Thin waist, well-rounded butt and fine legs: due to their constant presence, many young people cannot escape the beauty ideals propagated by social networks such as Instagram and TikTok.
There are also especially dangerous trends, such as the so-called “thigh gap”, that is, the gap that forms in very thin women between the upper inner surface of the thighs. This is a challenge that has been circulating on the Internet for approximately a decade and can supposedly be achieved through hard training and an ascetic diet.
Lately, the “thigh gap” is often called “legging legs”, since the gap between the legs is especially visible when wearing tights or leggings tight. It is not clear that the happy gap is not an achievable or desirable goal for the vast majority of women with a healthy body weight. Google, for example, suggests questions like “Is the gap between your thighs healthy?” or “How do I get the gap between my legs?”
But it is not the only aesthetic challenge: in the “waist challenge”, this part of the body must be narrow enough so that another person can put their arm around it and drink from a water bottle.
Sometimes the pressure is more subtle: “What I eat in a day” is another popular and long-running trend, which can be found on Instagram and TikTok. The young women attached to it meticulously record what they say they have eaten during the day. Generally, it is not seen if they ever fall into temptation, but rather long series of sugar-free and protein-rich dishes.
It is true that there is also a trend towards “body positivity”, that is, positive acceptance of one’s own body, regardless of whether it is fat, thin or disabled. However, depending on the user’s search behavior, this type of content is not even displayed, because the algorithm suggests content based on the Internet user’s consumption.
Even a week of rest shows clear effects
A study from York University in Toronto, Canada, has just discovered the effects of abstinence from social networks after a short period of time. According to the study, just a week of absence from these platforms managed to raise young women’s self-esteem and positive attitude towards their own bodies.
For the project, published in the specialized database ScienceDirect , 66 young students were divided into two groups. One of them regularly consumed content on social networks, while the other had to abstain from them for a week.
Previously, the participants were asked if they were satisfied with their body and if they would like to look like a model. After a week, they were asked again. The body image of the women who had taken a week off had improved. The effect was especially evident in women who had internalized the thin ideal.
According to the study authors, such visible effects are rarely observed in psychological tests. Still, it is possible that it was not just the break that led to better scores, but also the change in behavior during leisure time. Instead of getting engrossed in their mobile phones, participants may have spent more time outdoors, with friends or playing sports. All these activities contribute to improving mental health.
What are the platforms doing about it?
Measures to combat the problem seem limited so far. Many young people can find it difficult to break away from social media. The time consumed by content has been increasing constantly for years.
The company Meta announced in January 2024 that it would proceed to hide inappropriate content on Facebook and Instagram from young people, as long as they indicated the correct age.
Regulations often fail. The European Union (EU) Digital Services Law, for example, aims to protect minors on the Internet from particularly problematic content, such as the glorification of eating disorders. This European measure requires operators to hide or remove content of this type.
But a study by the organization “Reset.tech” showed that only 30 percent of problematic content was removed at most. TikTok performed especially poorly, withdrawing a much smaller proportion. Something positive is that the label or hashtag “legginglegs” has already been blocked.
(ms/rml)
