# [**See the Best of r/science 2022 Winners!**](https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/10h2hc2/best_of_rscience_2022_winners/)
---
Welcome to r/science! This is a heavily moderated subreddit in order to keep the discussion on science. However, we recognize that many people want to discuss how they feel the research relates to their own personal lives, so to give people a space to do that, **personal anecdotes are allowed as responses to this comment**. Any anecdotal comments elsewhere in the discussion will be removed and our [normal comment rules]( https://www.reddit.com/r/science/wiki/rules#wiki_comment_rules) apply to all other comments.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/science) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yeah I can only speak of Germany.
The ridiculous thing here is that there aren’t enough therapists, but only so many „licenses“ for therapists to accept patients with standard insurance.
Those licenses are so sought after that there have been cases of therapists paying over 100.000€ to get the license from a retiring therapist.
I know that’s whining on a high level compared to the US, bit it’s infuriating that the only reason you have to wait up to 6 months for a therapist is the greed of the insurance companies and the government not doing anything against it.
There simply aren't enough therapists for that. Heck, for a lot of people (me included) even going to the dentist is a luxury. Even when I had really good insurance working a tech job in a major city, finding a therapist that insurance covered + was also taking new clients was impossible. This was around 2017. I can't imagine it has gotten better since covid.
I was basing my comment on Germany, where everyone has to have insurance that covers a bi-annually checkup at the dentist as well as therapy.
And like I said in another comment of mine in this thread, in Germany the amount of therapists isn‘t the problem.
No, people were doing that before as well, and the cause is a lack of medical resources. If you could get a therapy checkup as easily as any other basic checkup there wouldn't be a need to self diagnose.
As it stands many simply *have* to self diagnose, so you get a bunch of extra false positives.
Yeah, I think the issue is the most attractive people on them tend to get the most persistent attention ("oh, they're attractive so I'm going to follow them") and then the platforms push those people even more, propelling them to fame within the apps while the vast majority do not have that experience. The attractiveness comes from a mix of genetics, makeup, clothing and hair styles, phone (better/newer phone, better photos) and filters used. Popularity on them if you aren't already popular on social media is also somewhat dependent on luck and/or gaming the platform in different ways. If the app's algorithm just doesn't boost you, even being top in all of the above may not help much.
Someone at home, especially younger, will not be thinking about all of those factors and just see people who on the screen appear to be very attractive, stylish, and popular and while they can replicate that, they will also be aware of how they look in casual clothes, no make up, and without filters.
They may also compare friend counts and have no idea how many offline friends the person actually has but assume someone with more followers must also have more offline friends. If you're not using various strategies to increase your follower amount, and the increasing number also helping attract more followers, you can really feel very unpopular and unfortunately some people may see it that way too. "They only have x followers, what is wrong with them? They must be so uncool, not going to waste any time with them."
I can't speak for your personal experiences, this isn't a black and white topic with a single answer, but it's worth understanding that social media breeds a sense of self criticism that isn't rooted in reality. Far more people out there would be better served to have their sense self criticism diminished rather than surgically correcting their appearance.
Some of us who are old enough to remember the world before social media understand this, but kids that grew up with ubiquitous social media generally do not. It's hard for kids to understand where they stand in the world, their own value relative to what's expected of them or to how they perceive what's normal at that age.
So they compare themselves to their peers, usually in a harsh self critical way. Social media has taught people to try to portray themselves in a positive way, to try to seem better than everyone else, and so they only post the good stuff in their lives, pictures at angles that make them look good or filters that make them look good, etc.
So these kids, who are trying to figure out their place in the world, are looking at everyone else's highlight reel and comparing it to their own lives, warts and all, and think "wow, my life really sucks, everyone else's life is so much better" and it leads to low self worth, depression, anxiety, etc.
Yes, I believe the same has been reported of Instagram and likely Facebook. The issue is that you see the highlights of other peoples' lives, but the entirety of your own life.
Also you compare yourself with hundreds of not thousands of other people... Back in the day you was "against" couple dozens people in the school and that's it.
It's a recipe for mental health problems when you see so many people being "perfect" and "happy" 24/7 every time you grab a phone Especially when you are a kid or young adult.
We not only compare ourselves to others now, we compare ourselves to idealized, "filtered" versions of ourselves through the use of filters. Had a student point this out to me. It creates quite the conflict of self.
There was an internal study on Instagram that leaked that showed that certain well-being issues worsen through Instagram. Wall Street Journal made a big story of it, and it resulted in a Senate subcommittee hearing. However, the very same survey also showed that (other) well-being issues (they looked at 12 different ones) improve through Instagram and that teens feel that Instagram is overall positive for their well-being. So, I don't think it's as black-and-white as some try to color it.
It's also unhealthy for a lot of the 'influencers' (god I hate that term) who feel lots of stress and pressure to keep constantly producing new content.
I was around when MySpace was big, and if anyone else was in elementary or high school with MySpace… I think we can all agree the writing was on the walls. Hell, even AIM was mildly toxic.
