Social media making women more insecure

Spending just one hour on social media can make women insecure, a new study has shown.

Many women who spend hours on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram worry about how others view them and they feel the pressure to stay thin.

The results of the study, which was conducted at the University of South Wales, was presented at the British Psychological Society's annual conference in Nottingham. Researchers divided women into four groups and asked them how much time they spent on social media. They were also asked how they viewed toned and slender women and if they worried that the clothes they wore made them look good.

Dr Martin Graff, who led the study, said: "There was a thin ideal for women before social media, that has been the case for decades, but social media makes it a lot more powerful. Women also use social media to compare themselves to their friends, who have filters to edit how they look."

Dr Graff said the research showed "it is not just initial exposure to these sites that can cause an issue but the daily time spent on them."

This is not the first study attempting to draw a link between social media and women's insecurity issues. In a 2014 survey conducted by Glamour Magazine, about 64 per cent of women said they were unhappy with their body, and the magazine feels this could be because of social media.

“I compare myself with my friends on Facebook and Instagram all the time,” says Bethany Everett, community director at Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vermont, was quoted as saying by the magazine. “With actresses, I know they have a personal chef and trainer and it’s their job to have the bodies they do—I don’t have any real expectations of looking like them. With people I know, it’s like, Well, she did it. Why can’t I?”