Yes, Social Media Can Actually Make You Feel Better About Yourself – Here’s How.
WITH THE RIGHT PEOPLE ON YOUR FOLLOWING LIST, YOUR INSTAGRAM AND TIKTOK FEEDS CAN BE A BODY-POSITIVE FORCE FOR GOOD.
Our brains are powerful and wonderful, but they’re also pretty easily influenced. Everything we see and hear on a daily basis has a huge impact on the way we think and feel – especially the way we think and feel about ourselves.
In the age of TikTok, iPhones, and near-constant visuals, these thoughts are increasingly about our own appearance. A lot has been said about the negative part social media plays in this phenomenon. To an extent, it’s well-deserved; the unrealistic standards of “Instagram face” didn’t exist until, well, Instagram. What doesn’t get nearly enough credit, however, are the benefits social media can have in actually boosting our self-esteem.
Mental health, social media, and you
Okay, let us explain. We’re not saying that two hours of doom-scrolling before bed will leave you feeling über confident come morning. In 2021, researchers set out to determine whether consuming social media content can improve body image. They weren’t judging just any kind of content, though. What they wanted to know was whether content promoting a positive attitude towards our bodies and appearances could translate to a positive mindset.
“Body positive content on Instagram may act as an antidote to the frequent depictions of thin and digitally modified images of women.” – Taylah M. Manning and Kate E. Mulgrew, authors of the 2021 study Body Image
The study involved 233 female-identifying participants, each of whom was randomly assigned to one of three groups. One viewed Instagram content containing body-positive visual content. Another viewed body-positive Instagram content accompanied by appropriately positive captions and hashtags. The third was the control group, which looked strictly at visual-only content that had nothing to do with body positivity.
Results were pretty clearcut. The participants who looked at body-positive content were markedly more satisfied with their experience (especially those who looked at content with captions, too). The conclusion was that, when used in a healthy, intentional way, social media can be a force for good – and that conclusion wasn’t a one-off. A separate study in 2023 found that women aged between 18 and 25 who viewed body-positive content on a daily basis saw a decrease in body dissatisfaction in just two weeks.
Curating your perfect feed
Actively seeking out and engaging with body-positive content works in more ways than one. The main benefit is normalizing exposure to unfiltered, unedited, diverse bodies – finding people who you can relate to, and joining a community that’s about nothing but good vibes.
But it can go even deeper than that. Being a part of the body-positive community – even if that’s just as a silent observer – can provide an accessible, safe backdrop to consume beauty, fashion, fitness, food, and basically all kinds of content. It’s in your power to quite literally transform your feed into your personal self-care bible overnight; you just need to curate that following list.
How do I do this?
The good news is that there’s no shortage of creators out there creating feel-good, body-positive content. Nobody needs to look a certain way to be body-positive (in fact, that’s the whole point), nor does their content need to be totally centered on the body at all.
Celebrities like Selena Gomez, Lili Reinhart, Jameela Jamil, Emma Watson, and Florence Pugh are all famously vocal about the importance of self-love, putting the spotlight on their own insecurities to start the conversations others won’t on a regular basis.
“We are human, we are bodies. Yes, I can put makeup on and look good for a premiere. But at the end of the day, I still have hair on the top of my lip and I still smell after a workout and I still get spots when I’m stressed. I think that attitude definitely has trickled down from when I was a child.” – Florence Pugh, actress
Influencer-wise, TikTok’s #bodypositive hashtag is home to quite literally millions upon millions of videos preaching the same message – some loudly, some quietly, subtly, and in between the lines of their usual content. Some of our favorites include Stephanie Yeboah, the author of Fattily Ever After and self-proclaimed body image advocate, TedX speaker and plus-size model Neha Parulkar, body image coach Tiffany Ima, and motivational speaker Harnaam Kaur.
Building the feed that builds you
Whoever you choose, go through your following list and think about which accounts produce content that makes you feel good about yourself, or helps you grow in any way. Maybe it’s those that produce all body-positive content, all the time. Maybe it’s those who practice body neutrality – shifting the thoughts and focus away from our appearance entirely. Remember, your social media is there to make you – and only you – happy. As long as it does that, you’ve already won.
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