While too much time spent on social media has been linked to a lot of negatives, this is the first study we've seen linking it to poor body image in women. These are the findings from a team of researchers at Live Science, in partnership with the National Science Foundation.
The study claims the more time women spend on Facebook the more concerned they become about their physical appearance. Roughly 86 percent of women said they wanted to lose weight compared to 61 percent of surveyed in a separate Live Science national survey.
The Live Science researchers polledmore than 800 college women about a variety of topics including their eating and exercise habits, body image and with Facebook use.
From that information they were able to determine how frequently and exactly when women began feeling negative about their appearance and when it was based on having just seen someone else's images or posts. The study notes the women often times would unfavorably compare their own bodies to those of Facebook friends.
"We focused on women, and particularly college women, because they are under increased pressure to look a certain way, and for their bodies to have a certain shape. This pressure comes from both media images and interactions with peers," explains study author Petya Eckler, a lecturer at the University of Strathclyde in the United Kingdom.
The Live Science study is just one of many that have focused on the negative effects Facebook can have on users. Late last year a University of Michigan study claimed the more time a person spends on Facebook, the more his or her feelings of well-being decrease and feelings of depression increase.
This same study also discovered another Facebook malady known as "fear of missing out" as feelings of inadequacy surface when looking at positive things happening in other people's lives.
The Live Science findings will be presented at the 64th Annual Conference of the International Communications Association in Seattle, WA. in late May.
