Wedad Mourtada, Week 15 Reading Response

outline Burnette, C. Blair, et al. “‘I Don’t Need People to Tell Me I’m Pretty on Social Media:’ A Qualitative Study of Social Media and Body Image in Early Adolescent Girls.” 

1. Introduction

• Paragraph 1: Adults aren’t the only ones who experience body image issues. “Body dissatisfaction” (114)  is associated with eating and mental disorders. 
• Paragraph 2: Mass media is the reason why society has set the beauty standard to be a thin body; people make it seem like it’s the ideal body type. 
• Paragraph 3: Social media evolves quicker than mass media which is why it’s effects on body dissatisfaction are unclear. Teenage girls are more drawn to photo-sharing apps such as snapchat and Instagram.
• Paragraph 4: Sixty seven studies found a connection between photo sharing apps and body and eating disorders. Young girls are exposed to “thinspiration” and “fitspiration” posts which makes them believe that the ideal body type is thin (115). 
• Paragraph 5: Young girls are more vulnerable to photo-sharing apps and they are more likely to compare themselves to others. 
• Paragraph 6: The research was done at an all girls school and studies found that this makes the results a bit “inconsistent” because the evidence also relies on the environment these girls are in (115).
• Paragraph 7: They created a “mixed method”research because there’s a lack of research on the connection between young girls and social media and the connection between social media and comparison amongst teenage girls. 
• Paragraph 8: The data collection was based on focus groups because they figured it’d make the students more comfortable as they’d have similar experiences. “Ultimately, we sought to gather preliminary data that can inform targeted prevention and intervention efforts, such as media literacy, that address the unique contributions of social media” (116). 

2. Method

• This section explains exactly how they conducted the research. It consists of six sections; participants, research team, social media use, procedure, quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis. 
• Participants: They interviewed 7th and 8th grade girls and their parents and the school encouraged this. 
• Research team: Authors, four doctoral students, two undergraduate students.
• Social media use :Students were asked what social media apps they use and how much time they spend on each app.
• Procedure:Parents had the opportunity to opt out their children from the research but no one opted out and this research was approved by the Office of Human Subjects Protection at Virginia Commonwealth University. 
• Quantitative analysis: Conducted using SPSS 23.0, They calculated the statistics, means, standard deviations, and frequencies. They didn’t have a hypothesis because it was a small sample. 
• Qualitative analysis: They conducted an audit trail and took notes throughout the procedure. They also used a thematic analysis in the data.  

3. Results

This section consists of Qualitative results, quantitative results, selfies, parental monitoring, social media norms, social media applications subtheme, social media etiquette subtheme, Egotistical/validation subthemen, selfies and appearance concerns subtheme, social comparison, peers, celebrities subthemes, and social media strategy. Students’ social media consumption was based on parents’ restrictions. “In five out of the six groups, participants voiced that their parents were less concerned with their behavior online than they were about the behaviors of others”(119).

4. Discussion/ Conclusion 

Photo based apps and activities were heavily linked to body dissatisfaction.

• Limitations: The researchers faced some limitations due to the people they were interviewing and some bias. 
• Conclusion: Mass media is linked to body dissatisfaction, but it’s crucial to examine the effects of social media on young girls to understand its harmful effects. Thus research shows that parents, the school,and environment impact the effects of social media on young children. 

Phrases/ Quotations I’ll be using in my essay

• “Sometimes if I have acne, I like to cover my acne up with it and it makes me feel more secure about myself even though I Know here no one will judge me, but I know out there in the world other people are so judgy” (121).
• “A total of 38 girls, 19 from each grade, participated in the focus groups, and 36 students completed surveys, 19 in the 7thgrade and 17 in the 8th grade. The age of the sample ranged from 12 to 14 years with a mean age of 13.14” (116). 
• “Across the transcripts, there were 20 mentions of dissatisfaction with an aspect of one’s appearance. The participants most often mentioned appearance concerns within the context of social comparisons and, in particular, social media”(121). 
• “Interestingly, this sample endorsed all of these behaviors to some degree. However, they also demonstrated attitudes and strategies that appeared to
• mitigate social media’s potential harmful influence and are consistent with dimensions of positive body image” (122)
• thinspiration” and “fitspiration” (115) “Body dissatisfaction” (114)