TikTok ‘like a trap’ for those with eating disorders
Experts caution app’s algorithm makes it hard for users to avoid triggering content
While scrolling through TikTok during the early months of the pandemic, Haley Collins often encountered videos showing people’s exercise routines or the foods they ate throughout the day. Collins, 19, a sophomore at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., has struggled with body image issues and anxiety, both of which were worsened by COVID-19 restrictions.
“(TikTok) was super triggering for me,” she said. “I would see that and be like, ‘Oh, I guess I should do something like that.’ ”
One of the effects of the pandemic is that adolescents and young people are spending much of their free time on social media to stay connected with their friends. A survey of 2,000 parents conducted by researchers at Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago last September found that 63% of respondents believed their teens were spending more time on social media during quarantine.
“If you’re a young girl comparing your body to someone in the media, like an actress or model, you might try to modify your body to meet that societal ideal,” said Alix Timko, a psychologist in the department of child and adolescent psychiatry at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia who focuses on eating disorders. “Put in the context of the pandemic, teens are on social media more ... that means they’re potentially exposed to more content that could potentially trigger the development or maintenance of an eating disorder.”
Collins downloaded TikTok during her freshman year in college, but it wasn’t until she went home to Massachusetts in March 2020 that she began spending a significant amount of time on the app.
“It was during the first stay-at-home order that I even identified I was having issues with my body and negative self talk,” she said. “That was kind of the time I had to sit down and be like, ‘OK, there’s something wrong here.’ ”
Adolescents and adults presenting with eating disorders for the first time have increased during the pandemic, said Timko. Those who were already struggling with eating disorders were negatively affected as well — a survey published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders found that 62% of those with anorexia experienced a worsening of symptoms when the pandemic hit.
“When dietary and activity habits change, it’s usually a positive thing, but for people who are at risk for developing an eating disorder, it can be the start of that,” Timko said. “Their weight loss can continue and become problematic, which causes a lot of medical complications.”
Numerous studies have documented the negative effects of social media on people with eating disorders, but there are some aspects specific to TikTok that are concerning, Timko said.
While TikTok does not allow pro-anorexia content, there is a lot of pro-recovery content, which focuses on fighting disordered eating habits and developing healthier lifestyles. But there can be potential negative side effects to the positive messages, Timko said.
“Those videos can potentially promote a false
understanding of what recovery is, for example,” she said. “Someone can talk about recovery and how great they’re doing, when in fact they’re not 100% recovered because they only eat clean, organically, or have a lot of rigidity around their dietary intake.”
Over the past year, Colleen Reichmann, the founder of Therapy for Eating Disorders and Body Image in Philadelphia, has heard from clients in high school about how triggering TikTok can be. Because of the way TikTok’s algorithm works, users often see content from creators that they do not follow on their For You pages, making it hard to avoid triggering content.
“It really stinks because if you click on these videos where people talk about anything having to do with an eating disorder, you start to see more and more
videos along those lines,” Reichmann said. “It’s like a trap. All of a sudden you’re sucked into this triggering material, which for the most part is uncensored.”
TikTok’s algorithm is something that Melissa Harrison’s clients also have struggled with. Harrison, co-founder of the Center for Hope & Health, said she worked with clients as young as 12 last year who learned ways to restrict their eating on TikTok.
“They were so young that they didn’t understand purging was a bad thing,” Harrison said. “Teens are seeing some quite intense material on TikTok. Because of how scary accurate their algorithm is, if you spend an extra couple of seconds watching a video chosen for you, there’s now a self-fulfilling prophecy that you’re going to get more of it.”
There are also TikTok users who are “actively
disordered and recording it,” which can be triggering for viewers even if they’re not directly promoting their disordered eating habits, Reichmann said.
“I really feel for the people who are sucked into it and are watching it, as well as the people making the videos,” Reichmann said. “It’s complicated but pretty toxic at the end of the day.”
That’s why it’s so important to teach teens social media literacy, Timko said. Practicing critical thinking while on social media can help combat some of the messages that young people encounter and help them identify when something they’re seeing is not healthy.
Harrison said that when users see things that make them feel uncomfortable, they should move on to the next video quickly or unfollow someone.
“If you’re inundated with videos about dieting and exercise, it’s naturally going to distort your brain on what the average person looks like,” she said.
For Collins, going to therapy has helped change her approach to social media because it taught her how to reframe negative thoughts about her body. She started disengaging from the accounts that posted content she found triggering.
“There is a side of TikTok where disordered eating and exercising habits are normalized,” Collins said. “Just being aware of it and purposely engaging with content that makes you feel good can be helpful. … I would just encourage younger girls to listen to themselves and their feelings and really consider unfollowing or not liking something if you feel badly about yourself after you watch a certain type of TikTok.”