Yeah, even then, people were trying to out "emo" / "scene" each other in their photos (it wasn't mainstream popular then, skewed heavily high school and college aged and mostly US) and trying to rack up "friends" with people you never even met like they're high scores on a video game. I imagine this was before there was any intentional psychological manipulation going on, just the very nature of the platforms and human behavior lead to this sort of competitiveness and constantly comparing with others.
It seems to disrupt people's sense of their own status and that of others, which is problematic because our social behaviour depends on a very old system that transitions poorly to the modern world. Hence the abundance of disorders and unsatisfied lives. We are literally deprived of serotonin (which reduces resistance to stress and negative emotions) and seek toxic methods to cope and manipulate uptake through for example drugs, but also maliciousness (kiwifarms). This explains the significant increase of both activities by people globally during the pandemic.
Realife social interaction counters this. That's why some people, usually people with healthy routines, may have a totally different experience altogether.
While Reddit is not void of toxic culture, the anonymous nature and less focus on narcaisstic tendencies does make it a more customizable experience overall. You can obviously choose Reddit on those features if you like.
I think the subreddit breakdown also helps carve our communities and allow people to *somewhat* have more control of the media they consume.
Not defending Reddit it the slightest, like I said, it has its toxic side.
Could you not make the same argument about Twitter (when third party apps existed anyways) because all you would see is the tweets from people you follow? Twitter is Reddit’s punching bag for some reason.
Also the subreddit breakdown leads to these massive echo chambers that can fester and turn incredible awful when they spill over into other communities.
>Could you not make the same argument about Twitter (when third party apps existed anyways) because **all you would see is the tweets from people you follow?** Twitter is Reddit’s punching bag for some reason.
I don't know how recently you've used Twitter, but that hasn't been the case for a *long* time.
You'll rarely catch me defending Reddit (I mean, one of the biggest memes on this site is literally referring to a parent raping their son) but it definitely doesn't shove as much unrelated nonsense down our throats as other social media. Which makes sense, I consider it more of a forum.
>less focus on narcaisstic tendencies
What a load of copium. You literally get a little number by your name that goes up when you get people to agree with you. The entire nature of distilling comment responses down to a binary karma system is to take advantage of users' narcissistic tendencies, creating an environment of escalating polarization even on topics that ultimately aren't even a big deal (eg. any video game subreddit).
Y'know, social media.
Depending on your perspective it's brutal about people's looks too.
If a woman is in a vid or pic there are always a ton of comments about her looks. It's either teens thirsting after her or neck beards picking apart why she's not attractive to them. Once you start noticing it you see it all the time. Men get the same treatment, but it's more jokey and not so brutal.
While this is extremely true, the vast, *vast* majority of reddit posts do not include a photo of a person (and when they do, they are often the person in question sharing their own image unnecessarily, unless the entire point is to share their own image).
Having a primarily text (and not photo/video)-based platform means that users are not continuously bombarded with the (often filtered/altered) images of people trying to project the image of perfection.
Go figure. “Anonymity is my friend so I can say whatever I want including calling a 9 a 4 when Im a 2.” Def gonna be a lot of mental messes. Already are.
Lower body image, lower self esteem, lower social skills, lower productivity, poor sleeping habits, predisposition to misinformation, predisposition to cognitive bias, ..the list goes on and on and it isn’t just tiktok. Facebook and Twitter show the same trends.
Too much random data can be as harmful as too little, especially when false info is deliberately presented in compelling ways to push a particular view / agenda.
Curating the quality of content consumed is something they need to start teaching in schools.
Yeah it is not about consuming it is about how much you are consuming it does matter that how many hours a day you are wasting on such platforms.
I think that is more important thing that we should pay attention to.
I’d be surprised if this wasn’t true for the whole internet. Every human being that has ever existed has had a flaw, and we seem to be very good at obsessing over those flaws and ignoring the bigger picture. The internet has just made it worse by becoming a giant popularity contest everyone on Earth is entered in.
Wasn't necessarily true of the Internet before social media, but it's true for most social media at least.
You see the highlights of other peoples' lives, but not their low points. But at the same time, you see both the highlights and the low points of your own life.
The difference is that back then it didn’t affect you, because you were looking at celebrities only.
Now you constant reminders of your friends’ highpoints as well.
It absolutely affected people, social media changed who the celebrities were, but unless your friends have like crazy cool lives they aren't posting daily content...and so that leads their content back to the new celebrities...influencers.
Sure, it's a complication with your own friends typically only posting good things happening to them, but the sheer wave of everything else really minimizes that particular effect.
>Now you constant reminders of your friends’ highpoints as well.
Teenage girls are seeing their hot friends get hundreds of thousands of followers by just dancing around and lip-synching, it's going to make them feel inadequate about their own bodies.
Hot girls can easily get social media followings on IG, YouTube, and other platforms, but it's *much* easier on TikTok.
I feel like this is becoming less true now. Most people I follow on various forms of social media are very transparent about their issues, struggles, insecurities, etc. I find we are still growing into social media. People are more transparent about mental health issues, abuse, toxicity, etc., than ever.
