A recent monitoring is showing that the majority of young and very young people hate their bodies. 75% of children under 12 and 80% of 18-21 year olds are ashamed of their appearance. And social media has been identified as a major cause of this problem.
45% of children and young people between 12 and 21 years old in fact, he declared that he had stopped socializing, had exaggerated with physical exercise or even been a victim of self-harm due to online bullying or trolling related to his physical appearance. It's not all: 4 out of ten kids claim to have mental health problems, two out of ten have problems related to their image e the 14% of them complain of eating disorders. Only one in 10 says he is receiving treatment, or has asked for help.
Monitoring conducted on 1024 subjects by Stem4, an association that deals with mental health among young and very young people, shows a dramatic reality.
An entire generation in crisis
Social responsibility (to which I would add that of families and partly school) is out of the question, sifting through the survey data. 97% of 12-year-olds are present on social media. 70% of them say they feel stressed, anxious and depressed as a result of using these platforms. And yet, he spends almost 4 hours a day on social media on average. The young people, even the very young interviewees, sense that this state of affairs may depend on the contents that the social algorithms offer them, but appear powerless (in 95% of cases) when it comes to changing online habits. And, what's worse, they're looking for solutions to the problem… using social media themselves, rather than talking to friends and family.
TikTok "leader" in psychological pressure?
"On sites like TikTok, the only people you see are wonderful because of the algorithms and this makes us feel really bad about ourselves" comments a boy interviewed on the news by the English newspaper The Guardian. The Center for Coutering Digital Hate (CCDH) found in mid-December 2022 that the algorithms of the Chinese social network risk more than other platforms of producing serious imbalances in young and very young English people, reaching to also create an online guide for parents and children.
"Social media platforms like TikTok are amplifying body image, eating disorder and mental health issues among young teens and adults," she says Imran Ahmed, CEO of CCDH. “TikTok is designed to grab the attention and time of young users, but without proper barriers its algorithm can become extremely dangerous for their mental health. Eating disorders and obsession with body image are already common problems among young people, but the excessive use of these platforms can further aggravate them". We add also the damages from Instagram and the omelette is done.
