“Ur a freakin goddess!”: Examining appearance commentary on Instagram.

Abstract

Frequent use of highly visual online platforms such as Instagram may be linked to greater body image concerns. One prominent feature of Instagram is the ability to receive feedback in the form of likes and comments. The goal of this cross-sectional study (conducted in laboratory and online) was to examine college students' receipt of appearance commentary on their most recent Instagram posts and how this relates to their self-reported body image concerns. The Instagram commentary that 337 students (M age = 20.39) received on their posts was observationally coded for positivity and negativity. Receiving positive appearance commentary was common and linked to greater appearance-related social media consciousness and, weakly, to body surveillance. There were no associations with self-objectification, appearance-contingent self-worth, facial satisfaction, and body dissatisfaction. Negative appearance commentary was not associated with body image concerns. Photos depicting only the self were especially likely to elicit positive appearance commentary. Females received more positive appearance commentary compared to males, whereas males received more negative appearance commentary. Future research should examine long-term effects of receiving appearance comments via Instagram.

The Perfect Storm: A Developmental–Sociocultural Framework for the Role of Social Media in Adolescent Girls’ Body Image Concerns and Mental Health

“…In a qualitative study, Swedish girls reported that receiving comments attacking their weight or appearance was particularly harmful (Berne et al, 2014 ). Positive comments may also be associated with increased self-objectification, as shown in a study of Australian adolescent girls (Slater & Tiggemann, 2015 ), and with increased appearance-related SM consciousness (ASMC), as found in a study of U.S. college students (Burnell et al, 2021 ).…”

A comparative study of self-praise on English and Chinese social media: strategies, themes, and motivations

“…Previous studies observed that self-praise of appearance accompanied by selfies was prevalent among both groups, but they did not compare the frequency of these two groups (Ma et al, 2017;Ren and Guo, 2020). The preference for appearance-related self-praise among both groups may be attributed to the fact that people from different cultures share the same strong desire to construct and display their positive social image and ideal selves, particularly in online contexts, although the extent of their desire may be nuanced (Burnell et al, 2021;van Oosten et al, 2023). Furthermore, as indicated earlier, the modesty maxim exerts more constraints on Eastern people.…”