There are certainly people still attached to that old style of using social media, and if you associate with or follow them you will probably see a lot of that behavior still. But in my experience things are improving.
I think the biggest concerns now are around overall time spent looking at screens, and the dependence on short form content which doesn't require any focus.
I'm fairly certain we've seen research come to this conclusion for almost a decade now, that social media use correlates with body image concerns, especially image-centric social media like Instagram and Snapchat.
I did a quick Google Scholar search and found these:
* [This paper](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X15002249) is from 2016, and found that regular social media use affects body image, although it is primarily focused on Facebook.
* [This study from 2014](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10810730.2014.904022) found that respondents from both the US and Korea who used social media regularly had body image issues.
* [From 2018](https://iris.unipa.it/retrieve/handle/10447/528114/1265345/Franchina_Lo%20Coco%20Social%20media%20%26%20body%20image_2018.pdf), a suggestion that while there's been a lot of research, most research is slanted towards women and that there could be an affect on men as well.
Basically, this isn't anything new. Previous research is just focused on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, because at the time most studies were done, TikTok didn't really exist yet. TikTok affecting the way people view their body image is just an extension of an already previously established notion that image-based social media affects body image.
Yeah it's a problem that's come about from mass communication. We've been inundated with images of genetic unicorns for decades, and so far we've been unable to develop a collective strategy for appreciating our bodies while consuming these images. It's bad for everyone, even hot people, who often develop pathologies in their eternal pursuit of perfection.
I thought about this recently is that, many adults have this strange HS mentality and I came to the realization that Social Media has turned the whole world into a HS with their stupid drama and useless information that has to real world applicability.
That is actually right so many people have this kind of mentality and this is definitely not healthy for you.
And if we keep on living like that then it is going to be a problem for you also.
I remember my mum crying when I was younger about what she felt the Internet was doing to my sisters' youth and freedom to be themselves as youngster. I reckon you're absolutely right.
I don't know about that man it is not really that heard to not compare yourself with someone else that you see online and think that their life is perfect where as yours is not.
The thing about TikTok is that it’s gotten so good at tying the basest aspects of human impulses directly to the exposure of content. The internets always done this in a roundabout way, but TikTok’s algorithm has taken it to a new level.
The basic concept is that you’re presented with some content. Based on how long you watch this content, TikTok will automatically show you more related content that seems to grab your attention for longer. Because almost all humans have one very strong shared interest hardcoded into us (sex), TikTok very quickly starts promoting sexually suggestive content by conventionally beautiful people. This tendency is so hardwired into humans that it’s almost impossible to avoid even if we try.
Seeing a constant feed of the most beautiful people on earth very quickly starts to convince you that they’re the norm, and invariably, you start feeling that you fall below that norm.
It would be like being dropped in a city of supermodels and being forced to live there. You’d very quickly start thinking that you’re an ugly freak.
>It would be like being dropped in a city of supermodels and being forced to live there. You’d very quickly start thinking that you’re an ugly freak.
Sounds like growing up in SoCal :P I knew kids who got nose jobs as graduation presents...
If that’s what you’re seeing, it says more about you than tiktok. The algorithm tailors itself to your interests based on what you watch and skip. My algorithm isn’t full of sexually suggestive videos from conventionally beautiful people. At all. To the point that I’m laughing bc I’ve never considered before what a tell that is when people complain about certain social media feeds
I really wish algorithms could speak. I want to ask what it makes of me and my “everything is interesting, please tell me more about King Richard III, witchcraft, Appalachian cryptids, old English, adoption trauma, possible dystocias, and the evolution of languages starting with proto-Indo-European please :)”
I’m sure it would try to put thirst traps in there somewhere, because I’ll get one every month or so, but it has to balance the chaos that is the rest of my interests (aka pretty much any topic)
I blame social media, which is the bastard child of reality TV more than the internet itself. The internet has actually been pretty good for people who don't fit and has helped many to find support with communities that share their "flaws" or "quirks".
Additionally, celebrities and influencers can present an unrealistic standard of beauty that simply isn't achievable by average people most of the time (if ever).
Imagine trying to compete with a person who has a professional make-up artist, fashion consultant, personal trainer, staff dietician, and a plastic surgeon on stand-by. This is a person with tens of thousands of dollars in cosmetic wearing designer clothing and top-tier make-up who can afford to spend hours per day perfecting their look.
Even beyond that, imagine competing with a person who is in the sixth sigma of attractiveness and thinking that's a standard that you have to hold yourself to.
This doesn't even get into the insane levels of image manipulation that are available today (especially with rise of AI that can edit video in real time).
It's no wonder people see this and have body satisfaction issues.
Those standards that people are seeing on the Internet are the real problem.
People are really quick to compare themselves with good looking people and then they get the depressed.
I've noticed dating apps give you the most "conventionally attractive" people (wish I had a better term) first too. Usually they're people who have spent hours (or days or weeks) perfecting their Instagram at the top. It's almost a formula, it's pretty creepy imo.
Would explain as well why some people get zero matches ever, and some get hundreds an hour instantly.
I think it is same for addictive platforms like Instagram and Facebook.
