JUST 8 MINUTES ON TIKTOK CAN LEAD TO INSTANT NEGATIVE EFFECTS

Matt Case - August 11th, 2024 - 6:36am PDT 

Study Finds Harmful Effects of Weight Loss TikTok Content on Mental Health

NEW YORK   — A new study reveals  that consuming weight loss content on TikTok may pose significant risks to mental health, particularly for young women. The research highlights that even brief exposure to pro-anorexia videos can negatively impact body image and contribute to the internalization of harmful appearance ideals.

The study, published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE, found that less than 10 minutes of exposure to implicit and explicit pro-anorexia content on TikTok had immediate adverse effects on body image and self-esteem. Researchers emphasized that the psychological harm could occur even when users did not actively seek out such content and with only short periods of app usage.

"Psychological harm can occur for young female TikTok users even when explicit pro-anorexia content is not sought out and when TikTok use is of a short duration," the researchers noted.

TikTok, a platform with over a billion monthly active users worldwide, is especially popular among young audiences. For the study, researchers recruited 273 women aged 18 to 28, primarily university freshmen, to examine the impact of TikTok usage on body image and attitudes toward beauty standards. Participants were assessed for symptoms of disordered eating and the risk of orthorexia, an unhealthy obsession with "pure" or "healthy" foods.

In the experiment, half of the participants watched seven to eight minutes of TikTok videos featuring disordered eating content, including young women promoting extreme weight loss tips, such as eating ice or chewing gum to curb hunger, and showcasing their thin waists. The other half viewed neutral content, such as videos about nature, cooking, animals, or comedy.

Both groups reported a decrease in body image satisfaction after watching the videos. However, those exposed to pro-anorexia content experienced a more significant decline in self-esteem and were more likely to internalize the belief that thinness is crucial.

While women who used TikTok for more than two hours a day reported more disordered eating behaviors, the researchers noted that this was not a statistically significant trend.

The study underscores the potential dangers of consuming harmful content on social media platforms and calls for increased awareness and intervention to protect young users from psychological harm.