Women’s ego boost if they shun social media... for a week

THESE days, it’s hardly surprising that young women struggle with self-esteem. Impressionable teenagers and young adults are constantly bombarded with images of flawless, slim models online.

But experts have discovered that simply taking a week away from social media can have an enormous impact on young women’s body image.

And those who crave a slender physique appeared to benefit the most.

Researchers from York University in Toronto recruited 66 female undergraduates to take part in their study, which lasted a week. Half were randomly assigned to take a one-week break from social media, which included Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok, while the other half were told to continue their normal use.

All completed surveys before and after the study took place, which covered topics such as body image and self-esteem.

Analysis revealed that those who took the break reported having higher body satisfaction and higher self-esteem than those who continued to use social media as normal.

The benefits were especially pronounced for women who had reported higher levels of ‘thin-ideal internalisation’, meaning they believed that slim or underweight was the ideal body type. Psychology professor Jennifer Mills, who co-authored the paper, said: ‘We don’t often see effect sizes this large in my area of psychology research because human behaviour is complicated and there’s lots of variability.

‘We hope that this study can be used to help protect young people and influence social media companies to give users more agency in how they interact with these platforms.’

The paper, published in the journal Body Image, is thought to be the first to look specifically at social media breaks and body image. Professor Mills said the differences in the social media landscape were remarkable compared to when she started researching eating disorders and the effects of media.

‘Back then, you could only spend so many minutes or hours looking at fashion and beauty magazines and they only came out once a month,’ she said. ‘There was a finite amount of content that you would be exposed to. With social media, it’s infinite.’