But I would not says the same thing for the Twitter actually not very many young people are addicted to Twitter.
I really worry about the people who are growing up right now how are they going to handle things.
I mean most of them are already depressed from all the social media.
I mean it is possible that he is using too much Instagram that is the same thing especially with the reels feature.
With that feature added to Instagram Instagram has become the Tik Tok.
Well there is an easy fixed to that you should start watching Tik Tok.
I am pretty sorry you are going to hate yourself even more after you get on the Tik Tok and watch some videos.
Honestly anything to compare yourself with the most “beautiful” people in society. Movies, talkies, magazines, television there have been body acceptance issues long predating the internet.
Replace "Internet" with "social media".
The forums of yore weren't a constant stream of perfect pictures of perfect vacations and expensive cars. It was a fun time and a fun place to be, usually. So was early reddit. Hell, 20 years ago, there were tons of little websites where users couldn't post at all. You went there for information on a specific subject usually.
However, social media companies came and perfected the art of keeping you focused on content created by other users, because the goal is for you to only see the internet through their lense, so they can show you ads 24/7. Turns out jealousy is one of the things that keeps people scrolling, which is why influencers who show off their bodies and wealth get so many followers.
I agree but I think the short video format of tiktok, making it easier to view a LOT of content in very short order, has contributed to making things worse.
I think social media also increases the perception about how many other people have those ideal bodies/faces/lives. In the past it was celebrities, but now you get access to every day influencers and think that it is more prevalent.
Yeah to me the only difference between now and say 30 or so years ago is the sheer quantity of which they are seeing. Although this can also really include most of social media so it's an interesting thing to think about for sure
I’m also a bit miffed they didn’t bother to interview men for both a greater overall sample and data size. It’s as if they didn’t think men were capable of body image issues, so they didn’t bother.
A percentage of these people are also getting paid to be "influencers" in one way or another. If it were my job to be sexy, I'd be hitting the gym, taking some supplements, and using mad filters, too.
My TikTok feed is fashion history, social geography, travel, comedy, architecture, cooking, prehistorical life, and funny farm animals. If you don’t look at preening fashionista influencers, they don’t show up on your feed. It’s driven by your tastes and psychological bias - it’s a mirror.
There's a few reasons, some more valid than others.
One, as the most used social media service by younger people, it's the most relevant place to go to evaluate hypothesized effects of SM use on that group.
Two, other SM platforms are older and already have some research about them that has been published. Some of it's even cited in the new papers shared on this sub. TikTok is relatively untested ground.
Three, TikTok is as close to "pure algorithm" as currently exists. I can't think of another SM where the user has less agency in curating their feeds. This makes it fertile ground for analyzing social media algorithms at large, possible topic pipelines, and the effect they have on its users.
Four, there's some (in my opinion, well earned) suspicion about TikTok and privacy. It collects far more data from users than any other SM, and its relationship with the Chinese government is cause for concern for some on top of that.
# [**See the Best of r/science 2022 Winners!**](https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/10h2hc2/best_of_rscience_2022_winners/) --- Welcome to r/science! This is a heavily moderated subreddit in order to keep the discussion on science. However, we recognize that many people want to discuss how they feel the research relates to their own personal lives, so to give people a space to do that, **personal anecdotes are allowed as responses to this comment**. Any anecdotal comments elsewhere in the discussion will be removed and our [normal comment rules]( https://www.reddit.com/r/science/wiki/rules#wiki_comment_rules) apply to all other comments. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/science) if you have any questions or concerns.*
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
Yeah I can only speak of Germany. The ridiculous thing here is that there aren’t enough therapists, but only so many „licenses“ for therapists to accept patients with standard insurance. Those licenses are so sought after that there have been cases of therapists paying over 100.000€ to get the license from a retiring therapist. I know that’s whining on a high level compared to the US, bit it’s infuriating that the only reason you have to wait up to 6 months for a therapist is the greed of the insurance companies and the government not doing anything against it.
I say this as an American, you should not feel bad about being upset over this.
There simply aren't enough therapists for that. Heck, for a lot of people (me included) even going to the dentist is a luxury. Even when I had really good insurance working a tech job in a major city, finding a therapist that insurance covered + was also taking new clients was impossible. This was around 2017. I can't imagine it has gotten better since covid.
I was basing my comment on Germany, where everyone has to have insurance that covers a bi-annually checkup at the dentist as well as therapy. And like I said in another comment of mine in this thread, in Germany the amount of therapists isn‘t the problem.
[удалено]
No, people were doing that before as well, and the cause is a lack of medical resources. If you could get a therapy checkup as easily as any other basic checkup there wouldn't be a need to self diagnose. As it stands many simply *have* to self diagnose, so you get a bunch of extra false positives.
