Facebook and the Effects of a Media Literacy Intervention on Body Dissatisfaction

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Karam, Anna M.
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience

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It is well known that mass media, such as advertisements, magazines and television, portray women in an unrealistic way by selecting models that are uniformly thin and beautiful, and also by using photo editing techniques to alter their faces and bodies. When women socially compare to the images they see in mass media, their body dissatisfaction increases. Media literacy interventions have been successful in buffering this body dissatisfaction effect by raising awareness of photo editing and unrealistic ideals of thinness and beauty. Novel forms of media, such as social networking sites like Facebook, also facilitate an environment where individuals socially compare to unrealistic images of their peers, given that individuals post mostly flattering pictures of themselves. This experimental study evaluated the effects of a media literacy intervention for Facebook, hypothesizing that the media literacy intervention would buffer hypothesized body dissatisfaction effects of Facebook, in particular for those directed to view attractive Facebook friends. Trend-level findings suggest that those who received the media literacy intervention and viewed attractive peers demonstrated the lowest appearance self-esteem after viewing Facebook. Future research must be conducted to better understand the effects of Facebook on body image and effective media literacy interventions for social media sites like Facebook.

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