Today, social media plays an essential role in the lives of most teenagers. Teens use social media platforms to speak with one another, share their daily experiences, and follow the accounts and posts of others. They share, create, discuss, and edit content, including text, photos, and videos.
Social media can offer young people many opportunities. It’s a place to meet like-minded individuals and learn from the experiences of others. But it also has harmful consequences. Numerous studies have linked social media use to mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, and body dissatisfaction.
It’s still not clear exactly what role social media plays in adolescent mental health, or its significance among other factors. The way adolescents use social media is likely essential, such as avoiding practices that foster negative thoughts and embracing critical thinking and reflection on social media content.
One pattern of social media use that has drawn the attention of researchers is self-presentation and social comparison. Numerous studies have connected these behavioural patterns to negative mental health consequences, including perfectionism and eating disorders.
In this blog, we outline some of the recent research exploring social media use, self-presentation, social comparison, eating disorders, and perfectionism among adolescents. We also discuss some potential interventions that can help prevent harmful social media use and promote better adolescent mental health.
Social Media Use, Perfectionism, and Disordered Eating
Selfies, personal stories, and other self-presenting content are often central to social media use. These practices can encourage teens to compare themselves to the accounts of others, although they often don’t reflect reality. Unsurprisingly, researchers have linked social media use to mental health problems like body dissatisfaction, disordered eating, and perfectionism.
A 2024 study explored the association between social media use, perfectionism, and eating disorders among adolescents. It found that focus on self-presentation and upward social comparison on social media is associated with perfectionism and disordered eating.
Self-Presentation and Social Comparison
Social media content often involves self-presentation, which involves sharing content, opinions, and photos about oneself. Through these practices, teenagers can share their beliefs and values while making a positive impression on others.
During adolescence, external validation may become particularly important to young people as they grow in independence and develop their identity. Some research suggests that self-presentation activities are more common among adolescents than any other age group.
Social media platforms typically offer options to like, comment on, or share content. Teens can receive immediate feedback on the photos or other content they share. Social media can quickly become a means to gauge the perceived social desirability of aspects of oneself and to receive positive feedback from others.
With millions of young people sharing self-presenting content, social media platforms also encourage social comparison. Teenagers may compare the way they look or how they spend their time to other people, particularly those whom they perceive as doing ‘better’ than themselves. They may follow high-status individuals, such as influencers and celebrities, and evaluate their own lives against theirs.
While sharing content about oneself might not in itself be harmful, the practices that develop on social media may negatively impact teens’ mental health. Social media may encourage them to focus more on peer evaluation and validation from others, rather than appreciating and accepting themselves for who they are. This may affect their self-esteem, body image, and other measures of self-worth.
Research suggests that social comparison may be linked to body dissatisfaction, anxiety, and depression.
Perfectionism in Adolescence
Perfectionism often develops during adolescence. Perfectionist traits are characterized by unrealistically high standards and a tendency to avoid mistakes. Perfectionism may also involve a fear of failure and a preoccupation with past errors.
Over the past decades, perfectionism in young adults has become more common. The impact of social media may partly explain this rise. Social media allows young people to create and share specific, ‘ideal’ versions of themselves that they compare against the ideal selves of others. Teenagers may feel like they have to meet higher, often unrealistic, standards to be accepted, which can fuel perfectionist traits.
Perfectionism and perfectionist traits are linked to lower well-being and many mental health symptoms, including anxiety and body dissatisfaction. They’re also associated with mental health disorders, including eating disorders.
Eating Disorders and Disordered Eating
Eating problems, including disordered eating behaviours and clinical eating disorders, are common among young people. Around 6% to 8% of adolescents may live with an eating disorder. Eating problems are always serious and can seriously harm a young person’s mental and physical health.
Many social media accounts and influencers share content related to concepts of health, fitness, diets, and idealised bodies. This content can encourage young people to become preoccupied with their shape and weight and develop body image concerns. Accounts may also promote unhealthy, disordered eating behaviours, such as dieting and excessive exercise.
Social media can also encourage young people to compare their appearance with others’, causing more body dissatisfaction. At the same time, young people may internalise ideals about body shape and health that are shared on social media, increasing body image concerns and dieting behaviours.
Research has found that exposure to appearance-related pictures on Facebook is associated with self-objectification, body dissatisfaction, and drive for thinness among girls.
Connecting Social Media, Eating Disorders, and Perfectionism
We can see how social media – and particularly patterns of self-presentation and social comparison – fit into the narratives of both eating disorders and perfectionism. Research has found that:
- Adolescents who use social media for self-presentation and upward social comparison experience higher levels of both disordered eating and perfectionism
- The association between social media use and disordered eating is stronger among girls than among boys
This research helps us identify the patterns of social media use that are particularly harmful for adolescent mental health. While avoiding social media altogether might neither be possible nor desirable, especially for older adolescents, educating young people about how to use social media critically and safely may help prevent the development of mental health symptoms and disorders.
For example, schools could offer educational programs that encourage adolescents to think critically about self-presentation on social media, addressing the unrealistic standards that they encounter online and building resilience and positive self-image. Other positive interventions may focus on increasing self-compassion to discourage perfectionist patterns of social media use.
The Wave Clinic: Specialist Recovery Programs for Young People
The Wave Clinic offers transformative mental health support for children, teenagers, and young adults. Our whole-person approach combines exceptional clinical care with education, enriching experiences, and vocational opportunities. We support young people in growing their self-confidence, discovering new passions, and developing life skills.
The Wave Clinic is a Global Centre of Excellence for the treatment of eating disorders. We address the underlying causes of disordered eating behaviours, including trauma and interpersonal difficulties. We focus on whole-person, comprehensive recovery that lasts.
If you’re interested in finding out more about our programs, get in touch today.