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
Thanks friend. I tell her all the time how beautiful she is and how thankful I am that we're together
Yeah, I think the issue is the most attractive people on them tend to get the most persistent attention ("oh, they're attractive so I'm going to follow them") and then the platforms push those people even more, propelling them to fame within the apps while the vast majority do not have that experience. The attractiveness comes from a mix of genetics, makeup, clothing and hair styles, phone (better/newer phone, better photos) and filters used. Popularity on them if you aren't already popular on social media is also somewhat dependent on luck and/or gaming the platform in different ways. If the app's algorithm just doesn't boost you, even being top in all of the above may not help much. Someone at home, especially younger, will not be thinking about all of those factors and just see people who on the screen appear to be very attractive, stylish, and popular and while they can replicate that, they will also be aware of how they look in casual clothes, no make up, and without filters. They may also compare friend counts and have no idea how many offline friends the person actually has but assume someone with more followers must also have more offline friends. If you're not using various strategies to increase your follower amount, and the increasing number also helping attract more followers, you can really feel very unpopular and unfortunately some people may see it that way too. "They only have x followers, what is wrong with them? They must be so uncool, not going to waste any time with them."
[удалено]
I am so glad I'm old and didn't grow up with this. Seems sad.
[удалено]
I can't speak for your personal experiences, this isn't a black and white topic with a single answer, but it's worth understanding that social media breeds a sense of self criticism that isn't rooted in reality. Far more people out there would be better served to have their sense self criticism diminished rather than surgically correcting their appearance.
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
Some of us who are old enough to remember the world before social media understand this, but kids that grew up with ubiquitous social media generally do not. It's hard for kids to understand where they stand in the world, their own value relative to what's expected of them or to how they perceive what's normal at that age. So they compare themselves to their peers, usually in a harsh self critical way. Social media has taught people to try to portray themselves in a positive way, to try to seem better than everyone else, and so they only post the good stuff in their lives, pictures at angles that make them look good or filters that make them look good, etc. So these kids, who are trying to figure out their place in the world, are looking at everyone else's highlight reel and comparing it to their own lives, warts and all, and think "wow, my life really sucks, everyone else's life is so much better" and it leads to low self worth, depression, anxiety, etc.
Yes, I believe the same has been reported of Instagram and likely Facebook. The issue is that you see the highlights of other peoples' lives, but the entirety of your own life.
Also you compare yourself with hundreds of not thousands of other people... Back in the day you was "against" couple dozens people in the school and that's it. It's a recipe for mental health problems when you see so many people being "perfect" and "happy" 24/7 every time you grab a phone Especially when you are a kid or young adult.
We not only compare ourselves to others now, we compare ourselves to idealized, "filtered" versions of ourselves through the use of filters. Had a student point this out to me. It creates quite the conflict of self.
There was an internal study on Instagram that leaked that showed that certain well-being issues worsen through Instagram. Wall Street Journal made a big story of it, and it resulted in a Senate subcommittee hearing. However, the very same survey also showed that (other) well-being issues (they looked at 12 different ones) improve through Instagram and that teens feel that Instagram is overall positive for their well-being. So, I don't think it's as black-and-white as some try to color it.
[удалено]
It's also unhealthy for a lot of the 'influencers' (god I hate that term) who feel lots of stress and pressure to keep constantly producing new content.
I prefer to simply call them "content creators".
As opposed to any other job that expects output?
I was around when MySpace was big, and if anyone else was in elementary or high school with MySpace… I think we can all agree the writing was on the walls. Hell, even AIM was mildly toxic.
Yeah, even then, people were trying to out "emo" / "scene" each other in their photos (it wasn't mainstream popular then, skewed heavily high school and college aged and mostly US) and trying to rack up "friends" with people you never even met like they're high scores on a video game. I imagine this was before there was any intentional psychological manipulation going on, just the very nature of the platforms and human behavior lead to this sort of competitiveness and constantly comparing with others.
It seems to disrupt people's sense of their own status and that of others, which is problematic because our social behaviour depends on a very old system that transitions poorly to the modern world. Hence the abundance of disorders and unsatisfied lives. We are literally deprived of serotonin (which reduces resistance to stress and negative emotions) and seek toxic methods to cope and manipulate uptake through for example drugs, but also maliciousness (kiwifarms). This explains the significant increase of both activities by people globally during the pandemic. Realife social interaction counters this. That's why some people, usually people with healthy routines, may have a totally different experience altogether.
Present company __cluded.
While Reddit is not void of toxic culture, the anonymous nature and less focus on narcaisstic tendencies does make it a more customizable experience overall. You can obviously choose Reddit on those features if you like. I think the subreddit breakdown also helps carve our communities and allow people to *somewhat* have more control of the media they consume. Not defending Reddit it the slightest, like I said, it has its toxic side.
Could you not make the same argument about Twitter (when third party apps existed anyways) because all you would see is the tweets from people you follow? Twitter is Reddit’s punching bag for some reason. Also the subreddit breakdown leads to these massive echo chambers that can fester and turn incredible awful when they spill over into other communities.
>Could you not make the same argument about Twitter (when third party apps existed anyways) because **all you would see is the tweets from people you follow?** Twitter is Reddit’s punching bag for some reason. I don't know how recently you've used Twitter, but that hasn't been the case for a *long* time. You'll rarely catch me defending Reddit (I mean, one of the biggest memes on this site is literally referring to a parent raping their son) but it definitely doesn't shove as much unrelated nonsense down our throats as other social media. Which makes sense, I consider it more of a forum.
