Fear the Instagram: Beauty stereotypes, body image and Instagram use in a sample of male and female adolescents

Abstract

Recent literature has proposed the term "digitized dysmorphia" to define the gap between social media digitalized beauty standards and females body image, suggesting that apps such as Instagram, have contributed to the increase of dysmorphic disorders in young women. The present paper analyzes the relationship between the use of Instagram, the internalization of beauty standards, the social pressure to adhere to them, and anxiety towards body image, in a sample of high school students (N= 621, aged 13 to 21, 61% females) in Italy. Results suggest that adolescents who edit their pictures, and then upload them online, have more interiorized the stereotype of beauty proposed by Instagram and feel more anxious and uncomfortable with their body image and more pressure to uphold to social media standards. These results apply not only to female adolescents, as seen in previous studies, but also to males. Social and clinical issues are discussed.