Exploring how digital products impact body image and gender

  • The problem

    College-aged women are at an increased risk for eating disorders, as well as being the primary users of Instagram. Growing dialogue pointed to a potential issue of Instagram negatively impacting body image, but there was limited literature on the topic.

  • Deliverables

    Understand the relationship college-aged women have with Instagram images, including how they feel when they look at the images, how they interact and what types of images trigger certain emotions.

Stakeholders

  • Product owners

  • Community moderators

  • Health providers

  • Advocates

Audience

This project focused on self-identified women only since eating disorders are statistically more common among this gender. The project focused on undergraduate women in the Gainesville, FL area.

  • Understanding

    To discover how college-aged women negotiate Instagram images, this project asked :

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    What types of Instagram photos produce positive and negative feelings among college-aged females?

    Do college-aged females compare themselves with Instagram images?

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    To answer these questions, I chose a qualitative approach with a photo sort activity due to the gap in literature that describes this relationship.

  • Screening

    Each of the participants completed a screening survey via Qualtrics in order to participate in the individual interview. Due to the nature of the interview, the screening survey also assessed eating disorder risk using clinically approved measurements. Women who tested for eating disorder risk were excluded from the study.

  • Photo sort activity

    Short of observing each feed, a photo sort was the way to gather immediate reactions to and feelings about real Instagram images. Additionally, the photo sort was a way to control the images that were seen into organized categories with the same images for each participant, something that would be very difficult to measure in a real Instagram feed.

    To gather photos for the activity, I used a multi-step process to create a feed that a typical college-aged woman would see.

    First, I found image categories from social media literature and narrowed them down to those that represented the more body-focused categories. These included: friends, activity, selfie, fitspiration, thinspiration and celebrity. The goal was to gather enough photos so that two photos per category would be represented in the photo sort activity during the individual interview.

    Next, I sent a survey via Qualtrics to college-aged women outside of Gainesville, FL and asked them to upload photos from their own feed that they felt met these categories. To validate which photos best fit each category, a second survey with the photos provided in the first survey was distributed to a new population of college-aged women to determine the final photos.

    The photos that received the most agreement in terms of matching categories were used in the photo sort activity.

    Additionally, I included the ability to “like” a photo in the activity and “comment” to evaluate how they engage with photos on the platform.

  • In-depth interviews

    The in-depth interview was semi-structured and followed an interview guide that focused on the following themes: social media usage, perceptions of body standards, photo activity, discussion of photo activity, and impact on body esteem.

These are the final photos for the photo sort activity from six categories: thinspiration, friends, fitness, activities, selfie and celebrity.

Analysis

The analysis of these interviews included the following steps:

  • Transcribing audio recordings

  • Creating a code book with theory-driven and data-driven codes

  • Results of coding revealed overall themes and findings

  • Reviewing photos from interview activities

Results

  • Feelings toward photos

    First, there were specific categories of Instagram images that resulted in positive and negative feelings. Pictures of friends (photos 6 and 12) and activities (photos 4 and 10) provided the most positive feelings among participants, gathering likes and comments.

    Celebrity photos, in particular the photo of Kylie Jenner (photo 8), created negative feelings among the participants. Many photos were classified as mixed feelings. For example, fitspiration images (photos 1 and 11) appeared to have caused comparisons but were read as motivational rather than shaming.

    Thinspiration images (photos 7 and 9) and selfies (photos 3 and 5) had the least amount of emotional responses out of all categories, meaning that participants were generally indifferent.

  • Body comparisons

    Six out of 10 participants said that she compared herself to photos displayed in the photo sort. All agreed that the fitspiration images, photos 1 and 11, were the source of that comparison.

    Based on these findings, it is possible that this healthy and fit body is truly becoming a much more attainable ideal, motivating college-aged woman to eat healthy and exercise rather than restrict her diet.

    However, participants overall insisted that while they don’t compare to celebrity images (photos 2 and 8), their friends and peers are most likely to make these comparisons because they interpret it as real life.

Additional findings also pointed toward understanding why and how young women use Instagram.

  • Descriptions of how feeling motivate interactions, for example, liking a picture shows support of a friend or Instagram user.

  • Commenting on the other hand, was varied and reserved for positive messages to close friends, rarely strangers.

  • Blocking and unfollowing was used when there is a lack of interest in content or unnecessary and over-posting.

  • Identifying a purpose for Instagram, which is to check-in on what’s going on in other people’s lives.

  • Sharing ideas around food and fitness was a strong reason to use Instagram.

  • Societal rules for posting photos, such as time of day.

Impact

This study contributed to several areas of social media research.

  • Fulfilling the general need for Instagram research in the realm of social media platforms and their potential negative implications on women.

  • It also accomplished adding descriptions of lived experiences when using Instagram, including how they viewed specific types of photos.

Celebrity photos were perceived to cause the most body comparisons, and with little confidence in being able to separate these photos from reality, there is a huge need for media literacy among young women.

Solutions for this include:

  • Instagram product owners can use findings to support the ability to report and block photos and accounts that users perceive as harmful to their body image and self-esteem. When a photo or account reaches a certain number of these reports, the photo will be removed, and the account will face penalties (such as a pause in access or being removed entirely).

  • These product solutions can be incredibly complicated, leading to additional strategies to help young women negotiate these images.

  • Health professionals can incorporate eating disorder risk screening among women in these age groups, adding specific questions about Instagram use and ensure they are tracking weight and eating behaviors.

  • Advocates in the eating disorder space, such as Eating Disorders Coalition and National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD), can use this as justification for additional support services to help those at risk and struggling with eating disorders.