Presenter: Xiaoyi Luan, Enqi Wang

Body Image and Social Media Use: Exploring Instagram Photo Activities Among Adolescent Girls

Type of Presentation: Poster Presentation

Abstract

This poster presentation explores the relationship between Instagram photo activities and body satisfaction among adolescent girls. We interested in this topic because social media become more popular in teenagers’ daily life, and many girls may feel anxiety about their appearance online. Previous studies show that social media can increase appearance comparison and body dissatisfaction among teenage girls.However, most studies mainly focus on general social media use. They do not clearly examine different Instagram photo activities, such as browsing photos, posting pictures, or editing images before posting.

Therefore, this project asks: How do different Instagram photo activities affect adolescent girls’ body satisfaction? To answer this question, we plan to use questionnaires to collect information about adolescent girls with Instagram habits and feelings about body image . We expect that photo editing and frequently viewing appearance-related photos will make more body dissatisfaction. One limitation is that this study mainly focuses on Instagram and not other social media platforms, such as TikTok or Snapchat, so the results may not fully represent all teenagers’ online

Biography

Xiaoyi Luan and Enqi Wang are first-year students in the Vantage Arts program at the University of British Columbia. Their research interests include social media culture, youth behavior, and body image issues among adolescents. Through this project, they hope to better understand how Instagram photo activities influence self-perception and body satisfaction among teenage girls.