New Ways Media Worsens the Eating Disorder Epidemic

Eating disorders first became classified as psychiatric diagnoses in the 1980’s. The advent of mass media was one clear instigator of widespread dieting, glorification of thinness and, thereby, eating disorders. At that time, magazines and television were the central purveyors of the visual idealization of thinness.

The burgeoning food, diet and exercise industries capitalized on the growing desire for thinness. The powers of capitalism ingrained weight loss as a central tenet and achievement of our society. In the decades since, the industries adapted to changes in media and instilled an even more pervasive and insidious desire for thinness.

Social media is the most obvious example and one that has been explored through the entire eating disorder treatment landscape, this blog included. The images of thinness available on our phones all day long makes magazines seem innocuous. Increasingly, the explosion of content aimed at disempowering social media, such as the body positive movement or fashion ads using all body types, will hopefully have more of an impact in time, but it’s hard to imagine a world where the glorification of thinness is sidelined.

However, there are many new ways media culture continues to make it impossible to avoid the lure of thinness as a source of identity and accomplishment.

The explosion of eating disorder content makes even the process of recovery a new source of identity. The content ranges from personal stories of recovery, plentiful online companies offering help for treatment, clinicians advertising their treatment to forums to discuss all parts of the disorders.

Even when this content is mostly about getting well, the endless of supply of content is counterproductive. The goal of recovery is to stop ruminating about food and weight as the most important things in life. Getting better means these thoughts aren’t central anymore. Endlessly reading about eating disorders online may help someone get well, but they never allow a chance to find other more meaningful parts of life.

Wearable devices that track food, exercise and calories are another technological advance which encourages eating disorders. For many, the eating disorder thoughts now revolve around steps and calories burned. The result is that compulsive exercise has escalated enormously, and many people only allow themselves to eat calories based on what the device prescribes, always under what the person really needs.

Even more alarming, the Apple Watch never puts a cap on the amount of exercise it encourages a person to do. The dangerous success of “closing one’s circles” (accomplishing daily exercise goals) exacerbates compulsive thoughts about movement for anyone with an eating disorder. Because there is no limit on how much exercise is considered reasonable, the device can force someone with an eating disorder to exercise hours and hours in a day. The result is terrifying and truthfully life threatening. Apple needs to think much more carefully about its watch software.

Last the diet industry continues to use developments in social media to reframe dieting as a lifestyle change. Ignoring the endless data that diets don’t work, these companies bombard people with a mixture of guilt and promise in their social media streams. The result is only to reinforce the negative self-image and constant shame about their bodies.

These three examples help explain how the media deepens and worsens the eating disorder epidemic. The goal is a life not focused on weight and body but on the things try at matter most instead of a world which capitalizes on or fears all day long.