Scott Stevens

Scott Stevens

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Study: TikTok Fuels Toxic Diet Culture Among Teens

Study: TikTok Fuels Toxic Diet Culture Among Teens

The pressure young people feel to look a certain way and weigh a certain amount is nothing new, but TikTok may be adding to the problem, according to new research. A study out this week from the University of Vermont finds that the most viewed content on the platform related to food, nutrition or weight “perpetuates a toxic diet culture” among teens and young adults.

The study is the first to examine nutrition and body-image related content this way on TikTok and the findings are based on an analysis of the top 100 videos from 10 popular nutrition, food and weight-related hashtags, each with over a billion views. Researchers conclude that “weight-normative messaging” - the idea that weight is the most important measure of someone’s health - dominates on TikTok and the most popular videos glorify weight loss and using food as a way to achieve health and being thin. Even worse? The lack of content from anyone remotely qualified to comment on nutrition and weight as it relates to health.

“Each day, millions of teens and young adults are being fed content on TikTok that paints a very unrealistic and inaccurate picture of food, nutrition and health,” explains senior researcher Lizzy Pope. “Getting stuck in weight loss TikTok can be a really tough environment, especially for the main users of the platform, which are young people.”

Source: EurekAlert!

Scott's Thoughts:

  • Social media promoting something unhealthy? Is this really all that surprising?
  • My teen uses TikTok, but I feel she is balancing real life and social media life very well.
  • I don't need to be influenced by TikTok to try and maintain a healthy weight. I just want to be able to walk up and down stairs without feeling like I am dying.

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