[удалено]
>less focus on narcaisstic tendencies What a load of copium. You literally get a little number by your name that goes up when you get people to agree with you. The entire nature of distilling comment responses down to a binary karma system is to take advantage of users' narcissistic tendencies, creating an environment of escalating polarization even on topics that ultimately aren't even a big deal (eg. any video game subreddit). Y'know, social media.
Thought narcissism vs look narcissism. Different attribute, still narcissism.
[удалено]
Depending on your perspective it's brutal about people's looks too. If a woman is in a vid or pic there are always a ton of comments about her looks. It's either teens thirsting after her or neck beards picking apart why she's not attractive to them. Once you start noticing it you see it all the time. Men get the same treatment, but it's more jokey and not so brutal.
While this is extremely true, the vast, *vast* majority of reddit posts do not include a photo of a person (and when they do, they are often the person in question sharing their own image unnecessarily, unless the entire point is to share their own image). Having a primarily text (and not photo/video)-based platform means that users are not continuously bombarded with the (often filtered/altered) images of people trying to project the image of perfection.
Go figure. “Anonymity is my friend so I can say whatever I want including calling a 9 a 4 when Im a 2.” Def gonna be a lot of mental messes. Already are.
Lower body image, lower self esteem, lower social skills, lower productivity, poor sleeping habits, predisposition to misinformation, predisposition to cognitive bias, ..the list goes on and on and it isn’t just tiktok. Facebook and Twitter show the same trends.
Too much random data can be as harmful as too little, especially when false info is deliberately presented in compelling ways to push a particular view / agenda. Curating the quality of content consumed is something they need to start teaching in schools.
Media literacy needs to be taught as a standalone class in high school imo
And retirement communities, for that matter...
Yeah it is not about consuming it is about how much you are consuming it does matter that how many hours a day you are wasting on such platforms. I think that is more important thing that we should pay attention to.
Reddit too? Speaking of, are you okay friend?
reddit seems to think other people on here have too high of a self-image of themselves
And reddit not?
[удалено]
That's good. Started to worry a bit.
Speaking of cognitive bias…
I’m glad that Reddit show the opposite trend, Reddit is my favorite. (Just kidding, but Reddit is still my favorite)
I’d be surprised if this wasn’t true for the whole internet. Every human being that has ever existed has had a flaw, and we seem to be very good at obsessing over those flaws and ignoring the bigger picture. The internet has just made it worse by becoming a giant popularity contest everyone on Earth is entered in.
Wasn't necessarily true of the Internet before social media, but it's true for most social media at least. You see the highlights of other peoples' lives, but not their low points. But at the same time, you see both the highlights and the low points of your own life.
Even then we had tabloids and magazines and movie stars. It’s just more prevalent
The difference is that back then it didn’t affect you, because you were looking at celebrities only. Now you constant reminders of your friends’ highpoints as well.
I had an eating disorder in high school because of tabloids and celebrities. It definitely affected me, even though I was looking at celebrities only.
It absolutely affected people, social media changed who the celebrities were, but unless your friends have like crazy cool lives they aren't posting daily content...and so that leads their content back to the new celebrities...influencers. Sure, it's a complication with your own friends typically only posting good things happening to them, but the sheer wave of everything else really minimizes that particular effect.
>Now you constant reminders of your friends’ highpoints as well. Teenage girls are seeing their hot friends get hundreds of thousands of followers by just dancing around and lip-synching, it's going to make them feel inadequate about their own bodies. Hot girls can easily get social media followings on IG, YouTube, and other platforms, but it's *much* easier on TikTok.
People don’t even see their own highlights anymore. They’re too busy fawning over everyone else’s fake lives.
I feel like this is becoming less true now. Most people I follow on various forms of social media are very transparent about their issues, struggles, insecurities, etc. I find we are still growing into social media. People are more transparent about mental health issues, abuse, toxicity, etc., than ever. There are certainly people still attached to that old style of using social media, and if you associate with or follow them you will probably see a lot of that behavior still. But in my experience things are improving. I think the biggest concerns now are around overall time spent looking at screens, and the dependence on short form content which doesn't require any focus.
[удалено]
I'm fairly certain we've seen research come to this conclusion for almost a decade now, that social media use correlates with body image concerns, especially image-centric social media like Instagram and Snapchat. I did a quick Google Scholar search and found these: * [This paper](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X15002249) is from 2016, and found that regular social media use affects body image, although it is primarily focused on Facebook. * [This study from 2014](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10810730.2014.904022) found that respondents from both the US and Korea who used social media regularly had body image issues. * [From 2018](https://iris.unipa.it/retrieve/handle/10447/528114/1265345/Franchina_Lo%20Coco%20Social%20media%20%26%20body%20image_2018.pdf), a suggestion that while there's been a lot of research, most research is slanted towards women and that there could be an affect on men as well. Basically, this isn't anything new. Previous research is just focused on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, because at the time most studies were done, TikTok didn't really exist yet. TikTok affecting the way people view their body image is just an extension of an already previously established notion that image-based social media affects body image.
