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Social media and eating disorders

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Science & technology, Australia (Commonwealth Union) – The negative impacts of social media have long been documented across the world, particularly for teens. Cyber bullying, the constant checking of smart phones for likes and comments on social media have known to have lasting impacts not just for teens but many adults as well.

Many researchers have called for phone free zones particularly during meals and greater family engagement to ward off the negative impacts of social media.

The impact of social media on the negative effects of eating disorders is well-documented, however there is a question as to if it goes both ways?

A new study conducted by the Thompson Institute at the University of the Sunshine Coast, is evaluating this relationship in reverse, posing a new question:

The researchers questioned how eating disorders impact an individual’s engagement social media and stated that answering the question was not simple.

PHD candidate and lead author Taliah Prince stated that limited work was done in this area and that no studies made use of neuroimaging to explore specifically at ways individuals with eating disorders interact with social media.

Taliah and researchers from the Thompson Institute carried out a review, contrasting Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scans from 38 studies identifying deteriorations in social cognition in the brains of young people having eating disorders.

Social cognition refers to ways brains process and interpret the information providing our social interactions. Eating disorders can physically affect the brain’s capability to carry out this, an example being the strain of anorexia on the brain effecting memory and decision-making.

The marking of what impairments are there for individuals having eating disorders, led to the emergence of a complicated picture of how that could become apparent on social media.

“It’s interesting that social cognition could impact social media use in such a multifaceted way. Different eating disorders could present similar impairments that affect social media interactions in similar ways. For example, impairments in reward processing may increase the likelihood of seeking negative evaluations online, or making upward social comparisons” explained Taliah.

“But other impairments could manifest in vastly different behaviours. People with bulimia are more impacted by their emotional state, which then cause impairments in attention and impulsivity and could lead to higher levels of social media addiction for example.”

Bulimia nervosa, generally referred to as bulimia, is a severe condition that possibly become fatal, which can be characterized by heavy binge eating that is followed by the individual attempting eliminate the consumed calories by measures such as purging with the aid of laxatives or forceful vomiting attempts.

The researchers indicate that the growth of social media has coincided with an increase in eating disorders, where they are more than twice as widespread as they were 20 years back.

However, the sudden rapid growth of social media into our daily life results the science behind this relationship needing more work to keep up, according to University of South Australia’s Dr Larisa McLoughlin who supervised the study.

Dr McLoughlin further indicated that eating disorders and engaging with social media is complex and linked together.

“Further research is needed (especially longitudinal research) to understand cognition development in relation to eating disorders as well as social interactions, particularly in regard to social media use”.

Taliah further indicated that eating disorders are one of the main contributing factors to death in adolescents and they are linked with a large number other mental health problems.

Eating disorders have been a problem even before social media became prominent, however now with rapid access to social media on smart phones the increased impact is has now become an issue requiring a solution with absolute urgency.

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