Date of Project

5-4-2023

Document Type

Honors Thesis

School Name

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Communication

Major Advisor

Dr. Maggie Rossman

Second Advisor

Dr. Christy Wolfe

Abstract

Mental Health and Body Image issues have become an epidemic, especially among teenagers and young adults. Obsession with social media is also growing among younger audiences. With the increase of users using social media, research has shown that there is a growth in body image issues which has been directly influenced by social media. Despite the research already performed, there hasn’t been a lot of traction surrounding this topic. College students are thrown into constant exposure to the ‘ideal’ college life through social media sharing apps. Between classes, extracurriculars, and meetings, college students are on their phones a lot. Most college students now grew up in an age where being on all social media apps is the norm. Because of this, we see students who are already struggling emotionally and mentally with class load, financials, and other factors being influenced by what people around them or people that show up on their ‘for-you-page” are posting. Although social media is not necessarily a new topic, there hasn’t been copious amounts of research done on how it impacts specifically college students (both male and female) and how this can influence their mental health and body image. I think we can learn a lot from performing this study and continue to draw awareness to how important researching this is. We can learn the impact of quality-of-life social media on younger generations, especially those already going through life stages.

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