Snapchat lenses and body image concerns

Abstract

Snapchat allows users to apply lenses to photographic content, with these lenses often enhancing physical appearance. This may lead users to adopt unrealistic ideals of physical appearance. In a two-part study with college students, this investigation explored associations between general use of Snapchat lenses and body image concerns, and experimentally examined how taking selfies with Snapchat lenses influences appearance satisfaction. Taking more photos using Snapchat lenses, in general, was associated with greater body image concerns. However, there was little experimental evidence indicating that taking selfies with lenses influences state appearance satisfaction relative to an appearance-neutral control. There was no evidence of gender moderation. Notably, taking more selfies without lenses until reaching one satisfactory for posting on social media was associated with greater body image concerns.

Social media and body image: Recent trends and future directions

“…Thus, current research suggests that taking and especially editing, but not posting, selfies may be harmful for body image. This conclusion seems to apply across genders (except [23]), even though boys/men spend considerably less time taking and editing selfies than girls/women [20,24,27].…”

“…Cross-sectional studies have largely supported this reasoning and shown consistent correlations between selfie-behaviors and body image disturbance [13,20,[22][23][24]. However, it is important to distinguish between the different selfie behaviors.…”

“…Women and girls report spending considerable time and effort on their selfies, in order to present the "best" version of themselves [13]. Following body image theories [14][15][16][17] and self-effects literature [18], creating, editing and posting selfies is suggested to invite users to self-objectify and to internalize unrealistic appearance standards [19][20][21]. Greater body image disturbance and appearance pressures are expected to then drive further selfie editing, taking and posting behaviors [13,19,22].…”

“…Second, although self-objectification [e.g., 9,20,21,22,25,27,29,36,54,56] and appearance comparisons [e.g., 8, 12,13,32,33,36,37,46,47,51,52] have received considerable attention, other processes, such as internalization [e.g., 13,20,32,55] and social reinforcement or pressure [11,45] have been less examined in recent research. Further, research rarely examines the possibility that specific mechanisms may be differentially relevant to the different activities on social media (e.g., viewing vs. editing appearancefocused content).…”

Social media use and body image issues among adolescents in a vulnerable Louisiana community

“…Previous studies have included SM variables of Facebook, Pinterest, Reddit, TikTok, and YouTube in conglomerate with results expressed in total SM usage and time ( 69 ). Other studies have collected robust data on the influence of solely Instagram and Snapchat contributing to BII in both males and females ( 70 – 72 ). In comparison, our data presents novel findings across many different SM platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, Reddit, and Twitter) by exploring the relationship of BII and SM through assessment of specific SM platforms used by males vs. females and their individual influences on BII.…”