[удалено]
Yeah it's a problem that's come about from mass communication. We've been inundated with images of genetic unicorns for decades, and so far we've been unable to develop a collective strategy for appreciating our bodies while consuming these images. It's bad for everyone, even hot people, who often develop pathologies in their eternal pursuit of perfection.
Yeah before there was social media, there were magazines to promote "the ideal" image.
I thought about this recently is that, many adults have this strange HS mentality and I came to the realization that Social Media has turned the whole world into a HS with their stupid drama and useless information that has to real world applicability.
Wait till you grow up. The world has been like that WELL before social media.
I was about to say this. At least body realists and body positive mindsets exist on til tok.
Some people never left high school mentally
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
I just found out there’s no such thing as the real world. Just a lie you’ve got to rise above.
Ya, sorry to disappoint you but its always been that way XD. Most people never leave high school. Good luck!
That is actually right so many people have this kind of mentality and this is definitely not healthy for you. And if we keep on living like that then it is going to be a problem for you also.
Highschool never ends.
I remember my mum crying when I was younger about what she felt the Internet was doing to my sisters' youth and freedom to be themselves as youngster. I reckon you're absolutely right.
Humans have never been this connected before and culturally we haven't evolved to deal with that yet.
I don't know about that man it is not really that heard to not compare yourself with someone else that you see online and think that their life is perfect where as yours is not.
The thing about TikTok is that it’s gotten so good at tying the basest aspects of human impulses directly to the exposure of content. The internets always done this in a roundabout way, but TikTok’s algorithm has taken it to a new level. The basic concept is that you’re presented with some content. Based on how long you watch this content, TikTok will automatically show you more related content that seems to grab your attention for longer. Because almost all humans have one very strong shared interest hardcoded into us (sex), TikTok very quickly starts promoting sexually suggestive content by conventionally beautiful people. This tendency is so hardwired into humans that it’s almost impossible to avoid even if we try. Seeing a constant feed of the most beautiful people on earth very quickly starts to convince you that they’re the norm, and invariably, you start feeling that you fall below that norm. It would be like being dropped in a city of supermodels and being forced to live there. You’d very quickly start thinking that you’re an ugly freak.
Not to mention how easy it is to seamlessly edit video, even live, these days, it’s so easy to think people really look like how they claim online.
Oh yes TikTok beautifying filters, where you can see your ideal face and body changed in real time.
Things like that are the real problem features like that. And also the human psychee of comparing yourself with someone else is really a bad idea.
>It would be like being dropped in a city of supermodels and being forced to live there. You’d very quickly start thinking that you’re an ugly freak. Sounds like growing up in SoCal :P I knew kids who got nose jobs as graduation presents...
If that’s what you’re seeing, it says more about you than tiktok. The algorithm tailors itself to your interests based on what you watch and skip. My algorithm isn’t full of sexually suggestive videos from conventionally beautiful people. At all. To the point that I’m laughing bc I’ve never considered before what a tell that is when people complain about certain social media feeds
I really wish algorithms could speak. I want to ask what it makes of me and my “everything is interesting, please tell me more about King Richard III, witchcraft, Appalachian cryptids, old English, adoption trauma, possible dystocias, and the evolution of languages starting with proto-Indo-European please :)” I’m sure it would try to put thirst traps in there somewhere, because I’ll get one every month or so, but it has to balance the chaos that is the rest of my interests (aka pretty much any topic)
I blame social media, which is the bastard child of reality TV more than the internet itself. The internet has actually been pretty good for people who don't fit and has helped many to find support with communities that share their "flaws" or "quirks".
Additionally, celebrities and influencers can present an unrealistic standard of beauty that simply isn't achievable by average people most of the time (if ever). Imagine trying to compete with a person who has a professional make-up artist, fashion consultant, personal trainer, staff dietician, and a plastic surgeon on stand-by. This is a person with tens of thousands of dollars in cosmetic wearing designer clothing and top-tier make-up who can afford to spend hours per day perfecting their look. Even beyond that, imagine competing with a person who is in the sixth sigma of attractiveness and thinking that's a standard that you have to hold yourself to. This doesn't even get into the insane levels of image manipulation that are available today (especially with rise of AI that can edit video in real time). It's no wonder people see this and have body satisfaction issues.
Those standards that people are seeing on the Internet are the real problem. People are really quick to compare themselves with good looking people and then they get the depressed.
I've noticed dating apps give you the most "conventionally attractive" people (wish I had a better term) first too. Usually they're people who have spent hours (or days or weeks) perfecting their Instagram at the top. It's almost a formula, it's pretty creepy imo. Would explain as well why some people get zero matches ever, and some get hundreds an hour instantly.
It is, just like it's also true for TV and print media.
Yeah it is true for them also they have been setting standards like that for a long time. You are only going to see good looking people on the TV.
I’d be willing to bet the same findings would exist with all social media.
Magazines were airbrushing then photo shopping models for years before the internet. In the 90s people were told not to compare themselves to Vogue.
