What do the posts in your social media feeds tell you about how your body should look? How do they affect the way you feel about your body?
In general, how does what you see on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube or other social media sites affect your body image, which is defined as “a combination of the thoughts and feelings that you have about your body”?
In “What Is ‘Bigorexia’?” Alex Hawgood writes that some teenage boys feel pressure to build muscle because of what they see on social media:
Like many high school athletes, Bobby, 16, a junior from Long Island, has spent years whipping his body into shape through protein diets and workouts.
Between rounds of Fortnite and homework, Bobby goes online to study bodybuilders like Greg Doucette, a 46-year-old fitness personality who has more than 1.3 million YouTube subscribers. Bobby also hits his local gym as frequently as six days a week.
“Those guys made me realize I wanted to get bodies like them and post stuff like them,” said Bobby, who has fluffy curls of dark hair and the compact frame of a gymnast. (The New York Times is not publishing the surnames of minors or the names of their parents in this article to protect their privacy.)
He makes sure to hit the fridge, too, grazing on protein-packed Kodiak Cakes and muscle-mass-building Oreo shakes. He consumes so much protein that classmates sometimes gawk at him for eating upward of eight chicken-and-rice meals at school.
But Bobby isn’t getting buff so he can stand out during varsity tryouts. His goal is to compete in a different arena: TikTok.
Bobby now posts his own workout TikToks. Shot on his iPhone 11, usually at the gym or in his family’s living room, the videos are devoted to topics like how to get a “gorilla chest,” “Popeye forearms” or “Lil Uzi’s abs.”
The article continues:
For many boys and young men, muscle worship has become practically a digital rite of passage in today’s beefcake-saturated culture. Examples are everywhere — the hypermasculine video games they play, the mesomorphic superheroes in the movies they watch. The top grossing films of last year were ruled by C.G.I.-enhanced masculine clichés: Spider-Man, Shang Chi, Venom and the entire Marvel universe.
Many doctors and researchers say that the relentless online adulation of muscular male bodies can have a toxic effect on the self-esteem of young men, with the never-ending scroll of six packs and boy-band faces making them feel inadequate and anxious.
And while there has been increased public awareness about how social media can be harmful to teenagers — spurred in part by the leak of internal research from Facebook showing that the company hid the negative effects of Instagram — much of that focus has been on girls.
Recent reports, however, have found that those same online pressures can also cause teenage boys to feel bad about their bodies.
Students, read or listen to the entire article, then tell us:
How does social media affect the way you feel about your body? Has it ever made you feel bad about the way you look? Has it ever made you feel good?
Did you relate to any of the teenagers quoted in this article? If so, which ones, and why?
What messages have you received about how your body should look from social media and what you should do to make it look that way? Pick one of these messages and evaluate it: Is it good advice for teenagers? Would you share it with one of your friends?
Do you feel that men are encouraged or discouraged in sharing struggles or insecurities related to their bodies? Why do you think that is?
“The line between getting fit and fanatical is not always clear,” Mr. Hawgood writes. Do you agree? Do you think teenagers can learn useful lessons about fitness online without becoming obsessive or unhealthy? How?
Have you ever encountered body-positive content on social media? How has it made you feel? Do you think posts of this kind are useful? Why or why not?
Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
