize is the unhealthy nature of this behavior and the extremely distorted relationship with food these creators have, one that they are passing down to their massive following. If a famous influencer with millions of followers, most of them little girls, starts posting videos showing off her concaving stomach and protruding cheekbones, these girls will see this behavior as something to strive for. This distorted image of beauty creates extreme body dysmorphia and can cause eating disorders in both kids and adults alike. It is not uncommon to compare yourself to others, and most people do it automatically. The issue of this situation is when people with large platforms use them to gain validation from their followers for their “progress,” while, in actuality, documenting their descent into an eating disorder and encouraging their followers to do the same.