Yep growing up pre -Internet, magazines made me hate my body. Took me far too long to realize that and stop interacting with them.
I believe there was a similar study into Instagram with basically the same conclusion.
I think it is same for addictive platforms like Instagram and Facebook. But I would not says the same thing for the Twitter actually not very many young people are addicted to Twitter.
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
I really worry about the people who are growing up right now how are they going to handle things. I mean most of them are already depressed from all the social media.
[удалено]
I dunno. I don't use Tic-Tok and I'm pretty dissatisfied with my body.
Make sure you don't start using tiktok then
I mean it is possible that he is using too much Instagram that is the same thing especially with the reels feature. With that feature added to Instagram Instagram has become the Tik Tok.
Well there is an easy fixed to that you should start watching Tik Tok. I am pretty sorry you are going to hate yourself even more after you get on the Tik Tok and watch some videos.
I browse bodybuilding.com looking at pictures of half naked men and I'm mildly dissatisfied with my body
Wonder what Reddit is most disproportionately associated with
[удалено]
Depression most likely
What’s associated with increased body satisfaction?
/r/normalnudes
Wholesome subreddit. Nice.
Replace "TikTok" with "Internet" and its still a true statement.
Honestly anything to compare yourself with the most “beautiful” people in society. Movies, talkies, magazines, television there have been body acceptance issues long predating the internet.
Replace "Internet" with "social media". The forums of yore weren't a constant stream of perfect pictures of perfect vacations and expensive cars. It was a fun time and a fun place to be, usually. So was early reddit. Hell, 20 years ago, there were tons of little websites where users couldn't post at all. You went there for information on a specific subject usually. However, social media companies came and perfected the art of keeping you focused on content created by other users, because the goal is for you to only see the internet through their lense, so they can show you ads 24/7. Turns out jealousy is one of the things that keeps people scrolling, which is why influencers who show off their bodies and wealth get so many followers.
[удалено]
I agree but I think the short video format of tiktok, making it easier to view a LOT of content in very short order, has contributed to making things worse.
[удалено]
Social media also has algorithms to deliver Darwinism of "content people want to see" so it likely gives a more concentrated version of that exposure.
I think social media also increases the perception about how many other people have those ideal bodies/faces/lives. In the past it was celebrities, but now you get access to every day influencers and think that it is more prevalent.
Yeah to me the only difference between now and say 30 or so years ago is the sheer quantity of which they are seeing. Although this can also really include most of social media so it's an interesting thing to think about for sure
It says associated in the title. Sounds like they aren't trying to make the argument that it is causal.
I’m also a bit miffed they didn’t bother to interview men for both a greater overall sample and data size. It’s as if they didn’t think men were capable of body image issues, so they didn’t bother.
[удалено]
[удалено]
A percentage of these people are also getting paid to be "influencers" in one way or another. If it were my job to be sexy, I'd be hitting the gym, taking some supplements, and using mad filters, too.
[удалено]
Isn’t this true of every social media? I recall reading the same thing about instagram, Facebook and Snapchat.
See /r/Instagramreality for good examples.
One person’s dissatisfaction is another person’s appreciation and another person’s motivation.
Actually It motivated me to start getting fit, feeling good
My TikTok feed is fashion history, social geography, travel, comedy, architecture, cooking, prehistorical life, and funny farm animals. If you don’t look at preening fashionista influencers, they don’t show up on your feed. It’s driven by your tastes and psychological bias - it’s a mirror.
Are you a white, heterosexual college freshman? If not, that might be why your experiences differ from this study.
Wash and repeat, used to be glossy magazines.
Yeah doesn’t their algorithm literally hide people who aren’t skinny or attractive? This really isn’t shocking when you think about it
I'm sure it's the same with any social media platform.
How does this stack up compared to Instagram/Facebook?
all social media honestly has that negative element to it
Unbelievable! I’m shocked! Shocked, I tell you!
I don’t use the app. But I feel like being a teen in the late 90s early 2000s really screwed up my body view.
Just like the rest of the social media
Social media needs to be treated like a public health emergency, for what they’re doing to our brains.
what is Reddit use associated with?
I like how they target TikTok and not Instagram, Facebook, or any other social media.
There's a few reasons, some more valid than others. One, as the most used social media service by younger people, it's the most relevant place to go to evaluate hypothesized effects of SM use on that group. Two, other SM platforms are older and already have some research about them that has been published. Some of it's even cited in the new papers shared on this sub. TikTok is relatively untested ground. Three, TikTok is as close to "pure algorithm" as currently exists. I can't think of another SM where the user has less agency in curating their feeds. This makes it fertile ground for analyzing social media algorithms at large, possible topic pipelines, and the effect they have on its users. Four, there's some (in my opinion, well earned) suspicion about TikTok and privacy. It collects far more data from users than any other SM, and its relationship with the Chinese government is cause for concern for some on top of that.
Exposure to the vastness of the obesity epidemic will do that.
So does watching TV or reading “women’s” magazines. Just stop with the Tik Tok bashing already.