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Does Social Media Make Girls More Insecure?

Writer: Nishika Mehta
Nishika Mehta
Jul 14
2 min read

“Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.”


This is the most famous statement from Kate Moss, from a 2009 interview, which still has an iron grip on millennial women. It has given rise to many eating disorders within the then demographic of teenage girls.


Society is obsessed with women’s bodies, thus they try to control how we feel about ourselves. From skinny supermodels to unrealistic looking actresses on our screens, we’ve constantly been fed the narrative that we must starve ourselves to look good. The little ripple of the body positivity movement brought some respite to women and people everywhere but social media brought the skinny back with an unparalleled force.


Every influencer, actor, and anybody with a following is busy selling young girls a version of themselves that is largely unattainable. A fifteen-year-old sitting in a remote village in Uttar Pradesh, looks at the Instagram of a teen model and thinks that is the ideal body. While in the beginning nothing seems to be an issue but it starts presenting itself in small habits, you might forgo your lentils for low carb bread, or your fat milk mocha latte for a glass of cold water.


An article published in 2023 by the T.H. Chen School of Public School at Harvard, notes that the more time young women spend on social media the more they are at risk for developing poor body image. Highlighting the fact that the glamour projected by these big influencers instead of building these girls up, trains them to be self-critical to the point of developing a disease.


19th, a non-profit newsroom, explored the relationship between young girls and social media, their findings showed an alarming trend of young women being pushed towards eating disorders owing to the mass marketing of a singular body-type. This shows us that we value what we see, which eventually leads us to a self that is a mix of the outside world and our own thoughts.


A research paper, titled, “Why don’t I look like her,” in the BMS women’s health Journals, notes, “Images of attractive thin females, often photo-shopped with filters, feature frequently on social media platforms such as Instagram, promoting stereotyped beauty ideals subsequently affecting viewers’ body image and dissatisfaction.” Showcasing that watching something unattainable, makes us insecure rather than motivated to achieve similar results. Furthermore, constantly being on social media erodes our social skills, which leads to isolation which then in turn leads to pronounced self-scrutiny.


In 2022, a study done by Pew Research Center, a think tank, warned that about 58% of girls using social media find it hard to quit. This shows us that we must build stronger role models for our girls, so that the time they spend online leads to growth rather than emotional dependency on trends.


Thus, in conclusion, social media has made young girls more insecure about who they are, what they want to become, and especially how they look. Social media is no longer a place of whimsy, it has transformed into an entity that dictates our lives, and if so to what end must we let it?


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